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Hey readers! I feel like I have been running from one thing to the next this summer. We have been crazy busy around here. I thought summer was supposed to be nice and lazy? Last summer my husband had just herniated a disc in his lower back and so we did NOTHING and went nowhere! His back has almost healed completely…Thanks Goodness!…so we are making up for it I guess this summer.

(No comments please about my daughter and hubs not wearing a helmet! They went about 2 mph hour for about 15 feet. I just wanted a picture of her on the 4 wheeler :))

Right after getting back from my San Francisco trip, I came home and unpacked, did laundry, cleaned up my house, repacked and headed back out on another road trip. This time we went back to where my husband grew up and spent some time playing with his side of the family. We had a great time…but I fear I am exhausted!

So, now that we are back home…and I am facing mounds of laundry and unpacking…again…I am going to be busy playing catch up. I have some big projects I am hoping to finally get done this weekend and be able to share with you soon. Crossing my fingers!

Tomorrow I will have a blog swap for you and Thursday another installment of Kristen Duke’s photography posts…yeah! Then next week I have a couple of really exciting giveaways for you next week. I promise you are going to love them. You will want to check back in…trust me!

I hope all of you are continuing to have a safe and FUN summer! I can’t believe that it is almost over for us! Where does the time go?

And for my final thought, I want to thank all of you who prayed for sweet baby Preslee Sullenger. As you are aware by now, she passed away and returned back to her Father in Heaven. My heart breaks for the family she has left behind who are missing her and longing to hold that sweet baby. They have experienced many miracles throughout their whole ordeal and Preslee’s short life has had a positive impact for good on so many. For those of you who are interested, you can purchase a copy of Preslee’s song (written by a stranger, who was so moved by her story, for her family). The proceeds are going to help Preslee’s parents with their hospital and funeral costs.

Life is so fragile! Preslee’s story (and so many like hers) inspire us to hold our loved ones a little tighter and a little longer!

I also want to thank all of you for your support and for making this blog what it is. Your sweet comments and emails mean a lot to me. I have really enjoyed sharing with you and getting to see who some of you are through your comments and emails. I am getting a bit slower at answering them due to the volume, but don’t let that stop you from sending them :)! {{HUGS}}

Ok, before you click away at the idea of self portraits, read what I have to say. This is for everyone! Not just those that have a slr or photoshop. This is going to be fun….

Here are 2 self portraits I took this week. One in the mirror because I was happy to squeeze into a skirt that I got 6 years ago and can wear it again (hooray).

Then, I learned how to merge images from my friend (more about her later). It was so much fun to be creative with my photography and do something FUN! I did use photoshop for the merging.

So, I ask, do you want your family to have ZERO memories of you because you are always the one behind the camera? NO! Neither do I. I am often handing my camera to my husband and saying, “please document me at this event.” I want to be there in the photos, too! Do I feel silly/vain/annoyed passing the camera over because I wish he’d think of it himself? YES! But I do it anyway because I want to be represented (I just did it for my daughter’s birthday party pictures, here). I want my family to remember that I was present in their lives through the images they will view years from now. Am I always happy with how I look (weight, make up, hair, clothes)? Heavens, no! But I don’t let that stop me. I want to be remembered the good, the bad, and the beautiful. I want my daughters to know that I wasn’t always picture perfect, because that wouldn’t tell a true story of my life, and I want them to realize that mom isn’t perfect (and they don’t have to be, either).

Plus, I always say that if I don’t like myself in a picture, that is incentive to do something about it! Lose the weight, cut the hair, take 10 seconds to put on eye liner on every day–and then make sure I get pics of myself on those days:)

I am often surprised when taking portraits that the parents just want the kids in the pics. I understand they might not want a wall print of them–they prefer to look at the children, but at least be in a few to put in an album or in a family room out of the way for your children to see you together. I think it is important–for the sake of the children. **Edited to add: An Idea Room Reader posted this in the comments, but I thought it was so awesome, I wanted to share. CLICK HERE Another great reference HERE from another photographer with tips.

So now that I’ve got that out of the way–I will get off my soapbox. Let me tell you about my friend, Julie. She is an amazing photographer who constantly pushes herself to learn just because she wants to get better. She doesn’t even do it for money, just for fun! Do you want to know why I will forever LOVE her? Because she took these for me:

Yes, she was in the delivery room with me when I had my 4th and probably final baby. The MOMENT she captured here is one of my very favorites.

But anyway, she is the QUEEN of fun self portraits! She taught me how to do the image at the top of this post with me in 5 times. Here is a refresher:

Do you want to learn how to do it? (This requires photoshop, but scroll to the bottom for my challenge/giveaway if you don’t do the photoshop thing).

