Looking for Strawberries...

Shoot & Edit : Up! - Edit

2011-06-02T03:53:00.000-07:00

SOOC

Here it is with the basic things I do with my edits....

and a more extensive edit :)

Shoot & Edit: Up

2011-05-30T04:11:00.000-07:00

Hey there.....remember me? lol

Things have been nutty in my neck of the woods. I've been shooting/editing like CRAZY.....I started this fitness routine that has me walking every, single day for miles.....and.....AND.....

I got a puppy :)

Meet Ruhe! (Ruhe is german for Serenity)

He's a Rotty-Lab mix with the sweetest personality you could ever ask for.

Besides that, we're had tornados where I live lately. Now, one of the reasons I live where I live and put up with our crazy long winters, is because we DON'T get tornados here. Or Hurricanes. Or Earthquakes. We have Blizzards. I'm cool with Blizzards. It's my natural disaster of choice. We buy some extra food, bunker down, wait for it to pass, and then dig out. Some branches are probably down afterwards, we may lose power for a few hours.....but usually there's no widespread destruction, no rebuilding, no death count. So, needless to say, this whole "tornados in my town" thing is REALLY unnerving to me....

Back to the matter at hand....

This week's theme is "up"
I took this at a wedding I shot recently. I'd never shot a dove release before....it was very cool!

So anyway, I hope you all have an amazing Memorial Day, and hopefully I can be a little more active on my blog!

Edit: Growth

2011-05-05T03:34:00.000-07:00

Last night was hard. Last night, I had to TOTALLY get out of my comfort zone. I can't remember the last time I spent so much of a 24 hour period praying for God's guidance on an issue. I tend to be non-combative. I don't like conflict....I like uniting people, not ruffling feathers.

Last night though, I had to stand up and make my voice heard. Because sometimes, it's hard to do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do. Sometimes, you have to ruffle a few feathers, but if you're speaking the truth, being kind & compassionate, and being deliberate in your words, then it's ok. It's ok for me to be that person today. I can stand up for what I believe in, when God presses it upon my heart to do so. Even if it means I lose a friend in the process.

This is major growth for a self-proclaimed wall flower like yours truly.

Onward to photography....

SOOC

When I first got a camera last year, some of the first photos I took were of my son playing teeball. When I look at those photos I took last year, I'm really amazed at the growth I've had in my photography. I've owned a camera for almost exactly 1 year now, and a DSLR for nearly 9 months. I honestly can't remember what it felt like to not have a camera in my hands, it so naturally became such a HUGE part of me.

Clean Edit

Here's my clean edit, done in Lightroom 3. I tend to use Lightroom 3 instead of ACR for my initial edits.

Full Edit

Sometimes, less is more. :) Here's my full edit. Just some little tweaks. No flashy photoshop tricks. No crazy creative edits.

Today, I think I'm just gonna reflect on all the growth I've had in the past year. Thank you, God, for everything.....

Shoot & Edit: Growth

2011-05-04T03:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the patience, you guys. Sometimes being Mommy to a little one with special needs means everything else in life takes a back seat, including blogging! Thanks for sticking with me!

What a fitting topic for where I am in my life right now......I feel as if I'm in the middle of a period of enormous growth. I don't just mean in my photography....spiritually, emotionally, all of it. Hard to explain it all, but I know God's not done with me yet!

As for my photo, I'm picking one that I took at my little guy's teeball game this past Saturday. It amazes me to see how far my photos have come from last year, at this time. This was not taken with my big camera, but with my Panasonic Lumix FZ35. It's been almost exactly one year since I got my FZ35....the first real camera I'd owned since I was a kid. I didn't get my DSLR until this past September!

SOOC

I am amazingly honored to have been chosen as a top 3 SOOC shot for the month of April by Jill at Jill Samter Photography It means so much to me! Please, if you can, hop over to her website and vote for "Looking for Strawberries" Here's the shot she picked..

Shoot & Edit: Faith - Before/After

2011-04-14T05:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm getting back to feeling like a human being again! Amazing the toll a trip takes on your body when you're not 18 anymore! lol

So, here are my edits for the week...

SOOC

Clean Edit

Full Edit: Pop!

Fun Edit

BW Edit

So...I didn't really feel that photo warranted any text.

The nature shots, on the other hand....... I went outside my comfort zone and used texture AND text.....

SOOC

Edit

SOOC

Edit

and my favorite of the nature shots, for which all texture was provided by God already.... :)

SOOC

Edit

S&E - Faith....

2011-04-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

So, my goal this week is to get an actual post up. Got back from The Flash Bus at 1am........learned a lot, and I plan on blogging about it in the next day or so, but right now, I'm exhausted!

So, for now...... Shoot & Edit - Faith

I had this idea in my head of what I wanted to do.....unfortunately, in my head, my two year old was MUCH more cooperative than in real life. Still, after many photos, I got something close to what I was going for.....

SOOC

Then, I went outside, and there were some flowers!!!!! So, I have faith that winter is finally over!

SOOC

SOOC

and on my way back in, I saw this little beauty, hiding in our bushes.....

SOOC

Shoot & Edit: Edit - Up

2011-04-07T12:54:00.000-07:00

Not too wordy today.....tired, and had a rough start this morning.

Before

After

Before:

After

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

and one more, that I forgot to save a before for! :)

Shoot & Edit: Up......& catching up with everyone!

2011-04-06T03:05:00.000-07:00

So, first things first! Things have been super busy around here, as I've challenged myself to exercise every single day, and I'm getting ready to go out of town for the Flash Bus Tour! Any of you going?

So, I had to get my husband's prescription from his Dr.'s office the other day, and there was this really cool little field next to it, and the light was yummy that day, so I figured I'd see if the little one would be up to taking a few shots.

(All shots SOOC)

She was somewhat cooperative :)

What else have I been up to, you ask? (Gotta love having these little conversations with myself!)

Trying to enjoy cooking yummy, healthy things for my family.....which is an effort because, I just really don't LOVE cooking like I love doing other things....

Buying a nearly new tripod on Craigslist for under $20 :)

Trying to stop my youngest as she comes up with new and more creative ways to try and "off" herself...

Actually getting to sneak away for a lunch date!

Wondering how my medical kid knew how to use each and every tool in my new Doctor kit, and then wanting to slap myself in the forehead when I realize.... DUH...... she's my medical kid!

Making my first camera strap cover

Leaving a "Pooping Love Monster" to surprise my husband on the counter in the morning, because what better way is there to say "I love you" ?

and of course, cuddling.....

So, in a nutshell (and a whole lotta photos), that's what I've been up to! :)

Something Beautiful.....

2011-04-01T02:56:00.000-07:00

Between Elena and Courtney's posts, I've been thinking about the "I Am Beautiful" project all week.

This project needs to be done on a massive level, because I know SO MANY women who look in the mirror, and all they can see are flaws. For a very long time, I was among them. I didn't see my reflection and recognize something beautifully crafted out of love. I saw fat imperfection.

This hatred took me to some very dark places in my life, and was a catalyst for much pain and suffering. I started focusing on my insides, started telling myself positive affirmations. FORCING myself to look in the mirror and not beat myself up over what I saw.

You know what? Slowly, my thoughts began to change. The size of my waistband hadn't moved, but in taking steps to work on how I felt about myself, and the person I was inside, I finally got to the point where I could have a non-adversarial relationship with the woman I saw reflecting back at me in the mirror.

Then, something unexpected happened. In my beginning to feel better about myself, I began to take better care of myself! I started to eat better, exercise more.......not because I was chasing a waistband, but because I liked the way it made me FEEL.

We live in a world where we are bombarded by images on a daily basis, telling us we need to be thinner, taller, have no gray hairs, and that the less clothes we wear, the sexier we are! It scares the crude outta me to think of my girls being sent these lies. I don't EVER want my girls looking through old photos, seeing that I wasn't in them, and thinking it was because I was ashamed to be in front of the camera. I want them to know, 100%, that their self-worth will NEVER be hinged on their waistband, on a crush's opinion of them, or on ANYTHING else even remotely like that.

It took me the better part of 30 years to figure out that, a knock-out figure may turn heads, but a sincere smile, an infectious laugh, and a joyful heart will keep them turned. That the sexiest thing a woman can wear is confidence in herself....and that a positive outlook & a beautiful spirit have a staying power that perfectly toned buns just can't match :)

I'm never, ever going to be a size 2. I get the occasional gray hair, and I highly doubt America's Next Top Model is gonna come knocking at my door......and ya know what? That's ok :) I'm good with that.

Today, I can look in the mirror, and confidently feel that

I AM BEAUTIFUL

Just the way God made me. God doesn't make junk. He crafted me out of goodness & love, IN HIS IMAGE. I'm just sorry it took me so long to be grateful about that!

Join in the "I Am Beautiful" project, and link up your shots on Flickr! Thanks for putting this together Jill! Such an AMAZING project! YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!!!! Inside & Out!

Before/After

2011-03-24T07:55:00.001-07:00

:) More Bunny cuteness!

Before SOOC

After

Shot with my Canon 50D, 50mm 1.4 and edited in CS5 & Lightroom 3

Hop on over to Pixel Perfect, and see everyone else's awesome edits this week!

Shoot & Edit : Edit

2011-03-24T05:23:00.000-07:00

Wow! Here it is Thursday, in the morning even, and I'm on track to get my edit post up! Yesterday we got blasted with (yet another) snowstorm, so I've been able to get mostly caught up!

So, here's my SOOC again

My intent when I took this photo was not even to take a shot I would want to save! I was showing a friend how aperture works, as he is learning how to shoot in manual! When I got this on my computer though, it was just too stink'n cute!

Here's my Lightroom adjustments.....most of the time, I use Lightroom to adjust my photos instead of ACR.

Better, but still not crispy like I like it :) Not too mention the poor things cheeks were horribly chapped & red.

So, I popped it over into CS5. I adjusted my levels, and ran a High Pass filter. For this one, I really wanted her to Pop, so I used a vibrant blending mode and adjusted the layer opacity until it looked natural. I then cloned out a few distracting details (little bit of a crayon, shiny, straight mystery item in the bokah,and green thing in the bottom corner...) I made a duplicate layer, and painted it the color of her skin tone, and applied a blur to it, with a mask. On the mask, I painted with a soft, low opacity brush(10%) and smoothed out her chapped skin. I also made her eyes pop a little more. Then back over to Lightroom it went, to de-noise and add a slight vignette.

Full Edit

Then I played with it a little :)

BW Edit

Fun Edit

SO, I try not to use too many actions I didn't create myself, but I wanted to try this photo using MCPActions's new mini fusion action.....her stuff is really, really great!

I like the warmer tones the fusion action brought out! :)

(Mostly) B&W, (somewhat) wordless Wednesday :)

2011-03-23T04:59:00.001-07:00

For anyone who knows me IRL, they'd be FULL OUT LAUGHING to know I link up with anything using the title "wordless"..... I'm a talker, through & through....

But I, at least, do try to behave on Wednesdays... (somewhat)

This one is a fav from a session I just finished editing :)

and from a birthday party I captured :)

Simplicity Photo Challenge - Sweet

2011-03-22T03:37:00.000-07:00

When I saw the topic, I just had to link up :) I did a fun little session with S the other day, and just finished editing the photos from it!

We had one day where it was 60-some degrees out, where I got to take this (and others......more to come!) Most of our snow melted, besides a patch or two.....and what does the weatherman say today? WINTER STORM WARNING..... ug

::::sigh::::: Apparently, we aren't QUITE to the "goes out like a lamb" stage of March yet.......

