3 Sisters – 9

My 3 Girls at the Beach

Here are my three beautiful girls at the beach near their grandparents' house. My cover photo with Amanda and me on my Facebook page, Amanda’s Books and More was taken at the same time. Go check it out and like my page. While you’re at it, read my latest update. I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

This is my last photo in the 3 Sisters series. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and will come back and see what my newest series will be all about. I’ll check back with you too, because as of yet, I don’t know either! Have a great day!

3 Sisters – 8

3 Sisters at the Beach 2010

It’s late at night here, but I realize it’s about time that I add a new photo to this series. Since my series is on the 3 sisters, their brother does not feature. That doesn’t mean that he isn’t a very precious part of our family, because he is. I thought that it would be nice to do a piece on the girls, especially since I had a lot of lovely photos of just the 3 of them. Sometimes, though, Jeremiah was also in the picture. What did I do before? I cropped him out. Yep, I cropped the handsome boy out of the photo! I don’t feel too bad about it either, because I still have the originals and he’s not too keen on me posting his picture everywhere.

So, if I cropped him out before, what did I do this time? I used the Clone tool in PicMonkey and cloned small portions of the photo to make him miraculously disappear. If it wasn’t so late, and if my eyes weren’t tired, I could have done a perfect job, but this is near perfect and so I’m satisfied. This is my second time using the Clone tool on an image of mine. I also used it on my post 3 Sisters – 5. Now you know what you can do the next time you want to make something disappear or, in the case of 3 Sisters – 5, make more of something!

4 Siblings at the Beach 2010

3 Sisters – 7

You would think that I was clever enough to get the girls positioned just right for these two photos. Not at all! I saw them sitting like this and quickly went and grabbed my camera. Of course, they did pose a bit once they saw me with camera in hand. This is why keeping a camera or mobile phone with a good quality built-in camera nearby at all times is a good idea. It’s all about capturing the moment and making memories!

Check out my cool photo frame! I went with white, so it doesn't look as much like a frame as it does a boarder. It’s one of PicMonkey’s latest additions to their free photo editing site. Once you’ve uploaded an image to edit, click on the Frames icon to the left, scroll right down to the bottom and there you’ll find New Sketchedy. Try out their different options in Sketchedy. There are a variety of choices, so have fun checking them out!

3 Sisters – 6

With eager expectation, I awaited for PicMonkey’s collage application. It’s been available for a few days already, but I hadn’t gotten around to trying it out. It didn’t disappoint.

You can create your own collage in seconds, literally, and for free using PicMonkey. Without any prior knowledge on how to use this application, I got this result with a few simple clicks. I didn’t even bother editing my photos and my collage turned out awesome!

2010 Soccer World Cup, South Africa

Here are the steps I took: I clicked on Collage, three empty frames appeared, which I rotated with one click below the frames. I then clicked on the blue box with Upload Photos to the left, and chose my three pictures from my documents. I then dragged them over to the empty frames by clicking on the mouse and holding it down. I placed them where I wanted them to be. I clicked on the paint palette, wondering what it was for, and saw that it changes the background color. I chose the dropper and picked a color from my photos to replicate. I liked the green in Jessica’s T-shirt and went with that. My final step was to save it in good quality, not best quality as I hadn’t resized my photos earlier and didn’t want a large file size. That’s because I don’t want to upload large file size images on my blogs or else my blogs will load slower.

3 Sisters – 5

This photo of my 3 girls has been edited.

There’s really no reason why you have to put up with an over-exposed image, red-eye or whatever else. The photo editing tools that I’ve been mentioning, Picasa 3 and PicMonkey, are for free and easy to use. Some things just take time to get the hang of them. The best way to learn is by playing, so play with a copy of your photo (not the original) and see what you discover. I may have over-colored this photo, but I have a weakness for color. I love all colors, maybe that’s one reason why I like diversity in ethnicity, because the more colors the better! I live in the Rainbow Nation of South Africa and my family does not stick to one culture or ethnicity. My husband and I are a mix of cultures, even though we are both white, and we have had to learn to get along.

I went all out with this image. One editing tool that I used was Clone in PicMonkey. That is how I got all the grass to be green. Once I had what I wanted in PicMonkey, I went to Picasa 3 to add my text (I like to keep the font the same and the one I’m using is in Picasa, plus I like its text features). Seeing the photo in Picasa, I began to play some more with the editing tools. When you apply different techniques, it’s called layering. You can add any number of layers to your image. Learn while playing. That’s my motto for today!

This photo of my 3 girls has not been edited.
You can see the difference for yourself.

3 Sisters – 4

I find editing my pictures very relaxing after a busy day. It’s my way of having some me-time and a bit of fun. In these two photos my 3 girls are watching TV, and Amanda is snacking on apple slices. It looks like it was a long day for the two big sisters.

I did most of my editing in PicMonkey. One feature that I used in the background was Burn and I chose Dark. I wish you lots of success with your pictures at home. There’s no reason why you can’t take a good photo and make it a great photo! And, have fun while you’re at it!

3 Sisters - 3

I liked both of these photos of my 3 girls and so I decided to share both of them with you! I edited these pictures by adding more color (you can use Saturation and/or Boost in Picasa 3). As you can see, I added more to the photo above. I think the one below looks more natural. Which one do you prefer?

Check out my post titled “Simplicity – 14” for more on Picasa 3 and photo editing.

3 Sisters – 2

I love it when everyone is smiling from the heart. Here, the 3 sisters are sharing a happy moment together. I used Picasa 3 to edit this photo. I first added a little bit of Saturation, not too much because I wanted the colors to seem natural. I then added Glow for atmosphere. Lastly, I applied Vignette with an off-white border. I found the standard black border didn’t create the right effect for this image. It’s really easy editing a picture, just a few clicks and I was done!

3 Sisters – 1

Baby Amanda with her big sisters, Samantha and Jessica

This new series is dedicated to sisters. I never had a sister when I was growing up. My 3 girls get to share lots of fun and laughter with each other. Sometimes there are arguments, but mostly there is love between them. I think that as they get older, the friendships will only deepen.

Climbing Rocks – 8

You can hardly see my beautiful girl on top of the rocks, but there she is my eldest daughter, Jessica. She used to be the one who would climb the jungle gym and cry for help. She was just like a kitten, going up was alright and even fun, but getting back down was another story. Jessica is a living paradox. There are some things that she doesn’t trust herself with and is afraid to do (things that are no big deal for most people), but in other things she’s fearless. I truly admire her courage.

One year we bought her a poster with an eye-catching photograph of an extreme female rock climber. It’s still on her wall and it says, “Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good… Luckily, this is not difficult.” By Charlotte Witton

My next post will be the start of a brand new series.

Climbing Rocks - 7

Jeremiah with Samantha on the rocks near the ocean in Hermanus, South Africa, 2011

Climbing Rocks – 6

Jeremiah on the rocks near the ocean in Hermanus, South Africa, 2011

Climbing Rocks – 5

Do you remember the boy climbing rocks in my previous photo? This is the same boy, only older. As you can see, he’s still climbing rocks.

I love the composition of this low angle shot. It gives you the feeling of the great size of the boulders. I like all the colors in this picture too. The deep blue sky above is especially stunning and with my son sitting there relaxed adds a peaceful touch.

These next photos were taken in 2011. My kids have grown up and these rocks are in Hermanus, another South African beach. Here, Jeremiah is sitting on a boulder enjoying the view.