A picture is worth a thousand words

[cowgirl8]

Been spending the day editing pictures. I dabble in photography and drift in and out of interest. I would love to take great baby pictures, but they are so difficult. I want to watch someone who is really good at it and see how they work around problems. But until then, i made up my own way.
This is my new granddaugher..She WAS NOT cooperating today...lol....daughter was anxious, sun was hurriedly rising so time was ticking. Luckily, it got cloudy and we didnt need to worry about getting a good shot quick.
Here is the almost finished edited picture. I'm going to get a better edit program some day. My old one died with my old computer along with tons of pictures. But for now i'll get some of these ready for the final edit.

This is the unedited one....funny how now days pictures arent what they seem, ever..

These pictures are for her new daddy. Daughter wanted to use his saddle...

 

[cowgirl8]

Grandson was not happy to take this picture, but daddy wanted one on his drums...they got peed on too...lol The kid would not sit still....

 

[cow pollinater]

Honest opinion: the saddle picture is warm at best. I get it, its a kid born into a ranching family, but it looks like you plopped a newborn on a saddle and called it art... it's not. It doesn't speak to anyone who doesn't know that kid. I would much rather see a picture of that child in her mother's arms... THAT would move me.

The drum picture is really disturbing to me. It looks really cold and the kid looks frightened. There is nothing about that picture or the situation that I like. It really makes me want to tell "dad" to sell his stupid drums and put the kid first because it's obvious in this picture that the kids well being takes a back seat to things that are important to "dad". It might be a different story in year or two when you can catch her in a playful mood when she looks happy and wants to bang on drums but disturbing is about the only way I can describe this picture.

 

[cowgirl8]

Well, thank you?....lol

 

[jedstivers]

Beautiful kids but I hope no one hid a snake under the drum. Some people are bad to do sh!t like that.

 

[cowgirl8]

No snakes, but i guarantee that these kids will know a poisonous one from non by the time they go to school just like their parents...lol

 

[cowgirl8]

Honest opinion: the saddle picture is warm at best. I get it, its a kid born into a ranching family, but it looks like you plopped a newborn on a saddle and called it art... it's not. It doesn't speak to anyone who doesn't know that kid. I would much rather see a picture of that child in her mother's arms... THAT would move me.

The drum picture is really disturbing to me. It looks really cold and the kid looks frightened. There is nothing about that picture or the situation that I like. It really makes me want to tell "dad" to sell his stupid drums and put the kid first because it's obvious in this picture that the kids well being takes a back seat to things that are important to "dad". It might be a different story in year or two when you can catch her in a playful mood when she looks happy and wants to bang on drums but disturbing is about the only way I can describe this picture.

I'm going to guess you arent in the younger crowd or dont do much with children these days. Not sure how old you are. Sure wasnt the 'thing' when i was younger, but then taking a picture was a whole different thing. Today's young parents want pictures like these, young mothers want pictures of their pregnant bellies... If you're pregnant and havent had your pregnancy picture taken, well, you cant even show your face in public..lol..Friends wait for newborn pictures on FB and they cant be a walmart photo shop picture....These pictures on the saddle were going to cost my daughter 200 dollars. I looked at the persons website and there are tons of them from being in saddles, boots, buckets, etc etc....
Grandson was not upset, drum was not cold. Any newborn wiggles when you take off their diaper and lay them flat. And, the first picture i have about 200 i took of what we went through to get them. Today, they are in the edit file, years on down the line they will be priceless, all of them. I feel honored that she let me take them.
But go ahead and critique, i'm on a photography forum and you guys have nothing on them, they are brutal way more than anyone here can imagine trying.. But remember all i've done is edit things out of the picture, i need a new program to get it finished...I just wanted to show how pictures you see are not what they seem in every picture now...

 

[Hook]

No snakes, but i guarantee that these kids will know a poisonous one from non by the time they go to school just like their parents...lol

Hope they learn more than the difference between shiny and dull

 

[chippie]

http://www.picmonkey.com is a good online photo editing program. Several friends who are professional photographers told me about it. They said that they have found it useful when they don't want to break out the big guns (Adobe Photoshop).

I subscribed and it is easy to use. I like it because when we travel, I can edit photos with it using my husband's laptop that does not have any photo programs, save the photo to drop box and download it when I get home. It has some presets that are handy. I use Lightroom most of the time.

My daughter who enjoys photography can use it too on her laptop.

Cute babies. Grand children are da bomb. PS. Get an external hard drive to save your photos. It's a sad feeling when you lose so many memorable moments.

 

[cowgirl8]

http://www.picmonkey.com is a good online photo editing program. Several friends who are professional photographers told me about it. They said that they have found it useful when they don't want to break out the big guns (Adobe Photoshop).

