Singing in the Rain

A massive, huge storm front moved through our town last night. Not exactly moved. More like settled in for a few hours. The topper to a fun evening: power outage! Just as I was about to heat up dinner! So, after a cold dinner, we sat in the dark. And sat. And sat. It was only 7 but dark because of the gloomy skies. And it was dark because I got rid of most of my candles when the kid came along. Fire and kids don't mix.

So, since there was no longer thunder and lightening, and no power, we decided to do what everyone should do when it rains: play in it! My kid loves to play in the rain. And he loves to wear his rain gear. And I love to take pictures of him playing. It's a win-win situation.

I love that happy look on his face.



And I love the blue of his outfit. So I thought I'd turn it all black and white and bring out the blue. But I forgot to do the blue of his eyes! Oh well! I still think it's cute.



And here we are looking at the cool green/yellow sky that only comes after a storm.
This photo is untouched.


This one's been given a little tweak of the blue. Since you know I love blue!


And that's it! Our power came on not too long after this. But we sure did have fun!

The Eyes Have It

Someone once said "The eyes are the window to the soul."

My son has the most beautiful baby blue eyes. Not that I am biased or anything. He was born with them and they stayed the most gorgeous blue. Even though I can lay no biological claim on my child, it's amazing that he and I have the exact shade of grey/blue eyes. And even though my husband has blue eyes, too, his are much more clear than ours. Sam gets to look like his daddy, the least he can do is have my eye color!

So maybe that is why I love photographing them.

And why I love making them pop!

A little brush, and little change in opacity, sometimes a little tweak of the tint. That's all it took to make the eyes shine.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BLACK & WHITE WITH COLOR TINT: maybe I should have tinted more?

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

And in closing, to quote Elton John: Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen!

Just A Little Color

It's amazing how boring our pictures are straight out of a camera! Take this picture:

Cute kid. Cute picture. But it lacks a little oomph. So, I boosted up the color levels and painted over his irises with a low opacity brush to make them pop. And VOILA!




What a difference a little PhotoShop makes!

Yet More Wildflowers to Pick

My kid LOVES flowers. I've said it before and I'll say it again. If we pass by a flower anywhere I have to let him pick one or we'll never hear the end of it. But, that allows me the chance to shoot away without any objection from him.

Here are the latest flower shots. I'll be sad when this field of wildflowers is gone for the summer.

This shot is straight out of camera (SOC) and unedited. Not bad, not bad. But let's adjust the color levels and contrast.

The color makes the yellow pop and the contrast really helps to define the details on the Queen Anne's Lace. Now, let's take it down a notch.

This makes it look all golden and lovely. Like a shot from the 1970's. And finally, my favorite.

I put black and white on top of the golden picture and increased the grain. Makes it look like and old newspaper, huh? Then I burned the edged to give it a vignette look.

Hope you enjoyed! Get playing with your pictures! It's amazing what you can do in just a few minutes to make those special pictures even more special!

It's An Addiction, Really!

So, I'm totally hooked on PhotoShop Elements and taking pictures. Because now I have learned that you can make crappy and so-so pictures look great!

Let's start with the sweet, adorable photo of the kid. This is straight out of camera (SOC).

And let's tweak the color a bit, shall we:

I also brightened his eyes in this one. Makes those baby blues POP!

Next, let's fade the color down a bit:

Cute! I like the vintage-y washed out look.

And finally, let's go to the dark side:

Ta dah! It really does not take long to make your pictures have a little va-va-va-VOOM!

Picking Flowers

My kid loves to pick flowers. If I didn't watch him carefully, there'd be nary a posey left on our block. But much to his delight, next to our neighborhood pool is a gigantic field of wildflowers. I let him go crazy and pick till his heart's content. Because that allowed me to go crazy and shoot till my heart's content!

I love the back of my kid's head. I don't necessarily have to have his face and smile in every shot. That's why I picked this photo out of the 97 I took!

1. This is the original straight-out-of-camera (SOC) photo. Not bad. I shot it at the perfect time of day- 1 hour before sunset.

2. A little B/W action. I played with the black/grey/white levels to give it that good newspapery effect. I prefer newspaper b/w finish over the traditional. Guess it's in my blood, given that my dad's a newspaper man.

3. Played around with color levels to give is a vivid yet natural look. I like it, but boy is my kid's skin white! Guess sunscreen works!

4. Vintage look. Love it! Looks like all of my childhood photos from the 1970's. I've got to figure out how to paint certain colors, because I think this would be lovely with the black-eyed Susan's more yellow.

5. This is called the Orton effect. Makes the colors vivid and then gives a soft, slightly out of focus glow. Very nice.

So hard to decide which is my favorite! I like them all!!!

Welcome to my new blog

Like I don't have enough to do! Now I've created a new blog! But, it's strictly dedicated to showing off my photos as I play around with my camera and Photoshop Elements. I'm not a pro nor do I ever care to be. I'm doing good just to get a decent picture of my own kid, let alone get paid to take one of yours! But, I've always loved photography and I want to have fun, learn how to make my pictures better, and share the results with you. I'll also include links, tips, and tricks to what I've done. If anyone actually cares!