I'm also gonna link up with

For sweet shot Tuesday :)

Shoot & Edit: Flowers!

2011-03-21T05:14:00.000-07:00

All of our snow isn't even gone yet.....lol. (ok, it is in most places, but the piles we had to shovel/snowblow/plow it all into still remain, albeit much, much smaller....thank you 60 degree weather!) There are no flowers to be found anywhere around here at the moment.

So, sometimes I call little S my "wee little daisy" .....that counts as a flower, right? :)

SOOC

This was taken with my new 50mm 1.4, in a really, pretty dimly lit room....with no flash. I love this lens :)

Selfie Saturday....

2011-03-20T20:52:00.001-07:00

So.....here it goes.......

Courtney wrote this amazing post, and I've been thinking about it all day. ALL DAY....

(Go on, read it.....I'll wait :) )

Self confidence is something SO important to me. I cherish it....I hold it tightly, and I desperately want my children to grow up loving themselves, just the way God made them.

See, I've always struggled with self esteem. The thing is, I was really confused. I thought feeling good about myself was directly connected to the size of my jeans for a really, really long time. And my jeans were big. and my self esteem wasn't.

It's funny how things work out though..... I had to work on myself.....work on my INSIDES, before anything would budge on the outside. I had to learn to be happy with myself in a size 26, before I had any success shrinking.

But I learned a lot during that time....

I learned that a knock-out figure may turn heads, but a sincere smile, an infectious laugh, and a joyful heart will keep them turned. That the sexiest thing a woman can wear is confidence in herself....and that a positive outlook & a beautiful spirit have a staying power that perfectly toned buns just can't match :)

I want my girls to know this....and I don't want them to ever feel like their worth is hinged on their waistband, as I did for far, far too long...

I will never be a size 2......I highly doubt I'll ever walk down a runway, or anything of that nature. and I'm perfectly ok with that...

Today I'm nearly 30 years old.....my jeans are a size 12.... and ya know what? I can look in a mirror today, and be really happy with what I see :)

Shoot & Edit - Edit!

2011-03-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

Late to the party........again...

Before - SOOC

After

Honestly, I didn't do a bunch of different options this week.....I've been pretty tired! I had lots to catch up on, but I'm getting there! WOO HOO!

So, for now, I'll share a bunch of different photos from the science center....what a neat place that is!

The special exhibit was: DINOSAURS! The toddler & kindergartner were delighted!

Nothing like life-sized, anamatronic dinos to make your 2 year old squeal with delight! Small yippy dogs - she's terrified. Life-sized roaring T-Rex - her new best friend....... go figure!

My 5 year old dino running the big metal dino....

Shoot & Edit: Yellow (and no, I didn't fall off the face of the Earth!)

2011-03-14T05:57:00.000-07:00

So.......how ya been?

Good? Wonderful......it's been a while :)

Sorry for that little bloggy-break....life got a little crazy for a short spell, but I think we're good now :) Between my volunteer responsibilities, illness, sessions, a trip out of town, and over two feet of snow (no, I'm not kidding....I have pictures)

(Let's hope the Easter Bunny is of the snow bunny variety....as it's snowing outside....again....right now......)
...I just couldn't get on here to blog....

So...the theme for Shoot and Edit this week is "Yellow"

SOOC

This is from our trip out of town....we were able to take the kids to a neat hands-on Science museum!

For the record....yes, the toddler is on a baby leash. We do this only for hands-on museums & amusement parks.....who wants to hold someone's hands in a museum that's MEANT to be touched? lol The thing is, she's really fast, and I'm usually outnumbered. Please don't judge :) It's the best solution I've found for everyone to stay safe, and still have fun!

I'm really proud of all the shots I took at the museum. Out of the 112 shots I took there, only three of them were slightly underexposed. (one of which, is this one, my only shot with yellow in it!) I was using my external flash in full manual mode...sometimes bouncing it, sometimes using it as fill light when there was beautiful light coming through windows. I've been challenging myself to get to know my flash better, and even practicing using them off camera on a flash stand!

Why, you ask, am I bone-ing up on off-camera flash?

Because I'm taking a day for me, and doing the trek to Pittsburgh next month to attend this. The Flash Bus Tour, being done by two AMAZING photographers who have been doing this for longer than I've been alive.... David Hobby & Joe McNally. Now, I'd only known the name David Hobby since getting into photography (he's the creator of The Strobist blog) The man can do some amazing things with a speedlight and some ingenuity.... Joe McNally though....I've known that name for a while. He is the incredible photog who dreamed up the "Faces of Ground Zero" exhibit that toured and raised money after that tragic day. Living in NY State, somewhere between where the Twin Towers once stood and where the plane full of heroes went down in that Pennsylvania field, I remember those amazing life-sized Polaroid portraits well.

So, to say I'm excited is an understatement.....lol

Anyway, so that's what's been up with me.....I'm gonna try hard to not disappear again!

Black & White Wednesday...

2011-03-02T04:41:00.000-08:00

I'm trying really hard to get into this selfie thing....lol. I dare say......gasp..... I even had a little fun with it :)

Friendly neighborhood Fed Ex man is bringing my wireless trigger today, so maybe I'll have more (easier) selfie fun later today! :)

Shoot & Edit(Selfie), Scavenger Hunt Sunday, & why I love swag bucks :)

2011-03-01T02:56:00.000-08:00

Sigh.......the really sad part is, I had all this stuff done early. I just never found the time to transfer it to the computer!

Shoot & Edit: Selfie

UG.....I'm hoping my dislike of any sort of selfie (other than an arms length one) will be over soon, as I have a wireless shutter trigger on the way! There's nothing quite like getting your exercise using the timer, running back and forth.....I mean, it's not like you look frazzled or anything in the photo since you just completed the 10 yard dash 30 times.......

So, here they are. SOOC. Selfies. yay.
(That being said, my wireless trigger gets here Thursday, and I am gonna try really really hard to be open-minded and link up with Selfie Saturdays at Selfie Magic. ...because, really, I'm such a goofball, I could really have fun with this, and I'd like to stop making such unattractive faces every time I see "selfie" and the subject for a photo challenge..)

SOOC

SOOC

I'm somewhat limited location-wise at the moment, as we're still digging out of the boxes from our move inside the house, and outside....well.....check out my scavenger hunt "sky" photo....lol

So for Thursday, I'm gonna do a tutorial on facial editing using Lightroom. That little program can do so much more than many people realize, and while I don't use it exclusively (I edit in CS5 and Lightroom 3), I can say that every single photo I take gets edited in Lightroom......half the time I go on to more extensive editing in CS5, but Lightroom packs a pretty hardy punch! :)

Now, onto Scavenger Hunt Sundays! (Tuesday is SOOOOOOO the new Sunday)

For the record, next week I will SO BE ON TIME for Scavenger Hunt Sunday! I suggested some of the prompts, so I kinda feel as if I should, you know, at least link up in a timely manner!

1. Capture The Sky

I am so never trusting a woodland creature for my weather forecasts EVER AGAIN! This is our sky. You may notice it looks like a big gray patch of nothingness...that's because it was one huge snow-dumping cloud that pounded up with well over a foot of snow.
Lemme just say, the Easter Bunny better be of the snow bunny variety.....

2. Everyday

The toddler....proud of her daily path of destruction :)

3. Furry

This may be my favorite dog shot I've ever taken :)

4. Life

The closest thing we have to anything budding....see "sky" photo for explanation of why :) The toddler stealing my office plant. :)

5. Blurred

I love the bokah with the snow falling in it :) Yes, my Christmas lights are still up. No, I'm not proud of it....but until someone turns up Mother nature's thermostat, there's not much I can do.

So...last but not least......why I love SWAGBUCKS

(If you haven't signed up and want to give it a try.....please use my link! HERE )

With the Swagbucks I've earned in the last year, I've gotten Amazon Gift cards. Lots of them.

I used them yesterday....

Arriving Thursday will be:
Two light stands
Two flash adapters with hotshoes
Two 43" White shoot through umbrellas
2 Black/Silver reflector umbrellas
A Wireless hotshoe flash transmitter
Two wireless flash receivers
4 pack 8 inch ball bungees
A flash bracket
A wireless remote shutter

I had to come up with $10 out of pocket :)

I love Swagbucks :)

Shoot & Edit - Edit (With Lightroom tutorial!)

2011-02-24T07:42:00.000-08:00

So, for this week's edit, I thought I'd do a little Lightroom tutorial, since I know Ashley doesn't have that program and I'm a big believer in learning how to do things the long way. Presets and actions are awesome, but it's SO helpful to know how to create the affect yourself....then you can better adjust the action to your own photo too!

So, for this week's Shoot and Edit, I'm gonna talk about this photo:
(SOOC)

I love this SOOC shot. One thing I nearly always do when I edit photos is sharpen the eyes. In Lightroom, the "clarity" slider is kinda like the "Unsharpen Mask" in Photoshop. I'm not crazy about the way unsharpen mask sharpens....I prefer to sharpen with a high pass filter, (which isn't an option in Lightroom) but I really like Lightroom and if I've shot an event (lets say, a wedding) Lightroom really lets me do basic editing easily on massive amounts of photos, quickly so I can focus on doing creative and advanced edits on select images. (For example, I shot a birthday party a couple weeks ago. I was there for 3.5 hours, and left with around 300 images. I take 25-30 images and do full, creative & advanced edits on them. The other images I do basic editing for in Lightroom only...)

So, I needed to find a way to edit the eyes better in Lightroom. Here's what I came up with...

After you do your basic exposure/light balance, etc edits, select the adjustment brush.

Now, I may not be the brightest bulb in the pack, but I didn't even know this tool existed for weeks after I started using Lightroom......
So anyway, select the adjustment brush....now your lightroom panal will look like this:

So, because I numbered things backwards, the first thing you do is select "New" (#3) Now where it says "Effect" (#2) Choose "Clarity"....under the "Effect heading there are subcategories. On the clarity one, push the slider up to 100...and then where it says "brush" (#1) choose A, 100 for feather, flow, and density...choose a size appropriate for your image (you can change the size of the brush as you go along).

Now, click somewhere on the iris of the eye. A dot will appear. If you hover over this dot, red will appear where you have brushed over. This is REALLY handy, and will TOTALLY freak out your husband when we walks into the room and see's a baby with glowing red eyes on your screen..... I digress....

Brush over the iris, pupil, and the lash lines on each eye.....like this:

So now, go back up and select "New" again. This is VERY important. Now select "Exposure" under effect. Slide the exposure sub category slider up to .29 (It's all about subtle...) Select somewhere in the iris, but not on the first dot we used for clarity. Now brush over the iris/pupil area:

You can adjust the exposure subcategory slider to whatever looks good, but just remember that subtle is the name of the game. I usually pick something between .20 and .45.

Now select "New" again, and exposure..... set the exposure subcategory slider to .20, and select somewhere on the white of the eyes. Now brush over all the white..

For this, I always adjust the slider to somewhere between .10 and .30...and always less than what I set the exposure for the iris at.

Select the "Adjustment Brush" tool again to close. Now bump up the overall exposure just a touch, and up the fill lights a little, and there ya have it! Eyes edited in Lightroom!

Here's the before/after side by side

and here's my full edit, done 100% in Lightroom...

Of course, I did go into CS5 and play for a bit though.... here's my CS5 edit

and a b&w edit....I LOVE b&w :)

and real quick, here are my other edited images :)
SOOC

Edit

SOOC

Edit

SOOC

Edit

B&W Wed- New Lens Love :)

2011-02-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

I got my new lenses yesterday...