I subscribed and it is easy to use. I like it because when we travel, I can edit photos with it using my husband's laptop that does not have any photo programs, save the photo to drop box and download it when I get home. It has some presets that are handy. I use Lightroom most of the time.

My daughter who enjoys photography can use it too on her laptop.

Cute babies. Grand children are da bomb. PS. Get an external hard drive to save your photos. It's a sad feeling when you lose so many memorable moments.

Thank you Chippie ...I'll sure go there. I use Photo Pos Pro... its so outdated. I got an external hard drive after my editing computer crashed, lesson learned the hard way. Kind of made me sour on taking pictures, like writers block, i had camera block. It comes back in dribs and drabs, but i have to be in the mood or inspired.

 

[cowgirl8]

One way to edit...............Thank you Chippie for pointing me in the right direction...

 

[cow pollinater]

I'm going to guess you arent in the younger crowd or dont do much with children these days.

You guessed wrong. I'm thirty six and have two young kids and a slew of kids that aren't even related to me that call me uncle and I'm really proud of that.
An award winning photographer uses my barn, orchards, horses, and even one of my cows to take pictures exclusivly of happy children. I'm not the kind to let people have free run of my place but she gets to because she does it right. If I saw that picture of the kid on the drum from her she would not be welcome back on my place.

 

[cowgirl8]

Again, thanks Chippie....i'm a happy girl now. I had a program like this when i was doing a lot of Flickr stuff, but i dont remember what it was called. It was there, everyone loved it and then they took it off....boooooo......thats about the time my computer crashed.. I got the computer i have now and it had nothing. I downloaded a few that caused so many problems i just said the heck with it....
Maybe this one wont repulse you Cow Pollinater....

 

[cow pollinater]

Much better.

 

[branguscowgirl]

She's a cutie cowgirl!
I know what you are trying to do with the different objects that have family meaning. I am seeing my nieces do it with their babies.
It is hard to get it right. Showing warmth vs coldness ect..

 

[Jogeephus]

I like the close up of the child in the saddle when I can't exactly tell its a saddle. In the very first picture my adrenalin rose thinking how far the child could fall. Don't care for the drum at all. Child looks like its freezing. Even get the slight impression of cruelty. But I guess that's art. Gives one person one meaning and another something totally different.

 

[cowgirl8]

Remember how the swimming baby made people mad on Nirvana's album cover. Grandson was fine, no different than being at a pediatricians office on the examining table without a diaper on. Son in law was into music, i visioned a album cover and how that would make a great one... Posted the picture of how we got granddaughters picture so that everyone didnt think i just plopped her on a saddle where she could fall....
Daughter wanted pictures of grandson in her dad's fire gear...He wasnt all for that since there is some pretty gross stuff on that gear. But, i've seen babies in firemen gear, its cute, but i agree there can be some pretty gross things on that gear..

 

[Jogeephus]

I remember that all too well and it goes to show that you have to be careful how you photograph babies else you will conjure up a thousand words you didn't intend. Your feeling the need to explain and offer assurances should tell you something. Artists tend never to offer any explanation but as you said with the drummer boy - he was none to happy - well you've definitely captured that for sure in the photo. It conjures many words mostly adjectives and none of them good.

 

[MudHog]

A previous post mentioned an external HDD for backup. I would highly recommend going with what is called a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, or RAID, setup. You can easily setup the system to where one HDD is an exact mirror of the other HDD which is called RAID 1. Remember that HDD are NOT forever. They fail way to often. I had a Western Digital MyBook that had all our pictures (wife and I do photography too), and the MyBook failed in less than a year. Luckily I was able to pull the HDD and install into a desktop computer and finally was able to recover most of the files after many attempts. External HDD enclosures are cheap and you can install the HDD in there if you work on a laptop. If you have a desktop with some extra bays, you can install the HDD and have the RAID setup internal to the desktop.

 

[TexasBred]

A previous post mentioned an external HDD for backup. I would highly recommend going with what is called a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, or RAID, setup. You can easily setup the system to where one HDD is an exact mirror of the other HDD which is called RAID 1. Remember that HDD are NOT forever. They fail way to often. I had a Western Digital MyBook that had all our pictures (wife and I do photography too), and the MyBook failed in less than a year. Luckily I was able to pull the HDD and install into a desktop computer and finally was able to recover most of the files after many attempts. External HDD enclosures are cheap and you can install the HDD in there if you work on a laptop. If you have a desktop with some extra bays, you can install the HDD and have the RAID setup internal to the desktop.

Will this work for email? If so please advise the IRS. ;-) :lol2: