Monthly Blog Circle - Edit Challenge

For the month of October, we decided to challenge ourselves with editing some photos taken by other members of the blog circle! It was so fun and interesting working on photos that you hadn't taken yourself. We had the opportunity to take them and add our own style. I feel that I am definitely still coming into my own, so doing this was very challenging, but interesting and rewarding at the same time! Here is before and afters, and a list of edits for those photographers that care to know what I did :)

First is Kristi's image. I loved this shot. It made me really wish I had photoshop (I'm coming to that conclusion a lot lately).

Original - Kristi Williams

My Edit

I am a fan of bright, contrasting images. I messed around with it alot, but generally I brightened it up, added a bit of contrast, adjusted the colors to make them really pop, and softened and brightened some skin tones. I wish I had photoshop to help with some of the skin on her amrs but I did crop this image down a touch, as I wanted to draw the focus to the details in the flowers and away from her bust and arms. Very fun! And a gorgeous shot Kristi!




Here's another much loved shot by my dear Sis-in-law Lynisha! I am so lucky to have photographers in the family :) And this is my adorable sis-in-law Relyssa just about to pop with baby number 1. I feel awfully blessed to have married into the family I did. So much fun all the time (from babies, to more babies, to photographers, to bakers, to more babies!) Hehe.

Original - Lynisha Weeda

My Edit

Again, bright and contrasty and I really wish I had photoshop! (did I mention that?) I literally took a LOT of time cloning out that black mat by her feet, and seeing the pics together I'm sure you can tell (although i'm pretty sure by itself an untrained eye would miss it). So, I brightened, contrasted, and fiddles with colors to bring out the blue in the sky and the green in the grass. I love the detail on the umbrella, which is silly, but it really seems to make it look 3D and I like it :) Super fun, and I love that dress! I want it :) hehe

Last but not least, Lisa's landscape photo! This one was more difficult for me for some reason. I just couldn't envision it I guess, so I ended up doing a lot of playing. But I think for a photo out of my comfort zone it turned out pretty nice! (hopefully not a disservice to my dear friend!)

Original - Lisa McConnel

My Edit

As you can see, I cropped out a bit of the blurred fore ground. Again I added brightness and contrast, and because of that had to mess with the colors a bit to get the yellows to be a little more muted and bring out the blue of the sky and the green of the grass again. It makes it pop a bit more I think :)

So all in all, our editing challenge was so fun, and a great experience!

See what Dalayna (another sister in law! aren't I so lucky!) has in store for this months blogging challenge!

http://www.dalaynamcknight.com/2013/10/11/monthly-blog-circle-editing-challange/

 

The Roads Less Traveled...

With this months theme being "roads" I've been thinking about the roads I have traveled on in life. Being from busy California, most roads were covered with tar and cars and grease and the hurry hurry hurry life of the people there. Moving to Nebraska was a huge culture shock, in the best way possible. Over the past 4 years I've been here, Nebraska has changed me. The air is fresh, the pace is slow, and the roads are dirt more often than not. I feel more calm inside; less anxiety, less need to fill my schedule from sunrise to far beyond sunset. Sure, I feel restless at times... but the more I've been thinking about it, the more I've been appreciating these less traveled roads. I prefer the sanctuary of solitude to the heinous rush of mankind's constant need. I prefer the roads less traveled...

Good Night :)

*Alishia

  Check out the ROADS that Laura Norris Photography has found!

Live, Laugh, Love: Life

This month's theme is Life, and oh what a life it is! I couldn't be more thankful for mine :)

Life...

Is a highway.

It's about the small, simple things

And the big, mountain top experiences

It's about dreamers and explorers

 And those that love to play!

 It's about silly little boys

 And all their mischeif

It's desert before supper

 

 that gives smugness a new name!

 

And spaghetti mess

 And an ornery miss!

And olive froggy fingers

 It's playing till you crash and sleep the night away

 A sleeping nose

 And sleeping toes

And all that happens in just one day!