1. Set up your camera on a tripod

2. Helpful to have a remote, but self timer button could work, too

3. Pick a spot and take a pic with only the furniture, etc. in it

4. Take several more pictures of yourself, in varying spots in the room–trying not to overlap

5. Head on over to photoshop and merge them

Merge–you say? Yeah, Julie taught me how to do that just 2 days ago. I opened up 6 images in photoshop:

You want to use your “blank” image as your main image. In this case, it is the image without me in it. I use the “move” tool (arrow points) to move each image on top of the main image. I click on image #2 with my mouse and while holding down the shift key, drag that image on top of my main image (if you don’t use sthe shift key to help move, it won’t line up evenly). I do this over and over with all the rest of the images. Until I have 6 layers in one.

You then click on each layer to make a layer mask. So click on:

Layer 5+Alt key+click on layer mask below the layers (square with circle in it).

Repeat this with each layer except the background/original/first image.

You want a BLACK box to appear next to the image layer. If you get a white box, you need to change it to a black box (ctl+i inverts).

You are now going to go layer by layer and erase the area where each person is located.

But they are all on top of each other and I don’t know where to begin erasing. I click on layer 1. I then right click on the black box and will temporarily disable the layer mask by right clicking on the black box and select disable layer mask.

A red “x” will appear on the black box and I will see myself pop up standing next to the piano. So I know that once I re-enable the layer mask, I want to erase in the area where I would be standing next to the piano (because I won’t see it, it will only be my background image I will see).

So right click on the black box/red “x” to Enable the layer mask.

It will take me back to my original empty person image and I need to begin erasing.

I select the brush tool (get a soft brush) and make sure my color selection is on white to reveal.

Black conceals

White reveals

(that’s what Julie taught me)

So I want to reveal my standing self in layer one, using the brush to reveal

I’m sortof guessing where my body parts are located as I erase back. Fortunately, nothing else has moved (the piano, the wall, the rug are all the same in each layer). The only problem we ran into is that in the few minutes that I snapped these shots, the window light changed as the sun went behind a cloud temporarily. This made the light in the room a bit different in each frame.

Here I am–layer 1 revealed!

See the shadow around my arm? Happened with the wall changing colors as the sun hid behind cloud.

So I switch back to my black color and erase a little to conceal that black area and lighten it.

There. Better. I did this sortof slopping, but made the dark area a bit better, and even lowered my opacity a little to not make it so harsh. Julie mentioned to make sure you don’t take away the natural shadow you would get if it exists, too.

Now onto layer 2 using this same method repeated.

I disabled the layer mask to get the red “x” and realize layer 2 is the image of me sitting at the piano. After re-enabling the mask, I start to erase or reveal with white brush around the piano bench (the standing “me” is still there). Next layer is me sitting in the chair.

Once you have the layers all revealed, you flatten the layers (layer+flatten image), add any actions you would like, and save as a jpg.

Fun, huh?

Challenge and Giveaway

Ok, so on to my challenge. I want to see some self portraits from you. Whether you have kids or not, you need to be documented. My challenge I extend is to be creative and share a self portrait. If you have kids, include your kids. I want to do a series of self portraits with my kids and come up with random stuff that will create fun memories for them to look back on. That way they can enjoy photography along with me instead of resenting when my camera comes out. Look at what Julie has done fun with her kids:

Have you ever had one of these moments?

Above, her son is hiding in 6 spots in the room.

And here are some creative shots she’s done of just herself:

I had to double check to make sure that was actually her! Soo cool!

Are those FUN or what?!? She says she may make a calendar for her hubby–what a great idea! Our hubby’s need to look at us all day long while they are at work:)

So I want us to share creativity with each other (because I want more ideas myself). Amy is opening up a linky down below for you to submit your self portraits (with or without kids). That means you post on your blog and share the link to the post. If you don’t have a blog or don’t want to share it, email me the image and I will post them on a Kristen Duke Photography Challenge blog.

You have ONE WEEK to take it and share it. We will select a winner based on CreaTivitY, NOT photograpy skills.

Share the link here on this post by next Wed. June 30th at NOON. We will select the winner and post it on my Thusday post next week. The Prize?

The winner will select any one of my landscape art images and I will print as an 8×10, mount, and mail to it them. (This print above is larger than an 8×10, but the most popular landscape image–see my orange lentils?)

Here are a few more funny self portrait images around “guilty pleaseures” check out the lady in a bath full of diet coke!

One Two Three Four Five

I am even joining in on the fun and hope Amy does, too. Pass this on to your friends for more ideas (post on facebook or tweet it).

Now, link up!!!

**Grab a button and you will have access to all of Kristen’s posts in one click!

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