A Sneak Peak for Miss "J"

Today I had the absolute pleasure of photographing a lovely young lady AND her TWO lovely blue casts!! Yes, there is a story here, and I will tell it to you in a day or two after I have some more photos to post. So be sure and check back!

Had a wonderful time with you today, J! You are a fabulous model! I'll have the rest of your pics ready soon!

A Little Whimsy

Ode to the Dandelion

The dandelion. So delicate. So soft and fluffy. So intricate. So fascinating for kids and adults alike. So symmetrical. So beautiful.

Look how each little flower contains a seed pod at the bottom ... hundreds of them ... per plant ...

Just waiting for a little wind or a nice little person to pluck them and blow their delicate little seed pods ALL OVER MY YARD!!!! Where they turn into UGLY WEEDS!!!! Dang dandelions .... grumble....grumble.....

Learning....

One thing about photography is that you are never, ever done learning. I have been trying out a trial of a new program (which I will be asking my dear hubby to buy for me for Mother's Day :) It's a fabulous program which has really made my photo editing soooo much better and so much easier! But, it also has some features where you can produce some more unusual effects. Now I know these effects are not everyone's taste, but it's kinda cool to have an unusual photo every now and then. And the kids LOVE them!!! They think they're very cool!!

These two picutures are exactly the same except for the subtle texture in the background of the second one....do you see it???

Same on this one ... 3 different textures make up the background of this next one....

This one has an aged effect with very, very subtle words.

Textures and textures with words. Now this photo also has an aged washed out effect in addition to the textures.

Two different looks for the same photo...

I love this warm brown color ... so much richer than just plain sepia.

Here's a variety of effects, textures and words....

As I said, these are certainly not for everyone's taste, but they can certainly turn an ordinary photo into an extrordinary work of art!!! If you have your portraits made by S Keys Photography, you may see something a little unusual turn up in your proof packages!

Spring Stunners

~ Don't forget to stop and smell the flowers ~

What The Heck Are These? UPDATE!!!

We've got an answer!! My neighbor's husband has identified these strange, but very beautiful flying creatures! They are called Actias Luna or the Luna Moth. They are considered common. However, they are rarely seen because they have an adult life span of only 1 week!!! HOW SAD!!! I'm so glad that we were able to see these lovely moths and capture their images forever.

Thanks JS!!

What The Heck Are These Things???

My neighbor and I were outside gardening yesterday, when she came over and said, "You have to come these "bugs"!" I said, "Should I bring my camera??" "YES!", she said.

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Well the "bugs" turned out to be these beautiful mothy-butterfly thingies. Neither of us had ever seen them before in our lives. You can see how big they are! And so colorful! And sorta fat and furry.... what could they be??

Look at the cool "eye" on their wings. The ones on top sorta remind me of a human mouth - like puckered lips. The other two are transparent - perhaps on the wings underneath.

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Check out these antennae!! They remind me of a combination of bunny ears and ferns! Cool!

Beautiful texture and color.

There were, in fact, two of them! They were, ummmm .... "joined at the hip", shall we say. For a few hours, in fact!! My neighbor and I spent about 20 minutes observing and photographing them from every available angle. Nothing like having an audience while you're "joined at the hip", eh??

Love this last one. Just can't over the antennae! I've just never seen anything like it!!!

If you know what these things are, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease leave me a message and share your knowledge!!! It will drive us bonkers until we know, too!

My Artistic Side

I am a very artistic person - always have been. One of my very favorite things to do is take a photograph and just play with it a bit. Change the color, crop it, tilt it and get a whole new perspective. Sometimes just a little playing can turn a ho-hum photo into a work of art!

I absolutely love eyes! A beautiful eye can really make a portrait pop! They are, after-all, the windows to the soul, so why not highlight them every now and again.