Fix-it-Friday: Pretty in Pink

This little girl so cute, making this a fun photo to fix!  She had the most beautiful eyes and skin and the lighting was wonderful!

Here is the original photo:

Sometimes I forget all that I did, but here is what I remember...

1) I adjusted the levels and added a soft light filter
2) she had some marks on her legs and paint on her arm that I removed
3) I put the eyes into a new layer and adjusted the eyes.
4) Sharpened and boosted the saturation just a little.

(I need your opinion... my husband does not like the eyes in this picture, he thinks it is too much.... what do you think?  This is not my final photo, but it was in the works and I wanted your opinion.)

Next I did something that I rarely do... I used an action.  I added raspberry tea from coffee shop. 

And her I used the b&w with raspberry tea, but added my color photo as an overlay. 

___________________________________
Check back later because I have been working all month on an October photo scavenger hunt and I'm posting it later today after I add 1 more picture from today. Have a safe and fun Halloween!

Happy Halloween Eve!

I am really excited for Halloween tomorrow and that we have a teacher work day today!  I love my students, but it is great to have time to catch up with paper work.  
___________________________
The theme this week for Photo Friday is well groomed.  If you want to know the truth, this is our outside cat, and he is definitely not well groomed, but he thinks that he is the king of the castle.  As soon as we arrive home at night he hops on our car to assume his guard post.  He watches our house while we are away and assures that other cats, children or invaders do not trespass.

_______________________________________________________

Skywatch & Looking at the sky Friday
Visit Looking at the Sky and Skywatch to see skies from around the world.
Although I live in FL and usually post a FL picture, I thought that I'd share this from our summer vacation to Vancouver. 

_____________ 
Weekend Reflections 
I really like my entry this week for weekend reflections.  In the eye of the alligator you can see the observation tower and the bog. The above photo could have worked for weekend reflections, but I was waiting all week to share this!

Have a great weekend and be safe on Halloween!

Thousand word Thursday - Get out of there!

Another pic from Gatorland...

As a blog commenter (maryt/theteach) pointed out these gators are well fed, so I guess that they don't need to work for their food??   I still think it seems out of place to see a crane sitting in the middle of so many gators. 

Well-rested Wednesday

I am definately well rested today after getting 11 hours of sleep?  Ok, not all in one long sleep as I fell asleep on the sofa and went to bed around 1am.
I usually post the night before the meme, but last night I came home from work and pretty much fell asleep at 8pm!  That is not normal for me, 1am is normal.  The night before I didn't get to sleep till 3am, so I guess I needed to make up for it.
If you haven't noticed, most of the time I blog pictures throughout the week from the same event, so my pictures today are from Gatorland. 
__________________________
Wordless Wednesday

I think that this photo is perfect for wordless Wednesday since this bird has just stuffed a WHOLE HOT DOG into his mouth and throat!  You can see the end of it in his mouth.  They sold hot dogs to feed the gators, but most of the time the birds were faster than the Gators and stole the hot dogs.  If I were a bird, I don't think I'd steal anything from a gator!

_______________________________________
 Watery,  Outdoor  Wednesday

Just a few gators sunning themselves

________________________________________
 Sepia Scenes

I thought that this would make a great sepia due to the shadows and texture
_________________________________

Midweek Blues

I love the tone of the water in this one.

tERRIFYING tUESDAY

I am sharing some more pictures from Gatorland.

I really enjoy animal theme parks since animals provide an unknown and spotinatity that can't be found with roaler coasters and scripted shows.  The park is actually quite large, but due to limited time we saw very little of it.  They rescue aligators and crocodiles from all over Florida.  They actually have a rather large are of land considering their location and they must have around 2000 gators.  The pictures below are from the gator jumping show.  No, you are not seeing incorrectly, they are feeding them whole chickens to get them to jump!  The strangest thing about Gatorland is that Gator is served at the local restaurant!

 I did not notice this until I looked closer at the picture once I loaded the pictures on my computer, but his gator is missing half of his mouth.  I guess he should have given up smiling sooner.  I am not really sure the reason for his disfigurement, but I would assume that due to this he (or she) would be unable to survive int he wild.  The second is a close-up of the first. 

Not Me Monday - Opening weekend

Welcome to another edition of Not-Me-Monday.  It is hosted by McMama, so stop by to see other posts. 


As I mentioned yesterday my husband (Dylan) is the star in a local musical, and this was opening weekend.
Being the star has NOT taken many of his evenings, yet it has brought us closer since the time that we spend together is real quality time.

