Yikes! I almost forgot about those…

Frank set us up with a new file server with RAID at home (and if you weren’t sure about sticking a “nerd” tag on us, this new factoid may well have sealed the deal). Anyway, this should help me clear photos off my laptop’s HD, while keeping the archives a mouse-click away. Now, however, Frank is unloading the camera directly onto the file server sometimes, and I forget about these series of pictures.

I was looking at some gorgeous newborn pictures of a photographer’s on flickr — “Scuse me.. Hi! Can you come back in time and photograph my babies when they were still tiny?…” — and I couldn’t recall what happened to the pictures from a tiny home session we improvised with Orly a few weeks back. I found them on the file server!

They needed some Photoshop tweaking, so I tweaked. I found a couple of new tricks recently for enhancing images, which got me out of my rusty old ways. Soon, I’ll take the time to do some step by step manipulation to show you, but for now I’ll just throw it out there all mumbly-jumbly.

Here is the SOOC (straight out of the camera) shot.

Less-than-perfect interior lighting and colours, some blur, but Orly is sweet and cute, so I want to salvage the pic.

Going from memory, I started with the “Image > Adjustments > Exposure” feature to make the picture paler. Then I copied the main layer, set its blend to “Screen” and adjusted the opacity.

After that, I went to “Image > Adjustements > Selective color”, which is my new favourite thing to work with. For the colors “Neutrals”, I removed even more black, and I lowered the Cyan, too, to make the picture a little warmer. For the colors “Black”, I brought back some black. This made the details clearer and sharper. I’m pretty sure I added the filter “Sharpen > Unsharp Mask”, too, to make everything crisper.

I finished it by using the clone tool in her eyes — the reflection from the window combined with the sharpening had made her eyes look tearful.

Ta-da!

Then I used “Image > Adjustements > Black and White” to make it a tinted grayscale picture, and I really couldn’t decide if I preferred the desaturated one or not.

Here’s another one. SOOC.

I used a similar method to work on this one (same lighting, lots of blur), but I added a duplicate layer set on a “Soft Light” blend at 50% opacity to boost the colours a little bit. I also added some yellow to the “Neutrals” colors of the “Selective color” feature, for warmth.

AND, I used the clone tool to remove a big vein on her forehead, and a big mosquito bite.

Sweet!

The past 26 hours has been a LOT of fun — and I am very tired right now!

June 24 is the St-Jean-Baptiste, which is our provincial holiday (which means a day off work, yay!). We have celebrated in 2 ways.

Evening of June 23 – Classic celebration

On Tuesday night, we fired up some fireworks at my parent’s place. It was Xavier’s first experience with fireworks. He loved the first one (a burning schoolhouse), jumped and ran at the second one (a noisy exploding one), refused any other, and eventually enjoyed the whole show from the safe cabin of grandpa’s pickup.

Games in the yard with grandma, before dusk.

First firework, enjoyed by Xavier.

After the 2nd firework… “Another one, Xav?” “Hum, no no. I will play with my trucks. No firework. Not now.”

“Alright, close the door. We will watch it from here. We will be fine here.”

Then, we brought our kids back home 3 hours after their usual bedtime. Ick!

Still, great evening! Thanks to dad and mom for the celebration!

June 24 – National Park

We spent today at the “nearby” National Park with our friends Amélie and Nicolas. 4 adults to 2 toddlers was a good ratio for the time we spent at the waterfalls there.

I love the light in these pictures.

I had fun trying to photograph water sculptures.

Yup. We brought our toddlers there.

But Xavier loved sitting and splashing in the waterfalls.

This is my BFF Amé.

And her boyfriend Nic. They enjoy photography too.

After the falls, we spent some time on a small beach. It was about 145 degrees in the sun. The water was: FINE.

I usually tell Xavier not to do this at bath time. He loved the lake.

Orly loved her new friend, Mud.

Then we drove back home, had yummy BBQ, and tried to put our crazy tired kids to bed.

Thanks for the visit, Amé and Nic. It was a fun day!!

Alright, time to spill it. My purse, I mean, to follow up on this recent post.

