Verja's Photography

This is Baby. :-)

2009-08-26T15:31:00.000-07:00

She makes a great desktop wallpaper...

Spiffin' Macro Shot

2009-07-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

I think I may be in love with Macro shooting...And bokehs. Here is a glimpse at our weather...VERY cold and rainy. But perfect for wonderful macro shots in the rain. :)

A Self Portrait...

2009-07-06T19:26:00.000-07:00

I only brightened the colors a little... And played with the blurry, but it came out sharp instead...:/ Oh, well.

Maybe tomorrow I will post again...

Toodle-oo!

A Lovely Little Fella...

2009-05-18T14:47:00.000-07:00

By the way...Check out my new site! www.fix-this-pic.blogspot.com

Remember to see the beauty in everything. ;)

My Eyes...:\

2009-04-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

NONE OF THESE WERE FIXED UP IN ANY WAY. DO NOT THINK THEY WERE. THEY. AREN'T. FAKE.
Please...Since when have I EVER been able to do that kind of stuff with GIMP?!?! hehe. Tiny text is fun. :)

What are Y O U R eyes like? :)

Til next post,

Verja*

My Profile for Reflections...@IHF! =)

2009-04-28T18:13:00.000-07:00

Be sure to head here. Everyone's entries are inspiring and gorgeous! Have a looksie!...I'm seriously bookin' it, cause they close it off in like 12 minutes! :O

* speeds *
* MUST FIND THE BUTTON! *

Reflections

2009-04-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

This photo, (I SURE HOPE IT QUALIFIES), is my favorite reflection shot ever. As in...Yeah...ever.. =)

If you look really, really, really, really, really, really close, you can see my hair hanging down on the left side.
PLEASE QUALIFY! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE...

NOTICE: This took me FOREVER. I have NUMEROUS shots of it, but they are all blurry and this one took me at least 3 hours... Let me know what you think. And behind the umbrella is out lovely house! =)
My niece is also in the waaaay back corner. I PROMISE!

It was a rainy day. yeah...=) I promise my face is in there...I PROMISE! I SWEAR IT! I DO!

Please be sure to visit this site, because everyone else has something to show...;) www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com

My Favorite April Shots...!

2009-04-22T08:02:00.000-07:00

Hi People!
I know these are interesting/somewhat weird pictures, but I love them to death! I'm back anyway. Thanks you all, for missing me. =) * teary eyed *
If you'll notice, I've added some pictures of our new puppy at the MJ blog...Go check it out. It's in my links...Linger here no longer as I am done.
Wait...Not yet. My bad.

The third picture is me. SHIELD YOUR EYES, YOUNG ONES! RUN! FLEE!!! I know how awful I look in it...It's not my fault. I could photoshop myself and I'd look AWFUL-ER!
=) =P
Yes, I am crazy. Thanks for noticing. That's very observant of you...
Now I am done.
Didn't edit any of these...Didn't have the time.

BYE BYE

Fix It Friday...:D I'm BAAAAAAAAAACK!

2009-04-03T07:07:00.000-07:00

Hey!
I'm back. I haven't been participating with FIF for quite some time...Because...I find browsing at professional's work is much more fun than using all the skills I can muster to get something that comes out lowly next to their work, which is marvelous...(I LOVE those words...hehe!)
Normally, friends, I use the original and then one creative edit...Or the one that turned out the least bad. =) But today, the subject was so gorgeous and fun to work on that I had a hard time closing my GIMP. I saw it and I thought, 'Hey, I'll just fiddle with the contrast, sharpen a bit and then voila,'
But no...I became addicted. * creepy music * Ever so slowly...And I couldn't get myself to close it down.. I will warn you. Instead of two pictures today, I have...I think...*calculates* 8 Fixits. So, sit tight and buckle up 'cause this is all about the pictures I fixed and how I fixed them.
NOTE: They are not in order...Because I couldn't remember just what number was which so I just threw them on here...=)

Here is the beautiful cheerleader we were given to edit. Ain't she purdy? =)

Yup, you guessed it. She's invisible...Now you see why we had such a rough time fixi--I'm kidding =P . But Blogger won't let me bring them all up, so...Just scroll down. Have patience. =)

There we go. Here she is! OOH-RAH! No, wait...That's the Marines...But Daddy was a marine...Mom was a cheerleader...OOH-RAH and...BOOM-BAH!? I forget what the cheer is...:D

The senior, so blurry and bland...Poor dear...There is not a hint of color..I'd die in a world without color...And if I couldn't edit my photos I don't know WHAT I'd do. AHEM. Anyway...

