Ooh, color

I read a tutorial last week on how to bring color out of an otherwise lifeless photo. It is SO easy and makes a huge difference. Check it.

See it here.

SOOC
(Original file, no editing)


And here it is with a slight crop and some color kablooooooey!

The men in my life

That's right. There are two of them under my roof. And here they are in all of their post-run-on-the-greenbelt glory.

Rewind a few weeks. I had been eying an inexpensive studio set-up to get started. I asked some opinions on a forum that I belong to and one woman kindly offered to sell me hers for a fraction of the cost. It arrived last night. It was about 10 when I got it set-up but I just couldn't sleep until I had tried it. I don't know what I am doing and will need to play a lot more with my light but sometimes I like the dramatic look. Aren't these men handsome? My husband and our firstborn, Gus.

The Bartos

Today I got to photograph some friends who, coincidentally ALL look like models. Rough isn't it? Hello...look at those kids!!! Ladies, beware. The middle boy, Tanner, was missing a tooth. It was the greatest! I had a great time guys!
Their little guy, Carson, is only 2 months old and was the sleepiest little guy. We could barely get him to open both eyes.

Fix-it-Friday - I heart faces

There is this great photography blog I recently started following that is a great resource and also lets its readers have a little fun. Every Friday they post a photo that you then download, play with and re-post on your blog. The more I practice, the more I learn...or so someone once told me. (Not sure that is the case just yet). Check out the blog and other people's plays at http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

Anyway, here are my plays. The first is SOOC (straight out of the camera).


This is my first play. I played with her eyes and adjusted the levels to brighten her up. Then I went in and ran MCP's color burst action.


For my second play I played with her eyes and again adjusted the levels to brighten her. Then I went into ACR and ran an azalea preset and then in PSD honey.

Day 6 - Great Stirrup Cay

I could never figure out why I couldn't find information on this island. As it turns out it is the cruise company's private island. I think it is pretty close to the coast of Florida but you still felt like you were in paradise. We had to be taken by little boats over to the island this time which always means lots of waiting. The waiting is made much more enjoyable by the people watching.

Once on the island...ohhhhhhh. Yeah. All of the other places the boat had the option to go where they wanted. But here. 1 beach. Thousands, and I do not stutter when I say THOUSANDS of people are all on one beach. Sardines. But we were sardines in paradise. I ordered an overpriced froofy rum drink on the beach reading my book while Nick found a shady hammock and took a nap. It's a hard life down there.

Thar she is from the beach.


The water was still crystal clear and totally aqua. They had a guy in a tuxedo walking around with a tray for photo ops in the water. We purchased ours for the bargain price of $15. UGH. Stay tuned for our xmas card! Shoot...where did I put those anyway? After an entire day on that beach we headed back to the boat. Once I had ONE foot on the ship I was tossing elbows left and right to get to the buffet. I needed something light to hold me over until dinner. We had reservations for sushi and chinese food. I went to the buffet alone, yet again. Boy. Tonight was a good night for a light snack. I had some roast, pizza, pasta - made-to-order, chocolate croissants and potatoes. Just something light. Nick wanted to take a nap so he didn't join me but did request I bring him something to munch on. I filled up a plate for Nick with 4 pieces of pizza. When I got to the room I gave him the one slice that survived the walk. What?

Later he ate 50'some odd pieces of sushi and I had some beef dish. He was one happy boy! I did, however have more creme brule...this time it was 3 mini ones. Green Tea, Regular and Ginger. Heaven isn't too far away. Closer to it every day.

Day 5 - Day at Sea

See Day 1. Repeat. The come, they eat, they leave.

DAY 4 - Tortola, Virgin Gorda

Ok...sorry for the delay! I am back to report a bit more on the cruise. I hope I can still remember some stuff. We woke up that morning and like any other morning I was chomping at the bit to eat my feast and get into town. We docked that morning so you could get off the boat at your leisure. My leisure was as early as I could drag the husband out of bed. We had decided that we wanted to go to the Baths. All we knew was that it was some neat beach with huge rocks and good snorkeling. We thought we would just take a taxi to that beach. We walked a short distance into town via some instructions to the guides when you get off the boat. Tortola is a really cute town with virtually no unemployment so it had a cleaner, safer feeling than some of the other islands we visited.

When we got to the place that the man told us to get to we realized we would need to purchase $40 ferry tickets to go to Virgin Gorda. We really had no idea where this place was, or that it was another island. The ferry ride was a little over 30 minutes. Once on the island we took an open-air cab ride to The Baths. This island felt different than the other lush islands we had been on the past few days. It was still very tropical but had more of a desert feel with cactus and lizards. The walk down to the beach reminded me of hiking in Tucson. Down big boulders with geckos scattering about. At the bottom of the trail was a little snack bar and some little things for sale.

The site was spectacular. You have to hike over, under and through mammoth size boulders, through little pools and up ladders. It was an amazing experience. Then we got to the beach area which I affectionately named "Jellyfish Bay" about 10 minutes after entering the water. Nick and I snorkeled around for a bit. I thought this had the best snorkeling that we had seen due to the boulders. It made for much more interesting terrain to swim through and explore. Then came the itching. And the ever so slight stinging. Nothing like a bee but it was noticeable. Suddenly I look up and smack dab in the middle of Nick and I is a HUGE jellyfish. The next thing I knew I was on the beach. I can only assume I teleported or ran on top of the water like the big Je-sus. I was outa there. And my homeboy Nick was by my side, if not a little faster.

We scaled a few more boulders to another beach just a bit further to an overcrowded beach. We snorkeled out a bit more, eyes peeled. The thing is that there are some MINI jellyfish about the size of a tablespoon that you don't see and they are EVERYWHERE. After a bigger one wrapped around my ankle causing me to kick Nick in the face we decided to just wade on the beach. Did I tell you this beach was totally crowded with people from our boat so we just kind of kicked it and watched people swim where we swam waiting for the freak out when they realized that they were in jellyfish city, and they were the mayor.

We went back to the little snack bar and had some local beer while waiting for our ferry back to the main island. I don't think anything crazy happened the rest of the day. Shoot my memory. I mean...you can be sure I ate 3 dinners, watched a show and fell asleep too early for our age.