Pretty People

All I can say about what I've learned along the way is that, all other photography skills aside, it's easier photographing beautiful people. And I've been quite fortunate to have been able to almost exclusively photograph beautiful people. Lucky photographer am I!

Don't believe me?  Check out my last post.  Or check out the photos here:

Adorable, right?

I don't lie about things like this.  Other things, yes.  This? No.

I mean, look at them!  They enjoy having their pictures taken, too, so it's a double-win to me.

Starting Again

Well.  It's been a couple of years since I last wrote anything here or shared a photo.  I don't know where time goes!

I know I've been distracted by life; my focus the past few years has been on health, through learning about nutrition, cooking and baking healthier recipes (even developed several of my own), gardening, and exercise.  Unfortunately that has allowed some things, like this internet space and even my photography, to take a back seat.

As a (very casual) hobbyist my photography is still here.  Fortunately I have some friends who like to make use of my skills, which makes me incredibly happy.  I think I'll start out here again with sharing some recent images.

Thoughts 'N Stuff

Oooh, thoughts!  I has 'em!

It's the getting serious and writing them down and, for goodness sakes, actually thinking about them a little bit.  Who has time for that?

I will get around to it, my pretties.  I will.  In the meantime, take this with you...



... if I was still on that ferryboat, I'd have time for all this.

Untitled Blossom Photo Just Because

A close-up of the tree blossoms that have me captivated.

I feel like I should name her.





I'll call her Reba.

Interim

A little of what we've been doing in the cold white north... (except for you, Average Mom - to you we are in the balmy white south) ...



Recreating the game of kings... and jedi knights and wizards and ninja masters.  Because that's just what we do when a lego-crazy 6-year-old boy wants to learn the game and his equally lego-crazy mom wants to teach it.

It's a crazy awesome world here.

Stepping Back

I've been a bit unsettled lately ... and didn't know why.  Maybe it's not having enough time to do things.  Maybe it's not having enough exciting projects to do.  Maybe it's too much of the unfun stuff to do.  Maybe it's winter.

But mostly I think I'm not happy with my photography and feeling uninspired, feeling like it's not going where I want it to go.  It's a feeling of being stuck and not knowing what to do next.

As a something-to-do, I put up a handful of photos at Clickin Moms  for some serious critiquing.  It needed it.  I needed it.  I received some awesome feedback that, while they didn't pull the punches, it wasn't as hard to take as I thought.

They were right.  Everything they said made sense.

And I knew something else.  I need to take a step back.  (That was the feedback from some... take a step back so we can see more, too closed in, need more space...)

But I need to step back from my photography.  Really take a good look at what I'm doing, what I want to do with it, what I need to work on, and the improvements in my skill level.  All that needs to happen before I even look at where I want to go with it.

I also realized that while I'm nowhere in a league close to some photographers I admire, like Jess from Old Nichols Farm or Praveen from Zoom Life Productions or Kat or Jill or Charmaine or any number of other photographers.

But I do want to tell a story with my photos.  Frankly, it's not all about portraiture or what sells that I like.  I like the little things, the everyday things that I want to remember.  I want to see these memories that are not static polite smiles.  I want the smirks, the laughter, the tears, the daydream.  I want the messes as well as the picture-perfect moments.



And I feel drawn to try things on my own that have been tried before and may be cliche, but I haven't done them so I want to do them.  All part of learning, right?  I feel drawn to try some artsy stuff.  No matter how much it's been done before.  I haven't done it.  And I want to.  I want to experiment and push myself in that way.  And I will do it.



One thing I do know.  I am NOT a business person.  I don't want to focus on a business right now.  That's not to say I won't in the future or I'm incapable of mastering this challenge.  It's not what I want right now, and it's most definitely not my focus.

My focus is the moment.  Whatever that is, or wherever it takes me.

New

Playing around with CS6 this morning.





Yes, you read that right.

This Is Why You Don't Photoshop After A Cleanse (Or Is That TMI?)

Returning to the photos I took on my wonderful photowalk earlier this week with my son, here is what I've done with them.

SOOC:

Very basic edit:

SOOC:

Very basic edit:

Then, out of nowhere, the creative edit just happened.

Ashley at Ramblings and Photos gave some great tips on texture. As I don't tend to use texture in my edits, I find that the use of them doesn't come naturally to me. Actually, I prefer not to use them. I find that while I like how others use them, they're just not me.

So, to sum up: the photoshop spirit took over (yee-haw) and magic happened. Again.

Creative edit:

While this is not everyone's taste, it is an interesting take on the photo and in fact, ups the textured look of it because there's so much else there. And it all kind of works and blends in.

Not that I need to convince you. Either you like it or you don't. (My feelings won't be hurt if you don't like it. Really.)

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Taken with my Canon Rebel XSi and edited with Photoshop Elements 6.

Good-bye To Winter (Not That We're Sad To See You Go)

Well, I promised I would post the other edits, and I'm finally get around to it. Yay.

No, really: yay.

You'd think I was sick of snow, the way I complain and complain about it.

I actually really really am.

Even the boy is tired of it. He's waiting anxiously for the mud puddles and rivers to form in the road. Again: yay.

He's ready to ride his bike, not the sled, down the hills and paths and sidewalks.

He told me so. After he got a rock and start smashing all the ice he could find in the front yard. Speeding up the melting process, you know.

And so, while the snow is still here (it's going to take awhile to melt a couple of feet of the horrid white stuff), it is warming and we won't be seeing it for too much longer. (Knock on wood.)

Then there'll be less reason for this:

Or do we even need a reason to have hot chocolate? Maybe this will be the summer of the hot chocolate revival.

Oh, and for the haters out there (yes, they've actually had words with me in person) ... the black nail polish is not only cool and groovy, it's useful.

