The flowers are starting to wilt and die with all of this unbearable heat we have down south. I am glad I got some pictures of some of our flowers before their downfall… I’m just sharing them with you, not a huge blog about them. Just pictures that pleased me with the way they turned out, and I thought you might enjoy.

Ok, let me first say I am by NO means a Photoshop expert - I am just learning a few useful tricks here and there, and try them out whenever appropriate. However, I wanted to share my new discovery of the clone tool because it’s wicked cool…

Here is the original picture. It’s my uncle and my cousin’s kid (his grandson) in the pool at R’s birthday/pool party this past weekend. The other kids in the pool I don’t know, they aren’t relatives, and I thought it could be a generally decent shot of the two of them in the pool together, minus the kids we don’t know…

So, after reading up on the purpose of the clone tool, I decided to go for it and try it on this photo. Along wtih a few other edits to brighten it up and give it more of a sunny/summer feel, this is what how it turned out…

The first kid on the right was a cinch to remove, the one towards the top left gave me fits. This is why the yellow seal has somewhat of a blurry nose, but whatever - the kid is still gone, LoL… and, it was my first try with the clone tool. I think it will become a dear, sweet friend of mine. I may have to give this photo another go with Mr. Clone because it’s bothering me now that the seals nose is blurry… but for now, at least you can see how easily I can make anyone I don’t want in my pictures disappear, hahaha… kind of creepy, huh?

Our day started off bright and sunny… I cut grass while N played on the porch so we could see each other. It was hot! When I was almost done I yelled for him to go get his swimming trunks on and meet me at the pool. Man, that pool felt so good after cooking in the hot midday sun while cutting grass. About 20 minutes into our swim, the bottom fell out of the sky and it was pouring down rain on us. We got out of the pool (you know, so we wouldn’t get wet! haha) and ran to the porch. The sun was shining, but it was rainy… and as I looked around, I realized this might be a great time to get some good shots of my boy. I think I was right, because I cranked out these - due in part to staying up most of the night reading Hey Jules and learning many, many new ways to do things with my camera.

Rainy days are so boring.

It’s a good thing these southern summer thunderstorms are random, sporadic and short lived.

I wish I had done something with his eyes before finalizing the processing on this picture, but then again they have that glassy look to them just like they naturally do when the sun hits them….

Hold up. What is this? Is this a smile from me wee angry one?

I guess the “Don’t smile” trick still works wonderfully. Ah, the joy of being all knowing Mom!!

I love that I’m still his main girl. Because he’s definitely my main boy.