You may be OK and well my dearest Carl, but I'm absolutely shattered from all the hours work along with the extra pressures that moving home brings with it LOL!!  :biggrin:

I know I'm certainly looking forward to a break on the North Yorkshire coast and also looking forward to meeting one of my dearest friends here, my Big Sis Di (aka Rainbows).

But to reiterate what Carl has said, yes, our apologies for the absence without warning, but believe me, with my nearly 16 year old son now living with us, internet connection is the top priority in our house right, so rest assured, we will be back soon (or at least Carl will be - I'll still be less active in the gallery I would imagine, but will try and keep up to date here in the forum)

I miss you all though and look forward to catching up with you again soon.

Hugs

Chrissy xx

I echo Joe's sentiments.... never put off til tomorrow what should or could be done or said today. Never feel uncomfortable saying "I love you" to anyone you hold dear whether it be friends or family - life is so precious and Valou was also a very precious lady and friend.  She was a friend to all of us, never a bad word was spoken and she encouraged and inspired many of us here.

Her memory will live on, of that I'm sure - her photography was pure art and I'm sure many of us had at least one of her works added to our favourites list.

I was shocked and saddened to hear of this news yesterday and reading this thread today, I find myself still shocked and fighting back the tears sat here in work - such a young, beautiful life to be snatched away from us but she will be resting peacefully in the arms of her angel now and watching over many of us .... until we meet again one day.

My heartfelt sympathies go out to her family and friends at this dark hour.

Val.... much love always my dear friend.

Chrissy xxx

What fantastic news!!  Now this has really brought a smile to my face - one of the most deserving photographers I know with a fantastic gallery and always willing to help others too!

You are an inspiration to me and many others I'm sure!

Congratulations Danny - you've always deserved an award and recognition in my book!

Huge hugs hun...

Chrissy xxx

Oh now this is the great news and a super choice!!  Well done Shari and good luck although I'm sure you won't need it.

Hugs

Chrissy xx

1. Image 22
2. Image 19
3. Image 16

Some really good entries - good luck to everyone!!

Hugs

Chrissy xx

Thanks so much for all your hard work and effort during your reign as co-ordinator. A great loss to the staff and members alike, but also our gain in being able to see more of your superb photography!  Hugs Chrissy xx

Well if there's one person I believe will succeed and that's you V!!  You'll be brilliant at it and give us some original POV's with your camera work I'm sure - we'll be watching films/documentaries from angles never thought possible before!!

Good luck with it and let us know how you're getting on.

Chrissy xx

Congratulations Olivier on what looked to be a perfect exhibition, well presented and attended and a couple of sales too!!  What more could one ask??

It's also nice to see the face behind the lens ;-)

Hugs

Chrissy xx

Yeah, congratulations to all who took the time to enter this challenge - not as easy a genre as first I thought!!

Some fantastic entries and many made me laugh but I'm pleased to see that the three I voted for (if memory serves me right?) have come in the placings!

Well done to everyone, especially those mentioned above.

I'm looking forward to the next one... can't wait to see what the genre is!!!

Hugs

Chrissy xx

Thanks so much, I've drawn much inspiration from all your variations and have been trying with so many different effects this evening (I do already have OptikVerbelabs MrsSparky, and that is what I have used to create this one, but thanks anyway!)

I followed a portrait tutorial first and spent a lot of time touching up the image to remove all blemishes and imperfections (not that Gemma really has any, but from a photographer's point of view I mean!) - I enhanced the white in her eyes and teeth and gave it a soft focus effect before running it through Optikverbelabs and playing with different tones.

This is the end result - still obviously a long way away from anywhere near perfect as I can tell that Carl doesn't really like it, but your opinions on whether you believe I am progressing or not would be appreciated - if not, then I shall go back to the drawing board and start again!!

Again, many thanks for your input!

Hugs

Chrissy xx

Hey Guys!!

Gosh, I go away for the night to work and come back to so many wonderful responses - thank you all so much!!

I'm spoilt for choice, there are so many different ideas here to be playing with and there are aspects from all of them that I like - I love the "glammed" look of Dan's shot but I love them all - but I get the general idea that you all prefer the original shot to my post-worked one, so I shall leave the toning alone and just try with the original again to see what I can come up with.

Thanks so much for all your help and advice - I really must learn how to do these things, if only I had more time!!

Hugs

Chrissy xx

Huge hugs

Chrissy xxx

1. image 4
2. Image 1
3. Image 5

Good luck to everyone!

Thanks David xx

Some amazing photos again in this week's selection - my congratulations to you all and much appreciation to Rich and the team for putting this together for us to enjoy each week.

On a side note.... when does the week run now?  It used to be put up on a Monday morning and covered the previous week Monday - Sunday but I noticed now that you put this thread up on Sunday morning... does that mean that the week is now running Sunday to Saturday for selections?

Not a major issue (not an issue at all!) just a curiosity really LOL!

Thanks

Chrissy xx