22 JunBirthday Shots

So I’ve really been enjoying Erin Cobb’s Mama with a Camera series - and one thing that stuck in my mind was her lesson on Being Different.  One of her examples – don’t get in front of the birthday guest when they are blowing out candles – get beside them. 

I tried to put it in action at Miss Lena’s birthday the other week – and I love these two photos!

 

Truly you see the action happening and its a great way to document the day.

Thanks Erin for the advice!

22 JunAmelia’s New Hobby

To get Amelia to pose for some pictures this weekend, I ended up teaching her how to use the camera – kind of.  She tries to aim and hit the button – hard for her to hold it up and look through the viewfinder but…. here are a couple of her photos.

 

Who knows – maybe she is on her way. :)

01 JunLena’s 3!

I was honored to get to take pictures of Lena in honor of her turning 3 – here are just a few of my favorites.  She’s just six weeks older than Amelia and Amelia’s best friend – and just so adorable and full of personality.  Enjoy.

19 MaySOOC + Edits

Probably one of the things I’m most fascinated about is seeing what comes Straight Out of the Camera  (SOOC) and the edits that people apply – the before & after.  I don’t believe in lots of edits – mostly cropping, lighting, some color adjustments.  In fact, I will be primarily using Lightroom just for that reason.  Some people go overboard but it really is a personal thing… here are just a few of my recent edits.

Before & After

And another:

Before & After

And yet another…

Before & After

And last one.

Before & After

04 MayDerby Day and Mint Juleps

We decided to celebrate Derby Day with some mint juleps – I could really use it after a wonderful, but long, day in Lightroom class (Loved it!), and Chris could use it after a long day watching the kids without me.  They are fun and adorable but they can be handful.

This photo, ironically, didn’t need any editing in Lightroom – but it does look tasty don’t you think?

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30 AprBest Husband Ever!

So my husband looked up, found a one day Lightroom class, then suggested I sign up and he’ll take the kids all day – on a Saturday!  Very excited.

In the meantime, here is one edited photo of Amelia from the past weekend.

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21 AprLightroom

I was excited to not only get Lightroom, but we also upgraded our computer so it wouldn’t freeze everytime I tried to work on photos or video.  Yeah!

Course I have no idea what I’m doing in Lightroom – yet.  But I have been playing without reading what to do of course!  Here are a couple of pics.

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This one was one of the per-sets – it makes for more contrast, kind of cooler colors.  A neat effect I thought.

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And this I just did the fun treatment of fading to black all around the image.

I can tell I’m going to have lots of fun!

06 AprAwesome Kid Pictures

How do you like the title of this post?  I’m just proud of some photos I got this past weekend and I wanted to share.

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These two I like because of the sidewalk going off into the distance, the perspective and how it captures how cute it was with them playing chase on the sidewalk.

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Amelia is at an age where she won’t smile or look at me if I’m trying to make her take pictures.  So I have to capture her more ‘in nature’ or in her element – and I love these I got of her this weekend.  You can really see her fun silly personality.  That last picture is my favorite – I think I might have to get that one printed big.

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And these last four are from a staged photo shoot -hence the bunny dress and bunnies all around.  Katherine is young enough not to know I’m staging photos and was luckily in a great mood – not something we’ve seen a lot of the past few days as she fights off yet another cold/virus thing.  And I just love how these came out.  Also print worthy.

Just ordered Lightroom so I’m pretty excited about that!   Trying to do more photography again – I ebb and flow with my hobby – right now I’m really into it even though I don’t really have the time.

29 MarA Retreat and Practice

I used my girls’ retreat this weekend to play with my lens baby more – here are a few of my favorites.

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And then, nothing special about this next shot other than I just thought the moon looked awesome through the trees.  Before we got scared by the wind making random noises with girls alone in the mountains haha.

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I feel like I’m getting better – next stop – using lens baby with people!  That will be hard.  I still barely get inanimate objects – but fun to try.

22 MarWelcome Baby Marshall

I am not a professional – but I love my hobby.  And so when of my best friends had her newest baby boy – I offered to take some newborn pictures for her.  I had fun!  They are no where near the quality of our good friend & photography Elizabeth (www.libbiewicket.com) – but I really think I got some good ones.  My only real complaint is I didn’t take the time to do some on a black background (well that and it was bad weather – I was determined to do natural light!), but we got some really adorable ones anyway.  Here is just a peak into the photo session: