An afternoon at the beach...

I took the following shots back when our computer wasn't working, and so I never had the chance to post them. So, with their permission, I wanted to share them with you.

This wasn't a photo shoot, but just my observations of them as a family(personally, one of my favorite families) while we spent a couple of hours at the beach.

From new experiences...

...to droopy drawer experiences.


I thought this would make a cute picture of their son about to stand up. I didn't notice until after I uploaded the photo, that he was actually looking at his own reflection. So this shot, which turned out pretty nice, was actually quite by accident, a really cute accident.


Memories from a great time at the beach!


Great time with great friends!

Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,
Denise

Nothing Like A Stroll On The Beach

My Boys!


Someone can hardly wait to stand on their own. Can you just imagine what adventures he will discover? Look out world!


Grandma "Mimi", who hadn't seen the children since the baby was a few weeks old, has been enjoying all the extra hugs and kisses freely given as well as received.

Our daughter enjoyed herself a lot! It wasn't long before the waves called out to her and she gave in to temptation!

Thanks again for stopping by!

Leaning On His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

Just my boys...

I took this on Father's Day weekend appropriately. Can you feel da' luv?

Leaning On His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

Like a Kid in a Candy Store...

I had the honour a couple of weeks ago to be a part of my sister's wedding back home in Canada, and of course, you know I just had to bring along my camera. My sister and her husband graciously gave permission to post a few of the pictures that I took.

Comments and constructive criticism , whether good or bad, are welcomed and encouraged.

Before the wedding began, my sister and I dressed at a friends' home. The photographer kindly allowed me to be his shadow for the shoot at that beautiful location. That was so nice of him to allow me to do that. Here are a few I took at the home our friends' living room. I had so much fun. For the most part, the lighting was great, my camera cooperated, and the soft yellow pallette of the room gave the ivory shade of my sister's gown a certain softness that I really liked in the final result.

This first one, I actually got the doorknob in there by mistake, but I actually really liked the way it appeared as if I were taking a peek in the doorway, so I opted not to crop it out.

A shot with our daughter, the flower girl...

In this one, I was practicing my macro setting, and focusing on the bouquets. Not bad, but I wish the background would have been a little more unfocused.

after fooling around with photoshop...

While the photographer was setting up another shot, I caught our daughter looking out the window and captured this...

and this...

I loved the look of it so much, I shyly suggested it to the photographer and showed him how it looked on my camera. He liked the setting as well, and took my suggestion. That was neat! His composition was a little different, but just as lovely. Here were my two takes on it.

after fooling around with photoshop...

This was my sister's huband's tribute to his late mother. It was too beautiful. I just had to capture it for him to remember that moment of his touching speech.


I just love the candid moments, don't you? Here is my sister and her very own beloved! My sister has such a joyful laugh...

Just a candid of the bride and her little flower girl (our daughter)...

Even the outlaws(just kidding!) felt the love (my beloved and my sister)...


Peek a boo! For being the only child present at the reception, our daughter behaved relatively well. I actually got compliments from management. Made me proud! Towards the end though, she discovered the tablecloths made a great fort!


Thanks for looking!
Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,
Denise

More Practice On Layer Masks...

The other night, I caught this interaction between my husband and our son. It was a sweet moment where he was discovering Daddy's hands were just like his, only bigger. The more I looked at the picture afterwards, the more I wanted to capture the moment without the background details and just focus on the affection between them. It was a long shot, but I wanted to pretend that it was a formal photo shot on black velvet rather than on our quilt.

First, before doing anything special to it, I just cropped it in pretty close so that I could also include the look of wonder in our son's eyes as he held his Daddy's fingers. Then, I added a new blank layer and simply used the paintbucket to make it black. Then, in order to reveal the black "velvet" underneath, I clicked on the top layer, and because I have PSE 5.0, I used the eraser tool to erase away the quilt. To soften the edges on the hands and our son's face, I just used the burn tool selectively where the "velvet" would have cast a shadow or touched the skin to soften the edges. Then, to save the new picture, I flattened the layers.

It's a little rough looking on the bottom of my husband's thumb, but practice makes perfect.

Here it is in black and white. This is what I would like to mat and frame maybe include a caption of some sort...



My second practice photo was taken outside in a truck. Cute, but the sunlight was kind of bright on his face...


...So, first, I fixed that as best I could. Then I repeated the above steps and finished with the burn tool this time concentrating on the folds and shadowing. While I was doing that, I discovered that by using the larger diameter coverage, I could enrich the colors of his shirt and jeans. Looked much better that way. Again, before saving it as, I flattened the layers. I really like the way this one turned out even better than the hands portrait.

