kiss kiss

so, what do you think of the radial blur? kinda cool? or cheesy. cuz i can't decide.

macro friday

i don't have much experience in the whole macro department, so i thought i'd give it a shot this week. out on my lunch break, i was walking around downtown with my camera like a lunatic searching for something i could practice macro on. does anyone else feel silly taking pictures of weird things in public, or is it just me?

before & after

before:

after:

1. cropped

2. adjusted levels to bump up blacks and add some contrast

3. added kim klassan's Scripted texture

4. added layer mask and erased texture at low opacity on part of the flower

5. added hue/saturation adjustment level to desaturate

6. ran TRA's boutwell magic glasses action

to see more before & after visit:

fruit

family photoshoot

here's a sneak peak of a beautiful family i was able to photograph this weekend.

aren't they lovely?

twins

i took pictures of my friend's twins on saturday. talk about a challenge! these babies are SO sweet! i want one.

on cloud nine

fall colors, blue skies, crisp air.

i couldn't ask for more.

textures

i have been playing around with textures and i'm in love. they can really transform a picture into something incredible. kim klassen has some awesome textures. you can sign up for her email list and she will email you FREE texture{s} every friday. it's awesome, you should check it out. for this picture i used her 'break free and fly' texture.

here's a before and after.

james & bethany

i'm not quite comfortable shooting people {that sounds funny}. i get really nervous at the thought of someone depending on me to take good photos. for me, that's a lot of pressure!

my friend asked me if i would take their 5 year anniversary photos. i was nervous, but i decided to get out of my comfort zone.

scavenger hunt sunday

i love this idea. each sunday, ashley comes up with 5 words. our job is to take a picture of our interpretation of those 5 words throughout the week. this is my first time participating, but i promise it won't be the last.

the words this week were:

1. miniature

2. water droplet

3. bedhead

4. colorful

5. eyes

1. miniature

2. water droplet

3. bedhead

4. colorful

5. eyes

for information on how to participate this week, click below

i am also entering my water droplet into Happy Monday.

bokeh

i think bokeh is absolutely beautiful. any picture that has those out-of-focus, blurry points of light in it makes me weak in the knees. i went for a walk this morning and captured this.

for more 'bokeh' images, click here

my inspiration

in my photography class this week, faith asked us to compile a bunch of pictures {taken by other people} that inspire us. i really love the way it turned out.

eternal circle

one of my favorite photography blogs is Ramblings and Photos {by Ashley Sisk}. today she featured an awesome tutorial. click here if you want to learn how to turn this:

into this:

anything

this week's challenge, over at {my life mixed with my photography} is anything.

i love this little guy.

subject matter

i am so grateful to have friends that have such cute children. they make for great subjects, don't you think?

ten toes

i took this photo months ago of my friends' darling baby.

since i don't have any little ones of my own, i dug this out of my archive to participate in the paper mama's challenge.

shutter speed

this week, in my photography class, we are learning about shutter speed.

we were instructed to take two pictures of water: one where the shutter speed is fast, freezing the water - and one where the shutter speed is slower, creating a flowing effect. here are mine:

{1/640 Shutter Speed} {f/3.5} {ISO 800}

{.3 Shutter Speed} {f/22} {ISO 100}

i'm also linking this up to Faith's photo challenge

starting something new

i received a DSLR camera for Christmas in 2009. i had no idea how much i would learn to love that single piece of equipment. there is something so satisfying about capturing something that is either a} beautiful or b} so simple that it can be turned into something beautiful, shown from a different perspective.

last week i started an online photography class.

i have thoroughly enjoyed this experience so far. we get tutorials twice a week, but mostly it's an encouragement to get out and start shooting more. each week, we have an assignment for each day, 6 days of the week. it's time-consuming and challenging, but i absolutely love it.

i have had the wonderful opportunity to 'meet' some amazing photographers in the class, who inspire me each day. the class is full of enthusiasm, support, positive reinforcement, and constructive criticism.

for our first week, we learned about aperture. here are a few of the photos that i took throughout the week, focusing on aperture.