Top ten favorites of 2007

These are my top ten favorite pictures that I have taken of the kids this year. Each one pulls at me for a different reason. On the cusp of 2008, I am feeling sentimental about the good times of this last year.

The picture above is one of my faves of K because of the missing teeth, the natural smile, the lighting and her hair flowing all over the place.

I love this picture of S because she has her "imp" personality shining through. She was playing with her dad, and I happened to snap this at the right moment. I also played with warm tones in my black and white conversion, which I like in this one.

This is the best picture I have of my girls together this year. I took a few of them at our local nursery when we were picking out our pumpkins. I love the colors and the smiles, even if S looks a little silly here.

I think I like this one because K is such a romantic- and the waterfall behind her is just about perfect for her personality. The kids and I were driving through a local state park when S fell asleep. K and I made several stops, including this spot.

This picture is one of my faves because it is so symbolic. She is walking down the path to her first day of nursery school. It just tugs at my heartstrings.

This is one of the first snow falls from 2007. I love the color and perspective of this shot.

Ha! This portrait is one of the few "shoots" I was able to pull off this last year. K was willing, as long as I let her wear that wacky hair piece! Ugh! But I love her smile, and was pleased with the lighting and crispness of this picture.



This is just sweet. What's better than a little girl all dressed up caught holding a flower?



Love this stopped action!
Love the hair flying, puddle waiting, and wrong-foot boots!

K with her kindergarten class bear, Lavender!

Thanks for walking down memory lane with me!

Getting the tree

We braved the first good snow to go get our tree. We really all had a ball. The snow made it so much more fun for the girls, and made pictures so fun for me to take. Poor Daddy- he's a good sport.
TFL!

There's a new Rudolph

K had so much fun being the "lead" reindeer at a family party last night. She took her job very seriously, and was thrilled by the honor of it all.
TFL!

FEC in practice

Conversion- can't get the color right!




Tweaked my exposure and contrast in ACR; defog, green (!) photo filter layer. Crop.

Not too much to say- SOOC. I had my flash pointing almost straight out to my left, pointing lightly up. I was trying to avoid bouncing off the red wall, and aiming more for the white post- but really hoping to avoid bouncing it at all. This was taken in a children's experiential museum, warehouse type setting. We had a fantastic time, and I spent a lot of time practcing with my flash. I don't quite have it yet, but I'm having a of fun working on it!

TFL!

EC and FEC...

I am trying a flash challenge. The assignment was to experiment with the camera's exposure compensation, comparing the effects of flash compensation. I can't say I know exactly what I'm doing, but this was a really good way to see the impact of different settings. When I'm back home, I'll be printing these out as a reference to better see.

Anyway, here is what I came up with.

Undecided

I would love to hear input. I'm not going to write my usual novel to avoid influencing opinion. Please let me know- interesting, flat, boring, riveting, amazing... ;)

Thanks in advance!

two recent pics

I was feeling the need to post again. The pic of "K" was taken the day before her 7th (gulp!) birthday, and the pic of "S" was from tonight.
TFL!

Favorite uncle

This is one of my favorite pictures from the wedding. Sadly, it was too blurry to use. So I played with it in PS. I used the rough pastel filter, on )I think) canvas paper. I love how it turned out. My little one simply adores her new uncle...and this says it all.

My girlies

A snapshot of the girls while we were picking out our pumpkins. No patch for us this year; we're all taking turns getting sick :(
Thought this came out well, even if S. is looking a little silly!
I think this one is fun, even with the attacking hair strands!

My little one is just too funny. I couldn't buy cooperation this day. But, it's a pretty accurate depiction of her- into everything, always looking at the world around her, on the go... in other words, my toddler girl! :)

thanks for looking.

Just for fun

I've been off on the long dusty trail awhile. I saw some lovely light and made myself grab a few pictures with my ol' trusty 50 mm- I wanted my 100, but I was in too small a space. Anyway, I just editted them today, and am pretty happy with the results.

TFL!

Flower Girls

Our 12 year old cousin was handed off my camera with the wide angle for he ceremony. We were all in it, so we figured, hey, why not? E V E R Y picture she took came out great! We have a budding photographer here, I think!!! Great job, N!

I know non family is wondering if there is an end in sight- the answer is, happily- NOPE! We have so many pictures from our wonderful weekend. Thank you again, N, for being our wedding shooter. You did a fabulous job!

Definately night photography...

Here are two of my faves of the father-daughter dance. Thanks for looking! Oh- and I left the red as it was the lighting from the band- if you were there, you'd get it was totally part of the mood of the night.

My faves so far...

I was so very honored to be part of this sacred celebration. How lucky we are to have such loving, genuine friends as family! We all love you just so much. The road is never easy that is worth traveling...
I hope you enjoy these few. I'm sure I'll be sharing bits and pieces until I get the GJ blog up. Until then, enjoy the glimpses!

A few for fun

Just for fun, here are a few of the girls enjoying the big day!

So it is the week of my little "s".

I want to do a shoot with little S this week for her bday portrait. We had some down time this evening, so I decided to go out and practice with my big telephoto lens. I convinced S to come be my model- lucky me, she said yes!

Ready, set, go!!!

What???

Discovery.

What I wanted:S sitting in the red chair- sea of green grass, nice deep red chair, polka dots and nakey piggies.
What I got: S being herself.

Thanks for looking.

This was a really bad picture that I decided to play with. It was crazy to try to get a snap of him, as he's b/w, on a black chair, with a window with bright light coming through a white sheer. My camera had no idea what to make of it :) I simply snapped when I saw it, I didn't even think about metering. Oh, well.

So here's the TON of work I did.
in ACR:
>increased exposure
> increased brightness
>Increased contrast
>increased the luniance smoothing
>increased color noise reduction
and played with the curve to make it more of an "s".
**************************
In Photoshop:
dodged the eyes (12%, midtones),
defog (I start at 60/20/0, and play from there)
sharpened,
crop
filter>noise reduction.

Like I said, the exposure was totally off, so there was alot to do to salvage this shot.

Just two....

She's just two for two more days. My heart is breaking each time I celebrate another milestone, another step on the ladder of her growth. It is so bittersweet to watch her go out in the world. I was laughing with my mother yesterday that as myolder daughter hit each milestone, it was such with such excitement and pride that we celebrated with her. For my "baby", it is so sad as we celebrate her become the little girl she now is.

And I send her off into the world of (pre)school tomorrow. >sigh<

I know, it is about as good as it gets to have two wonderful kids who are a joy and a pleasure and who are happy and healthy. It really is too much to ask to keep that all to our selves. Look out world, here she comes!

This snap was taken Saturday, just before her party started. Her grandparents were gracios enough to host a pool party at their house. We had a ball with her little playmates, and her close family- and friends who are family- they know that! We are blessed to have so much to celebrate in our lives.