He's hardly bitten his nails since we did it. I say that more than justifies a boy using nail polish.

Perfect Green, If I Do Say So Myself

So, I'm excited. Magic happened. I don't have the screenshots to show the magic, but it happened. I swear.

I love this shot; the pose is perfect. There something about it I love.

There's also something about it I hate. The composition is off. Part of the subject is cut off. No, not the boy, but part of the image that should be there ... the sled ... is not there.

That bothers me more than you know.

So, to fix that, I edited the photo as I normally would, then added some extra flavoring: sampling part of the sled from another photo that had a workable image, and stretching the canvas to match.

And, (as my son would say) Wallah!

A perfect composition.

(Doesn't he have a way with words?)

For a better look, side by side (this is the first time I've done this - more magic!):

I'll post the other edits later, but for now.... whew!

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Taken with my Canon Rebel XSi and edited with Photoshop Elements 6.

Yellow Pools To Her Fluffy Soul

I always look forward to Thursday, to the editing portion of the week. I enjoy it, and I love seeing what others have done with their photos.

BUT before we get into that, I want to ask you to go Daisuke's Story, and read it. I'll let you know right now that it's a little bit of a long read, but critically important. Daisuke is a friend with whom I attended college years and years ago. He currently lives in Iwaki, Japan where most of the earthquakes and nuclear reactor meltdowns are occurring.

Japan is a wealthy and prosperous country, but the devastation has wreaked havoc with their resources and ability to rescue the thousands upon thousands from the cold, starvation, injury and the rampant spread of disease which follows such disasters. Time is of the essence, and only additional help can keep our helpers moving and rescuing over there. They're not all strangers; they are friends.

So please, either before or after checking out my awesome edits, go and read his story.

AND for EACH of those who leave a comment or commit to a donation to help out with the rescue efforts, I will pledge a dollar IN ADDITION TO WHAT I'VE ALREADY PLEDGED. That's right, a dollar for EACH comment, over and above what I've already done. (Please don't tell my husband about this either. What he doesn't know won't hurt him.) ;)

No, it doesn't sound like much, but what if I get 500 comments? It's unlikely, but I can't take the risk of pledging more than I can afford. At the bottom of his story are links to check out how to donate to help, most of them asking for $5 or $10 amounts. Every little bit helps.

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Now, on to the edits!

sooc:

edit:

I have to admit, this wasn't my favorite shot, but the edit turned out better than I thought. I cropped out the ugly red box in the background, and did subtle things to the light through levels adjustments and sharpening to selected areas through the high pass filter and unsharp mask.

sooc:

I had some trouble with this, and did a couple of edits to compare, mainly due to the angle. It was a fun angle, but the more I looked at it and played with it, the more confused I got. I ended up cropping quite a bit off to correct the angle, and then boosted levels and sharpness. That's all.

sooc:

edit:

This one was a fairly easy judgement call: crop out the ugly leg of the tripod and boost levels and sharpness.

sooc:

edit:

As was this one.

Even at midnight, after following the Japan story online for two days straight (in between the activities of daily living, I mean).

And THEN for fun, I went back and added back in some of the haze, as per Ashley's tips this week, effectively undoing what I did before. Except for the first: that needed every bit of help it could get!

Awesome.

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Taken with my Canon Rebel XSi, and edited with PS Elements.

Selfie Shoot - This one is just going to have to be artsy.

I never thought I would do this.

I don't like doing this.

I planned on another photo... a cute photo... a photo of a cute couple I know.

And then I got curious and tried this.

I don't take self-portraits. Ever. This is very unusual. I prefer being behind the camera taking pictures of pretty things.

I guess this will be an artsy-fartsy photo instead.

Winter Morning Reborn

I think I messed up. I set the bar too high for myself last week.

Also, my photo this week has all the elements I like, but is missing that "je ne sais quoi"... and I'm stymied.

Hmmm... (I'm actually writing this before I've completed my edit, because I'm hoping this process will stimulate some creative spark in me.)....

Here's the SOOC:

And now what to do?

I like the softness... the light... the color... the contrast... I just need to enhance that all, right?

.....

.....

.....

And this is what I came up with:

To keep it simple, here's what I did:

On Elements, I created a Levels Adjustment Layer:

I made a copy of the background layer, then added a High Pass Filter, as per Ashley's instructions... with only a radius of 15 pixels this time. (I erased it from the trees and buildings at the bottom because I didn't want to emphasize that.)

Then, a Brightness/Contrast Layer... Brightness: +17, Contrast: +11.

Then, a Gradient Map Adjustment Layer... Multiply at 23%.

Then, a Photo Filter Adjustment Layer. I chose Warming Filter (80) at 47% and put the layer's opacity at Normal and 43%. I also erased the warm mask from the blue sky to keep that purity and color.

Then, to offset the warmth and enhance the blue and red tones, I added some violet tones through a second Photo Filter Adjustment Layer. This one I set at 25% density, and used Screen mode at 100% opacity. This also helped offset the darkness of the gradient map.

Then, to created a bit more drama (I guess I really am a bit of a drama queen), I added that finishing touch: Gradient Fill Layer, just like last week, with these settings: gradient black/white; Radial style; 150% size; Reverse; 90 degree Angle. (For a the complete set of instructions regarding this layer, go to my obnoxious and long edit tips and scroll down to Step 14.)

Ok, so my actual finishing touch was my watermark which I added as a layer in Elements. I used the Eyedropper Tool, clicked on the background where I wanted the watermark to go, and made the watermark that color. Then I put that layer in Color Burn at 100% opacity.

Click on the links below to see more views of the morning.

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Taken with my Canon Rebel XSi, and edited with PS Elements.