Day 3...?

I think this is actually day 5 but I've had a hard 2 days, so I am counting today as day 3!  Besides these pics are better than what I probably would have otherwise posted!  Today I did a photo walk with these three gorgeous young ladies and my friend Adrienne.  The purpose was to go thru aperture, shutter speed and ISO.  I figured I may as well take some shots of Eliza to add to her Senior portfolio and then maybe submit some of these others as stock photos somewhere. 

 Eliza is one of my favorite subjects.  She responds well and generally feels comfortable in front of the camera!

 Chloe is Adrienne's 16 year old that is just gorgeous!  She makes a great model, as well because she doesn't act posed or uncomfortable.  So So pretty!

 These next ones are all some that I thought would make for good stock stuff.

 We got cold outside shooting on the north side of the building so we decided to go inside to warm up.  As we were wandering around checking out the cool Harley stuff, some beautiful light was shooting thru the window, So I had the girls stand near a beam with the sun shining on their faces.  All of them have beautiful beautiful eyes!!!

 This cute girl is Jasmine and she's Eliza's friend and was totally fine with tagging along and letting a perfect stranger "shoot" her!  Fun girl with beautiful complexion.

 Jasmine's cute brass mustache!

 I loved the neon signs inside.  I had the girls stand so they were bright and colorful, but I didn't really want them in focus.

What a fun day!  I need to do this a few times a month to experiment.  Thanks Adrienne for spending the afternoon with me!  Too fun!

Snow...FINALLY!

We have been waiting for 2 months for some signs of winter!  Now that we are quickly heading into Spring, it finally snows!  I'm trying something new.  I am working on the 365 project which is to shoot something everyday.  This is really going to make me stretch, but I'm okay with that!  I'm always looking for ways to improve and be better so I can feel better about calling myself a photographer.  I played with a couple of presets in Lightroom on this one.  I liked how this is softened and almost painting-like.  I was doing this on my personal blog, but I think it belongs here (kind of obvious--duh!)

Some fun with my boys by the tree--catching up!

My boys actually let me play around a little with them around the tree one night.  It was fun experimenting and I hope to do much more of it this new year!

I hope your holidays were full of happiness and light!

The Beckstead's ---delayed not forgotten!!!

Miss Cydnee reminded me that I never posted these pics.  Sorry guys!  Thanks for your patience!

Actions

I've known and used actions in Photoshop before, but I have shied away from the more "edgy" styles since it's not my preferred look.  But Yesterday I met my sister-in-law's family up at Sundance to do some holiday photos for them and as she was doing an emergency diaper change, I was doing some test shots and figuring out light on her husband, Jordan.  I came home and played around with this a bit and found a really cool action that my favorite Matt Kloskowsky (my secret crush from Photoshop World and Scott Kelby celeb) has made as a Lightroom preset.  I like the real harsh look and desaturated skin tones. But I had to find just the right photo to try it.  Thanks, Jo!

 Other than the presets, these shots were straight out of camera.  This isn't the same preset as above, but is still desaturated on the skin-tones.  I don't hate it but I think that's because I like the subject matter so much!  Isn't little Miss "E" adorable?  I love to "shoot" her and the camera loves her mom and dad, too!

So what do you think?  Do you like this preset?  Or do you prefer truer, less desaturated skin tones?  what about the edgy one of Jordan?  Give me your opinion!

Busy Christmas Creating

After shooting, I love to create!  I have been an avid scrapbooker, but since I've had the option of doing all my books digitally, I sold all my stickers and paper and went cyber!  Lately I've really not done too much by way of compiling my photos of my family into books because I've been so busy shooting, editing and blogging.  But I wanted to share my creations of my Christmas card I'm sending out this year as well as my sister's family (hope you're okay with that, Sar??).  I just love how hers turned out!  Admittedly, both these ideas were inspired by my new passion, Pinterest!  Merry Christmas everyone, maybe you may receive one or both of these cards in the mail???  Or maybe I'll just go cyber???? We'll see!

My Little Guy

 This is my baby boy.  I finally took him out today to take some "school" pictures.  Here it is the first of November and I get around to taking pictures of my own kids!!  I'm sure the leaves will be gone after the storms expected this coming weekend.  So at least we got a few shots before they all blew away.  He's such a sweet boy and he was totally giving me the fakest smile until I said "Say I Love you, mom".  Then he totally flashed me the sweetest face and that's when the shutter clicked!  I used an Autumn preset in Lightroom to give it that fall feel.  I like the muted colors and the warm light.  My sweet freckled faced boy!!!