Pixel Perfect Blog Hop

It's Thursday again! I've had this photo waiting for today's Blog Hop all week =)

SOOC:

My daughter playing outside.

Edit:

In ACR I increased the exposure, temperature, black, contrast and vibrance.

Then over in PSE7 I ran the Coffeeshop action Glamour Glow to brighten her eyes and smooth out her skin. I've been thinking about playing with textures recently so I used one I had called, "stone wall." I don't remember which blending mode I used (darken- maybe?) then I reduced the opacity until I was happy and erased it from her face and body =)

Thanks for stopping by, check out more beautiful edit over at Pixel Perfect!

My New Lens!

Happy Birthday/Anniversary/Christmas to me!

I got my new Tamron 70-200mm 2.8 lens yesterday!!!! I've been dreaming about this lens for a while now. The Canon version is totally out of my price range, but my wonderful husband found an amazing deal on the Tamron version.

My first impression was, "Oh, S***! This is heavy! I had heard reviews that it was a heavier lens, there is a lot of hardware in there, but it really is =) Not too heavy though. I can definitely hold it and operate it just fine.

And oh man it is beautiful =)

With all it's accessories (tripod mount, lens hood and bag).

Here are a few pictures I was able to take already:

Ooh, look at that bookeh! (125mm f/2.8)

I'm REALLY happy with the lens. I'm totally looking forward to using it again soon!

Simplicity Photo Challenge

I'm entering Faith's Simplicity Photo Challenge for the first time. I've been extremely busy around here but I LOVE photography challenges so I just had to enter =)

This week's theme is: Out and About.


This picture is from our trip to AZ last month. My husband, daughter and son at the park. I really liked how the texture added something to the photo.


Thanks for stopping by. To see more Out and About photos stop by Faith's blog!

3 Months And Counting!

There are only 3 months left until Christmas! Can you believe it?!
The weather here in SW Oklahoma is starting to feel more like Fall and I love it! I'm also pretty happy with the fact that I'm about 75% done with my Christmas shopping! I feel like the UPS guy stops by my house almost every day ;)

Since the holidays are just around the corner I'm happy to announce a GREAT special for those looking to have a photo session for their Christmas cards. All family, children and maternity sessions are only $60 until the end of the year!

I also have some amazing software that allows me to make totally customized Holiday/Christmas cards for you!

If you're interested in booking a photo session please contact me soon as my weeks are filling up fast =)

P.S. Those of you in the Phoenix area, I'll be in town from Nov 11-21st on "vacation" but I'd be happy to find some time to do a session if you'd like!

Check out my Family, Children, FAQ and Contact pages for more info!

Have a wonderful week!

Pixel Perfect Blog Hop

Happy Thursday everyone! I feel like I'm running a little bit behind today.....so I'm finally getting a chance to participate in one of my favorite blog hops of the week over at Pixel Perfect!

SOOC:



Edit 1:



Edit 2:



Check out more edits at:


Have a great day!!

I Heart Faces: Smirk

Wow, what a crazy weekend! *sigh* That's why I'm a little behind on getting to this weeks challenge at I Heart Faces.

The theme this week is smirk. I thought of the perfect shot of my daughter from a few weeks ago. She's 2 1/2 and definitely at the age when you say "smile" she does things like this:


LOL! I usually delete these, but she does it so often I've decided to keep a few ;)

Check out all the other smirks over at I Heart Faces!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

It's my 2nd Sunday participating in the photo Scavenger Hunt at Ashley's blog: Ramblings and Photos. I'm actually really happy with how my photos turned out this week! I can already see improvement in my "artistic vision," LOL! I hope you all enjoy them as well!

Here are my interpretations of the 5 words this week:


Dream:

This was always my dream. To get married and have a family. What can be better than an amazing husband, a little girl and a little boy. (This isn't a new picture though...I couldn't find any more recent pics of all 3 of them together! Yikes!)



Clean:

My little guy in the tub. Doesn't get much cleaner than that! Love the spikey hair too =)



Currency:

I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I saw the theme, currency. My husband has traveled all over the world while being in the Air Force. He often comes home with currency from some interesting places! These are a few coins that I could find today. Can anyone name some of the countries I have included?? (Hint, I don't think I duplicated any countries.)



Pair:

A pair of beautiful military air craft at dawn. I took this photo outside my front door on Friday morning. That is actually my husband flying the skinny plane (KC-135) at the top of the photo. They were preforming a refueling demo (with a C-17) for the POW/MIA ceremony on base. It doesn't get much more fantastic than that!



Square:

I thought my kids blocks worked perfect! Happy Sunday everyone!



Stop by Ramblings and Photos to play along with us next week!

Arizona Family Photo Session

While on vacation in Arizona I had the opportunity to photograph my brother and sister-in-law along with their 6 month-old daughter!



