i ♥ faces - week 5 - "Places I Love"

This weeks i ♥ faces challenge is to highlight the most romantic places you've been and then tell the story of why.

I started looking back thru our photos as we've definitely been to some very romantic places - sunsets on the coast in California (a favorite weekend past time of ours the 5 years we lived in Northern Cali), secluded beaches in Maui, Kauai, and Hawaii, remote back country lakes and mountain ranges.  We've definitely had our share so of course I can't pick just one! I'll highlight a few and provide a bit of back story for each....

The first shot is from San Diego.  Mark and I had a wonderful hike around the shoreline and were waiting for the sun to set for our typical sunset pictures and relaxation.

The next two are from a trip to Colorado that we took last year.  We went up at the height of the wild flower season and spent the night at a place called the Ice Lakes basin. The upper lake was just above 12k feet and just spectacular!  We had most of the place to our selves once the day hikers headed out and spent a very nice evening cooking dinner and watching the sun set (you'll sense a theme soon:) )

The next 3 are from our trip to Germany and Switzerland.  These were all from the Switzerland part of our trip and actually happen to be from one specific hike (amazing huh??).  The first is obviously the Matterhorn - how can you mistake that?  The second is from the Rifflberg Hotel area.  We were there off season so there was no one up there which made it even more beautiful.   The last one is from the end of our hike - the Gornergrat Glacier.  These areas are particularly romantic for us for a few reasons.  First, it was our first trip together overseas.  Second, it was just the two of us out on the slope hiking.   Third, it was the last trip before we found out we were expecting our first child (so we probably weren't alone on that hike:) ).

The last set is from our most recent trip to California when I was 18 weeks pregnant.  It was the most amazing trip - 3 days, 2 nights out in the back country of Yosemite National Park.  Yosemite is special to use because we went on some of the our first backpack trips together in the back country there.  Now that we don't live there we relish any trip that we get that gives us the opportunity to shoulder our packs again and get lost for while - this time with baby in tow (well, in utero at least..).

Project 365: Days 25 - 29

Wow, it's been a busy week!


Jan 25:  Marveling at two things - 1. my toenails are painted (8, almost 9 months pregnant - that's a feat!)  and 2. my right foot/leg is slowly trending toward tree stump shape!

Jan 26:  Handsome hubs!

Jan 27:  He was relaxing with a glass of wine - not me:)

Jan 28:  Playing with the white balance.  Left image is auto WB and the right is custom WB

Jan 29:  Aftermath of an evening with two geeks....dueling laptops...

i ♥ faces - fix-it friday

I've always wanted to do the i ♥ faces fix-it friday challenge but never had time to do it. This time they wanted to focus on textures and I'm happy to oblige and make time because I need more practice on this stuff...

Here's the original:

 

Here's my first edit.  I adjusted recovery, fill, blacks, brightness, and constrast in LightRoom and applied the LR preset called PH Soft & Dreamy.  I also cropped it a bit - out of aspect ratio but a neat crop none the less.

 

I then took that first edit and dropped it into GIMP and added a texture.  I found the texture on Flickr, set it to 30% opacity and set the blend to multiply.  I also added a blue background to change the color of the texture.

 The third edit is simply another texture I found on Flickr ( really need to write down who the author of those are..).  Set the opacity to 30%, blend to multiply, and use the eraser on 50% opacity to remove some of the color from her face and the snowman.

  

 Last one is just a LR Preset called "brighten up drab and dreary"...funny name but it works well:)

 

So, what do you think? That was fun!!:)

i heart faces week 4 - "Texture"

This weeks challenge at i ♥ faces is all about Texture!  I tried and tried to put in a texture to an image using Gimp but I'm afraid I'm just not that good yet so I thought I'd look thru my pics and see what ones I had that represented texture well...it was tricky.  The topic is obviously up for interpretation and I'm not positive what they were looking for.

I had a few shots that I really liked - one with little K playing in the leaves and what not where the leaves would be the texture in the image but in the end the image itself was just too soft.  It was taken before I really understood focus etc...(or at least got better with it out of our camera).  Then I ran across this one...a little creative cropping to enhance the water dropplets and I think we can call this "texture"!

The focus is still a little soft on his face but you can't help but smile and laugh at little at how much fun he was having here!

Check out the other great images over at i ♥ faces!

Project 365: Days 21 - 24

Jan 21:  Cute little mushroom night light from little man's room!:)  I was at a loss again for something and this just kind made me smile so I figured - what the heck!  I even turned out the lights for a good show!

Jan 22:  Macie lounging on the new rug in the baby's room....V's are known for their proper posture and we find her alot with those pretty paws crossed in front of her.