1.

So, for this I did what any person would do. I immediately headed for 'brightness and contrast'. I moved the noggle around...(I don't think that's right...Noddle? What is that wo--NOZZLE! There we go. Like the hose...=) I fiddled around with that, then sharpened at 49.

2.

I wanted to be original and try something I hadn't seen yet. Then I got doubts...:| Maybe the pros didn't put it to black and white because it doesn't look good? But I went for it. I adjusted the hue and saturation until it got to the clean black and white look and sharpened at 49 again. I like how it turned out...=)

3.

Everyone else was doing borders and I felt left out!! =( I grabbed the contrast thingy and moved it over about an inch, then I hardlighted it with the opacity to about...12.4? I'll say that. If I'm wrong, you can throw a shoe at me. =) I sharpened it to 49, used the eyedrop to steal the color from her skirt and used that color with the border...=)

4.

I wanted something sunny. After all the bland, but pretty, black and whites and greys and such, I wanted to bring out some color because I'm color's number one fan. I love pictures that POP. =) I went to the hue saturation and set the yellow over waaaaaaay to the end...To adjust the yellows in the picture. I did this actually on accident...Yay for accidents! I lassoed her to keep her just how she was, but brought out some tan in her legs that was already there...Lucky. >=/ Anyways, I sharpened at 49 to make it crisp.

5.

Again, I tried to soften the black and white to make it look vintage...y. I set the hues to B&W, and used the GIMP feature Softglow but...I did something wrong and her cheeks and everything got extremely blurry and icky, so I canceled that session and put the radius way down to 1.8, because it was nuts. I didn't like it...She looked like the fog monster or something. =D I finally got it how I wanted it, sharpened the grass and wall behind her and added my text signature with Vivaldi Script, size 26.

6.

I was in love with sunny by this time...I worked off of the first sunny picture and made it brighter, crisper and even MORE sunny! :) I sharpened at 50, this time, just to change it a bit.

7.

One of my favorite things to do, is my one natural GIMPskill I do my own vintage photos. I went and dulled the colors and blurred the edges, dodged the edges so it looks like something my grandmother would pull out of a hat-box. That's what I wanted it to be like. I imagined sitting with my grandmother at the table and her pulling out high school and senior pictures and saying things like, 'see, when i was your age...' and such. :) I did a Gaussian blur in the middle and sharpened at 23.

8.

I brought the hue to sepia, but made some green go in there...Almost like a camouflagey green. I didn't like that, so I darkened it with the Burn tool. And then I liked it. And all was good. I added my little signature and sharpened at 49.

To all of you who are considering GIMP, quit arguing with yourself like Smeagul and get it! It works wonders for those of us who can't get Photoshop. Me? I live in Paraguay. I absolutely CAN'T. But for others, well...Yeah. Seriously, though. It's a wonderful mini-Photoshop. Easy to download and I love talking and tutoring on it! :D But I'm no pro, as you can probably see...But I love it and I understand it, things just don't turn out so wonderful sometimes...But thank you, Amy and Angie, this was a BLAST!

Week 12, PETS!

2009-03-31T14:29:00.000-07:00

I entered this before, but nobody saw it during the contest because my entry was deleted. So, I was disqualified because of some quirk with Mr. Linky...:/

But here Anna is again, with her beautiful blue eyes...:)

Be sure to check out all the other cute pet faces at I♥Faces this week! You won't be disappointed...I wanted to go out and buy more pets after looking at them! :)

Week 12, POUT: She Does This Whenever She Doesn't Get What She Wants...

