Edit Me Week 16

We have another sweet beach themed photo this week! Oh, how it makes me miss Florida and look forward to the day when I can get my kiddos back and take some beautiful images like this!

Before:


My Edit:





I made minor adjustments in ACR then opened it up in PSE7. I ran a sun-flare action and then Florabella's B&W Champagne Haze. I really like the sun-filled, dreamy look!

Stop by Branson's blog for all the other beautiful edits!

I Heart Faces: White

The theme this week at I Heart Faces is white!
My son turned 2 yesterday (Sunday) and I pulled out my white backdrop and took some birthday shots of him. This is definitely one of my favorites from that day!




Happy 2nd Birthday Little Man!!!

The {B} Family

It was another scorcher on the day of the the {B} families photo session. BUT, they handled it like champs! Just amazing for a family of 6!
I just about fell over when I saw the two boys with their hair styled in little spikey mohawks! I LOVED IT! Everyone got to wear 2 outfits so we had a wonderful array of looks, backgrounds and styles for this great group. Enjoy!

Pixel Perfect Blog Hop

It's been a while since I've joined Monica's blog hop. But I really liked this image from a recent photo session.

SOOC:




This cute little guy was playing with the airplanes I had brought with me while sitting on my favorite blue bench.


Edit:


I ran it through LR3 along with all the other photos from the session. I did the basic color, exposure and contrast edits. Then I brought it over to PSE7. The airplane was distracting in the image so I got rid of it using the cloning tool. I then ran Florabella Luxe II Timeless action. Then MCP's Eye Doctor action. That's it! I great image of this adorable little man!

Edit Me Week 15

Another great image this week in the Edit Me Challenge. There have been a few changes with the challenge as Branson is taking some much deserved time off and sharing the challenge with Kathryn at OurTinyBigLife!


Here is the before image:



From Jamie. What cute and colorful outfits on these little girls! My daughter would LOVE this!


My edit:







I opened it in ACR and made some slight exposure changes and increase the vibrance and saturation. Then in PSE7 cropped out the grass. Although I liked the green, I thought it was not necessary in the picture. I ran Florabella Luxe II Sugar action. It added a pink "sugary" tone that I liked alot for this image. Then I ran Florabella Luxe II action Vivid Paint to paint over the color on the girls outfits to add an extra pop!


Thanks for stopping by and I'd love to hear what you think of my edit. Then stop by Branson's blog to see all the other amazing edits!

2011 Fall/Holiday Specials

I'm so excited to announce my 2011 Fall & Holiday Specials!







I'm looking forward to a wonderful fall season with the best clients ever!

Edit Me Week 14

Another water/boat theme this week on Branson's Edit Me Challenge! This image was a bit of a challenge for me, as I wasn't completely sure what direction I wanted to go. But I ended up for a more dramatic edit than I usually do and even added some texture!!!



Before:






My Edit:




I made very minor adjustments in ACR, then in PSE 7 I made a large crop to focus on the boat and dock. Then I ran the Coffeeshop action: Color Pop. After that I chose a subtle hazy texture and changed the blending mode to hard light and the opacity to 30%. There ya have it =) Head on over to the Edit Me challenge to see what other amazign edit were made to this image!!!

The {O} Family

The second session I had the opportunity to shoot was for the {O} family. They have been long-time family friends of my parents. I was thrilled when Sandi contacted me to do a family session with their two young boys.

She warned me that it may be the toughest session I've ever done ;) I assured her that it would be fine and that we'd get some great images. While the boys were not bringing the big smiles that day, we did get some wonderful family, fun pictures =)

I Heart Faces: 1st Day of School Sparkle

What an amazing theme for this week's challenge at I Heart Faces! EYES! I have to admit I'm totally partial to my little guy's eyes =)








Here he is this morning on his first day of Preschool! Those baby blues are just sparkling ;)

The {M} Family

While I was in Arizona, I had the opportunity to do 3 photo sessions. What an honor it is to have wonderful clients in Oklahoma and "back home" in the Phoenix area!



The first session I did was for the {M} family. Melissa has been a friend of my husband's since they were in school! Melissa contacted me about doing a mini-session for her parent. What a wonderful gift!!! Of course, she was there too and I had to get her in a few pics as well =)




This was the first time I had met Melissa or her parents and let me just say how absolutely wonderful and charming they all were! I can't wait to get back to AZ and see them again =)

The {S} Family

I LOVED this session, everything about it. The {S} family was one of the very first families we met when we moved to Oklahoma. Vicki and I became fast friends and during one of our long conversations, she gave me the push I needed to venture out into the photography business! Their family was out of the state for a while and I was SO thrilled when they returned that she asked for a family session with a special little twist of doing some pictures for Sophia's 3rd birthday!!!

