farmer boy

Through the Lensbaby Circle: November {Winter is Coming}

We are not too thrilled about that around here.  Even a fancy new holiday dress could not make us accept the snow and wind. :) My Edge 80 is my favorite portrait lens, even if the subject is less than enthusiastic!

Please continue the circle with my dear friend, Jessica! 

Letters to Our Daughters: November

Dear Annika,

You are my little muse, my friend, and a prayed-for blessing. 

I cherish each day

Each smile

Each kiss on the cheek

In a world of boys, you are my glitter 

My sparkle

My worrier

My warrior

You are always loving

Always shining

Always loving

Always willing to help me learn more

Thank you for the five years you have helped me learn

and grow

and express my heart in photography

I am, who I am 

because of you. 

Love you always, baby girl

Please continue the circle with my friend, Allison McSorely. 

Trees continued....

angel

sun drenched

strength for emma

A friend is starting chemo. These rays of hope and love are for her.

Foggy Morning Walk

Before and After: Dreamy Edit

I want to share a tutorial on how I get a dreamy effect using my own Lr presets, some brush work, and Snap Art 3.

This is the final image:

This image was a little too saturated for the look I was trying to create right out of the camera.

Before:

This image isn't horrible, but it has a large blown out area in the front due to the strong sun coming from a window on camera right.  I decided to blur this out with a white vignette (yes, I said that!).  If you are a member of Clickin Moms, you can see a funny tutorial about what NOT to do with this vignetting option in Lr! 

The first thing I did was to run my Love Stands Still Soft Matte Preset in Lr:

This preset created muted tones and softened the blown spots. This preset is available for free to Clickin Moms members in the Pay it Forward section.


Then I did some brush work. I painted some saturation on the lips and some clarity on the eye lashes using the adjustment brush in Lr.

I added a wee bit of white vignette to smooth out the sun-washed areas by using the Post Crop Vignetting under "Effects" in Lr.

I then brought the image into Snap Art 3 and added an oil painting effect:

Then I brought it back into Lr and warmed it up just a tiny bit, added a bit more contrast, and exported the file.

I finished the edit with a quick soft light layer in PS set to 50% opacity. :)

Blog Circle 2013: Ghosts from the Past

I created a few images inspired by the movie, The Artist. These were created with the song, Ghosts from the Past, in mind. Now go watch the movie! :)

When you are done here, you can head over to the blog of my  sweet friend, Celeste, and see what she had created this month!

Ruby Snow Princess

it's a blizzard out there

broken green roof

my neighborhood

 

 

 

 

A Before and After

Zigzag

reaching

Elevator

can't decide