Pages

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

New editing technique

I stumbled upon a tutorial on replacing a dull, dreary sky in a picture with something a little more colorful. I decided to give it a quick try, here are the results!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Let Them Be Little

I haven't blogged regularly in a long time (I've got a lot of catching up to do!), but this week's photo challenge over at I Heart Faces is a theme that's near and dear to my heart..."Let Them Be Little".

For this week's challenge, I decided to enter a photo of my mom & my niece...nothing better than "Grandma & me" time, made even better when the little one is wearing her Minnie Mouse costume while reading a book! LOVE!!!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Random Ramblings

As I sit here today, I'm contemplating whether to make some changes to this blog. Yeah, I know...I haven't even been blogging here for long (and lately not at all!), but I want to blog about so many different things; family, photography, friends, photography, baking, photography...you get where I'm going? My first post here involved family, photography and baking...it was Auggie's birthday party, for which I spent time with family, baked his cake, and shared photos of it all. But since then, I've mainly posted about photography. So, I'm thinking...should I keep this blog the way it is, and step up my blogging to include a little bit of everything? Or should I split it up, have one blog more for photography and this one for everything else? I just don't know!

The past few weeks have been super busy! I'll try to do a short recap of what's been going on in my world.

My cousin, Lauren, just graduated from 8th grade. We did a fun photo session on 5/22, here are 3 of my favorite shots!




Saturday, May 21, 2011

Fix-it-Friday's #99

Time for another round of Fix-it-Friday over at I Heart Faces! This week's photo is courtesy of Andrea Riley.



For my edit:
  1. Spot Healing tool to clean up a couple of spots on her coat
  2. Baby Powder Room from The Coffee Shop Blog to correct some of the red showing in her skin (from the lolly-pop) and to lighten under her eyes a bit
  3. Eye Popper for Dark Eyes from My 4 Hens
  4. Curly Sue action from My 4 Hens, adjusted the opacity a tad bit ;)

Friday, May 20, 2011

Spring is in the air!

Wow - I didn't mean to go so long between posts...I hope that's not something I repeat again anytime soon.

We've been so busy...between work & home, I'm having trouble keeping up! Rob & I both work full time jobs, plus I sell Thirty-One Gifts, and together we also run a lighting & DJ business. And, it's that time of year where the DJ business kicks into high gear (wedding season)....we had our first wedding of the season last weekend!

This week is the beginning of tot soccer & t-ball for our niece & nephew (3 & 4 year old league). Soccer has begun, t-ball starts tomorrow. Here are a few photos from their first night of soccer.


And I couldn't resist adding this photo of Adler sitting on the sidelines with my mom!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Fix-It-Friday's - #97 & #98

I love participating in Fix-It Friday's over at I Heart Faces! Unfortunately, I never got around to posting last week's Fix-It Friday image; so I'm posting both last week and this week right now.
5/13/11 - photo by: Angie Arthur Photography
For my edit: I used Pioneer Woman "Boost" action + My 4 Hens "Breezy" action @ 85% opacity.

5/6/11 - photo by: Susan Kelly
My edit 1 - Lightened to adjust exposure + PW "Bring Out the Eyes" + Coffee Shop Blog"Honey Retro".

My edit 2 - Lightened to adjust exposure + PW "Bring Out the Eyes" + My 4 Hens "Mood Ring" @ 80% with 50% toner adjustment.

Monday, May 9, 2011

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge | Motherhood

This week's photo challenge over at I Heart Faces is Mother's, since yesterday was Mother's Day. I've decided to enter a photo that I took of my sister-in-law, Laura, and my niece, Shelby.

Unfortunately, I have not been blessed with the chance to become a mother. My husband and I have spent nearly 8 years trying to start a family. We have been through fertility meds, 3 rounds of IVF, and a cancelled (much to our dismay) adoption during this very long and trying 8 years. I don't know if I'll ever have the chance to be a mom (other than to my 2 furbabies ie: dogs), but my awesome sister-in-law so generously allows me to experience the joys of motherhood through the tremendous amount of time I get to spend with Shelby.

And with that being said...I present to you: Laura & Shelby


And, a bit about Mother's Day...
I hope everyone took the time to thank their Mom this Mother's Day. I have a wonderful, beautiful, generous, loving, & FUN Mom that I am blessed to not only call "Mom" but friend too. Mom, I don't know what I'd do without you!! Love ya! ~K

Monday, May 2, 2011

Weekend recap

My plans of a nice, quiet weekend didn't turn out quite how I planned...I'm not complaining though, since my days were filled with fun & family!

