Little Faeries

I recently stumbled on a number of "Fairy Photography Sites". And no, these aren't a bunch of whackos saying they're photographing "real" fairies. They're photography sites that use photoshop etc to retouch the photos to look like fairies, but realistic looking ones, not cartoonish looking...

I was telling my cousin Janice about this the other day and saying that one site had a thing where you could send in your own picture and she'd photoshop it for $150 (australian) to look like a fairy... Mind you, she's GOOD. They're awesome pics and if I had the money I'd definitely send a few pics of the kids in to get them done... We were talking about not having any good pics that would work for this and she was going through her stash of digital photos on her pc to proove this point when I saw it. A PERFECT picture of her daughter Josie at the beach. We also found a few really nice ones of her younger daughter Jenna that would work as well...

I got her to send them to me and I played around for a few days using Paint Shop Pro. (Since I don't currently have, nor do I know how to use, Photoshop) Here are the results. Whaddya think?

I'm not crazy about the wings I used for Jenna. They're tilted wrong for her stance, but they're the best ones I can find for her. I tried the ones I used for Josie on Jenna too, but they seem even worse to me than the ones I have on her...


Here are a few of the Fairy Photography sites that I found for those of you who are interested:

*Fairy Photography by Margaret Dean http://www.fairyphotographs.com/ -- Amazing artist. She's the one I was talking about above. This is her commercial site.

*Fairy Portraits by Margaret Dean http://www.fairyportraits.com.au/index.htm -- This is the site where you can see about sending in your pic to be photoshopped. Has before and after pictures

*Tales of Faerie by Collette http://www.talesoffaerie.com/ -- Good site, she's located in Ontario

*Stonefence Photography http://stonefencephotography.com/ -- Not bad pics, but Instead of the general thumbnails that you click on to see a bigger image, there's a thing that is supposed to look like a book with pages turning, each page is a different picture. And unfortunately the pages of the "book" are the wrong size for the pics... so they all looked stretched and a bit distorted...

*J. Corsentino's Time of the Faeries http://www.timeofthefaeries.com/ - Good site. Lots of great pics.

Hope you Enjoy as much as I do...

What a wonderful world

I've discovered a wonderful new program the other day thanks to my cousin Janice. It's called PhotoStory and it's by Microsoft. I downloaded it for free at www.microsoft.com/photostory , but make sure you have a legal version of windows before trying this. You have to let Microsoft confirm your version is legal before they'll let you download this.

Anyway, it's basically like a stripped down version of Powerpoint in that you put pictures, music and transitions for your pics in the presentation. You can't do all the fancy stuff that you can with PowerPoint, but since it's meant more for photographs instead of office presentations it works just fine... and for a free program it's GREAT!

The first one has a bunch of pictures of Olivia and Rachel done to What a Wonderful World by Louie Armstrong. They're done in chronological order, so it's kind of showing Olivia growing from baby to big sister, and HER new baby Rachel!

The second is just of Olivia and though some of the pictures are repeated, some are new.The song with this one is Sweet Child o' Mine by Sheryl Crow. Although some purists don't like her version of the song, I think it fits kids pictures MUCH better than the Guns 'n' Roses original version.

Click on the images below (it'll open a new window) to see their PhotoStories!

Olivia and Rachel's Story(What a Wonderful World - Louie Armstrong)

Olivia's Story(Sweet Child o Mine - Sheryl Crow)

Rachel's Portraits

I got Rachel's Portraits done last month for her "3 Month Birthday". And yes, before you ask, I am obsessive that way. With Olivia I got them done every month for the first 6 months, then every two months between 6 months and a year, then again at 15 and 18 months and again at 2 years... so in her first 2 years she's had her portraits done 12 times! Jason made me promise I wouldn't go as crazy this time, so I got them done at 4 weeks, then again at 3 months. I'll do them again at 6, 9 and 12 months and again at 18 months and 2 years. So only 7 times in two years... I've cut them down from 12 to 7 and I honestly don't think I could do less than that. I would have cut the 18 month pictures out, but that's going to be her Christmas pictures. I LOVE getting their pictures done. Once they hit 2 years we'll only be going three times a year. Once for Olivia's birthday in October. Once for Rachel's birthday in April and once for Christmas Pictures, so that won't be too bad.

But, until that day, I'll enjoy my every three month schedule! I'm posting 3 of the 4 shots we got... the girl who took the pictures was VERY new and VERY slow... She claimed she worked at Walmart portrait studio before she started at the Sears studio, but I doubt she worked there very long before they fired her. Not only did she not have a clue as to posing, etc. (she wanted to just sit her on a baby chair they have and do a full length, 3/4, and close up shot as 3 of the 6 poses you get... I had to come up with the three poses we ended up doing.) but she ended up screwing up my order as well. She ordered 2 of the poses in the wrong sizes. Oner 8x10 was in the wrong pose and I always order a sheet of 3 1/2 x 5 in EACH pose so that I have one of each shot plus it leaves me 3 of each shot to give away. The cheapest way for me by far, and instead of ordering the last shot in 3 1/2 x5, she ordered it in 5x7. So, I had to return those and wait for the 8x10 and the 4th shot to come back in the proper size.

So, for those of you interested in seeing them, here they are!

This was actually one of the last pics taken. She was quite cranky the whole time and had fallen asleep. I didn't want to wake her up, so the last two pictures taken (one which isn't here yet) were of her sleeping.

Here she is before she fell asleep. Posing with the teddy bears!

This is the one I got in 8x10 (teddy bear pic), but it was the one below that I ordered.

Go ahead, go ga-ga over me!