Linnae Designs

I think I've become a bear stalker. I visited their temporary home 5 times today. They are so fun to watch. At one point this evening, the 2 cubs were on the ground and I was taking pictures, of course. A pizza delivery guy stopped in front of the house, grab a pizza and got out. He was about 10 feet from one of the cubs when someone warned him. I sure wish I was quick enough to snap his reaction. It was priceless! I was lucky enough to capture their photos as the cubs crossed the street. They seemed a bit indecisive. They crossed and then came back half way; then turned around. I was watching for cars because they were in the middle of road. I finally moved my car towards them to get them moving. Then they took off behind someone's house. That's it for tonight. Oh yea, and 1 Comment »

I went for a walk this morning and a man was looking up at a tree. When I looked up, I saw two bear cubs. I as surprised because this tree is in someone's front yard! One of the cubs was actively eating some leaves. It tried to maneuver it's way down to a lower branch and looked like it might fall. Why didn't I listen to my inner voice that suggested I bring my camera on my walk this morning????? I listened to it then and walked home to get my camera with it's 300mm zoom lens. I stayed for close to 2 hours watching and photographing the cubs, and talking to the neighbors who stopped. Eventually one of the cubs grew impatient and started its decent down the tree.....even though I was standing right below it, not 20 feet away. I started inching closer to my car, taking photos all View / Edit Comments

Around 1 pm today,  I got a text from my next door neighbor; she said a bear was in my back yard.  I wasn't home then but a few hours later, the kids and I were eating dinner on our back porch and we had an uninvited guest. We ran to our basement to get a better look. It came right to the house...and apparently it found its dinner too.....it's so cute..... In this last picture, the cub was standing right on the other side of the glass door (3 feet away). My camera was having trouble focusing because the cub was walking and I was shooting through the glass. The kids sat down at the door and we just watched it and it watched us for a minute. Then it turned around and walked into the woods. This mama and cubs was at a neighbor's house a week or so ago. View / Edit Comments

I romped in the woods today with Gage and his father. My kids trailed behind us attempting to make Gage laugh and pose. The sun made a brief appearance which lit up our trail very nicely. Here's their sneak peek!

I took my kids to the LAAFF festival last night. It's my favorite art show of the year. All the artists, performers and hippies are out in full glory. It's like a pre-Halloween party. Everyone is wearing outlandish costumes, fancy hats and glittery face paint. My conservative family decided to step it up a notch. My daughter, Makayla, let me dress her in a cool charcoal-colored denim skirt. This is a rare occasion for me because my tom-boy daughter does NOT do "girlie"! That means no dresses, flowers or pink. I picked out a tank top to match and we sprayed her hair red. My son, Luka, refused any of my attire suggestions and absolutely did not want me to take any photos of him. Oh no! That's my favorite part of this festival. It brings out my creative side and I love to bring my camera and take cool 1 Comment »

I'm a fairly new user to Adobe's Lightroom. I've known about the program for years but had no desire to learn another software program; I felt like my mind was stuffed to capacity -filled with Adobe and Microsoft programs. I didn't want to learn another one. One day at AB Tech, a student gave a Lightroom demo on her laptop. I was intrigued. I downloaded the 30-day free trial from the Adobe website that very day. After a couple days of playing around with it, I was hooked. I now wonder how I lived without it! Lightroom is invaluable for professional photographers. Check it out for yourself. One of the many things that I love about this program is that I can add Presets. A preset is a set of controls that someone created in the Develop module. Lightroom comes with some presets and you can download others for free or View / Edit Comments

I couldn't help myself.....I couldn't resist photographing this old barn. I pulled on to their property and drove slow, window down, snapping away at the dark interior spaces that I could see through the windows. What I would give to be able to have free rein inside!

I spent a fabulous day with my family and friends this weekend. Five families rented a large pontoon boat and we spent the day cruising, swimming, tubing and enjoying each others company. Here are a couple of great shots I got with my point and shoot camera.

I was at one of the community pools a few weeks ago and saw Mary Poppins.....for real! Some lucky birthday girl was enjoying tea (on real china) with her friends and Ms. Poppins. I took the opportunity to snap a few shots. Her accessories had conflicting colors to I decided to process this as a black and white. I loved the bright colors of her scarf so wanted to keep that in color. Here's how I did it using Photoshop. 1. Adjust color and tone to your liking. 2. Duplicate layer. 3. Add Black and White Adjustment layer. Choose best style. 4. On layers palette, choose "merge down". 5. Add layer mask. 6. Using your paintbrush, paint black over scarf to bring back the color that's on the background layer.

The sun went down just in time to cool of this summer evening. The Peterson family was quite photogenic with their beautiful tans and sparkling smiles!