Thursday, July 23, 2009

I'm Back!

Whew, that was fun! The blog "makeover" took me a little longer than I thought, I ended up going "private" while I worked out the kinks! I still might be tweaking in the next few days! Once you start playing with code.....it's hard to stop. I now know what hexadecimal color codes are! It's like walking into Home Depot and hanging out in the paint sample section.

Since I haven't posted on my photography blog, I decided to start of my new look with a photography post! By the way, the photography blog is going to be inactive, but I will keep it open for a while.

I have noticed that people do not like to be photographed. I've taken pictures of bees, slugs, horses, cats, dogs, and rhodies, and they have not flinched a bit.

However, people tend to be more evasive when they realize you are photographing them. I've gotten glares, quickly turned heads.... even a naughty finger. Goodness, I need to broaden my skills in this area as I am trying to figure out skin tone, focus on the eyes, etc! Luckily, I have been able to convince a few subjects to face the Nikon. Whether they knew it or not!

This is a close-up of the my darling second cousin. His nickname is "the man cub." He looked down at me over the edge of a parked boat he was playing in. I love the pose and his natural smile with a peek of tongue-in-cheek, but the light was less than perfect. No idea where the sun was, but I didn't get a great focus on his eyes.

The Man Cub Goes Boating

Next up, I shot my dad as he was waiting for my mom to return from a trail ride. I loved, loved, loved the light at this time of the day (late morning, maybe 11 a.m.?) It was soft and glowing. I didn't have to worry about focusing his eyes- because he was wearing sunglasses!

Papa

Recently, I was at the stable with my mom and my aunt. I dragged them out of the barn, telling them that sunset was my favorite for taking pictures. They looked like they were dressed for a photo shoot, not the barn! They weren't riding that night, just saying hello to their horses and tucking them into their stalls with treats.

Western Twins

Obviously, they are twins. The whole time I was taking pictures of them, they'd occasionally turn and look at each other with this savvy grin. I have no idea what they were thinking, but it was adorable. I left this picture SOOC (straight out of camera) because I love the orange light on their skin.

The Twins

Isn't my mom's little wooden horse necklace cute? I think she got it at a thrift shop. That is where I got my thrift shopping talent, I think!

I have more people events coming up in the near future.....more opportunities to snap some candids, I hope!

46 comments:

  1. Love the 'makeover' blog and it's great meeting your family. Well done. :)

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  2. Loving the new look so far!!!! hat is to funny as I saw the first picture of your mom and aunt I was thinking man they look like twins...I wonder if they are, then I scrolled down and you told me they are LOL!! Can't wait to see more fun pictures!!

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  3. Welcome back! You are inspiring me to look at my own. I hate messing with code. I wish I could figure out how to do it in Dreamweaver.

    Great pix of Mom and Auntie!

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  4. Wow... you wanna job at my place? (Feel like i have offered this to you before??).

    Great look... going to email you again about the photos... drives me crazy having small (for me) images!!!

    Your mum and her twin are insanely gorgeous... more of them please!!!
    :-)
    BB

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  5. PS Don't forget to swing by my place for a weather check... I NEED TO KNOW!!!
    :-)
    http://bushbabe.blogspot.com/2009/07/world-weather-watch-week-1.html

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  6. Love the look of the site and the wonderful photos! I've got my sister coming to visit from CA so I may be less present for awhile too. I wanna know how you did so much with blogger as I really struggle with getting it to do what I want. You've got it to look like more of a website which is pretty darn impressive.

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  7. Normally follow along in my reader but had to pop over to see the actual blog and I really like it - very clean and crisp! Definitely lets you accentuate your photos - which I loved.

    My sister and I have the ongoing debate on people vs things photos. She's much better at the people while I prefer the things!

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  8. Love Club Man, lol! My son used to be that adorable, but now he's in his 20's and it's a different kind of cute...the kind that avoids Nikons, lol!

    Love the pic of your mom & aunt looking at each other, and your dad shot is wonderful.

    Will you be by this weekend to see me?

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  9. As always beautiful photos...glad to have you back. I am so busy with kids in camp and Lakota being back I have no time to blogggggg

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  10. I'm new to your blog, love the pictures! Look forward to seeing more!

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  11. I'm glad you're back! The new blog looks great. I'm sure it was a lot of work.

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  12. Welcome back Pony Girl!! Love the new look, and your pictures.

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  13. I am just about convinced that I want a new camera and these pictures just about seal the deal. I have had my Cannon point and shoot for over a year and I want to take much better pictures. I'll have to start saving for that item.

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  14. Like I said, it looks beautiful! I love me that man cub picture! Isn't he a great model? I love the pics of the Moms too, but you know Mom will hate hers! She always hates her pictures. Don't take offense, it's just her!

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  15. What gorgeous pics you have, I'm totally jealous. It must be nice to be so close to your family who also loves horses. Glad to see you back

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  16. Lovin' your new look, Pony Girl! And Man Cub??? That's also one of Eric's nicknames...teeheehee. It's a good one for a boy. :) All your pictures look great, and I am glad that you had a good break. :)

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  17. Oh my goodness...my mouth literally dropped open and I sat here catching flies when I scrolled down to the pic of your mom and aunt looking at each other. The one of your dad is excellent too. Glad you're back & can't wait to see more of your pics! Way to take advantage of the natural light...both times of day are so great for photo taking.