Canon 50mm 1.4 & Sigma 24-70mm 2.8....
I've fallen head over heels for them.....

Just say'n :)

Scavenger Hunt Sunday-ish....

2011-02-21T14:24:00.000-08:00

So.....it's kinda Tuesday, but my scavenger hunt items just the same!

Chocolate:

No, not romantic Valentines Day chocolate, or springtime colored candies....this is the kind of chocolate that has dominated our lives for the past two weeks. The girl-child must well 96 of these bad boys to finance her 5th grade trip.....
Thankfully, my husband is a CNC machinist....(read: he works in a building with a bunch of big, hungry guys who like chocolate)

Numbers:

Bet you're wondering why I posted a photo of fruit loops on a string as a "numbers" photo, right? Because that, my friends, was hand crafted by my (very proud) little Kindergarten man, with each sugar-coated fruity "O" representing a day of Kindergarten so far.....all the way up to a hundred. And he counted them himself :)

Canned Food:

It's my pantry.... I thought of making a canned food pyramid, but I ran out of time and motivation.

Music:

Elmo Rocks :) See......

Stack:

The engineering gene runs strong in my younger two....lol. YOu can always see where they've been...everything is stacked!

Shoot & Edit : Shoot! - Pink

2011-02-21T03:11:00.000-08:00

Could you do me a favor? Whoever it is that's out there in upstate NY, that's been praying for snow...... PLEASE STOP!!!!!!!!

We have 6 inches right now........ 10 - 14 expected total..........it's coming down at a rate of MORE THAN 2" an hour....

If this is the "lion" March comes in like, I am SOOOOOOOOO looking forward to the "lamb" it ends with.

I mean, I like winter...I like snow..... but enough already!

Anyway....now on to our regularly scheduled bloghop!

I'm gonna try to get my scavenger hunt up later took, but I had to force myself to finish editing a session first! I'm almost caught up!

So, this week's theme is "Pink"...
I had the honor of photographing a beautiful little lady, who was most definitely "in the pink" :) I shared one of the photos for "Critique This!" last week.

These were all shot with my Canon 50D, and my 85mm 1.8
This first shot was F2.5, 1/250 and iso 100

SOOC (click to make bigger)

Hey there everyone!

Is she not the cutest thing?

SOOC (click to make bigger)

SOOC (click to make bigger)

SOOC (click to make bigger)

The room I was shooting in was itty bitty, and I literally had my back pushed into the corner of the room in order to use my 85mm.....I just find my 50mm 1.8 to focus too slow, and I've been spoiled by the color saturation of my 85mm. So I'm sure excited, that I have two really amazing lenses I was able to buy used this past weekend! A Canon 50mm 1.4, and a Sigma 24 - 70mm 2.8.....they are both amazing, and I'm SO excited! It should definitely make life a little easier the next time I'm shooting in cramped quarters!

Anyway, I'm off to see what everyone else was shooting this past week! :)

Love Letters......

2011-02-18T05:29:00.001-08:00

Click to make bigger.....Gopher doesn't get to express himself very often, so he can get kinda wordy :)

To Kitty Paw!

(For the record, my husband now thinks I've gone completely off the deep end....lol)

Shoot and Edit: Edit!

2011-02-17T05:56:00.000-08:00

Kindergarten concert was soooooo cute. My little ham bone had a solo speaking part, and never even told us! He did so good!

Now, on to those love/romance photos....

SOOC

So, I decided to edit this one completely in CS5....so first I did my basic adjustments in RAW for my clean edit

(clean edit)

When I was done in RAW, I adjusted my usual stuff in photoshop...levels, curves, brightness/contrast, colors, ran a high pass filter..which gave me this:

(edit1)

So then I decided to play with it (even though I really like my edit)

I tried it with some cooler tones...
(edit2)

and with some warmer ones
(edit3)

and then a b&w edit with a tint....
(edit4)

I don't know though....I still think plain ole edit #1 is my fav :)

As for the other photo

(SOOC)

After basic adjustments

Final edit

B&W Wednesday/ Critique This!

2011-02-16T13:41:00.000-08:00

Linking up today with b&w Wednesday and Pixel Perfect's new blog hop, Critique This!

Kindergarten concert tonight, so I'm gonna go check out everyone's photos a little later........so excited to see my little man on stage!

Ciao for Now!

Shoot and Edit: Shoot!

2011-02-14T08:50:00.000-08:00

I can't believe the weekend is over already!

I have to admit something.....
I didn't take any shots for anything this week.......
I had all these great ideas in my head, for things I could have done for the scavenger hunt, for this awesome theme in shoot and edit....

But the fact is, I'm digging out from an event, and two sessions I did last week.....I've just been sitting here editing my little head off....lol. With little ones sick last week, I'm playing catchup on everything! (That fully includes cleaning and doing laundry...lol) Besides the fact that I had no willing models....lol

But...I do have a couple love/romance SOOC shot to share. It's from the wedding I did a while back, and it's the first photo that came to mind when thinking of love & romance....

SOOC

SOOC

Ug....the lighting on that one was so harsh....in a perfect world, I would have used my flash to offset it......

Shot with my Canon 50D, 50mm lens....

And I wanted to share my Valentines Day cards to you guys!

(This first one is inspired by Jill's Shoot and Edit a couple weeks ago...)

(click to enlarge)

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Shoot and Edit: EDIT!

2011-02-10T10:06:00.000-08:00

I'd love to say I was super prepared for the edit this week....that I've been waiting anxiously for days to share it....

Truth is, I have a very sick little 2 year old at home (again), and I've had a bunch of photo sessions this week, so I'm not nearly as prepared as I'd like to be...

On the plus side, I did have enough forethought to share a little tutorial with ya'll on color cast.

I know Ashley covered it on her blog, but the way I do it is a little different. See, sometimes you have color cast throughout the whole photo (i.e. everyone in the photo looks to be a descendant of an Oompa Loompa), but sometimes you get color cast from something reflecting on the eyes or skin. (you guys remember my green baby before/after, right?) Here's how I do it...

SOOC

My adorable little ~~Prop Thief~~ model, SOOC...

Obviously, a little dark... So, I hop into Lightroom to do my initial edits, as usual.

Basic Lightroom edit

So now, I throw it over into CS5....

Hmmm....do you see what I see? Probably not.....let me show you...

Catch-lights in eyes....good. Reflection of red heart toy light prop thingy in eyes.....bad. I know Valentines Day is the "Red" holiday and all, but I think red eyes may be a little more "Halloween" than "Valentines"...

Now yeah, I could use the clone tool, and make it look alright...but all the detail of her eye is there and correct....it's just the wrong color!

Enter "Hue" blending....Make a copy of the layer, and choose "Hue"

From here, select your paintbrush....make sure you're working on the new "Hue" layer.
Go over to where you have the color cast, hold the "Alt" key(gives you the eye dropper tool), and select an area that is the correct color. (In this case, the brown part of her eye).

Now let's talk brush opacity..

Usually I put my opacity at around 20 - 39% when I'm fixing color cast, but it does vary. It's a little bit or trial and error at this point to get the mix just right. Once you select an opacity, use the brush tool and brush over the area that is incorrectly colored. Having the layer in Hue blending mode only alters the color without touching the details.

Ah...... that's better. :) (I know there's still a little red around the eye...I took care of that after I took the screen shot)

Now, besides the whole "red eye" thing, I liked the basic edit....but I think it was a little too much red. I had the red backdrop up when I was taking shots of my other kiddos (who were not wearing red) and just left it up. Let's tone it down a little...
(Final Edit)

I like it :)

And just for fun, I tried a vintage preset I'd made a while back, and it actually removed most of the color. I'm not usually a big fan of selective coloring, but it kinda works for this Valentines Day shot. Still, the final edit is my favorite. :)

(vintage edit)

As for my other "heart thief" shots, I tried to do something a little different with each of them....but to be honest, I don't LOVE any of these following edits. I'm just exhausted and trying to get my wee one back to feeling healthy again. These middle of the night neutralizer treatments take there toll on you after a few nights!

SOOC

Edit

SOOC

Edit

SOOC

Edit

Shoot & Edit: Shoot!

2011-02-07T03:42:00.000-08:00

Two weeks in a row....the girl is on a roll! :)

For Shoot and Edit this week, the theme is "Hearts"

So I took 3/4 of my children upstairs to do a Valentines Day shoot! :) (The teen pretty much wanted nothing to do with it...hehe)

I can't wait to show all the pics, but I'm trying to save some for Valentines Day!

Anyway, first I took the littlest Who up to shoot some photos....found this cool heart at BigLots, and S thought is was quite wonderful. I figured while I was doing this Valentines Day shoot, I'd grab a heart photo for this link up....
(SOOC)

Getting a shot of this heart was harder than you think.....cuz...ehem....SOMEONE kept stealing my prop!
(SOOC)

"Ach Ooo Mama...Ach ooo" (Thank you Mama...Thank you) - Toddler
"No baby girl....this is Mama's...you can't have this sweetie.." - Me
"Awww....OOOOOOOKAAAAAAAY Mama" :::Gives Sad look, and pats me on the back like, oh poor thing. She thinks she's gonna get this back!:::: - Toddler
"S.....give it to Mama please" - Me

(SOOC)

"Aww...Ni Ni...:::Kisses Heart:::...Ee go NiNi Mama" (Aww..Nite Nite...He go Nite Nite Mama)- Toddler
:::::Sigh:::: Hopefully, they have more hearts at BigLots. I don't think I'm getting this one back...

(SOOC)

Scavenger Hunt, Scripture, and What I've been up to...

2011-02-06T14:17:00.000-08:00

Hey, while it may be a little later in the day, at least I'm getting my scavenger hunt Sunday stuff up on, well, Sunday this week! Progress, not perfection here.... :)
As always, click the photos to view them bigger!
Water:

Water and food coloring, and cooking oil (I wanted to use motor oil, but we didn't have any that wasn't in the motor of my car, so I had to compromise!) Just having fun and experimenting! Wanted to do something different.....got tired of water droplets and icicles :)

Quote:

I love this photo....I don't even care that I took it with my cell and not my DSLR (because it's really kinda big, heavy, and expensive to hold over my head and snap a shot in a snowstorm.....) The Kindergartner and I catching snowflakes while we were shoveling the driveway! I'm just a little goofy :)

Window:

My littlest got distracted by something outside the window, when I had her upstairs doing our little Valentines Day shoot!

Activity:

Sledding! One of very few activities you can do in a snowstorm!

And Finally, Pg 25 of a magazine.
Ok, so I was TOTALLY uninspired by this one. Nothing against the subject, it's just that there was a total of ONE magazine in my house that I can locate, and on page 25 of Parent's magazine, was an ad that was just NOT capturing my imagination....

So, I mocked it

Also today, I want to link up with Scripture and a Snapshot!

So anyway....in the subject of totally random unexpected good things, I have a new tripod!
Well, it's not new.....it's an old tripod. Like, 20 years old....like, my first Holy Communion was shot using this tripod kinda old. The amazing thing? It looks like it came off the store shelves. My Father has a tendency to overbuy, and had purchased this huge, stable, professional caliber tripod..and used it, like 3 times.

So he gave it to me :) I'm so excited!

And on the subject of things that do NOT make me smile....my children have been hording their dirty clothes instead of putting them down the laundry chute, and I've been too busy unpacking to notice.......sigh......