Every weekend officially kicks off at 4:30 on Thursday afternoon for me since I don't work on Friday's. Thursday afternoon I got a call from my brother that they (his family & my parents) were on their way home from vacation a couple days early, due to the bad weather we've had in Southern IL (they were horseback riding in Shawnee National Forest)....so Thursday night I met all of them at our local small town bar for greasy cheeseburgers & beer (Mt. Dew for me). I was super excited to see my 3 year old niece, Shelby, who I hadn't seen in almost 2 weeks....and I'd like to believe that she was equally as excited! :)

Friday morning found me up & out early, hitting the streets of my small rural town for the "town wide garage sales" with my mom & niece. We did quite a bit of shopping, but the true winner was Shelby (3 yr old niece) who purchased EXACTLY what she announced that she was looking for before we even set out for the day (play horses, her newest addiction). We followed up our "garage saling" with a trip to the local recreation department to sign Shelby up for the 3-4 year old soccer league, lunch, and then out to my parents farm to relax awhile.

On Saturday I had more time with mom & Shelby as I tried out new camera equipment (pictures to follow), while Shelby played on her new scooter (garage sale purchase), followed by a dress up/fashion show (more garage sale purchases). I love practicing my photography techniques...and I must say, I have the best little model around! :)

Sunday I decided to make a family dinner...I opted for lasagna and tried out this new recipe, and although it wasn't "The World's Best Lasagna", it was pretty good...although not near as good as what my Mom usually makes! The best part about the meal was time spent with the family... Yes, maybe I had a little too much family time this weekend...but I loved every minute of it!

Saturday, April 30, 2011

I Heart Faces Weekly Contest - Soft & Sweet

This week's contest topic over at http://www.iheartfaces.com/2011/04/photo-challenge-sweet/ is Soft & Sweet. I've chosen a picture of Shelby & Sophie for this contest. I love this photo because it was so unexpected, I walked in the room and they were sitting in front of the window in a chair together. So cute!




Friday, April 29, 2011

Fix-It-Friday #96

I participated in my 2nd Fix-It-Friday (FIF #96) over at http://iheartfaces.ning.com/forum/topics/fixit-friday-96. This is a great chance to practice photo editing skills & a chance to learn how other people edit as well.
I did 2 different edit versions this week (couldn't decide which I liked best!).

This is the orginal. ^^^

My editing steps for this one above:

  1. I first cropped the image to remove the car on the left side.
  2. Exposure Fix from My 4 Hens Photography
  3. Boost action from The Pioneer Woman
  4. Spring Chicken action from My 4 Hens Photography
  5. Web Rounded Corners action from The Coffee Shop Blog.

And for this one, I did the same steps as listed above - except in step #4 I used the One Day action from My 4 Hens.

All edits were done using Photoshop Elements 8.

Links to the good stuff:

http://myfourhensphotography.com/shop/

http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/

http://www.thecoffeeshopblog.com/

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

I Heart Faces Contest - Pets

I've entered in a contest over at http://www.iheartfaces.com/2011/04/photo-challenge-pets/ , this week's contest subject is PETS! And, coincidentally, I took photos of Sophie on Saturday afternoon.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Fix-It-Friday's

Today I participated (for the first time) in Fix-it-Friday's over at http://www.iheartfaces.com.
For Fix-it-Friday's they post a photo and let you download the full version & edit to your hearts desire, then you can post your edits back on the site.
I've been stalking that page for awhile now, it's always fun to see how others edit pictures and what comments are received.


I opened the original in Photoshop Elements 8, I then opened the Coffee Shop Blog's action called Baby Powder Room and worked a little magic to remove some of the redness around her nose & mouth, plus used the eye cleanup feature to bring out her eyes a little. Then I ran an action from My 4 Hens called April Flowers. So, what do you think?

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Auggie's Birthday

My oldest nephew, Auggie, turned 3 on Saturday! Friday afternoon he came out to my mom & dad's house to help decorate his birthday cake. His party was going to be baseball themed, so I bought the Wilton baseball players for the top of the cake and we made a baseball diamond & he put the players on.

The party was fun; good food & family - couldn't ask for more! Here are a few pics from the day!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Here we go!

I've decided to once again jump on the blogging bandwagon! Right now I plan to use this blog to post many various topics, such as: my passion for photography, time spent with my niece & nephews, baking, cooking, crafts....

So, let's jump right in! Here are a few pics that I took last weekend!