2009-03-31T14:14:00.000-07:00

Make sure you go see all the other wonderful pouts at I♥Faces this week!

I just loved the Santa hat...;)

Stefi

2009-03-15T19:27:00.000-07:00

So very glad that the issue with the photo-theft is over. Yeah...Someone stole my picture, and didn't even have the sense to change the file name...xD
Anyways...Here are more pictures of that gorgeous doll!! :)

My Favorite Crop I've Ever Done..! (Week 9, Creative Crop @ I heart Faces )

2009-03-10T14:08:00.000-07:00

Can't find the original, but she was in a group of kids... A HUGE group. I just focused in on her expression and sweet little angel-face with my GIMP program, and I just cropped it and changed the angle.

I assure you...The first one was blurry, icky and blah.

Be sure to head over here and see the people who were able to find their originals! :)

Week...Um...I FORGET! :) Theme--Creative Crop (ADULT ENTRY)

2009-03-10T12:53:00.001-07:00

I took this picture of Andy, she's 16, so I figured that would fit into the adult category...If it doesn't, please tell me.
I cropped it and changed the angle...I searched high and low, everywhere, I SWEAR, even searched the file name and I couldn't find the original before the crop. The first shot was of her far away. But I fixed the color and made her the focus, so I sorta fixed it a bit. I sure hope it is counted...PLEASE...if I did anything wrong or forgot a step, PLEASE tell me. Thanks..:)

ADULT ENTRY: Andy T.

Be sure to head on over here and see the awesome entries this week! Everyone got to be super creative! :)

I♥Faces, Week 5, Silly: Adults entry

2009-02-11T17:15:00.000-08:00

If you haven't already, please head on over to I Heart Faces and enter a pic yourself! Leave a comment and let everyone know you're here! I can assure you that you will get many comments because the people there are extremely sweet and not uptight and competitive! It's fantastic! Click the pic, or this! ( click 'this' )

The goofy guy is my Dad. Which...Today is his birthday, BTW! :) And the baby is my niece, Abigail. They both crack me up all the time!

Seriously, though. Leave me alone and go enter yourself! It's majorly fun! :)

...

WHY are you still here?? SCATTLE! NOW! :D

G'on!

I Heart Faces, Week 5 ~SILLY~

2009-02-10T08:30:00.000-08:00

Be sure to go see all the other silly faces at I ♥ Faces! Their site is fantastic. I love the opportunities that they provide to learn and the variety of themes each week. And that everyone can be a part of it. It's a great site! Go add an entry! :)

Ema is downright Silly.

I love this picture of my niece Ema. I love her little lopsided pigtails and her dark brown eyes. Isn't she just the cutest? And this behavior is normal for her...She's so... BUBBLY!

Fix-It-Friday, Redhead Beauty, MY FIRST PHOTO MAKE-OVER

2009-02-06T11:31:00.001-08:00

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I used GIMP v2. I don't have Photoshop or Paint Pro. I downloaded GIMP. And for those of you who don't have Photoshop, GIMP works MIRACLES.

1. I got rid of the small blemishes around her chin by Smudge. I have heal but it does this crazy thing and sort of...duplicates..Anyway, it's hard to explain. I smudged out the paint splotches, too and just a little bit under her left eyebrow where there was a blemish. I didn't want to Smudge too much, because I love her freckles and didn't wanna take them away at ALL.

2. I played around with her eyes. I Dodged them a little and then burned them until I was pleased with the new color. All on opacity of about 14.3. I love her eyes and how well they match her hair! I used the Lasso tool around her eyelashes to make them appear darker and fuller.

3. I removed a bit of frizz with the cut tool, and then blended the colors so that there was no blank spot. To do this I had to go in VERY VERY close and carefully smudge.

4. I lassoed the fence behind her and worked up the Brightness and Contrast just a bit, and then I lassoed HER, by very carefully going in and working my way around every inch so that later none of the gray stuff showed next to the new, pretty bright stuff. I LOVE vivid pictures!

