Civil War edits

For this week's photography assignment, our instructor wanted us to use whatever photo editing program we have to make some edits to some photos. Currently, I have Photoshop Elements 6 which is an older version of this program. I am waiting for Lightroom 4 to arrive which should be an easier program for me to navigate through.

While we were at a Civil War reenactment over the weekend, I took quite a few pictures, but here are a couple of my favorites that I decided to play with for my assignment:

 Both of these photos are straight out of the camera. So after spending a little bit of time adjusting some settings in my elements program, here is the after:

 

So what set do you like best? Originals or edited?

Our week in the 1860's

Last week, the kids and I headed over to Felton for the week. The first part of our adventure included spending 3 days with about 1800 school kids. Each day, from 8:40 in the morning until about 1:15 in the afternoon, the kids rotated through 12 stations learning more about Civil War history.

While I was teaching the kids about the role of civilian women...

Matthew was drilling each group of kids...

For most of the first 3 days, we were the only tent over in our area...

We had some beautiful mornings though...

Starting on Friday afternoon, we were joined by many more reenactors for the weekend. For this long holiday weekend, there were 2 battles on Saturday and Sunday, a dance on Saturday night, a train ride for the reenactors on Sunday night, a Memorial Day service on Monday, and ended with one last battle on Monday afternoon. By late Monday afternoon, the kids and I were so ready to head home!

Here are just a few of my favorite photos from the weekend...

Love seeing the red, white, and blue moving in the breeze...

Kelsey wearing her new skirt and top...



Wait a minute? I wonder who this could be? :o)

Kelsey decided to put on a uniform, go out for the battle, and bandage up injured soldiers. She is right in the middle of this picture.

Matthew in his role as 2nd Lieutenant.

Visiting our friends at their sutler shop is always a learning experience!

Beautiful evening for a train ride up to Bear Mountain



My plans?...or God's plans?

I am a planner...I like to make lists...I like to plan the route of my errands...I really like when things fall into place.

Notice that each one of those phrases begins with 'I'. That's right, my plans! Before I gave my life to Jesus, I was a corporate world climbing young women. There was always a plan and it was my plan.

I still like to plan, and even though God's plan are bigger than our plans, we still need to plan. The thing is, I need to allow God's plans to change the route of my plans.

I had big plans of getting a lot of sewing done today. We have a big Civil War event coming up, and even though these shirts are almost done

I was hoping to work on a couple more sewing projects

another set of drawers and a couple of petticoats, and

a skirt and top for Kelsey, but as 'luck' would have it this morning...

my trusty sewing machine is not working properly. So...I decided to switch gears and work on something that I might be able to finish with little time and effort.

When we were out running errands yesterday, I picked up these flowers because I had seen a cute idea on Pinterest.

We have a few of these bottles on hand because of another idea I saw on Pinterest (that I actually still need to finish for someone!)

 

 

I pulled out some jute and that bag of messy spanish moss

 

 

After I filled the bottles with some of the spanish moss and tied a bow around the bottles, I cut up the flowers with my wire cutters (don't try this with scissors, it will just be too frustrating!)

 

 

Add some flowers to each bottle and I now have a simple, colorful centerpiece for my table!

 

Does this change the fact that my sewing machine isn't working properly and I may not be able to finish my planned sewing projects? No, but it does help to put things into perspective. The world is not going to fall apart if these sewing projects don't get finished. Slowing down this morning has given me a chance to reflect on His everlasting goodness in my life. He does not want me to worry about things of this life, He wants me to spend more time remembering His promises to me.

 

Not a very productive sewing afternoon

We have a big Civil War reenacting event coming up and I have needed to get some sewing done. Kelsey has outgrown her drawers and petticoats, and really needs new ones. She would also like to go on the field as a cadet at this event, so I told her I would make her a shirt.

I pulled out the bolt of bleached muslin I purchase a couple of years ago, and was disappointed to see that I only had enough material to make one set of drawers.

Time to buy another bolt of bleached muslin!

With the one set of drawers completed, I started working on the new shirt for Kelsey. After I had taken her measurements and even had her try on one of Matthew's shirts, I decided to make her a boys large. Big mistake! After spending most of the afternoon working on this shirt, it is too small!

At this point, I am going to finish the shirt and hopefully be able to sell it to someone at our next event. I decided to hunt around to see if I had enough of the right type of material to start on another shirt. You can't just use any type of print for Civil War reenacting... :o)

I was so happy to find this print at home! And enough of it to make another shirt! Everything is cut out and ready to start sewing on this shirt tomorrow.

Manual Mariposa

I know that is a strange title to a blog post, but I finally got a little brave and decided to try to take pictures using the manual setting on my camera. I have had my new Nikon D3100 for about a year now and have really loved it! I have mainly been using the auto setting, as well as some of what I call the 'dummy' settings (landscape, flower, portrait, etc.)

By adjusting the aperture and shutter speed, I was able to capture these images over the weekend at our Civil War event in Mariposa:



f/13, 1/200 seconds

f/20, 30 seconds

f/25, 1.3 seconds

f/6.3, 1/200 seconds

f/16, 1/20 seconds

f/9, 1/50 seconds

f/10, 1/30 seconds

f/25, 1/25 seconds

I should probably mention that these are straight out of the camera shots, nothing has been cropped and I don't use Photoshop.

As far as the event itself, it sure was a hot weekend. Just last week, we had torential downpours of rain and the weather decided to heat up quite a bit for our weekend. The hot weather makes it quite miserable while you are wearing wool uniform or many layers of women's clothing. The lack of accesible shade also makes it a little difficult to stay cool during the day.

However, the location is absolutely beautiful, just 30 minutes west of Yosemite. Since the location is pretty remote, the night time sky was amazing! With the new moon, the sky was filled with stars! We had a great time pointing out Venus, Mars, Saturn, Orion's Belt, and many other stars and constellations.

The end of a hot, camping weekend always makes us so thankful for clean, running, hot water and the comforts of our home. It is also a blessing to be away from all our technology and be able to have great face-to-face conversations with people who share the love for the history of our country.



Thankfully, the rain stayed away today

We have been watching the weather forecast all week for this upcoming weekend. The threat of rain stayed away today and we ended up having a beautiful day today at our first Civil War reenacting weekend event for the year.

Normally, our whole family participates by dressing up and camping out for the whole weekend, but with the anticipated rain and wind in the forecast, Matthew was the only one who dressed appropriately for the weekend.

That is Matthew in the middle of the picture

Some of his friends came by for a visit

Really hard to find Matthew among all those boys in blue out there

The covered bridge at this location is always a great backdrop for pictures.

We usually participate in five or six Civil War events every year. Our next event is at my favorite location close to my favorite national park. I am sure I will have more pictures to share after the next event...so stay tuned...



Favorite Photo of the Week

Matthew and Kelsey just before our Annual Civil War Ball.

For those of you who don't know, our family has been participating in Civil War reenacting for the past four years. One of the highlights of the year for me is the annual Civil War Ball. I love dressing up in my fancy ball gown and dancing the old english country dances. The Virginia Reel, the Gay Gordon, the Quadrilles, such fun dances!

Since photography is something that I enjoy, on Fridays, I would love to post my favorite photo of the week.