The black and white version actually looks like it was originally taken on a velvet backdrop. Neat!! I am pleased with how it turned out.

Well, thanks for taking a peek at my experiments. I really have fun with it. It gets my adrenaline going!!

Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

Ooh! Look What I learned today...

Isn't this neat? I learned it off of today's entry of Pioneer Woman Photography. I learn so much from her. She talks in plain sentences. Not all tutorials are created equal. Some can be pretty vague at times. The only difference was for my Photoshop Elements 5.0, I had to use the eraser tool instead of the brush tool. All in all, it's pretty neat, eh?!

I'm not sure if you can tell but I also did her eyes too. Here is a close up.

Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

More Photoshop Practice

Just fooling around with different crops on this first one.

Here is the Original...

First, I ran a noiseware to soften it. Then, I straighened the picture by using the ledge of the bench as my guide. As usual, before taking the shot, I again overlooked the pizza face so I had to clean her up around her mouth. Almost just as good as a washcloth, don't you think? Then, I did the eye pop that I have just learned this month.

Finally, after fixing the blowout on the left side by playing with the saturation, temperature and tint, I cropped it in tight to avoid the distraction of the restaurant window.

Since I am focused on practicing different composition possibilities, here are two other angles of the same shot.

Coming in from the left...

And finally, the right...

In the editing of the second shot, I did many of the same things.

Here is the original...

This time, however, I had the window to the left of her face and it kept drawing my eye to it. So in order to draw the eye to the subject of the photo, I copied the bench to the other side, covering up the window. And again, did a tight crop. I like this much better.

Well, thanks for looking!

Love em? Hate em? Could I do something differently? Please feel free to comment.

Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

First Picture in 2009!

Before taking down the Christmas tree for another year, I was fooling around experimenting at poses with our baby, and was able to get this great shot. He was looking at my husband behind me. We had trouble getting him to take his hands out of his mouth because he is already teething in the bottom front of his mouth. Even so, I liked the potential in the picture. I was able to do the eye pop. At screen size, you can really tell, but in this small format, it doesn't seem to show up as well. But anyway, it is fun trying!

Here is the unedited version before...


...and the after


Here is a closer look...do you see the "pop"?



Okay, indulge my photoshop experimenting, I just couldn't help myself, here's some more plays...

In a sepia-like shade...

...in black and white...


...and finally(yes, I mean it this time, tee hee!) in black and white with a frame...


I think I want to take pictures of my children every Christmas as they grow up, in front of the tree to see how they change throughout the years. I wish I would have done this with my daughter when she was his age. Oh well, better late than never. In the next few days, I will probably post some of the shots I took for Christmas of them together.

Thanks for indulging me, and especially for looking!!

Happy New Year to all of you!

Denise

I'm back!!

So much has happened in the last year!

Since my last entry, we've had a new baby boy and he is keeping us quite occupied. Pleasantly so, I might add.

I've still been practicing my composition and have gotten some great work to add to my portfolio. I will be posting some of it over the next little while. I'd love to hear what you think. I know I can always improve. I have so much to learn still.

As you can imagine, I am able to get a lot of practice now photographing our new baby. So I am trying to take advantage while I still have the privilege of watching him sleep, grow, smile, coo, not wiggle too much, etc,. You get the idea. The possibilities are endless.


I will be sharing some of my practice shots as I go, and again, would love your feedback on composition. I love to learn, and as they say, "you're only as good as your last (photo)"

Our computer went kaput just after the new year, and we finally were able to get a new computer! Yay!! So I am finally able to use the Photoshop Elements 5.0 that I bought over a year ago. Of course, the first thing I did was purchase "Photoshop Elements 5.0 for Dummies". I'm so excited!!

Well, I'm off to collect some of my favorites over the last year since I last posted. So please, come back again soon!!

Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

Another Practice Shoot!!

Well, this was actually my third practice shoot. I couldn't obtain permission by the parents to post my 2nd practice shoot which took place that same year. I so appreciated the practice anyhow.

It was an outdoor shoot at a local park with a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. I am so excited! I had so much fun! What an adrenaline rush!! They are such a sweet couple and were such a pleasure to work with.

The lighting was not that great that morning though in some of the pictures, but I think they will like them nonetheless. I met them at 9am and the shoot lasted about an hour and a half. I think in the future I will probably try at 8am and see if that might avoid strong sun spots and shadows.

As my thank you for them letting me practice on them, I had an 8x10 and a wallet size of the best shot, made for them, as well as a collage of my favorites, also an 8x10.

I dream of someday owning a Nikon D80, but for now, please excuse the point and shoot(Nikon L11 Coolpix). In the meantime, I am focusing on my composition. CC welcome!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Edited to add correction suggested by helpful comment...

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