Live, Laugh, and Love... only one life to live! So live it up :)

Check out Lisa's take on this months theme at

http://lisamcconnellphotography.blogspot.com/2013/05/country-life.html

 

Until we meet again!

Well... Oh well

So yes, it has been weeks. Yuck, I'm ashamed. Why is it that shame makes you avoid what you know you should do? Like post pictures that you have, even if you haven't taken enough to cover your 365 resolution. Well, I have lots of excuses for some of the days, and none for others. I'm just lazy sometimes, and that's the truth. But I have discovered something about myself. Well, I shouldn't say discovered. I already knew this. BUT I didn't think that it applied to this situation. That discovery is this, I hate doing something if I have to do it. Sadly, this has been true all my life. Maybe it's true for everybody. I thought it would be a good motivation for me to make myself take at least one decent photo every day for a year. I thought it would be good for me. Well, it would be good for me... it just wasn't good for my love for photography! I started feeling stressed about finding the time, or upset when I realized the day light had left me and I hadn't touched my camera. You can only take so many pictures in your own house at night! Not to mention I may not get bored of taking pictures of my sweet funny silly beautiful daughter... but y'all might get tired of looking at them. I want to awaken my creative side and show you what I see when I look at the world, what I feel. Unfortunately, that takes time I don't always (or hardly ever) have when raising a newly walking toddler.

So for conclusion of the whole matter, I am going to shoot for posting once a week, be it one picture or 100. I will not feel guilty if I miss my deadline (well, I will a wee bit) and I will not allow myself to feel pressured by all this. This, for now, is supposed to be my hobby. And hobbies are things that you love. And I still love this and I am going to continue to love this. SO, I am officially resigning from my 365 pic a day resolution... I know I have been a quiter in the past, but this is me admitting my limits and accepting it.

Well now, I feel much better : D
To celebrate my freedom, here are a few of my favorites from a little practice session with my daughter in a new corner of the house that I arranged just for pictures. I am VERY excited how my pictures are starting to turn out! They aren't perfect in my eyes (though my own pictures may never be) but they are SOOO much better than a short time ago and I love to see progress!
Ok, I'll shut up now.

 Ok, that one's not from the special picture taking place (as you can see by the laptop on the coffee table) but it's the first picture I edited with my new lightroom 3! woot!

Sincerely,
Your talks-too-much host
AJ

Cotton Headed Ninny Muggin

 OK guys... here's how its gna go from now on. I'm super lame at this posting every day thing. SO I'm going to now shoot (lol pun) for once a week, 7 photos. Except for this post... This one will have more, but a few from the same day. Here's my story (if you missed it on facebook)
   So, I've been very frustrated with taking pictures in our house. During the day, the light isn't always great save in a few spots. In the evening, I can't for the life of me get the color right. I learned a little about the color graph thing... but I'm in no way an expert with it (I forget what it's officially called). SO, sadly, (and this is rather difficult to admit) I put the camera down for a few days this week while I waited for my gray card to show up (which I ordered from amazon {wow, I'm using lots of parenthesis}). I was frustrated and tired of putting up pictures I was disgusted by. I haven't had a lot of time to get out doors being that I have a 1 year old and its cold out there : P HOWEVER! I was being a cotton headed ninny muggin. What color is a piece of paper... oh, yeah, that's right... WHITE! What color are the walls in my house? What is that you say? oh my, WHITE! Why do I have to wait for my gray card to get here before I can get more accurate photos? HAH! I don't! Silly sillies. (sigh). SO, here are some pics from this past week... not from every day (sadly) but some :)

So here is the color white according to my camera (before setting the white balance)... yeeeeaaaah. No wonder my pictures come out so lame! LoL

Before white balance                                        After white balance... SO much BETTER!!!

Here is a picture of my fist...well... my ring... because I felt like it

Hey look... its me!

 Startin' em early... Bethy took this one ^_^