Siblings By Birth, Friends Forever!

I was so honored to be asked by the following couple to do a photo shoot for their family. They were a joy to work with, and the boys, simply adorable! Right up to the last few minutes of our session, even the youngest son was still smiling and relaxed. Really, the only time I had a little problem getting the boys' full attention was when a group, of possibly boy scouts, came out of the woods from a fishing expedition. Now you can't blame them for being a little distracted. Surely fishing at that moment would be more exciting than what they were in the midst of. Giggle!!

I got that same adrenaline rush as each time in the past I've done a session for others. It really invigorated me. So much so, that I felt so excited, that I started to feel like I might be talking too fast!

So, here is the session with them. It begins with the parents. I'd love to hear any feedback. It will help me improve!

(My apologies in advance, please note that the slideshow has to run it's own course. When I try to move ahead manually by clicking the left or right arrows, it freezes up. Thanks for your patience.) If you still have problems, try the following link: http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d5449324e5463774f44513d0d0a&sb=1

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I had a few ideas I had been playing around with in my mind and the boys graciously indulged me. Two of the three concepts I had, didn't work out the way I thought they would, but, the third, I was especially pleased with the result.

I could tell the family genuinely cherished each other in the way the parents looked at each other, the way that the boys wrestled together, the protectiveness of the older boys watching out for the younger ones. It a was very 'warm and fuzzy' kind of experience for me.

So, a great big thank you to Mr. & Mrs. G and their 6 boys for the opportunity to capture them in the moment!

Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

Working on some editing skills...

For awhile now, I've been wanting to learn how others "frame" a picture by darkening the edges. I found a great tutorial here that helped me learn how. It also included however, teaching how to turn it into sepia before adding the framing effect, so I had leave out the sepia step to get the look I wanted. It didn't turn out exactly how I had envisioned it, but in the end, I was happy with the effect.

Original (untouched)

In the first edit, I just corrected the skin tones, cleaned the food off their faces, warmed it up a little and cropped it ever so slightly.

In the next edit, I followed the steps from the tutorial. I changed it a little by playing with the color saturation and tried to age the picture a bit to make it a little more vintage looking.

In the end, I really liked their method compared to others I had tried, but I felt the picture needed a pop, so, after I was done, I layered the 'edited' original underneath and placed the sepia finished one on top, and erased the eye part from the top finished layer to bring out her blue eyes from the colored picture in the bottom layer. I think I like that the best so far. What do you think?

Hope you have as much fun as I did practicing this method. Thanks for stopping by!

Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

Just practicing layers!