Week 39 by Robin

Dead Flowers

Just some dead roses from Valentine's Day. I like the textures. I used Topaz to sharpen and remove some of the color. I also applied a texture overlay.

Week 39 by Becky

I DID IT!

I ran my first ever half marathon (13.1 miles) today in the Disney Princess HM.  This was something I decided to add to my ever growing bucket list to do before I turn 50.  I started seriously running January 2011 after my husband signed us up for a 5K.  Since then, I have ran in a number of 5Ks and decided I wanted to do a half marathon before I turn 50.  Believe me, as the time drew nearer I was doubting my sanity.  My toes, you see, do not like to run after 5+ miles.  But, I stopped and stretched the toes periodically and it was no big deal.  Can't wait to try my new shoe inserts to see if they help with the toe issue, because after this run, I am thinking of doing another one :).  It was an awesome experience.  I hope to convince my daughter to do it with me in January 2013.  I did feel like a princess during the run. Disney World did an awesome job organizing the run which made the experience so much fun.  I came in close to the time I was shooting for.  If I didn't have slow people in front of me, periodic stretch breaks on the toes, and the potty break, I may have come closer to two hours.  But, I am proud of what I did, no matter what, because I placed 5,738 out of 15,784 women runners.  I still had energy during my 12th mile :)

Week 39 by Judy

Eye of the Rooster

This is one of my neighbor's rooster. He doesn't look too happy, but I don't think a chicken can smile ;-). If you blow up the eye, you can see my reflection taking his photo...pretty cool. Did a little sharpening and desaturated his comb and wattles a little, as red seems to be a difficult color to get to look good in photos.

Week 38 by Judy

Flying Flower

Rick Sammon, a professional photographer, calls butterflies, Flying Flowers. I think this is a very appropriate name for them. The NWGs went for another fun photo trip to Butterfly World in Coconut Creek, FL. They have hundreds of butterflies and birds to see and photograph. It was difficult to choose which picture to post this week from the many I liked, so I had my husband pick the one he liked best. This was one my favorites too. Very little editing performed, just some cropping and applied a low strength of the Topaz Adjust photo pop filter and added a black border.

Week 38 by Robin

Little Lady

I guess Becky and I have the same subject! Becky's is funnier! Ha ha! I was so thrilled to capture a hummingbird for the first time I had to post it! We went to Butterfly World and had a wonderful time, as usual, with our little group of three! All those beautiful butterflies and we post a brown hummingbird! :) Thanks Becky for driving that long drive and for suggesting it!

Week 38 by Becky

Hummingbird Moon

The No Wimpy Girls went to Butterfly World located in Coconut Creek, Florida. There were thousands of butterflies. I took tons of butterfly photos. Even caught a few in the act of making new ones...hehehe. They also had an area with exotic birds which included a variety of hummingbirds. This was the smallest of the ones we saw. A nice gentleman was kind enough to hold my remote flash off to the side while I tried to get a photo of this little guy. During the process, he mooned me (talking about the hummingbird) which I found to be a bit comical.

Week 37 by Judy

Did you see where that bug went?

We went camping at Disney World for a few days this week. This Pileated Woodpecker was about ten feet away from our campsite. It was looking for bugs in a sawed down cypress tree stump. They are large, beautiful birds. Supposedly, the cartoon character, Woody Woodpecker, was modeled after the Pileated Woodpecker. Of course, only us "older" individuals would remember the Woody Woodpecker cartoons. :-)

Week 37 by Robin

Liquid Color with Orb

Ha! Becky and I did colorful abstracts this week! I never know what to title abstracts! :) They have art abstract title generators like THIS . It came up with "Unfolding Emotion under Construction" Hehe! Anyway... back to reality...I used my monitor with a colorful iTunes visualizer as a light source and  one of those clear, gel, vase marbles with water on a mirror. I love all the colors and reflections. 

Week 37 by Becky

Spiraling Out of Control

We were driving back from the Science Fair Awards Ceremony that my daughter was a part of. She came in 4th in Animal Science. Anyway, we were driving home from the the ceremony when I decided to play with long exposure. I set my camera to aperture priority mode, f32, ISO 320, 130mm focal length and 4 seconds and focused on some lights. While the camera was open, I just moved it around at the various lights we drove past. I just thought the result was so neat. Opened in Camera Raw and tweaked a few settings. Then imported into Photoshop CS5, Topaz Star Effects Sun Flare III, Selective Color in screen blending mode and Topaz Adjust Spicify. Resized and saved for web.

Week 36 by Robin

Taking a Stand

Yeah...another squirrel. I like it when they stand up and make little fists like this! :)

Week 36 by Becky

Bottoms Up!

Busy weekend at the soccer fields. My son had a soccer tournament. We won all three games. WooHoo! My son, in the yellow shoes, did a slide tackle which caused the other player to lose his balance. Currently, my son has a lot of grass burns on his legs; the price you have to pay when you are the sweeper of the team. In other words, the last man before the goalie. It was an awesome weekend.

Week 36 by Judy

Sitting Pretty

Several Hooded Merganser Ducks are spending the winter in a small lake in front of the building where I work. I've been trying to get a good shot of one of the males for several weeks. It's difficult to get close to them without spooking them and to catch them sitting still. I took this early in the morning before he got too busy diving for food. I think they are beautiful birds. Did some cropping and lightened up the bird a little.