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  18. {Bush Babe}~ I can email you with more info., but basically I use the stretch minima template, then load my photos into Flickr. Then, I resize them to about 645 pixels wide and load them using the html code for "large." The vertical ones I don't resize at all (that is why the one of my dad is so huge), but the horizontal ones I have to, or they get cropped as in the Man Cub one, notice how part of my "Pony Girl Pictures" is cut off? I had that set to 700 pixels wide, thinking that would work, as it was what I was able to use on my photog blog because I shrunk the sidebar down. I wanted the sidebar regular size on this blog so my photos in it could be decent sized. Hope that helps!
    p.s. my photos are around 1500 pixels wide when I download them, that is why I have to resize them. Of course, there is probably an easier way to do this, if anyone knows, please share! :)

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  19. Oh boy, new blog! Looks like you really know the ins and outs of blogging in the technical sense as well as the writerly/artistic sense!
    Love all the family snaps!

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  20. Oh, Pony Girl! Your photo of the twins just reminds me of how awesome they are and how much i love them! I can hardly wait to collect my hugs from them!
    I was thinking, tho... you probably wouldnt be taking pictures of them if they werent so pretty.
    See you soon. Hugs!

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  21. Welcome back PG! Love the redecorating :)
    Have to say was I surprised (in a good way) to see a full on pic of YOU! You seem to hide your face alot in pics. Silly girl!
    And a quick question, how do you get multiple pics in your header?

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  22. I love the new look on your site! Your parents look cool!!! And the twin shot is priceless!

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  23. I'm glad you're back. It looks great around here. Your photos are awesome! Your Mom and her twin are so gorgeous!

    ~Lisa

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  24. Lynn@StockHorseShowSource.comJuly 23, 2009 at 12:06 PM

    Love the new look of the website! I am a new follower and find it fun to read your blog.

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  25. Really nice look, and your photos are wonderful. Your mom and aunt are so adorable ! Of course "little man club" is the cutest !!!!

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  26. Pony Girl~ Do you think you would be willing to help me out a bit with 'coding'?
    I soooo want to make my Blogger blog more my own, but I'm so limited with the templates it offers.
    Can you help?
    I most want to know how to make 'tabs' so that I can create new pages kind of like you did...
    Help!
    Emily of Minnesota Musings

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  27. Oh! AND I'd LOOOOOVE to know how you created your see through watermarks!!
    I take a LOT of photos and I really want to start watermarking them.
    Pretty please?! ;o)
    Emily of Minnesota Musings

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  28. Just noticed your mugshot on the right - finally a proper picture!!! You are beautiful! Of course...

    Thanks for the picture tips... I hate having to do more than one upload action with my images (our internet is soooo slow!) but have worked out pasting html across which is slightly easier... wish I could just build a post (complete with chosen image sizes) on my desktop and then leave it to upload in its entirity. Is there such a thing?
    :-)
    BB

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  29. Glad to have ya back! I always want to learn how to do special tweaks to my blog but worry about working with the codes. I'm a big wiener! Too scared!

    I love the large text area.

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  30. {CDN Cowgirl}~ I built the header using my Paint program. I resize and cut and paste the photos onto a white background, then add text. It takes forever and is a major pain in the u-know-what. When I do it right, it looks nice! This way, I can just cut and paste new pictures over the old ones (or "erase" the old ones) and keep the original format!
    p.s. Yep I typically do hide my face, hate pictures of myself and I'm a private person! :)

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  31. {Emily}~ My header does not contain a navigation bar, it has that "look", but the lines underneath don't link to pages. I would love to have a navigation bar but think I will have to pay someone to do that for me! :)
    Most of the coding I do is by trial and error, I preview everything before changing the template to see what I've done and have figured out a lot on my own, intuitively, but could never explain to anyone how I did it, LOL! I can send you the links to some of the sites I've used to help me do minor things, like change the background color of my sidebar, you just paste in a simple line of code and the hexadecimal color code you want and voila! Email me with more specific questions and I'll see what I can help you with! :)

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  32. Glad to see you back! Love the new look. Your mom and aunt are truly gorgeous.

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  33. I like the new format...nice to be able to have bigger pics. Not if only I could 1) get a "real" camera, and 2) learn how to take real pics, I might think about re-doing my own blog! :)

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  34. I love the look, very clean and simple.
    Man Cub has gotten so big, and he is just too cute!
    Of course I love mom and dad's pictures, but I really love the one on mom and auntie! Very nice.
    I sure hope you aren't thinking of putting a picture of me on here, you know the one I am talking about!!

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  35. Nice! Love the candid shots! Missed ya..

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  36. Love the makeover! Your banner is fab!
    The cute little man cub is adorable. All your pics are great.

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  37. Well I can see that "not the twin" must not have been a good photo subject or maybe there would been one of her too! I think they are saying to each other...Ha ha, we are BOTH the evil twin!!!
    When you come down to ride with me...you can work on my blog too, it needs it!LOL

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  38. I love the look and the photography is awesome! You do wonderful work. Thanks for stopping in on my blog and saying Hi!!! I'm gonna try a post a little more;)

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  39. {Desert Rose}~ Oh you just wait, my pretty, I will get you this weekend! Or next week! I know you love the camera! You won't run from me! ;)

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  40. Great new look, and I agree, your Mom and her twin are adorable. I don't often take photos of people- for some reason I seem to be fixated on flowers lately- I need to do some reading and improve my photo skills, then I may snap more people.

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  41. WOW!!! GREAT JOB, PG!!!!! That is awesome! You should go in to business just designing blogs!!! Cant wait to see it when it's all done!

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  42. Wow, great new design!!! Good work!
    I love the pics of your family members, really wonderful lighting, well cought.
    :))

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  43. They are hot mamas. I enjoy all your pictures. You sure know how to work that camera of yours.

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I love hearing from my readers!! I truly enjoy all of your feedback, advice, helpful tips, and stories. You all make me laugh and I learn so much from you, too. I will try to post replies to your comments as often as I can.

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