Jan 23:  Bad 365'r today...we had company and I totally forgot to pull out the camera - and there were so many good shots i could have gotten I think!  Oh well, I'll make up for it tomorrow!

Jan 24:  Okay, I am making up for my miss yesterday - two different subjects for you.  The first is DH's tool bag. I couldn't pick one that I liked so you get both of them:)

The second shot is a pile of goodies that I'm assembling into health kits that will be sent to Haiti with UMCOR.  The kits take just a few min to assemble and cost about $12 to purchase (or if you're a savvy shopper like me, only $8 each!!!)  

Project 365: Days 18 - 20

Jan 18: So, today I made binky holders out of ribbon and snaps.  The second shot is of my poor finger after it met its match with the hammer:(

Jan 19:  Our pup has a habit of hiding under my clothes in the closet.  We figured out it was because it was warm under there (heating vent protected by the clothes).  Now, when we're in the bathroom or in our room she's generally hiding out under there.

Jan 20:  I was struggling for something to take for today.  I had to leave for our baby CPR class and was waiting by the window looking for DH and saw this heggie sitting on a box in the baby's room.  I dropped him into the decorative grass from my shower and voila! A great pic:)

i heart face week 3- "We are family"

This weeks challenge at i ♥ faces is "we are family" and while I had a few to choose from, this one taken with a timer was the most fitting for us! 

Project 365: Days 15 - 17

So, it seems I've been doing this every three days....maybe that pattern will continue, maybe not:)  Anyways, here's the latest installment of my 365 project - I'm still taking them every day!!

Jan 15:  So, Macie has taken to sitting on top of her crate rather than in it these days...I thought it was hilarious the firsts time but still get a kick out of it even months later.  The poor crate top is sporting a serious sag from her 40lb heft!  I adjusted the exposure a tad but not much else.

Jan 16:  These cuties are from my baby shower this weekend!  My mom's co-worker has a daughter in high school that's an aspiring pastry chef.  She took a pic my mom had and turned it into these cute little cup cakes!  They were the dessert and favor of the shower (and quite the hit might I add!).  Aside from a quick saturation bump and tiny vignette these are SOOC.

Jan 17:  I had to take a pic of this bug it won't do it justice.  The image is from the front of my maternity book that my friend at Good Things to Come Photography assembled as a gift to us for the shower.  Inside are the most amazing shots with beautiful quotes and notes of encouragement from all of our friends and family.  I get teary eyed just thinking of it.

Project 365: Days 12 - 14

Jan 12:  The sunlight in our bedroom this AM was really nice but hard to deal with (it was far too direct I think).  I messed around with the manual settings for a while to see what i could get but wasn't happy with any of them.  This one is the best of the bunch I think , I love how her eyes are in focus and her nose isn't.

Jan 13:  As part of my version of nesting for this baby ( i think ) I've been on a craft spree!  Countless trips to JoAnn and Michaels and hours spent on line looking at craft blogs has led me to the two beauties below!  I saw a mobile that I loved on etsy but couldnt fathom paying the $90 they wanted for it so I thought I could do it myself.  These two little guys are the first of about 6 or 8 that I need to make.

Jan 14: Again, more nesting, I'm trying to teach myself how to crochet so I can make these cute little amigurumi animals!!  This is my basket full of yarn and the how to book....it still have a TON to learn!

i heart faces week 2 - "Best face photo"

This weeks i ♥ faces photo challenge is all about your best face photo taken in the last few weeks. I had two that I really liked but you can never go wrong with kids so I present to you - Little B! 

Head on over to i ♥ faces to check out the other entries!!

Project 365: Days 8 - 11

Jan 8:  This was on our morning walk. The snow had crusted over and had the tracks of not only my husband and our pup but other pups and animals as well.  It was an interesting shot.  I had to pull back some of the blue since that's what you tend to get when you photograph snow and I've not figured out a way around that yet (my WB settings were of little help).

Jan 9:  I couldn't pick just one today since we had two great ones to share.  Both of these were morning walk pictures.  We were headed to Macie's favorite field to play ball.  I love the second one where she's pointing.   She's pointing at Mark because he's getting ready to throw the ball but she's pointing none the less (she's a Vizsla and they're bred to point hence my excitement)

Jan 10:  Another day where I couldn't pick just 1.   I started out trying to photograph the icicles outside our bathroom window on a fully manual setting (which didn't work, the exposure difference was just too great - I had to LR the pic to get some things back)  and when I turned around there was a great silhouette of me in the shower enclosure.  You really only get the belly in this shot as my head is all squarish because of the camera bottom but none the less I like the shot.

