A baby is born.
The baby?
Perfect.
The Mama?
She is Super Woman. (and so lovely.)
The birth story?
You won’t believe. But it’s not mine to tell. Hopefully Erin will tell you about it tomorrow on her blog. It is nothing short of amazing.
Archive for photography – Page 4
Pinkish
June
7th,
2009
I don’t want to jinx anything, but I have been feeling much better about things in my life. After losing James and Jake, my old friend used to email me and say “keep on keepin’ on.”
And that’s what I did. And that’s what I’m doing now. And for THIS MOMENT? I feel better.
This weekend was such a whirlwind filled with so much activity. Honestly, when I saw I was nominated Friday night for Best Eye Candy blog, it made my night. The fact that someone would ever think of my blog and take the time to nominate me is positively mind blowing and it really does means so much to me. AND THEN, over 100 hundred of you have gone over and voted making me in the top five? (as of right now.) Oh, I feel so lucky and really loved and appreciated, so thank you.
*cough* YOUCANTOTALLYVOTEONCEADAY *cough*
Anyway. On Saturday night, Steph, Erin, Sarah and Arianne and I threw a SURPRISE! Baby Shower for Crooked Eyebrow at my house. She just found out last week that she was having a girl and this is just so exciting since she has a boy already and well, we pretty much wanted it to be a totally pink shower. And it was.
Erin was in charge of picking up desserts. If you ever throw a party, make sure Erin is in charge of desserts because hello? Look.
Everyone pitched in, not only was it a fun little shower, but it really was fun to plan. It helps when you are working with people who want to help and make it extra special. We needed to do this on a budget and we did really well. Many of the attendees brought a dish, which certainly helped with the cost.
I did not do a very good job of taking photos, I mean, I took a lot of shots of decor and of cupcakes, but not so many of people which was really dumb because, well, it’s dumb.
Here’s CE when she first walked through the door.
We told her about 139 lies about our little get together.
Lying is fun.
You know, when you are doing it for a good cause.
I mean, seriously. Could there be a better cause?
No. The answer is no.
(p.s. pictures of my painted/redecorated office are coming very, very soon. Maybe even as soon as Monday. K?)
shameful
June
5th,
2009
Well, well, well, would you look at that? Someone nominated me for Best Eye Candy! (think photography, friends!)
What an amazing compliment!
Just being nominated means so much. But if you’d like to vote for me, you know, I won’t stop you or anything.
Just click on the button, which will take you to the Blog Luxe Site, hit Best Eye Candy and scroll down a bit. SHOULD YOU WANT TO VOTE FOR ME.
See that pretty blue square button? That one? Just click it, man. *cough*voteforme*cough*
You can vote for whoever you want to. (me)
Vote.
For me.
If you want.
For me.
My, you look pretty today. Is that a new blouse you are wearing?
You remind me of Jennifer Aniston.
I love you. No really. I do.
Gotta Get Get
May
22nd,
2009
Do you listen to the Black Eyed Peas? You should. If you did, the title of this post may make some sense, but actually, I’m realizing that it doesn’t make sense at all, whether you’ve heard it or not.
But it’s still my theme for today. GOTTA GET GET. Because it makes me feel better.
I do very little self-promoting on my blog, so if you excuse me, I’m going to take a few minutes to do so because I can and because I’m excited and because this is my dream and I want to share it with anyone and everyone. (especially if you live in Northwest Indiana…)
Meet Erin. She is my friend and she is my client.
She is just one of the many people who have encouraged me to take photographs. Last fall, I launched Beth Fletcher Photography.
And here I am. It’s spring, I need to earn my keep around here (stolen tires, remember?) and this is how I’m going to do it.
I need to push this new business of mine, which is not easy for me. (why is that?) But I have to, seriously, I HAVE TO. So, I’m having a spring sale.
Get $50 off of your sitting fee, plus three FREE 8×10′s (total savings of over $100) if your session is booked and held prior to June 15, 2009.
Friends, this? Is a good deal. If you live in Northwest Indiana, click over and check it out…and if you know someone who may be interested, please feel free to pass along this information. I would be forever grateful. Seriously.
Isn’t she the cutest?
Same Photo…about editing
May
12th,
2009
If you are not into photography, you should still read this, everyone has a camera and this is basic information for everyone.
No matter if you love taking pictures or you just take pictures because you think you should, one way to get more out of your photos is through editing.
All photographers edit their photos. THE END.
While in San Francisco, we came across many flower stands that had the most vivid flowers I have ever seen. If we didn’t have a flight home, I’m certain I would have become a proud owner of some of the gerberas we came across. Instead, I took a photos of some of them.
Now, I’m always aware of who is watching me take photos and I was feeling guilty about taking photos of their flowers without buying anything, so I just wanted to snap a few because the lighting was perfect, but I wanted to be quick, so I didn’t have a chance to try to do anything “artistic.”
TIP: Do not take photos in the blaring sunlight. Shade or cloud cover is best. These flowers were underneath a canopy on a very, very sunny day.
This photo is SOOC (straight out of camera – absolutely no editing done on this photo.)
I really love this shot, those flowers are amazing. When Brian and I got married, we had light colored gerbers all over our cake. It was so lovely.
I realize that this shot really did not need editing, but I loved staring at it so much that I decided to play with it a little more.
I decided to see what else I could do with this photo, using Photoshop. One of the biggest changes I made was cropping. Looks like a different photo, doesn’t it?
And here is yet another version of the exact same photo using Photoshop:
I realize that Photoshop is very complicated and not cheap, but if you have it, I recommend just jumping in and doing whatever you want with your pictures, you can’t hurt the photo. Just try it.
But for those of us that do not have Photoshop, there’s Picasa.
Here’s something I did using Picasa using the same photo. Picasa is a completely free editing program and totally easy to use:
Now, I want to tell you what I did to create the different versions, but I’m not going to tell you exactly. Here are some of the steps done for these photos:
-CROPPING!
-sharpen (slightly)
-increase shadows
-blur the edges on the first photos
-DECREASE saturation in the second
I realize the original shot is pretty perfect. So how about a shot that isn’t? Whenever I go on walks with the kids, I bring my camera, but I also bring along our $80 point and shoot so they can take their own photos. I never, ever give them any direction, I just allow them to be as creative as they want with the camera.
Here’s a shot Ariel took of Racecar. I love this photo, I love that they staged it and worked together to create it.
And here is the same photo I did using some basic editing techniques using Picasa:
Better, right?
-cropping
-shadows
-slight saturation (okay, maybe I used too much saturation…but you get the idea.)
What do you think? What are your thoughts? Can you do this? YES! If you’re feeling saucy and you’d like to try it out on your own, feel free to post the results on your blog, leave me your post link in the comments and I’ll link to you at the end of this post. Feel free to share any Picasa tips you may have, as well.
GO FORTH AND EDIT!
Hint: an editing You Capture is forthcoming…be ready.
I Should Be Folding Laundry
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Copyright © 2013 All Rights Reserved