i heart faces- “Celebrating Teens”

I’ve known Grace for a few years now.  It wasn’t until she started keeping up with the trends that I started feeling old.  I used to feel young and hip, and even kind of cool.  But now, now I feel old.  I don’t fit in with young and hip anymore.  I just look at them and wonder why they wear what they are wearing.  Actually it’s pretty fun to see some of the trends come around again. Some of the outfits I see are pretty entertaining. You can see more of our mini shoot here.  If you’d like to check out some more hip and cool teens head over to I Heart Faces!

i heart faces: Fix It Friday

It’s been awhile since I have participated in a fix it Friday, so I thought today would be a good day.  I also got some questions about textures and thought it would be fun to explain how I do it.This is the original photo.First I opened the photo in Adobe Camera Raw.  I do that with all of my photos.  Then I just play around with the sliders until I like what I see.Next I opened the photo in photoshop CS3 and cropped out some of the distracting background. Here is where you have a few options.  I love MCP Actions Texture Applicator.  If you love actions you definitely need to check out Jodi’s site.  She has some really great ones.Now if you don’t have the action you can also do this.  I downloaded the free i hear faces holiday bokeh textures.  I love them.  Anyways, just open up the texture you want to use.I chose this texture to warm the photo up a bit.Drag the texture over the photo.  Then go over to the opacity slider and play with it until you like what you see.  I have mine set to 22%       Now with Jodi’s texture applicator the action automatically adds the texture you choose and adds a mask.  With her texture you can erase areas that you don’t want any of the texture showing.  I just left it alone, but it’s an option if you wish.  It’s great!Now I just sharpened and resized for the web.  Voila!

Now you go to i heart faces and check out some other fix its.  It’s so much fun to play around.

I Heart Faces

With all the snow we have been receiving it feels as though Autumn doesn’t really exist. However between snow storms we had a warm, sunny day and the kids were able to play in the leaves. The ground was still mushy and muddy, but that didn’t bother them. I was even able to capture this photo before the Fall season disappears for the rest of the year. Check out some more “Autumn Beauty” photos at I Heart Faces by clicking on the button above. *On a side note: The snow continues as this morning we woke up to 8 inches of snow. Two days ago we were in the 70s. Gotta love Colorado!

I Heart Faces

This week at I Heart Faces the theme is "Autumn Beauty." It seems as though our fall season has been cut short with all the snow we have been receiving this fall. I was, however, able to capture this photo in between snow storms. (I wanted a new fall header.) It was a beautiful, warm day, as well as the only day the kids were able to play in the leaves before more snow rolled in. Check out some more entries at I Heart Faces or enter for yourself.

An Evening at the Park

Last week my neighbor asked if I could take some family photos for them.  We went to a nearby park one evening.  The lighting was great.  I love the light in the evenings.  It’s so pretty.  Isn’t their little boy a cutie?  Of course when we were done with the photos we had to hit the playground.

I Heart Faces

Every Friday is Fix it Friday at I Heart Faces.  A photo is posted and everyone who wishes to participate can edit and play with the photo.  There some really great edits.  I have never participated before, but I thought that I would give it a try this week.

 

Original:

I actually really like this photo the way it is.  The only thing I think I would do is sharpen it a little.

 

My edit:

To have a little fun this is what I did:

This was all done in Photoshop CS3.

• Crop
• Then I used Pioneer Woman’s Vintage Action.  She has some fun and free actions for Photoshop.  Check it out.  I lowered the opacity to 50%.
• Lastly I sharpened and resized the photo for the web.

I Heart Faces

This week’s theme at I Heart Faces is “At the Beach.”  Here is my entry.  Living in Colorado this is probably the closest thing we have to a beach compared to the beaches and shores I grew up with in Washington.  Check out some more entries, or enter for yourself by clicking on the button below.

Eleven Months

Elizabeth is now eleven months old.  Like I’ve said before, the time just seems to fly by.  It appears as though she has mastered climbing up the stairs, but hasn’t quite figured out how to get down.  She thoroughly enjoys trying to mess with her brothers while they build train tracks.  Blowing raspberries and yelling have become some other favorite things to do.

I Heart Faces

This week at I Heart Faces the theme is “Sports in Action.”  There is definitely action in this photo and always tons of action whenever we hit the pool.  This photo just cracks me up, so I had to enter!  Don’t you just love the orange goggles?  Check out some more action shots by clicking on the button below.

 

There is also a special “Pets” category this week.  I think we’ve adopted the ladybugs in our backyard as our new pets for the summer.  The kids have enjoyed catching them lately. Click on the button below to see more pet entries.

Ten Months

Elizabeth is ten months old today.  (Yay!  That means I only have two months left until this new one arrives!) She really loves clapping.  She is so proud of herself when she does it.  Waving and saying “Hi” are also things she enjoys doing when she’s not getting into everything within her reach.  Luckily we have a sunken family room and she has not attempted to get up the stairs yet.

Elizabeth loves eating with all of us.  She stares longingly at our food, so we are phasing out that nasty smelling baby food and she is now eating more of what we eat.  She’ll eat anything you put in her mouth!

She is extremely fascinated with everything around her.  She carefully examines blades of grass that she picks out of the lawn just before putting it in her mouth.  When Jared comes home she crawls over to him and tries to pull the hairs out of his arms and legs.  She is very determined to pull some out, but it just doesn’t come out as easily as the grass.  Jared doesn’t really enjoy this too much.  She’s just exploring…

I Heart Faces

 

This week at I Heart Faces the theme is Sepia Tone.  Here is my entry.  Elizabeth has become such a little ham for the camera.  It’s pretty fun.  Be sure to check out the other entries by clicking on the button above.  There are some really great ones.

I Heart Faces- Constructive Feedback Friday

Since finding this blog I have learned so much and now look! They are even going to help me figure out how to fix the problem with this photo, I hope. Can you see what's wrong with it? Well, the major problem anyway. It's hard enough to get one child to sit still for a photo, so getting 5 to sit is even more challenging. When you have everyone looking and smiling you have to be quick. In this photo you can obviously tell that I am focused on Thomas. Everyone else is blurry. I am still learning settings with camera and my different lenses.

Here is the EXIF data:

85mm

1/60 s at f/2 + 0.33

ISO 200

Editing was done in CS3. I shoot most of my photos in AV Mode, so I was wondering how I can get a clear shot of everyone when there is so much movement. When I use a higher f-stop sometimes the photos come out darker. Any help and feedback is very much appreciated.

Working on Photography...

Here are a few photos I took of David playing in the backyard. I have been trying to get better with my natural light photography and editing skills.