Jan 11:  Below you'll see the fruits of my trip to JoAnn Fabrics!  With the birth of little man approaching, I've been searching high and low for great backgrounds to use to photograph him (and other props but that's a totally different post).  JoAnn was having a big sale and I was in the same plaza so I figured I'd stop.  The left and right fabrics I found on the red tag table for $5.00 a yard each.  The middle one was in the children and nursery fabric section and was only $6.00 a yard!  All are 57" wide and should work well with my new plexi!  Now I just need to make a stand of sorts so that I can hang them to shoot.  Draping them over the loft railing is working for now but the lighting is questionable most days.  I'd rather shoot in the kitchen where the lighting is fantastic!

Project 365: Days 4 - 7

Jan 4: decided to have a photo shoot with the puppers.  Until our little one arrives you'll likely see lots of pictures of her:)

Jan 5: So, I tried to take a few shots of myself in the mirror (since today is the day I normally do my weekly belly pic) but found that unless I jacked the ISO up way high, i just couldnt hold the darn camera still enough.  This was one of the best shots i got.  First one is SOOC and second is after a little LightRoom fun:)

Jan 6: So, i finally made it out to Home Depot to get some plexi.  I've been wanting to try a shot with plexi for a while.  Since there's not little one to shoot yet, the teddy was my star today! First one is with a minor correction in LR and the second is just having fun in LR.

Jan 7: I was looking around the house for something to shoot for my daily photo and thought about taking a pic of the art for the baby's room but as I looked around I saw his new little onesies laying on the floor and had to take a pic of that.  First one is SOOC and second one is after a little LR.  It was actually pretty okay SOOC:)

i heart faces week 1 - "I ♥ Faces"

This is my first "I ♥ Faces" content entry and the theme was "I ♥ Faces" in honor of their 1 year birthday. I stumbled upon their website via another blogger (who, unfortunately I can't remember now) and was instantly hooked! Take a look for yourself and see some of the other entries for this theme - I ♥ Faces

They run a different theme each week and often times you can only submit one image. However, in this contest you can have up to 5 images entered so here are my shots:

This one was an attempt at a maternity shot!  Hubs had a few great ideas and we had alot of fun trying to get it right.  The lighting was tricky!

Little M was having a ball this summer with her ice cream cone.  You'll have to play "where's waldo" to find the logo:)

Little B was bouncing around the computer room singing "oh yea baby...".  I think my mother in law has a similar shot of my husband at this age.   

I took this shot of little A during a baby shower this past summer.  She was just a month or two old I think  and was just the sweetest thing in the whole world. 

Little K was so busy playing in the mud and dirt that she failed to notice the cake that had been set out on the table!  The rest in this series a full of watermelon, sticky finger, dirt and bugs.  All the best makings for happy kids!

Some of these are more subtle than others and I tried to work the logo into the image best I could.  I welcome the feedback!:)

I am submitting this photo into the I Heart Faces logo photo contest. By entering, I am granting I Heart Faces LLC permission to consider my photo for use in the marketing and promotion of their website.

Project 365: Days 1 - 3

Let project 365 commence!  I think I'm going to do this in week installments so here's week one - it's a short week

Jan 1:  Carnage - it's a tradition with Mark's family to have surf and turf on New Years Eve.  This year due to car troubles and a lack of foresight, we ended up with surf and turf on New Years Day instead.  This is the carnage of 2 lbs of snow crab and two adults!

Jan 2:  Mark's been under the weather for a few weeks.  I think it finally caught up with him today and this is how I found him and the dog around lunch time today.

Jan 3:  We're in the middle of a wicked cold snap.  I was trying to get the thermometer on our bedroom window but it doesn't show the right temp.  It's 28 odd degrees in the sun - 17 in the shadow and 6 with wind-chill!  It's a very cold day!

365 Days of Pictures

I've seen a number of posts by other bloggers about the 365 days of pictures and thought that I'd try myself.  The goal (for me) is to improve my photography and to document the new addition coming soon.  It also helps me to focus on looking at my environment from a different perspective to find the most creative way to photograph it.

I'm not sure what format I'll pull together here.  I think I'll post a week of images at a time because time often times gets away from me.  

Each picture will tell a story of some sort and will be a nice way to look back on our year especially since once little man joins us, things will fly by I'm sure.  I want to make sure I remember ever bit of his first year!

So, stay tuned for the first weeks worth.  I figured I'll post on Sunday all the previous weeks worth of photos.  Since this is a new resolution, this week will only have 3 pics (Friday, Sat, Sunday - jan 1,2,3).