My brother-in-law is a photographer himself and we were shooting at a location I wasn't too familiar with so I was nervous, to say the least!



I'm happy to report that it turned out GREAT! We got some amazing shots of them as a family and of their sweet baby girl.



Here are some of my favorites:






"Aunt Michelle. What are you doing behind that thing?" LOVE that expression!




This pose was a must get!


This cracks me up! I asked them to give baby "K" a kiss. What a face! We tried it again....same reaction. LOL!


My absolute favorite!!!

Thanks guys for being so much fun to shoot! We'll have to do it again!!!

Pixel Perfect Blog Hop

Is it Thursday already?! Awesome! Thankfully this weeks seems to have gone by quickly and it's already time for another Before/After Blog Hop over at Pixel Perfect.

Here is the SOOC of my daughter:





Edit 1:



In ACR I increased the exposure, temperature, brightness, contrast and vibrance. Then in PSE 7 I did a little work to bring out her eyes. I also ran the Coffeeshop action: Glamour Glow that did additional work on her eyes and skin. Then I ran the Coffeeshop action- Little Perk.


Edit 2:

I took the image from edit 1 and ran Florabella's B&W action- vanilla. I have to say I am really happy with this shot!!!

Which is your favorite??
Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful Thursday =)

Lens Pen

I received the coolest product in the mail today. The Lens Pen! I first heard about this lens cleaner during one of my classes over at Jessica Sprague. Some of the ladies were discussing it on a discussion board so I decided to look into it. It sounds great. There are a bunch of different sized pens for cleaning all kinds of lenses (DSLRs, point and shoot cameras, video cameras, computer screens, etc.) It is small and simple to carry.

I received my pen today and tried it out on all 3 of my lenses (2 Tamron and 1 Canon.) It took about 30 seconds each and now my lenses are perfectly clean! Amazing! I'm totally thrilled to have found an easy way to clean my lenses (that doesn't include any cloths or liquids ;)

Just thought I'd let you all know, it's way cool =)

Art Week

This week's challenge over at In A Yellow House is ART. My first thought was hmm....nothing. I'm not really big into art, accept photography of course. BUT the perfect opportunity arose when my good friend Megan decided to have a "messy" 3rd birthday party for her twin boys! There was painting, coloring, play dough, make your own pizza's, etc!

There was plenty of "art" being produced at today's party =)

Here are my 2 favorites:

It was a funny, messy day!!!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Okay....this one was tough for me. But I do like a challenge so when I saw that each week, Ashley over at Ramblings and Photos hosts a Photo Scavenger Hunt I had to try it.
Why is it so tough? Well, for one, I like/am best at portrait photography. Landscape and still life? Not so much. Secondly, these items make you think of how to best photograph them. Not always easy. But I'm up for a challenge!
So for this week, my first try the items were:

Landscape:

The view from the end of my street. Yep, that's what SW Oklahoma looks like!

Powerline:

Also along a street in my neighborhood. So some reason I'd think that power poles in a state with lots of tornados, stong wind and hail would have stronger poles!!!


Newspaper:

I was actually going for the September 11th paper, but I had already thrown it away. Oops! Not quite the look I was going for in my mind...... there's always next time!


Pose:

My daughter, the tree-hugger!


Hobby:

Yep, that's me! LOVE my photography hobby!


Not all successful I'd say, but a good first try!

Head over to Ramblings and Photos to try out the Scavenger Hunt youself. The list of items for next week is already posted!

Fix It Friday #70

Hurray! So glad to be home for another FIF too! I was thrilled when I went over to I Heart Faces and saw this adorable little girl! A great shot, with good composition and focus.....that just leaves me with having fun with editing it!

SOOC:

Edit 1:

In ACR I increased the temperature (I thought the original looked a little cool) and increased the brightness, contrast and vibrance. Then in PSE 7 I again added warmth through a Photo Filter. Then I ran my favorite Coffeeshop action- Little Perk. After adjusting and flattening the layers I created a vignette with the rectangular marque tool and decreasing the brightness.

Edit 2:

I took the photo from Edit 1 and ran the Florabella B&W action Vanilla. I LOVE B&W's!!!

Thanks for stopping by! To see more edits of this adorable girl, head on over to I Heart Faces!

Oh....and in other VERY EXCITING news. I was able to sign up for 1 of only 12 spots that were available for the I Heart Faces Dream Big Advanced Photography Workshop! I AM SO THRILLED! More information to come soon!

Pixel Perfect Blog Hop

Woo Hoo! I'm so glad to be back in town to participate this week =)




Here is the before shot of my son at his grandparents pool. SOOC:










After:

In ACR I increased the exposure, contrast, temperature, vibrance and saturation.

Then over in PSE 7 I lassoed his eyes and increased the brightness and saturation.

I just love how his eyes pop!!!


Thanks for stopping by, I'm so happy to be back in town!






For more great edits stop by Pixel Perfect!