We did NOT park the car at the lake at the end of our street for a little make-out session on Saturday night before heading home.  I always heard that once you are married you don't kiss anymore and we would NEVER park our car with the intention of making out like crazy teens! 

I have NOT enjoyed going out with friends by myself, minus hubby.  Part of the reason that I enjoy this is NOT because my hubby sometimes keeps me from asking people too many questions.

I did NOT have a difficult time determining what to order out on my own.
I  do NOT order something that Dylan will eat since I generally can only eat about half of my meal. 

I did NOT pick Dylan's parents up from the airport, bring them to our house and leave 5 minutes later to take pictures.

I did NOT make Dylan's dad miss watching the Steeler's game to go with the to Gatorland.   I did NOT get into Gatorland free because of being a teacher!!!

I did NOT have a laugh at my father-in-law's expense while at Gatorland. You see we saw this snake and  I did NOT tell him that it was real to see the reaction as I touched the snake. I did not try to convince him to touch the snake as I took pictures.  He was convinced that she snake knew that he was afraid and was giving him a look.  I did NOT  tell him that the snake was plastic only after he touched the snake and we were walking away. 

Hope that you have a great week!!

I Heart Faces - Costume

My hubby is the star in a musical in a local theater near Orlando. I was lucky enough to be able to attend one of the dress rehearsals and take pictures. The theme this week at I heart faces is costumes, so I thought that this would definitely qualify. I gave it a sort of sepia tone to give it a rugged and old feel.


Click on the image below to see other entries. 

Monday - Gator Land

All of my pictures today are from a recent trip to Gatorland.  I mentioned yesterday that Dylan's dad was not thrilled to go with me, went anyways.  Once we arrived he had a blast and enjoyed himself.  I think that the next time that they are in town, he may take Dylan's mom and go again.  Come back this week to see even more pictures.
________________________________________________________________

Mellow Yellow Monday

This is one of my favorite shots of the day. 

Be sure to check out all of the Mellow Yellow Monday postings!
________________________________________________________________
Mosaic Monday

I am really enjoying the mosaic theme!
Be sure to visit Mosaic Monday!
________________________________________________________________
Blue Monday

I think it was the combination of shadows and light that gave this a blue color.

Visit Blue Monday to see other postings
__________________________________________________________

Satisfied Sunday

I have been wanting to go to Gatorland for a while, and this weekend my husband's parents were in town.  My father in law agreed to go with me! (Really I dragged him along.  I am pretty sure that he wanted to do something else!)   If you regularly read my blog, you may think that I should be staying away from the Gators after my close call.  There are a few  pictures here, but check back the rest of this week to see more pictures. 
______________________________________________________________________________

A slightly creepy but interesting bird @ Gatorland

______________________________________________________________________________

Not from Gatorland, but from the lake near my house. 
_____________________________________________________________________________

A gator hiding in the shadow of the walkway.

______________________________________________________________________________

He was sleeping with his mouth open... seems a little odd!

______________________________________________________________________________

Dylan's parents gave us a pumpkin to help get us ready for fall.  I grew up in the north and have lived in Florida for about 5 years, but I still have a hard time with the holidays and the lack of 'appropriate weather.'  If you can't tell by my blogging recently seeing all of the beautiful fall pictures on other blogs, and the hot weather has made me long for northern fall.
_____________________________________________________
Click on my Monday post and stop by the rest of the week to see other pictures from Gatorland.

Photo Friday - Autumn & the cat

 Autumn
I have lived in Florida for the past few years, and this year it has finally hit me that the leaves really don't change. My in-laws flew in last night and brought bright vibrant fall leaves from Pennsylvania. If people can be home-sick, is it possible that I am falls it possilbe to be fall-sick. 

In case you are not sure what the picture is, I scattered the leaves in our palm tree.  I will definitely be visiting other posts at Photo Friday.

_______________

The Cat

I was trying to take pictures of my handsome hubby when this guy decided he wanted to be a part of the picture.

See other pets at Pet Pride or Camera Critters

Fix-it Friday - Playdough

For fix-it Friday I began by adjusting the levels and adding a screen layer to lighten the face. Next I sharpened a little, and lightened the shadows.  Finally I cut out the boy and added 2 different layers in the background at about 70% opacity. I tried to match the boys shirt. 

Here is the original photo:

Edit 1

Edit 2