I think you'll find me in the basement for the next couple days!

Paper Mama Valentines....

2011-02-04T16:58:00.001-08:00

Macro Friday

2011-02-04T11:21:00.000-08:00

Do you ever sit back and realize, that in the rush of life, your kid is missing out on like, a childhood right of passage?

Yes, my friends.....my 2 year old daughter has never had a bubble bath.

And it's not because she has sensitive skin, or that I have something against bubble baths.....it is purely because I find it a challenge to get 6 bodies squeaky clean daily, and the poor kid has taken only showers for 99% of her life.

So, we remedied this :)

It was a TOTAL hit! LOL

And where was I for these over the head shots?

Thank you so much for picking my photo for the winner last week! It TOTALLY makes my week when one of my photos gets chosen! Being new at photography, sometimes I feel unsure of myself in this arena......so thank you so, so much!

Here's a couple more icicle shots I took the other day, just for fun :)

Lemme tell you though, as pretty as this snow and ice is, living in NY state, I'm pretty happy the groundhog said spring is just around the corner! I'm getting tired of digging out!

Before/After

2011-02-03T05:50:00.000-08:00

My other favorite Thursday haunt!

SOOC

Oh, how I love my little guy!

After

I was liking the b&w feel for this one.....don't let my little guy fool ya though....he's just as smiley as his Mama!

Shot with my 50D 85mm 1.8...edited in Lightroom 3 and CS5

Shoot & Edit: Edit!!

2011-02-03T04:20:00.001-08:00

Hooray! It's finally time for the edit portion of "Shoot & Edit"....

Love link'n up to Ashley's blog and seeing what everyone's been experimenting with!

So, Monday, I shared my SOOC image with ya'll..

So, first I did my basic adjustments in Lightroom.... pretty much the same things Ashley does in ACR. Sometimes I use ACR, but I really like Lightroom 3. I tend to do my initial, and final edits there.

I also cropped it, putting the focus more on my daughter. I prefer to shoot with primes, and the trade off is, sometimes I have to rely on cropping, as my feet aren't a fast enough zoom sometimes!

Basic Lightroom Edit

Then I tossed it over into CS5. Here I upped the color a little and sharpened. I also warmed up the image a little. Then I saved it back in Lightroom, made a slight vignette and de-noised a little... Here's the results!

Edit #1

I don't dislike it....but I don't LOVE it.....so I tried something different. This time, instead of upping the saturation, I played with the color of the highlights and shadows...changing the tone and the feel of the photo....

Edit #2

Ahh...there we go... That's more what I was thinking.....

And, because of my undying love affair with B&W, I figured I'd see how it looked there too, which kinda goes against the point of the theme being "red" but hey, I've always marched to the beat of my own drummer....why stop now? :)

Edit #3

So, what do you guys think? Which edit do you like?

Off to go see YOUR edits now! Gotta love Thursdays!

Black & White Wednesday....and Happiness....

2011-02-02T08:43:00.000-08:00

I get asked a lot, if I'm really this happy all the time....

My answer? Yeah, mostly...

Because I choose to be.

I really believe that the outcome of situations is at least 50% how I react to what's happening. I make a conscious choice to react with a smile on my face, and a positive attitude.

I don't always want to, mind you....
But it came to my realization that, I was spending FAR too much time and energy worrying about things that might happen, and stressing situations and events I have no control over. It dawned on me that if I redirected all this energy to my attitude, it would be time MUCH better spent!

So yes, I am this happy.....I am this grateful....I am this upbeat and cheerful....

and I wouldn't choose to be any other way!

Besides, with these great kiddos around, who wouldn't want to spend they're time seeking out the joy and beauty in the world?

Shoot and Edit: Shoot!

2011-01-31T10:27:00.000-08:00

Well lookie here.... Lindsay's FINALLY joining the "Shoot" part of the "Shoot and Edit" party!

So, I took my kiddo's outside, one at a time, yesterday to get some cute winter shots of them...

I'll probably be posting more from those all week...I LOVE the shots I got! The kids were all in a good mood....it wasn't uber cold out..... really, it was great!

But this one, of my favorite little monkey, is my SOOC for Shoot and Edit:

I'm so excited to edit it! Shot with my Canon 50D F3.5, ISO 100, 1/800 (the sun, she was a-blaze'n) I used my beloved 85mm 1.8 I wasn't fast enough with my reflector, or else I would have reflected some fill light back onto those boots, but it's an easy fix in photoshop!

I (Heart) Faces.... Best Face of January!

2011-01-31T09:51:00.000-08:00

When I saw this weeks challenge, I couldn't resist linking up! I knew EXACTLY what face I was thinking of!

So please, hop on over there and vote for this little sweetie!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

2011-01-31T09:27:00.000-08:00

(Ok...take the "Sunday" part with a grain of salt...)

So, better late than never.....

Texture:

I'm still learning to love texture...... I mean, I love it in "YOUR" photos..... I've just yet to find any (or make any) I'm over-the-moon for. I'll keep working on it. :) Texture and I are still real early in our relationship.....

Fog:

So, my hubby now thinks I've officially lost my mind, as when he came home from work yesterday, all he could see in the windows was the outside view of me trying to make fog on our window......lol. VERY attractive faces I was making, I might add....lol

Button:

The Kindergartner was more than happy to let me know that the coolest button in the house was his....lol.

Beverage/Drink:

Definitely the MVB (Most Valuable Beverage) of our household.....no cow in a 20 mile radius should ever feel engorged with the amount of milk this household of 6 goes through!

Seventies:

Well, at the very least, I'm pretty sure that was the decade this wallpaper was hung in my kitchen! :)

Well, I'm off to get some photos off my camera......get this, I actually took a photo to go with the theme for Shoot and Edit this week! Back soon with my "red" shot!

Macro Friday!

2011-01-28T05:14:00.000-08:00

So, the same day I was hanging with my baby snowman I was able to get a few cool macro shots too!

Melting Icicle :)

I was totally amazed at the drop of water I caught falling off the end...it came out so cool!
(Macro Friday submission)

I'm totally loving this winter Macro shots thing :)

Hop over, link up, and check out what everyone else has going on this week!

Before/After and Shoot& Edit

2011-01-27T03:31:00.000-08:00

So, m,y flu derailed me from my goal of taking part in the "shoot" part of shoot and edit this week...

So, here is my sooc shot this week

When I took this shot, I had an idea in my head.....I knew I wanted to highlight the ring, and I liked the contrast of the ring on the black of the coats. They were walking as I took the shot, and I wasn't 100% happy with the framing.

I went through all the usual initial editing stuff in Lightroom, then tossed it over to CS5. The first thing I did in CS5 is get a better crop....one that better matched the picture I had in my head when I was trying to take the shot! Then I ran an action I created the other day, that gives it a kinda creamy chocolatey kinda black and white look.

This is the final result:

Edit:

Shot with my Canon 50D, 85mm 1.8

Baby Snowmen and the Flu........

2011-01-26T05:53:00.000-08:00

So, it seems as if my burning the candle at both ends finally caught up with me......I have been down for the count with a nasty flu buggy for the better part of the last week! Thank you for all the prayers and well wishes!

Thank goodness for wonderful husbands and long weekends!

So, lately, we've been getting hit with winter full force! Since we live in the ~~artic~~ northeast, we had the joy of experiencing -19 degree weather the other day.....without the windchill. Snowmen were putting on sweaters!

Speaking of snowmen, I thought I'd share some photos of my favorite snowman :)
(disclaimer: these were NOT taken in -19 degree weather! I took these last week, a few days before I got sick!)

Hope everyone's staying warm and cozy! :)

Scripture and a Snapshot...

2011-01-23T06:39:00.000-08:00

I'm sick as a dog, and not feeling real wordy....but I wanted to make sure I got this up and posted today!
(click to enlarge)

Shoot and Edit...

2011-01-20T11:31:00.001-08:00

Ashley has been doing this fun new linkey, Shoot and Edit. I thought I'd join in while I wait for my new monitor to warm up (Fedex just delivered it, and I need it to get somewhere close to room temperature before I can plug it in!).....so I thought this would be a fun distraction!

(Next week, I'll try to get in on the "shoot" part of it too!)

Here we go!

SOOC

We seem to be a tad bit underexposed for my taste, folks! :) (btw....it was FREEZING out doing this shoot. I'm getting cold just editing these photos!)

So here's my edit:

I followed alot of the things Ashley had down, as that's how I tend to edit to begin with! (Only I use Lightroom to do my initial edits instead of Adobe CameraRaw, as I'm usually editing a lot of photos! For this edit, I did use Adobe CameraRAW)

I did one other edit, because, well, my new monitor isn't ready yet.....hehe. This one I did entirely in Lightroom 3, just for something different.

It's a little "Twilight-y," but I like it! :)

Before/After

2011-01-19T19:42:00.000-08:00

This was a fun one this week. I absolutely love CS5 and Lightroom 3......I love experimenting and coming up with my own presets and actions. I love how it opens up a world of possibilities and imagination.

I did an engagement shoot this past week....it was a BLAST! :)

SOOC

Edit

I LOVE the way it came out!

Shot with my Canon 50D, 85mm 1.8 and edited in CS5 and Lightroom 3

Hop on over to Pixel Perfect's blog, link up, and check out everyone else's amazing before/after shots!

Wordless Wednesday....

2011-01-19T08:07:00.000-08:00

Macro Friday!

2011-01-14T13:25:00.000-08:00

Macro Friday! My first of 2011.....

Since my move made me miss out on all the fun Christmas Macros, I'm gonna do one for this week!

Ornament, in Macro :)

In other big news.......we have a new person in the "Lost Tooth" club....

Before/After...

2011-01-13T04:44:00.000-08:00

My first before/after since the move! :)

So, I made a newbie mistake.

I had a session I was doing, and just for fun, I tried using a green screen for the first time.

Lesson learned......do not let subject be physically on the green screen. You will have color cast you won't even believe. Kermit will be jealous.

(sooc)

Now, I didn't realize how bad the color bast was, until I fixed the exposure. (We'd gone from Mama holding her, to her laying on her belly (on the green screen, of course!), and I didn't have my lights low enough yet.
(exposure upped)

Ug.....
Now, I'm not one to like to use editing to fix a bad photo very often....I'd rather use editing to enhance a good one! But she was just making the cutest little face in this shot, so we spent some time together in CS5....

(Final Edit....click on photo to make bigger)

So, for my first time using a green screen, I don't think I did too bad :)(Even if, technically, the green screen wasn't even behind her yet....lol. I was just checking exposure at this point!) I even made the digital backdrop backdrop! :)

So, hop on over to Pixel Perfect, join in, and check out everyone's amazing edits this week!

Wordless Wednesday.....A Wedding....

2011-01-12T03:28:00.000-08:00

25 Things you didn't know about me...

2011-01-09T10:11:00.000-08:00

1. When I was born, my hair had a lot of blond in it. Even as a little kids, you could see lots of it in my hair....you wouldn't know it now, as my hair(naturally) is closer to black than it is to blond!

2. I love to sing, and am pretty good at it. I am also pretty good at writing poems and essays, and have had a few poems published. Ironically, I can't write songs to save my life.......

3. The people who know me best get my sense of humor, and see me as funny and outgoing. You wouldn't know it though, when I'm in a large group of people I don't know very well....I am painfully shy, but I've been working on that! :)

4. I'm really soft-hearted.....perhaps an over-wound sense of empathy? I tend to get teary eyed easily at other people's joys and sorrows.

