Happy Easter.

 Hope you have fun finding eggs!!

Considering Self-Publishing eBooks

Good evening all. I'll be brief. I am looking for feedback. I've been having this crazy thought for about a week. I should dust off the ole' book, polish it, have friends scrub it for errors only (no more rewrites), and then I publish it as an e-book. I've found a pretty great service that will format into the top 6 ereader formats. 

My logic is that I am not going to get rich off this book. I know that. But that doesn't mean that I don't love it and want to share with whom ever would like to read it. No need not sharing. I might as well publish it in a way that I can market on my own. I can't afford to publish as a hard back. If I generated just enough off the ebook to cover that, then I could order those at that time. 

What are your thoughts? Has anyone gone this route? 

Anything I should be terrified of? 

I'll leave you with a picture of something I'm very thankful for. My daughter. Today is her 9th birthday. 

Artistic Images

1) A Few Cocktails  - This is three images of the same shot from different perspectives merged together.

2) Lady in Ice - This is an experiment that I am planning to continue to build an entire portfolio. I am using images of glasses of ice and creating works of art from the images that I find within. In this particular image, I saw a woman. I used drawing tools to give more details to that image and then played with the color.

3) Spinning Around - This is four images of my daughter spinning around on the playground equipment. I picked four different angles and merged the images by lining up the actual equipment. This give a more realistic action shot. I enhanced the color to make it more aesthetically pleasing. 

4) The Cross - This image was taken of the top of my church, FBC Decatur. I used a soft plastic filter to pull the details of the sky and went with more of an abstract look. 

  

I hope you enjoyed my photographs. Let me know what you think.

Resale Shops

I love visiting resale and antique shops.  Stepping into one of these stores is like time travel or a hidden treasure hunt. It's a great way to spend the day. The last time I went to "Kudzu" in Decatur, GA, I brought my camera with me. The pictures turned out great and gave me lots to play with when I got home. I still have about a hundred photos that I haven't even touched yet. Here are a few to share. 

1. Spotlight Dancers - This was a wood cut out that was propped up against the wall. The paint was very faded, so I went with black and white and added the spotlight. 

2. Many Hats - I used a lens to enhance the reds, and play down the other colors.

3. Retro Fireplace - I used layers to make everything black and white with the exception of the fireplace, artwork, desk, and fan. The fireplace was this color. An amazing retro piece.

4. Green Room - Just a great space. I didn't have to do much here. The colors were fabulous together. I ran it through a cross process to give it more of a retro feel. 

5. Going Places - I love this photo. It's one of my favorites. I ran it through a earth tone filter, and then applied a hot wax coating. Really proud of how it turned out.

 

I hope you enjoyed these. Let me know what you think!

Making Lemonade

Once again life is preventing me from writing. Work and school are both tugging at me, leaving little time to hang out with imaginary people or even real people. But this time, I have decided to pick up an old favorite hobby that fuels my creative spirit. It is great, because it has me outdoors and spending time with my family. Photography! I have at three different times in my life chased this dream with the same passion that I have my writing. All three times chickening out at the last minute, and holding on tight to my day job. Well, this time it is a little different. The internet lets me share my photos in a way that I previously couldn't back in 1998.

Until I am able to write again, I hope you enjoy the photos that I can share.  Some tell stories and some are just art.

1. The Boy was very excited about the new Cars II. 

2. The Smell of Beer. This is Hubs in a neat window reflection trick. Slapped on a Pincushion lens to pull the words on the wall into the window more. 

3. "Eye on Dinner"   Photo of a ceramic cat, cake plate, and bird. I used blur to help soften the image and to draw the eye to focus on the main subjects. 

4. "Blowfish"   The fish was hanging in an antique store, Kudzu. I used a fisheye lens to focus in on the puffy fellow.

5. "Secret Passage"  I used a vibrant foilage filter, and then cross processed the image.

 Let me know what you think. Thanks for letting me share.