Playing around with Photoshop...

If you have photoshop, try this cool setting. It's under Special Effects to the right of your workspace and then choose "filters" and "brush strokes" and under that you should be given the choice of "crosshatch", then just double click on it and refine the settings to your liking and save.

It may not show up very well here on my blog because of the smaller dimension, but use it as your desktop background, and it looks amazing! It looks like an artist's rendering of your photo! Good times!!

Before...

after...

Unfortunately, in the small size, the textured effect is hard to see here on my blog, so let me crop it a little closer for you to see what I mean. Isn't that nice how her eyelashes look like a painting? Just experiment, you'll have so much fun doing it! I encourage you to keep learning something new everyday!

Have a great weekend!
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

First Shots From My Big Girl Camera...

Oh, what fun I'm having! The camera is beautiful! The pictures crispy, and the colours, so vibrant!! I love everything about it!

Look at the difference in just the colours between my old camera, a point and shoot Nikon Coolpix L11...

And now with my DSLR Nikon D80...

Those were both unretouched. It is everything and more than I had hoped for! Can you tell I'm still excited? It was about 3 hours before I could pick up the camera and try it out for the first time without my hands shaking. When I first got it, I put it together, but within minutes of assembling it and looking it over, my hands were shaking too much to hold it, so I had to put it back in the box where I couldn't stop looking at it. Silly woman, eh? I'm still unfamiliar with shooting in manual mode, so for now, the pictures are taken with the auto features. Sometime this week, I hope to start practicing the manual mode maybe in our local park. I can't hardly wait!

Well, here are just a few of the hundred shots that I've taken so far.

The first few, I took outdoors...

Here is a visitor I had in my kitchen on Saturday night. Look at the detail of the dragonfly.

And finally, here is a few from the mini photo shoot I did last night with our children.

I had never noticed until now the cream-colored flecks in our daughter's eyes. Awesome detail picked up by the camera!!

And here are a few of my favorites...

Thanks for looking! And if you're a repeat visitor to my site, thanks for stopping by again! Thanks for following my journey with me as I strive to learn as much as I can, to be the best that I can at what I do.

Leaning On His Everlasting Arms,
Denise

Beyond speechless...

I'm shaking all over with excitement!! There was a big humongous surprise from a very dear loved one in the mail. They sent me a Nikon D80 and an 18/55 lens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can barely pick it up out of the box, I'm so excited...and humbled at the same time by their incredibly tremendous generosity!! Okay, I'm going to go cry happy tears now!

As Always, Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,
Denise

Snuggle Time, Captured In The Moment...

The Two Men In My Life. I probably should have waited until Father's Day to post this, but I couldn't wait.


In Sepia...

Thanks for stopping by.

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

My first storyboard practices! Fun!!

I belong to a great group where templates and tutorials are shared.

Here's what I came up with for my very first one.


Isn't it a hoot? I love the different expressions from his first experiences with the different baby foods. I chose to do black and white because I knew that the colors would all be assorted in the backgrounds and clothing. So I did that for uniformity and so that it would not be too busy on the eyes.

And here is the second one.

This was just some of my favorite of our son's baby parts that I didn't want to forget. From his little nose, hands, feet, to the little natural swirl in the center of his forhead. So yummy! Again, I chose to do the black and white so that I wouldn't have to worry about matching colors.

If you think you might be interested in joining this group of ladies, let me know and I will be glad to send you an invite(the group is a mixture of beginners, professional "wannabees" like me, and professionals already established in their photography careers).

Well, thanks again for stopping by!

Leaning on His everlasting arms,

Denise