5. I love animals, and really miss having a dog.

6. I am definitely a lot more like Tigger than I am Eeyore!

7. I think laughter has power....and that it really, truly is the best medicine. The more we laugh, the better we feel, and the smaller our problems seem!

8. Horror movies scare the poo outta me. Give me a comedy, drama, romance.....anything else!

9. I am overwhelmingly passionate about any and everything I put my heart into. My family, my art.....all of it. I give 150% of myself.

10. I don't think I've ever been called "too serious" before.....ever. I try to have fun in everything I do. I struggle with this when it comes to laundry.....

11. I'd rather be too cold than too hot. Which is good, because I'm usually freezing! I think it's much easier to warm up than it is to cool down.

12. I love slippers. You rarely see me without them on in my house.

13. I was blessed with an amazing family! Both my immediate, and my extended family is filled with amazing, wonderful, inspiring people who I'm honored to share a heritage with.

14. I love getting text messages. They make me smile :)

15. I think of it as a huge compliment anytime someone takes time outta their day to think of me.

16. Coming up with 25 things you didn't know about me is really hard, cuz I'm a pretty open person!

17. Peanut butter may be my favorite food ever. Turkey is a close second, but it wins out if served with dressing, mashed potatoes, and corn. French Onion soup is up there pretty high too. :)

18. I can't use someone else's toothbrush. It totally grosses me out. If someone accidentally uses my tooth brush, I go buy a new one.

19. I'm really good at improvisation. I make my friends/family giggle with lyrics and things I come up with on the fly. :)

20. I enjoy sports, and have played baseball, volleyball, and swam competitively while I was still in school.

21. I love attention & love being on a stage, which is really odd considering I'm actually a pretty shy person. I'm a bit of a riddle :)

22. I'm a really happy, bubbly person. So much so, that the other day, my husband woke up grumbly, to which I said, "Awww.....someone woke up on the grumpy side of the bed today!" and he replied, "Well, I can't get up on your side of the bed. It's too sunny over there!" :)

23. I have a love/hate relationship with spiders. I love taking macro shots of them, and am in complete awe of the beauty of their webs. On the other hand, they totally freak me out. I mean, I'm fine with spiders if I know where they are......but they are like these little miniature ninjas that just pop out of nowhere and make me scream. I'm just say'n :)

24. I am super-duper ticklish.....sometimes just looking like you're gonna tickle me gets me going!

25. I can't stand it when pieces are missing from things...(toys, puzzles, etc). I drive myself nutty finding each and every last piece of everything when I clean up the play room.

Scripture & a snap shot.......my first time!

2011-01-09T07:05:00.000-08:00

These are from a newborn session I did the other day....what a sweet, little blessing this beautiful boy was! This was my first newborn session!

Trying to dig out from the cardboard blizzard........

2011-01-08T10:44:00.000-08:00

Let me tell you, six people can own a LOT of stuff!

It doesn't LOOK like that much, until you start putting it all into boxes.......I swear it started multiplying.

None the less, we had a blessed Christmas in our new home.

My livingroom looks like we've lived there for 6 months.....the rest of the house? Not so much....lol. If you ever want to challenge yourself, move 7 days before Christmas with 4 children.....lol

Good news though....Santa got our change of address form!

(Even if he did forget to wipe his feet!)

Even with the mess he left, my children were more than a little excited coming down the stairs Christmas morning, in our brand new home!

My photography business has been super busy lately.....my head has been blissfully spinning in circles with all the things that have been on my plate! :) Truly, we have been so blessed!

I have so much to post about....a bunch of sessions to share, and oodles of thoughts and smiles, but I need to go shower and get ready for an engagement session in a little while, so I'm going to leave you all with a really cool benediction I heard the other day :)

"May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe you can make a difference in the world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done, to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor."

God bless you and yours, and I hope you're having an AMAZING 2011 so far!

Macro Friday, and really, I'm still here....

2010-12-10T04:14:00.000-08:00

Ug......I forgot how much fun moving is (please, say this inside your head with THICK sarcasm....)

I'm still here....really, I am. We closed on the house on Tuesday....HUGE blessing. Really......we used the listing agent as our agent also, as he is a close family friend. My parents have lived next door to the seller's family for the past 30 years. Really, the closing was full of smiles, laughter......sweet memories of the seller's Mother(who is now in a nursing home with Alzheimer's) Really, it felt like a transaction between family and friends. Couldn't have asked for a more pleasant experience.

Oh, and get this.....closing cost almost $1000 LESS than what we hoped it would....$1000 less than our low-ball figure! When does that EVER happen??????

So, contractors are in and painting.....stove will be delivered Monday....packing boxes, moving boxes.....painting stuff........ oh boy, have I ever been busy!!

I've actually had a bunch of sessions lately too, adding to my craziness! lol.....go figure, now that I'm busy, everyone is giving birth and scheduling sessions!

Anyway, I'll be back in full force soon.....we figure, within the next 7 days we should be in the new place 100%.

So for now, I give you...... A Pug.....in Macro...(click to enlarge)

So, hop on over to Blogging from Bolivia, where Laura host Macro Friday every week! CHeck out all the other awesome macro shots, and link up your own!

Thankful.....

2010-11-24T04:24:00.000-08:00

To say this holiday season has been hectic, would be the understatement of the century.

The stress of buying a new house, waiting to hear on the mortgage, the wheelbarrows full of money we weren't expecting to put out this month, sorting through, and packing up six people's worldly possessions.....all on top of the normal "parenting six children, being a good wife, and trying to grow my little fledgling business" stresses.

You know what? My heart is still overflowing with thanks and gratefulness.

I am THANKFUL....

Thankful for an amazing husband who believe in me. Who loves me past my faults and shortcomings, laughs at my silly jokes, supports my dreams, and makes me strive to be the best version of myself possible.

Thankful for the family God has entrusted me with. For my teenager, who despite his struggles, inspires me by example, to look for the good in everyone. For my pre-teen, who shows me how to full embrace the things I struggle to do, and find joy in them. For my Kindergartner, who teaches me that a smile can lighten any burden.
And for my baby....who has taught me more in her short little two years of life, than I could hope to teach her in a lifetime.

Thankful for dreams....

Thankful for reality......

Thankful for God's grace, second chances, and the ability to serve.

Thankful for precious moments...

Last year, at this time, I was 100 pounds heavier. My husband was laid-off, with no end in sight. My baby was having a really rough recovery from her palate surgery. We didn't always know how every bill was going to get paid. I was desperately trying to inspire my husband, who is as hardworking as they come, to understand that you don't need to have a job, to have a purpose.....last Thanksgiving, I was still Thankful. I'd learned a lot about life the prior year....I'd learned how to truly trust in God. I'd learned that in my darkest hour, God's presence would always be felt. I never, ever, ever had to go at it alone.

You know what? Things got better. My husband found a new job, that he loves beyond his wildest dreams. He was able to do some training we would have NEVER been able to afford had he not been laid-off for 16 months. He now has a career, instead of a job.

One of the biggest things I'm thankful for though, is finding my place. A year ago, I hadn't started volunteering, or helping other families. My own child was still recovering from her last surgery! It was about this time of year, that I started giving back....giving my time and energy to other families who's children were born with craniofacial anomalies. It still amazes me how much one can GET from GIVING! God worked wonders in my heart, through helping others.

Another thing I'm thankful for? A year ago, I didn't even own a camera, let alone a dslr! I knew I liked taking pictures as a kid, and that people used to tell me I had an eye for it....which, ya know, you don't think too hard about when you're 12. When the oppertunity arose for me to get a good camera this past March, I jumped at it! After all, I have four kids, and I've always liked taking photos. I had NO IDEA the chain of events that would follow, or the spark getting that camera would ignite in me. I HAD to learn more.......I'd never thought about taking a camera out of automatic mode, or editing my photos. I started devouring information, tutorials, and books. Things just started falling into place....bringing me to where I am now. Some call these things in life "coincidence" .... I always liked the idea that, "Coincidences are just miracles, where God decided to remain anonymous" :)

Then, of course, there's this amazing house, that we will be in before Christmas! With my parents next door.....amazing! My kids are going to get to grow up, with amazing, supportive, loving Grandparents right next door....

God has answered prayers I didn't even know to ask! I have been so blessed!

I pray you all have a wonderful, beautiful Thanksgiving!

Macro Friday!

2010-11-12T05:26:00.001-08:00

Since I'm not sure when I'm gonna be home again today, I thought I'd get this up now!

More butterflies!

So, link up and join in, over at Blogging from Bolivia and see everyone's amazing (and, in Laura's case, terrifying!) macro shots this week!

Before/After....a little late!

2010-11-12T03:11:00.001-08:00

Late is better than never, right? We're making baby steps towards closing on our house....I'm making baby steps towards getting everyone's stuff packed.....and am clinging to the small crumbs of sanity I have left! I know it will be ok....it's just super stressful moving this close to Christmas with four kids! It's looking like closing will be the first week of Dec......

Anyway, here's a photo from a shoot I did last weekend. This was a spur of the moment shot....I just thought they looks so beautiful hugging...Mother and daughter. Needless to say, my exposure is off, and there's a pole sticking out of the mom's head....

Before

After

I'm used to removing stuff from the background, doing all that kinda stuff....object replacement, etc.....but I think removing something large in think tree branch bokah, and having it look pretty natural, may be one of the hardest things I've done to date! It may not be perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it.

Shot with my Canon 50D 85mm and edited in Lightroom 3 and CS5

Hop on over to Pixel Perfect and see everyone else's edits this week!

Macro Friday

2010-11-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

Falling asleep on my feet.....packing a house full of six people's belongings is ROUGH...

Should be closing on the house in the next few weeks. Letter of commitment on track for Wednesday....then about 14 more days or so until we close.

I'm gonna check out everyone else's photos in the morning.....but for now, I FINALLY found a butterfly!

Shot with my Canon 50D, 85mm and edited in Lightroom3 and CS5

So, go check out all the other really awesome Macro shots over at Blogging from Bolivia.

Before/After + trip update and kinda tutorial....

2010-10-28T04:57:00.001-07:00

EDIT: WOW! Thanks Monica! I'm so excited to have my photo picked as favorite last week!

It's Thursday again, and my favorite time of week! Pixel Perfect's Before/After blog hop!

Before:

I loved this shot, but it's a little underexposed. It was actually a candid I took during a session, and I was packing up my stuff....he just looked so cute, I snapped with whatever my camera was set at.

After:

I love how this turned out :) This photo is from the same session as my entry from last week...here's a few more shots I edited like the one last week...

I hate using the word tutorial, because I am learning so much myself, I don't really feel like I should be "teaching" anything just yet, but I had a lot of people ask me how I edited my photo from last week, so I thought I'd share what I do!

I edit in Lightroom3 and and Photoshop CS5....these photos I edited completely in Lightroom, but you can get the same effect in Photoshop pretty easily.

I spend a lot of time playing with the curves. It is amazing to me how much drama you can create in a photo with slight changes to the light and dark areas. For this effect, I get the curve looking like this:

I also upped the blacks a little, and the contrast. I almost always bump up the clarity a little too! (In photoshop, you can get the same clarity using unsharpen mask or a high pass filter - just don't over due it!)

I added a little vignetting, and adjusted the exposure, fill lights, and brightness until I was happy with the results!