So here is the list of what I carry around everywhere.

What’s in

1. Wallet
2. Card holder (for all the pesky membership cards)
3. Keys, on and off
4. 2 memo pads
5. 1 pen stolen from work
6. Misc. paper things (tickets, prescriptions)
7. Dead batteries (so I can get replacement ones of the same kind, one day)
8. Paper ruler (from Ikea)
9. Gum
10. 3 packs of Kleenex (why 3?)
11. Purell
12. Tylenol, on and off
13. Deodorant
14. Tide-to-Go (that I’ve never used)
15. Lady hygiene stuff (not pictured, bleh)
16. Club Med Perfume
17. Band-Aids
18. Medicated lip balm (not fun at all, but effective, ugh…)
19. Stick make-up
20. Lip gloss — I took the resolution to wear lipstick more often, but it’s a failure as yet.
21. Pocket mirror
22. Sunscreen
23. Bag for the baby stuff
24. 2 diapers, different sizes
25. Baby wipes (not pictured… I ran out recently)
26. Bib
27. Crayons
28. Crackers in a candy box
29. Digital camera (point-and-shoot, not pictured)
30. Extra memory card

What I plan to add
(There’s still enough space.)

1. 1 Sharpie
2. Small roll of duct tape
3. Swiss Army knife (is that legal?)
4. I should also add the waterproof matchsticks I made as a girl Scout… always prepared!
5. USB cord to unload the camera, maybe

The great thing about this bag is all the compartments, keeping things organized.

No phone, no GPS, no Palm, no iPod!! We live in the dark ages, Frank and I.

No pacifier, but there’s often one in my jeans pocket anyway.
No toys, but I carried around a Hot Wheel in my coat pocket most of winter.
I would carry drink boxes if my purse didn’t get kicked around so much.

No spy gadgets! though I dig that this list ended with “lipstick”.

If you have suggestions for useful additions, I’m interested.

(I’ll be back later on with the answer to this afternoon’s post. Interesting submissions so far…)

Tonight, we went out downtown to wander around with the kids and to look at the old cars parked at the old harbour every Wednesday.

We saw a series of old rides.

I’m impressed with the hobbyists who have spent so much love (and money, I’m sure) on these shiny and very awesome machines.

Xavier found himself a ride; he’ll start saving for it right away. It would have been my choice, too.

Orly found herself some wheels, too.

We’re forced to admit Xavier’s interest was wandering more towards boats on the river and the open air aerobics class taking place at the harbour than on the old cars.

Eventually, it was time to walk back to our own un-wonderful hatchback, but we did stop for yummy ice cream on the way. Xavier was pleased, and appropriated my own cone right away. We shared.

What a fun night — and a great way to split the work week in half!

When I was younger, one my idols was a B.D. (European comics) character named Yoko Tsuno (and on Wiki). Apart from being a brainy electrical engineer /slash/ Aïkido black belt /slash/ glider and helicopter and jet pilot /slash/ scuba diver /slash/ alien friend /slash/ time traveller — and an all-around very nice person I might add –, one of her cool trademarks (to my eyes) was the fact that she was often carrying around a long-strap bag filled with useful gadgets and tools, which made her ready to tackle any tricky situation (as she is wont to do). This bag — actually, these bags, plural — were somewhat like the one Jack Bauer lugged around for most of season 5 (the one with the nerve gas), except cuter and probably cleaner.

Thus, I have a sweet spot for well-equipped long-strap bags.

Behold, my purse.

This little shoulder bag may not help me face a terrorist threat, but it deals wonderfully with most of my day-to-day crisis. For fun, I’ll let you guess at the contents before I make a list. You’ll be surprised how much stuff this small accessory can snug in.

PS. I leave you with some Yoko Tsuno images. That Asian/European chick is some kick-ass sci-fi hero.

I went for a little tricycle ride with my new neighbour N. She knows how to use her bike’s pedals, so I watched her go for a minute and then I put my feet on the pedals; her dad gave me a little push and…

I got the hang of it! I can pedal now.

Cool!