“This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.”
— Robert F. Kennedy
The will to succeed is important, but what’s more important is the will to prepare. ~ Bobby Knight
Foreground image was taken in the studio with accent lights on both sides of the face and one light to camera right. Background looked too dull and I wanted to “jazz it up” . Many hours of blood sweat and tears take place on and off the court so decided to try blending the subject with a background photo of the gym. Still too blah…
I tried a haze in the background, but not enough texture for me. What to do, what to do? Found some free smoke brushes and played around? Here is the link to the free brushes found at a site called ucreative.com. (Click on link) Made a transparency layer to apply the smoke to the background, erasing if necessary and another transparency layer on top of the image. Go Lancers!
Just a thought as I found this bee hunkered down working diligently on this thistle in full bloom. Man, I’m good at growing these kind of flowering weeds!
The Republican Convention is the biggest news today with a partial rerun of Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech by Melania Trump and the roll call being the highlight. Good thing since this means no major terrorist attack, dramatic social drama or violence trumping this event. Meanwhile, my highlight today involves beets. Yes, beets! In my 25 plus years of gardening, this is the first year I have successfully planted beet seeds that have resulted in a healthy looking crop.
Beets, botanically known as Beta vulgaris, are native to the Mediterranean. That means I can dream of a Mediterranean vacation as I peel off the dark, thick skin. Although the leaves have been eaten since before written history, the beet root was generally used medicinally and did not become a popular food until French chefs recognized their potential in the 1800’s. Yep, need to go to France and compare beet recipes. Beet powder is used as a coloring agent for many foods. Some frozen pizzas use beet powder to color the tomato sauce. ~Peggy Trowbridge Filippone
Must go to Italy to see if they use beet powder, too…or Chicago will do.
Danger looming! Beets are considered a wise food choice due to its many health benefits, but may have some side effects if you overindulged as noted by ALYSSA JUNG, author of the book “FOODS THAT HARM, FOODS THAT HEAL.” (Click the link for the complete article.) Food shortages in Europe following World War I caused great hardships, including cases of mangel-wurzel disease, as relief workers called it. It was symptomatic of eating only beets. Note to self… don’t just eat beets.
Blogging about beets may be pretty lame, but I choose to believe it’s a sign from the spirit of Prince… beautiful, delicious, Mediterranean inspired purple hued beets. Just maybe…
A high school athlete will have accumulated countless hours on the bus to and from events by the time he or she is a senior in high school. Players share in the joy or pain that comes with a post-game bus ride that allows the them to absorb one of the key life lessons of sports: Appreciate and accept the moment…
As an athlete…
As a coach…
As a fan…
As a parent…
It goes by so fast.
It was getting towards dusk and the plan was to light the subject from both sides, but it was at the end of the session and the batteries were getting tired. Hence, one flash fired and the other didn’t. After looking through the images I decided this one was worth saving after all. I’m a sucker for drama.
Canon 5D Mark 3, 580 EX 2 speedlight, 3.0 at 1/125, ISO 400
While available light is easy to use, I don’t like how it blows out the sky when doing backlit portraits. This portrait setup involved strong sunlight as it lowered in the sky, football field light, and two Canon 580 EX II speedlights with Cyber-sync radio triggers. Speedlights were on both sides of the subject to outline and define his strong features at manual 1/4 and about 10 feet away from subject. Camera angle low to give the portrait a feeling of strength and size while keeping the field light in view. Canon 5D Mark 3 settings were ISO100 at 8.0 and 1/125. Post processing involved basic adjustments in Lightroom and HDR in Photoshop with a few other tweaks.
We were so fortunate to have such a beautiful evening with no wind and pleasant temps. Go Bulldogs!! Yeah, life is good…
I think a lot of us are feeling this way today.
Image by Joyce Meyer
RJMeyerArts 