The best piece of advice I was ever given, whether it be for taking photos or editing(or getting to Carnegie Hall, if you feel so inclined!), is practice, practice, practice! I edit ALL my photos. Even my snapshots....and I take a lot of photos. Whether I have a session or not, I try to not let a week go by without taking at least 300 photos.....usually it's closer to 500 - 1000. I edit them, not because anyone is going to see them.....chances are for most of them, no one will! I edit them for the practice. The more I use these programs, the better I get at them.....the more photos I take, the stronger a photographer I become! :)

Anyway, S and I's trip to Rochester was good. Our Rockstar surgeon checked out my munchkin, and we're looking at no surgery in the immediate future. We need her to start trying to make "B", "D", "P" and "T" sounds....sounds you need your palate to function to make. If we don't have those in the next year, we're looking at probably having a surgery to fix the function of the palate. About 20% of kids with clefts need some extra palate surgery to help with function. So, please pray for speech. It would do my husband's heart good to hear her call him "Dada"....a man can only take being called "Mama" for so long, and, well, we're tired of sharing the title.....it gets confusing!

It was really cool yesterday though... I got a phone call from our local hospital asking if i could come help them get a newborn baby with a cleft eating. I guess my mini-rampages about giving babies with clefts feeding tubes before exhausting all the other options finally worked! It was so great to be able to help, and to give this family hope. It's such a shock to find out your child has a birth anomaly (I hate the term birth defect....it makes it sound like my kid was defective, and she most certainly was not. Anomaly means "a deviation from the common" and let me assure you, S is ANYTHING but common!) It's such an honor to be able to show family's S at birth, and photos of S now, and see the relief come across their faces. It's an amazing blessing to get to help others like that!

Anyway,I hope you all have a beautiful day, and hop on over to Pixel Perfect and check out everyone's amazing edits!

Guess Who Got Glasses?

2010-10-26T05:06:00.000-07:00

And a few more, just because I really love them!

Have a beautiful, blessed day everyone! We're headed to S's appointment in Rochester that got rescheduled a little bit back!

Before/After

2010-10-21T04:34:00.000-07:00

EDIT: I figured it would be easier to answer this on here! lol.....A bunch of people asked me if I used an action. No actions or presets....I actually use very few actions or presets, that I didn't make myself. I did save this though....I'll have to go through it and write down my thought process to share with you guys :). Most of the time, I just sit at Lightroom and play with it, until what I have in front of me matches the picture I have in my head. Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments though! They mean a ton to me!

I really love this blog hop :) Be sure to hop on over to Pixel Perfect and check out all the other awesome edits this week!

This is from a family session I did the other day...they were so much fun! It was really hard to just pick one photo for the blog hop today. Besides it being GORGEOUS in my neck of the woods this time of year, this family was just awesome!

SOOC

After

Shot with my Canon 50D, 85mm 1.8, and edited in Lightroom 3, and CS5

Macro Friday!

2010-10-15T19:23:00.000-07:00

It's that time of week!

I'm so tired....it's been a long one, and I REALLY look forward to getting some sleep tonight!

Note to self: Babies don't like to stand still long enough for very effective use of a macro filter! lol

Hop on over to BLogging From Bolivia, and check out everyone's amazing macro shots!

Before/After

2010-10-14T05:44:00.001-07:00

It feels like it's been forever since I've been able to do one of these!

I photographed a birthday party this past weekend, and this little one was the baby sister of the birthday boy!

SOOC

After

I did a color one too, but I loved this shot in b&w....here it is in color if anyone's interested!

Shot with my Canon 50D, and edited in Lightroom

So, hop on over to Pixel Perfect, and join in the fun!

Our Soon To Be New Home...

2010-10-09T06:57:00.000-07:00

More house than I could have ever imagined we'd be able to own!

From the back..

The Garage.. (Which is going to be completely painted and have a new roof....I actually took these photos right after the contractor left)

Inside the Garage Loft

Back Yard

Entrance way from back door...

Third Floor - Full Bath

Third Floor (My Space)

Second Floor - Bedroom 1

Second Floor- Bedroom 2 (I think maybe the Toddler's room)

Second FLoor - Bedroom 3

Second Floor - Bedroom 4

Second Floor - Bedroom 5

Second Floor - Bedroom 6 (Possibly the teens...smallest room, and he has very few toys (more videogames than anything)

Second Floor - Full Bath #2

First Floor - Family Room/Office

First Floor - Livingroom

The front door/entrance-way is between the livingroom and diningroom, but I didn't get a photo...I was kinda rushed, as the Realtor had an appointment and had to leave

First Floor - Diningroom

First Floor - Kitchen

First Floor - Half bathroom off kitchen

First Floor - Mudroom

And outside, next to the house....this one little lone flower...the only one still (kinda) alive...

We are so excited....just waiting for Bank commitment letter...but they don't for-see any issues..... Contractor is going through right after closing to fix any and all peeling, chipping paint, and put a new stove in.

We were so heart broken two years ago, when we had put an offer in on a house, and Rick got laid off.......so we lost it.......I told myself it just wasn't in God's plan, that he had something better in mind.....

He sure did! This is twice the house the other one was! My parents live next door, and the kids elementary school is 4 blocks away!

:)

Macro Friday!

2010-10-08T10:58:00.000-07:00

Hey, look at this! I'm alive!

I even actually have a Macro Friday post!

Quick update.....more detailed post to come!

1. We got the house! They accepted our offer, working on Bank commitment (we had the pre-approval, but this is the next step...)It has pretty much taken over my life, at the moment, but we hope to have closing by December....

2. Blood testing for S is imminent....have to pick up the order in a little while. Hope fully, will do it tomorrow, or Monday at the latest.

3. Photography business is slowly, but surely, starting to build. :) I've got a few upcoming things, and I recently did a wedding. Having a blast though, and that's what counts :)

So, hop on over the Blogging from Bolivia, and check out all the other cool Macro pics!

PS House update coming soon, with photos!

My Genius...

2010-10-04T04:06:00.000-07:00

“The principal mark of genius is not perfection, but originality.”

>

Happy Craziness!

2010-10-03T06:27:00.000-07:00

One of these days, I'll have to get into talking about my past, because it really explains what a miracle all this stuff is in my life.

We've had lots of very happy stuff going on lately...stuff I'm excited to share about!

(For everyone who's praying for us too, S's appointment is on the 7th with her local pediatrician......the 15th and the 26th, we make the long journey out to see people on her cleft team.....hopefully, we'll have results from the Thyroid/pituitary testing I'm pushing to have done here locally, so we can see if there's a problem, and if there is, find a road map...)

One really cool thing that happened lately, is I was contacted by the PR director of our hospital.....they had used our story for their annual appeal last year, which resulted in over $8,000 in donations for the cleft and craniofacial team. This alone made my heart sing, but I was so honored by what else she had to say. Apparently, she had asked the cleft team if they knew of any other families that might be interested in putting themselves out there and letting them share their story....their response? "You should give Lindsay a call....she's more in touch with our families than we are! She'd have a pretty good idea of who may, or may not, be interested."

It is such an honor to be able to reach out and help other families that are starting this journey, not that we're a little bit further down on the path.

Anyway, in our super UBER big news.....we may be buying a house! We're waiting to hear if our offer was accepted, but we're so excited by this possibility! It's next door to my parents house too, and it puts the kids much closer to their school! Praying we hear back today or tomorrow, but we were able to get the pre-approval bank-wise....now it's just a matter of them agreeing, and us moving forward with all things home-ownership!

Anyway, more to come soon! So excited to see what's on this path God's laid in front of us!

Wishing I had all the answers...

2010-09-27T08:48:00.000-07:00

So, we're still waiting on our newly rescheduled cleft team appointment, but we had a height/weight check this morning, and, well, S has dropped off the height chart. Six months ago, we finally were on the base of the height chart, and now we've dropped off it. :(

This isn't great news. See, being short is all fine and dandy, but not following your natural growth curve is most decidedly not. When you have a cleft, any midline organ can be affected. Heart, pituitary gland, thyroid gland, .....anything that crosses that center line, can have problems. I need to call up her pediatrician, and request testing on her thyroid and pituitary gland.

I don't want to.

Plain and simple.

I just want to keep enjoying this beautiful little girl, who is such a happy little joy, and leave all this medical crap behind us. Just bury my head in the sand, plug my ears, and loudly sing "lalalalalalalaalalal" to myself....to just scoop her up in my arms and run away.

Sigh.....I better go find the phone and make some appointments. I know God's got us firmly in his arms....

Macro Friday...the return!

2010-09-24T17:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, I gotta make this quick, as S is trying to paint my diningroom with chocolate milk......

This is one I took quite a long time ago, but never shared!

Hop on over to Blogging from Bolivia, and check out all the other great macro shots!

I'll be posting more photos soon! :) Trying to get caught up....have had lots to do for my little photography business I've been working on starting up!

Be Blessed!

Foiled Again!

2010-09-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

Just when I think I'm gonna get back on the bloggy-ball,..... I get SICK!

For those of you who know me in real life, I tend to push through feeling yucky.....I just keep doing when I do, taking care of my family, etc......doing my Mommmy thing.

Except every once in a while, I get sidelined by a nasty bug.....I stop being functional for a couple days. It really throws everyone off...the house gets a mess, laundry doesn't get done, children wind up buying school lunches....

and then it takes me forever to get caught back up!

On a happy note, I got the honor of photographing a wedding this weekend......my first wedding for someone who doesn't know me at all!

I'm really so behind.... I need to do a birthday post for my sweet little S.....for that matter, I need to do a birthday shoot for her too!

In the meantime though, I need some sleep! I'll leave you with a photo of my M from the other day, that I took for Faith's photography class...

Nite you guys! Be Blessed!

Before/After....and why I've been missing....

2010-09-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

Ok, charity game I was hired to photograph is done. I am one tired Mama!
I will be posting photos from it a little later.....for right now, I need a basketball break!

So, as I've mentioned, I'm taking Faith's DSLR class, and it's awesome...... I'm having a BLAST learning my camera better!

So, for my before/after this week, I'm going to use one of the portraits I did of my daughter, R...

Before:

After:

She is my Diva, for sure! Here's a few more of my rock star...

and channeling her inner Janis Joplin...

Hop on over the Pixel Perfect, and see everyone's amazing edits this week!

Here's a few other shots I've taken for Faith's class in the past week or so....

Oh, ok..... one basketball photo from the charity game....

As for me, we've got a appointment next week with S's surgeon.....it's just your standard every six months visit, but it makes my stomach get all butterfly-ish....I mean, we just never know. We could go there next week, and have him see something in her mouth that needs fixing, and find ourselves gearing up for surgery again. Not what I want to have happen, but I'm trying to prepare myself in case. That's the tough thing, the care is so individualized after the first year, there's no laid out, set in stone path we are following. During her first year, I KNEW she's be having lip/nose surgery between 3 - 6 months, and I KNEW between 10 - 12 months, she'd have palate surgery.......now everything that lays out in front if us is full of possibles and maybes. ::::Sugh::::: I know it'll be ok no matter what. God's there, walking me through it all, even when I only see one set of footprints in the sand.....

Macro Friday!

2010-09-10T07:31:00.000-07:00

It's Friday, and I haven't had much time at all to take Macro shots this week! lol

It's still one of my favorite times of the week!

This week, I'm using a macro shot I took for my photography class.....it was a simple object assignment...

Inspired by my child, who left Mr. Whale cracker sitting all my his lonesome on the chair......

So, hop on over the Blogging from Bolivia, and see everyone else's awesome Macro shots this week!