5. I Brightness/Contrast-ed on around 21 Contrast her. ( I usually leave Brightness alone! )

6. I went with the Burn tool, and nudged the black shirt she has on, to make it just a little bit darker.

7. Grabbed the paintbrush and hard lighted the entire frame and then messed around with the Contrast again, so it didn't look too dark.

8. Lassoed the fence AROUND her and Sharpen-ed it at about 42, and to make her stand out just a little bit, I lassoed her and Sharpen-ed her at about 45.

9. Unsharp masked it at the automatic level and VOILA!

Please tell me how I did. Help the poor rookie. :D

I had too much fun with this. Normally, I never edit my pictures, but...seeing the difference it makes on the quality of the picture...I'm gonna start doing it more often. And...I'm 14, so I don't know how to do it. I mostly just winged it! :D :D

I ♥ Faces, Week 4: Pets

2009-02-03T09:50:00.000-08:00

Go See the Other fantastic entries:

www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com

I was too late. Mr. Linky deleted both of my links, thus, I was never considered for the contest. But, that just makes me want to try even harder!

My I ♥ Faces Entry For Week 3: ''Joy''

2009-01-27T13:07:00.000-08:00

Go see even more beautiful faces at:
www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com.

Our God is An Artistic God.... Sunset: 1-13-09 (I'm annoyed. The second one is grainy.)

2009-01-13T15:17:00.000-08:00

It's a Little Stormy In Paraguay...

2009-01-12T13:15:00.000-08:00

Everyone. Pray for rain! :)

My Kind of Souvenir...

2009-01-09T12:11:00.000-08:00

I'd rather have a gorgeous picture than a keychain or magnet ANY DAY. I took these on the bus-ride to Argentina. The first is my favorite...What about you?

Over In The Meadow...

2009-01-06T15:06:00.000-08:00

Over in the meadow
Where the grass grows tall.
Where birdies fly,
Some big, some small.
And there is a little baby girl who is watching it all.

She has eyes blue as the sky,
Pigtails in her hair,
She will never stop moving,
first here, then there.
A regular little angel.
~Me~

The Benefits of a Jungle MK...

2008-12-22T05:54:00.000-08:00

I grew up with these. :) I found him on my dress hanging on the line...:D

I think I shall name him Ralph. :D
(The reason it is blurry is because he flew away right when I took it.)

Laughter Really Is The Best Medicine...

2008-12-21T12:42:00.000-08:00

My adorable niece, Abby. We all call her 'the squishy one'. :)

A Paraguayan Sunset

2008-12-20T06:19:00.000-08:00

The mean wires and satellite pole has bugged me, but I really love the color...:)

Because It's Christmas...=>

2008-12-13T07:35:00.000-08:00

I Don't Think This Needs A Descrption...

2008-12-09T14:11:00.000-08:00

The Sunset From My Roof

2008-12-06T07:07:00.000-08:00

I love sitting on our roof. Especially for sunsets. I am now going to do it every night.

The Hummingbird

2008-12-04T08:23:00.001-08:00

It took me about 2 hours to nail this little guy. But I think it was well worth the wait. Did you know that humming-birds are the only birds EVER that can fly in one space? Coulda fooled me...This one didn't stop moving!

Laundry and My House From a Bug's Eye View

2008-11-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

The Magnificent Subject I HAD To Capture

2008-11-26T06:38:00.000-08:00

I'll bet I was a funny sight standing on a plastic chair with my camera aimed up. I took it from the laundry room.
It's amazing that some of the most beautiful things are taken right from our home. =)
Paraguay is beautiful.

The Rose Has Finally Bloomed..

2008-11-16T14:59:00.000-08:00

I took advantage that I was wearing my purity ring. I thought that True Love Waits fit nicely with a little white rose. = )

Last Night's Moon..

2008-11-14T14:01:00.000-08:00

I saw it and I HAD to take a picture of it! So tempting...It looks sort of Celtic to me..Just the old-looking wall..

The Little Rose-Bud I Found Today

2008-11-12T13:12:00.000-08:00

I found this in the corner of our yard. I first thought there was gonna be an actual rose but I got this pretty little thing instead. : )
It'll bloom any day now.