All shots were taken at ISO 100 and with an exposure of f/8 and 5-sec. I had a great teacher (Master Troy). =)

At this point, the air was getting really smoky already. In my opinion, the smog just adds character to the photo.

My sister Jona, Mica, and Rinoa settled themselves on the blanket while Troy and I sat on camping chairs.

Auntie Jona and Mica playing text twist.

My 11-year old daughter, Mica.

Troy, with his big, strong hands, defending himself from Mica’s attacks.

Finally took a break from the camera to play frisbee with Rinoa.

My fireworks shots would have to wait until next week to be posted. =)

Here’s Rinoa cracking the eggs all by herself.

We made a lot so I decided to send some to my brother Jay and his wife Ivy. =)

1. Mix the vegetable oil and sugar in a large bowl. Add the cocoa powder. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla extract.

2. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the cocoa mixture. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate until dough is firm enough to handle, about 4 hours.

3. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls, roll in powdered sugar, and place on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

4. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer the cookies on a wire rack to cool. (You have to let them cool completely before eating.) Makes about 6 dozen cookies.

So the story is that it’s been a tradition for me to send chocolate crinkles to my dear friend Rhea every Christmas. However, last week, she told me that her family was craving the crinkles and asked me if I can bake a batch for them this summer. No problem! So I purposefully baked about 6 or 8 dozens this morning so I can mail it out by the afternoon. Well, what do you know?! Our driveway got sealed this morning and my car is stuck in the garage. We’re not supposed to drive over the sealed driveway for 48 hours. I guess I’m not going to the post office today. At least my kids were happy that they have the crinkles all to themselves. =)

Anyways, Rinoa picked up this song from Caillou and she was trying to sing it on our way to the pool today - but she had a hard time remembering the words.

The song goes like this - “We’re driving in a car, car, car. We’re going very far, far, far. Do you know where we are, are, are.”

It’s VERY cute sung by a three-year old.

Well, instead of color correcting the photos, I decided to convert them to B&W and experiment with Photoshop’s Channel Mixer. The Channel mixer is equivalent to using color filters in your camera. I just finished reading the module on Filters for my NYIP course and I was very eager to put my new knowledge to practice.

Why color filters in B&W, when it’s “black” and “white” and colors don’t actually matter? Because sometimes you may want to enhance a certain element in your photo by increasing the contrast of your gray tones. You do this by using the right color filter to make one color stand out. This particular color will appear lighter than the other colors in your B&W image, thus increasing contrast.

In this picture, I wanted the water, especially the droplets, to stand out - so I increased the blue channel (equivalent to using a blue filter). This also corrected Rinoa’s skin tone, giving it a sun-kissed glow.

For this next picture, I increased both the red and green channels (equivalent to using an orange filter). The orange filter gave the photo a nice tonal range and defined the action that was captured.

(1) A blue filter would have drowned the splash of water and weakened the action shot while (2) a red filter would have made the water murky and given Rinoa a bad complexion - I don’t want it to look like an episode from Jaws!

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And for this last picture, I used a yellow filter (an unequal increase in the red and green channels) to soften my skin tone.

Rinoa and her teacher, Anja

Mica’s perfect hoop dive.

Today, Mica learned the breast stroke - which is the focus of Level 4. They had to practice the stroke on the pavement before trying it out in the pool.

And of course, she had to do more laps in the deep pool.

Rinoa was in for a treat because the Tiny Tots went in the big pool today. Now, she really feels like a big girl. She was surprisingly brave and confident, unlike most of her classmates who hesitated to jump in the big pool even with their life vests.

Today is her first day. She was joined by four other toddlers and her two teachers, Jessi and Anja, at the wading pool (1′ 6″ deep).

They played several games - basically, to introduce the kids to the water and get them comfortable in the pool. Rinoa had a lot of fun!

Meanwhile, Mica started with Level 4 of her swimming lessons. Her teacher, Tony, made her do laps at the deep end of the pool (12′ deep) the whole time. Imagine how tired she was when she got home!