Before/After

2010-09-09T05:29:00.000-07:00

Wow..... what a week it's been! Sorry I've been MIA for the past couple days, but between doing a couple photo shoots, getting the kids ready for back to school, being sick as a dog myself, and taking Faith's SLR E-class......I've been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off! (BTW..... he class is AWESOME......if you get a chance to sign up for the next round, do it! You won't regret it! Everyone can always use some fine tuning....her challenges are fun and, well, challenging! lol)

So, it's Thursday and time for Pixel Perfect's before/after blog hop! I'm happy it's one of my favorite challenges of the week, cuz I need a distraction! I did a shoot the other day, and the young lady I was taking portraits of, well, the photos are going to be published online as advertising for a charity semi-pro basketball game in my area. She's singing for the halftime show, and I'm waiting to hear back from her if she liked them.... so I'm a little on edge!

So, my before/after is a back to school shot today! As I was walking my brood down the street, I was wearing my camera (which was off at the time) and juggling the baby in an umbroller on REALLY uneven sidewalks.....the middle two got ahead of me a little, and I thought, "Wow.... that would make a really cool shot!" So, I grabbed my camera, turned it on, and took the shot.... I didn't even have time to check the white balance...

Before

So, when I got home, I did some editing in camera RAW, and in Lightroom 2, until what I got matched what I saw in my head before I took the shot!

After

So, hop on over to Pixel Perfect, link up your own edits, and check out everyone else's amazing work! I learn SO MUCH from this blog hop every week!

Back to School.....

2010-09-07T03:06:00.000-07:00

My friend, Mom to M&M, over at Simply Life Photographs, shared this a couple weeks ago when her kids started back to school. Tomorrow, two of my children have their first day back to school, and Thursday my oldest joins them......

Back to School Prayer

Heavenly Father:

On bended knee I offer you all the praise and glory for your creation. I am so thankful for the children that eagerly await that first bell, and I am thankful for the ones not so excited. I am thankful that you created the desire to be a teacher in so many that our children may benefit from the gift that you provided others.

I know that we are all sinful, Father. And I ask you to take away that sin so that we all may glorify you.

Lord, I lift up to you each parent that prepares their child for school, ( home or away) that you prepare their hearts to let go and expand their world. I especially lift up to you the parent who send their first child to school this year. Give that parent confidence and peace that their child will be well cared for, that no one will ever take their place. Help them prepare to start letting go as their child grows. And for the parent sending their last child to school .. Lord, give them purpose that is fulfilling. Fill the empty spot with joy as they see their offspring take off with new wings.

Lord, bless and keep each child. Provide safety as they travel to and from school. Open their minds to absorb new facts and knowledge. Provide confidence and security. For the shy child, provide a friend. For the bully, provide security and take away the desire to be overpowering. For the ones who struggle, provide a new approach to understanding. and for the chatty child provide some spiritual tape to their mouth. Let this year be the year of new beginnings of openness and acceptance for each child as you created them.

Lord, I lift up to you teachers. These adults are HUGE in our child's life. They can raise up a spirit with a kind word or smile. And they can dash ambition or interest in a heartbeat. Give them joy to teach. Have them long for each child to succeed to the best of their abilities. Create in them new ideas to reach each child. Drive them to provide and love and care for each single student in their care.

Lord, bless each family at this school..For the household that struggles with employment issues or financial issues.. provide a way to meet each need. The home that struggles with addiction or anger, fill them with your love and healing. The families that deal with illness and despair, fill them to. What ever the need, Lord, fill it according to your will. Create a light filled path that leads only to you.

For anyone Lord, use this educational experience for others to have a relationship with you. Pour out your love and strength and protection to them all!

In Jesus holy name, I pray,

Amen

(The photos above were from M's Kindergarten Orientation last week.....can't believe he starts school tomorrow! Where did my baby boy go?!>)

Mystery Macro Answer!.

2010-09-04T19:41:00.000-07:00

So...... sometimes, I get really board on trips.......

So, especially if it's nice out, I'll lower my window just enough, and take photos......

I live in farm country.....

So, to get anywhere, we pass a LOT of farms.....

Old Farms....

New Farms.....

and LOTS of these....

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Anyone?
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That, my friends...... is an itty bitty portion of a cow.....a cow's nose, to be exact! Taken from my passenger window, out of sheer boredom, on our way to Hershey.....

Cow.

'Nother cow.

Actually I think that was the same one.

A friend of mine reminded me of that quote the other day, when she saw these photos....anyone remember the movie it's from?

Cute Kid Contest!

2010-09-03T09:24:00.000-07:00

Photofreak has started a contest.....this one is a cute kid one! Now....how can I resist????

The contest rules say three photos per person...
Well, that's REALLY hard when you have four children! So, for the purposes of this contest, I am declaring my oldest as "Handsome" instead of "Cute", so I will only include photos of the youngest three! :)

Given I have a ridiculous number of cute photos of my kids, I limited it to photos I've taken in the last couple weeks...lol

Here's M at his Kindergarten Orientation.....

S with the cutest little serious expression ever.....

and R being her beautiful self!

So, hop on over and check out all the other cute kids! I know that's where I'm headed!

Macro Friday!

2010-09-03T07:45:00.000-07:00

This week has just FLOWN BY!!!!

I was only able to hop out and take Macro shots once this week, but these are my favorites!

(First one's my submission)

And...just for fun, anyone want to guess what this shot is of?

So, hop on over to Blogging from Bolivia, and check out everyone else's cool Macro shots this week!

Before and After Blog Hop!

2010-09-02T07:50:00.001-07:00

Hooray! It's Thursday!

I've been crazy busy over here!
So, this week, my shot is from an adoption I shot last week.

Before:

She's a gorgeous little girl, but she has a problem with her sinuses that are causing bags under her eyes (she's having surgery to fix this next month).

After:

Her excitement was contagious that day. She was so much fun!

This was shot with my Panasonic FZ35 (my big girl camera came the next day!) and edited in Lightroom 2 and CS5

So hop on over to Pixel Perfect, and see everyone's amazing before/after shots!

August Photo Hunt Challenge...

2010-09-01T04:39:00.000-07:00

So, this whole month, I've been working on the August Photo Hunt......it sounded like such a fun idea! So, today is the day we link up our entries!
Edited to add explanations and link back to photo challenge website!
1: A flag that represents you
I'm proud to be Italian....my Mother is 100%, and many of my relatives speak Italian fluently...

2.Something comfortable
Nothing more comfortable than a Father's touch...

3.Something in Season
Well, summer IS slide 'n slide season, right?

4.Feet
My favorite set of piggy in the world....so cute!

5.Repetition (click to enlarge)
Every look outside and just feel like your kids are EVERYWHERE???

6.Culture or Ethnicity
Something about kilts I just love...

7.Contrast
I love high contrast black and white shots....

8.An indulgence
Because who doesn't love pie?

9.A Macro or Closeup
Neighboring Lizard...lol......because sometimes you run out of bugs and flowers....

10.Something Masculine
This was parked near our house, and I thought it qualified...

11.Something Femenine
Something about the way she's holding her hand, and the look on her face, just is so girly to me.... I love this shot!

12.Light
Sunflowers and Sun....

13.Eco-friendly
Someone's recycling bin...... I took this one on a walk with my kids. I'm pretty sure I've embarrassed them for life....

14.Business
On the walk, our neighborhood post office....

15.An Arrow
I looked everywhere for a cool arrow..... I finally found this one on our drive to Hershey!

16.Something Wet
Doesn't get more wet than the top to a fountain!

17.Something Dry
Sand....lol

18.Butterflies
I have not seen a butterfly all summer.......this is my favorite wind chime though!

19.Heart-shaped clouds
Found on our drive to Hershey

20.Strength
My son, facing his fear of heights....

Not Me! Monday.....Amusement Park Edition....

2010-08-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

Not Me! Monday is the blog carnival created by MckMama as a way of "admitting" some of those, oh so memorable moments during the week you wish you could forget! Hop on over, link up, and join in the fun!

I'll start!

This week, it was Not Me! who didn't tell her children that their Grandma and Grandpa were going to treat them to a weekend at Hershey Park!

There's no way it was me who secretly packed all the bags and loaded the car, while my husband was at work and the kids were next door playing.....no way would I do that to myself! I know children need time to adjust to exciting news, so there's no way I'd spring a trip to an Amusement park on them, say, 5 minutes before we were gonna head out! Not Me! I know better than to set myself up for a nearly 4 hour car trip with four shocked children who are boinging off the walls like little caffeinated monkeys on trampolines! What thinking parent would do that to herself? Not Me!

Nor was it me who decided to let the toddler drive her first car.....

Since she was obviously much too small, it couldn't have been me encouraging her to steer the car, because I thought it would be a cute photo! I NEVER try to convince my children to do charming and oh-so-sweet things, just because I think it may look cute on camera! Not Me!

Finally, it wasn't me who attempted to get a cute photo of all four children before we left for the park from the hotel room. It couldn't have been me! As you all read here I learned my lesson a couple weeks ago about trying to get a nice photo of my whole crew when all by myself! There's no way I'd put myself through that misery again, not so soon after my last attempt, and ESPECIALLY not when the kids were all chomping at the bit to get into the amusement park! NOT ME!

NOT ME!

So, how about you? Hop on over to MckMama's blog, and see what everyone else has NOT been doing this past week!

Macro Friday!

2010-08-27T06:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday everyone!

Today is an AWESOME Friday... I'm so excited and honored my shot won last week.....AND we get to surprise our kids today with an out-of-the-blue trip to a big amusement park! Does Friday get any better than this????

So, here's my shot for this week..... my first macro with my new camera!

My first water droplet......

Not nearly as cool and shocking as my first lizard, but hey, I like it! :)

So go check out Blogging From Bolivia, see everyone else's cool Macro shots this week, and link up your own!

Just one more reason....

2010-08-27T04:03:00.000-07:00

.....why I love my husband.....

My Mom watched the kids last night, so my wonderful husband could get some extra sleep, as I was out doing a shoot...

When I got home, this was waiting for me on my keyboard..

God sure did bless me with a wonderfully loving and thoughtful husband :)

Before/After Blog Hop!

2010-08-26T10:54:00.001-07:00

It's my favorite time of week again! Pixel Perfect's before/after blog hop!

The shot I'm using this week (sorry, it's from my old camera, but I'm trying to catch up all the stuff I have to do photo wise!)is from the shoot I did with my son, M.

Before:

(Shot with my Panasonic Lumix FZ35)

And After:

I fixed the exposure, brightened up his face a bit, sharpened his eyes.... played with the tone curve (his skin is actually quite light, and doesn't have that orangey look to it, and the shirt is not a deep dark navy stripe.....)
Oh yeah, and I took the big scab off his nose....lol
Edited with Lightroom2 and Photoshop CS5

So hop on over to Pixel Perfect, link up your own awesome edits, and see what everyone else has been up to this week!

Do you ever just need a virtual hug?

2010-08-25T20:00:00.001-07:00

I try hard to stay far, far away from my pity pot. Yes, it's warm and familiar, but really nothing good ever comes from me hanging out there. It's warmth and familiarity are deceiving at best.

But sometimes, as happy and positive as I try to stay, my mind goes there.

It hurts having my child not speak and act like other kids her age. It kills me when I hear her choke and struggle with liquids. I want "normal" for her so badly..... I want her to say DaDa and Bye Bye.........and somedays it's really hard to not dwell on the things she's "not" doing instead of focusing on the things she is.

She is a blessing, for sure....

My heart and soul, all wrapped up in this amazing little package. See, these things that are so heavy on my heart don't phase her in the least. She is love. She is life.....she....just......is.......