There were SO many images that I LOVED from this session that I couldn't choose so you're going to see a lot of them! Even Titus, the dog was included =)

Enjoy, I know I did!!!






Super silly girl with her daddy!




I don't remember why they were laughing, but I love this shot!
Titus looking so regal! Granted it was 105 degrees outside!


I LOVED this blue parasol and it matched perfectly with her dress and little tutu from her birthday party!


Does it get better than a pink tutu with cowgirl boots and a splash of attitude?!?




This was literally the last picture I took. I LOVE everything about it =)

What a memorable session. I just don't know how they are going to choose a favorite ;)

What To Wear Wednesday

For August's installment of What To Wear Wednesday we have a colorful & casual summer family look!


LOVE those colors! They are sure to POP in photos!

Edit Me Week 13

Wow, what an amazing image we have to edit this week!!! Thanks Amber!
I knew that I was going to enjoy playing with this image and boy did I, but strangely I though I might end up doing more than I actually did. Take a look:

Here's the before image:


My edit:



In ACR I knew I wanted to bring out the gorgeous blues of the water and sky. So, I cooled the image (increasing the blues on the temperature slider) and I thought that had a GREAT effect to the overall image! After getting the color I was looking for I just amped it up a bit by increasing the exposure, blacks, contrast, vibrance and saturation. Then once I brought it over to PSE7 I only added text. Now, I'm not one to usually add any kind of text to my image, but this one just screamed out for a powerful quote! I began thinking of one that would fit.....search the Internet for a few minutes, then realized- HELLO, my Pinterest quotes board! And bingo, I found the one I had been looking for. I hope you find it as powerful as I do. I'm totally in love with this entire image. =)

Stop by Branson's Edit Me Challenge to see more amazing edits!

The {B} Family

This was such a fun and easy session! The kids were absolutely wonderful and I loved when Joanna told me that she likes to smile and have happy family pictures. I totally agree with that!!!








Everyone looks pretty happy to me! LOVE IT!

Sweet Baby {C}

I've been waiting a long time to meet this sweet little girl. 9 1/2 months to be exact! ;) We are great friends with her Mommy, Daddy and big brother and they are definitely some of my best and most loyal clients!!!



I was out of town when {C} was born so this was the first time I was able to meet her! She must have been so excited that she decided not to sleep....at all! It was quite the challenge in patience, but I'm so thrilled with the images we were able to capture for this wonderful family!

The {F} Family

Wow, was this a crazy photo session. It was crazy windy!!! So windy that we weren't sure how many photos we were acutally going to be able to use! Thankfully, everything worked out and we got some really wonderful images for the {F} family!








This family of 4 is soon going to be a family of 5! I can't wait to meet the newest little boy in this family and add him into some new photos!!!

I am...

If you haven't been over to Megan's blog, I Am More Than Just... you need to check it out! She has a monthly theme as asked anyone to share pictures that relate to her theme. You can send in a snapshot or a professional image, it doesn't matter just send in your picture and she will feature it on her blog! Fun right?!?!

And what's even better is for the entire month of August she has a daily prompt to help inspire your photos!

Guess what!?!?!

Yesterday I made her blog! Woot, woot!

http://iammorethanjust.blogspot.com/2011/08/day-4-2-fun-with-chalk.html

Here is my image for here prompt of: Fun With Chalk-


My daughter enjoying some time after playing in the pool. She wanted me to trace her and her brother, then she colored everyone in!










Hop on over to Megan's blog and check it out!!!

The {S} Family

This was a special session. I was privledged enough to photograph Leah and her family only a few short weeks before she left on a military deployment. Both she and her husband are in the Air Force and I was so happy to share this time with them and give the family some happy images to enjoy during their difficult summer and fall.





We had a wonderful session together! Please keep Leah and the entire {S} family in your prayers. =)

Edit Me Week 12

I LOVE editing, I really do! So thankfully, we're back from vacation and I'm ready to join one of my favorite challenges again....EDIT ME over at Branson's blog, My Reflection of Something.


Here was the SOOC:


My edit:


I opened it up in ACR and increased the exposure, blacks, contrast and vibrance. Then over to PSE 7 where I used the transform tool (not something I do very often) to get the horizon straight. But because this image was vertical it didn't leave much room once rotated. So I cropped drastically, but thought it still was nice and focused on the daddy and his little girl. =)

Then I played around with the color of the photo a bit. I wanted the water to be a bit more blue so I added a new, blank layer and selected a nice shade of blue and filled in the entire layer. I changed the opacity to 50% and the blending mode to color burn. With the eraser on 100% I erased all the blue from the dad and daughter, leaving a nice blue tone to the water. After that I ran a 'clean color' action, sharpened and voila!

Thanks for stopping by!!!