Maybe I'm struggling because we're getting so close to her second birthday. When I see other kids her age talking, pointing to things, singing songs, and stringing words into sentences, i lose sight of how far we've come. We've been through so much together. She's my road trip buddy, as we've clocked more car hours driving back and forth for care than I really want to think about.......she's my late night secret keeper.........my cold day snuggle bug......and that little ounce of joy on a tough day that give you that seed of hope that tomorrow will be better......

When I first got her diagnosis on her ultrasound, someone gave me the poem "Welcome to Holland" by Emily Pearl Kinsley

"I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland."

It's that loss of that dream that I struggle with from time to time.....but I'm getting there. I'm thankful.....humbled that I get to me Mommy to this amazing little girl and her wonderful siblings....

and I know God isn't done with me yet....

Outdoor Photo Editing.....

2010-08-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

So, Brent Riggs (Riggs Family Blog) has a post up on his linky tools blog, offering a challenge of sorts where everyone who participates is a winner! Can't beat that, right?

Anyone who prays for Abby, and follows his blog(s) knows the man takes some AMAZING photos...... not only of his beautiful family, but of his travels and the world around him. He's put up one of his photos from a recent trip for anyone who wants to edit it, and link back up to his blog.......then, being a generous soul, he's going to do a demonstration showing everyone who links up how to make outdoor photos come alive! Given that, I'm ALWAYS wanting to learn more and more about photography, and photo editing, I'm linking up! :)

Here's his original:

Gorgeous, right?
Here's my edit -

So, here's what I did. I edited this in LightRoom 2. I use Photoshop a lot also, but I love how Lightroom makes it really easy for me to play around with different ideas and techniques non-destructively.....

First, I cropped the image so that the line where the ground meets the horizon fell about 1/3 of the way up the page. This also put the skyline pretty close to 1/3 of the way from the top of the page.

Under Basic Adjustments, I upped both the blacks and contrast slightly. Upped clarity to around 50, and nudged up the saturation and the vibrance.

On the tone curve, I moved the darks and shadows down and the lights up a little.

I upped the saturation of the yellows, purples, and blues.......but just a little. Upping them too much gave new meaning to "Purple Mountains Majesty".....they looked like they could have been kin to Barney.

Then I sharpened the photo using a .8 radius.

After I exported it from Lightroom, I ran it through NoiseWare Community Edition, as this was a JPG and I find they often get more noisy as I adjust things. I usually shoot in RAW, which gives me a little more leeway.

I feel kinda funny writing this all out, as I don't really have the experience to be teaching or doing tutorials.....lol. I'm also on an uncalibrated monitor at the moment, so if my colors are slightly off, my apologies! I just think this is a really awesome opportunity for any/all of us interested to learn something new!

SO... go check out his blog, edit the photo to your liking, blog about whatcha did, and link on up! Let's all learn something new together! It'll be great!

First shots with the new camera....

2010-08-23T22:08:00.000-07:00

So, I've had my beautiful, wonderful, big girl camera for about 8 hours now. I'm learning.......everything is in a different place, so it's taking me a while to find everything! I've managed to stay in full manual though (though for a few minutes there at first, I thought the aperture setting was playing hide and go seek with me!)

I'm pretty sure I was in love the minute I opened the box........ it's 1:30 in the morning, and I'm now forcing myself to go to bed, but I really want to just keep reading the manual and get to know my new friend......

The only thing I'm really struggling with right now, is getting the camera to focus in manual mode, using the external ETTL flash. A Zeikos 680ex ETTL came with my camera.....anyone have any experience with it? I think I'm missing a setting with it somewhere!

Not Me! Monday!

2010-08-23T04:49:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have a day go so horribly awry, that it's almost as if it were set up just to give you fun stuff to write about for Not Me! Monday? Well, I sure haven't!

You see, it was most certainly not me who went to bed last week, thinking she had heard a sound coming from the kitchen, but got distracted by the baby and never went to check it out. There's no way that could be me, as curiosity is my middle name! Always, if something is amiss, my acute sense of perception picks up on it immediately, and discovers it's source! I'm never scatterbrained! Not me!

So, it just stands to reason that it was Not Me! who awoke the next morning to find the evaporator motor in her freezer not working.

Now, even if that had happened (which it most certainly did not!), it wouldn't be me who, instead of calling a repair man, began to research the problem and dismantle the fridge myself. No way would I ever start a project I had NO KNOWLEDGE of or could possibly get in over my head with! Not me! I go professional all the way!

So it couldn't have been me who had to call my husband at work when, after re-assembly, the fridge wouldn't kick on again. Nor was it me who, after having had my hubby home for thirty minutes working on the stink'n thing, who called a fix-it person only to find out that I could have unplugged said refrigerator during it's "defrost" cycle and that it could take over an hour for it to kick on again.

Nor was it me who, an hour after I plugged the fridge back in, witnessed it miraculously begin working again. Not me!

It was also NOT ME! who, directly after, kissed her husband goodbye (who was eating lunch at the time) and preceded to pack all four children and picnic lunch items into the mini van, to go meet a friend and her family for a picnic lunch. Not me! If I'd had a morning like that, I'd be taking the rest of the day off!

So it couldn't have been me who's car blew out a tire a mile from the park.......... in a small neighboring town with no cell service. Or who hauled all four kids out of the car, and walked to the park, where hopefully her friend would be, with phone service. Nor was it me who, after walking 3/4 of a mile uphill, found an empty park.....and still no cell phone service....Good thing this wasn't me, because I would have most certainly pulled my hair out at this point!

Long story short (haha), it wasn't me who knocked on a complete stranger's door to ask to use his phone. I most certainly didn't have to repeat myself, feigning cheerfulness, three times as the cute little old man who answered the door was very hard of hearing. If that was me, I would have been thankful to have gotten a hold of my husband moments before he was headed back to work, and my friend who came back to the park to meet us and have lunch, since by this point, my children would have certainly been starving!

It wasn't us who forgot to bring charcoal to actually cook the food on, or who's friend had to go BACK to her house to just load up her gas grill and bring it to the park.

It wasn't us who forgot ketchup and mustard. Nor was it our children who happily ate hotdogs and hamburgers with nothing on them, as they were so hungry they probably would have happily gnawed on them raw if that was all that was available.

Finally, it wasn't me who came home to find, she'd forgotten to put chlorine in her pool floater thingy the day before. It couldn't have been my pool, as it's always perfectly balanced and NEVER has to be shocked again because it turned green!

NOT ME!

So how about you? Come link up your own Not Me! Monday post on MckMama's blog, and come see what everyone else hasn't been doing this week!

Just for fun.....

2010-08-20T09:33:00.000-07:00

Because, sometimes, sunflare shots are "Just Right!"

:)

Macro Friday! Lizard Lips!

2010-08-20T06:51:00.000-07:00

So, the other day, I was shooting, and I went to our next door neighbor's house, as I had promised their little boy I'd take some Macro shots of his frogs........

Well, it just so happened, his cousin pulled up as I was walking over, with this not-so little guy in tow....
(click to make bigger)

Gotta love Lizard Lips in Macro........

:)
He is seriously, one of the neatest looking reptiles I've ever seen(in person). While I may be afraid of bugs, reptiles and I are cool..... yeah, we go way back! At least they are usually large enough where they don't sneak up on me!

So, hop on over to Blogging From Bolivia, and check out Laura's macro shot, and everybody else's this week! Hey, while you're at it, post your own creative macro or close up shot, and link right up! Personally, I hold Laura solely responsible for my new obsession with Macro photography! ;) (Hey, at least it give me something to shoot when my kids run from the camera, even if my neighbors think I'm nuts now!)

Before/After...

2010-08-19T07:04:00.000-07:00

It's my favorite time of week once more! I'm sitting here, watching the calander, checking UPS Tracking progress, and watching my camera creep it's way from California......... it looks like it's gonna be Monday!

So, until then, I must keep busy with some bloggy fun!
Here's a shot I took at the Memorial Day Parade earlier this year. It was Noon, and crazy hot out.......... I felt so bad for them in full uniform!

So, I am a newbie to texture.....still learning what I'm doing! I loved Monica's Before/After shot of a old-fashioned camera last week though, so I thought I'd play around. (It was fun!)
So, here's what I wound up with:

So, hop on over to Pixel Perfect, and go see everyone else's amazing edits! I learn so much from this blog hop every week!

Wordless Wednesday.....

2010-08-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

Beep, Beep, Beep....... CLICK! Self Portrait..... What my children see...

2010-08-16T14:32:00.000-07:00

ALL....

THE....

TIME.....

What I learned? To NEVER AGAIN attempt group and individual portraits of all four of my children without another adult there to help!

Hop on over to Flat Yeast Bread and see what everyone else came up with!

Not Me! Monday

2010-08-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

This blog carnival was created by MckMama, as was way to (kinda) admit all those things you did during the week, that you'd rather forget! Come on over, link up, and join the fun! I'll start!

It was Not Me! who stayed up until 1am win an ebay auction for.....HER BIG GIRL CAMERA! It was certainly not me who acted like one of Pavlov's dogs in front of her computer monitor when she first happened upon said auction for a very gently used Canon 50D, 18-55mm lens, 3 batteries, charger, camera bag, external flash, 2 CF memory cards, all paperwork, original box, etc...... starting at $600, being sold by someone with 100%, positive seller feedback for many items. Nor was it me who got really excited when, in speaking to the man selling it, found out that he had bought it for his wife, who apparently really just wanted a simple camera to take occasional photos with. That it's shutter count is 50, and he went out and bought her an I-phone and now everyone is happy. AND... it's most certainly Not Me! who did a crazy little happy dance when I won said 50D set for $700..... I am WAY too mature for that! (Nor is it me who's bouncing around her house STILL this morning, giddy as a little kid in Disney World!)

It's also Not Me! who's still lens shopping.......because spending $700 in a day is PLENTY for me!

And it couldn't have been me who took her children to the park to take portraits this week, only to find herself half gray-haired, and ready to pull her other half a head of hair right out! My kids are ALWAYS well behaved and smile nicely for the camera. I never have surly looks, silly faces, or nose-pickers....NOT ME!

So how about you? Go check out MckMama's blog, and see what everyone else didn't do this past week!

Sometimes, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.......

2010-08-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

Macro Friday!

2010-08-13T06:59:00.001-07:00

On Friday, no less! Go figure!
Here's my submission, but lots more macro below! It was so hard to pick one!

So, I saved these shots all week for Marco Friday! This ladies garden was amazing..... I say garden, but it is wild...... more like going through a field of wildflowers. She had a few potted plants for sale on her front stairs.

So, come join the fun with Blogging From Bolivia, and check out everyone else's wonderful close up/macro photos!

Before/After Blog Hop!

2010-08-12T12:17:00.000-07:00

It's my favorite time of the week again! Pixel Perfect's Before/After Blog Hop!

Earlier this week, I told you guys about taking photos of an older woman's amazing garden. Well, I've been editing the rest of the photos, and came across this one!

It was one of the first ones I snapped before I knocked on the door and asked permission....these guys are actually well over the top of a 6 foot fence, hanging over the sidewalk!
I didn't know at that moment I was going to spend the next 45 minutes on this lady's property, nor was I even planning on taking photos...... I was on a walk with my kids!

So, when we got home, I kinda thought that one was gonna be a throw-away shot.....but hey, those are sometimes the ones I have the most fun editing!

After:

Even Further After:

So hop on over to Pixel Perfect, and see all the amazing edits! Link up and add your own!