swimming anyone?

Yes, we went swimming this weekend for the first time this year. Brrr...I didn't even think about getting in, but my girls sure did.

I'm continually working on my pp'ing (post processing) skills. I'd love the first one to be a bit more "grungy" around the edges. Tips, anyone?





And, yes, that was a cake in my last post. I think my friend, Shannon, bakes the cake in a special bowl, and then sticks in the bride doll. Amazing, isn't she? Oh, and I'm told that the bride doubles as a princess on occasion ;)

angie's {jazzercise} bridal shower

We don't just workout together, we celebrate together too! I love this about our class. Thanks again, Shannon, for planning this fabulous par-tay! Just some details from Friday's celebration.


Can you guess what this is? Yes, it's a bride, but...




...you can also eat it! Yes, it's our cake.

just us girls

When everyone was sick last week, we spent a lot of time laying around on the couch. I thought it was a perfect opportunity to take some more photos of me with the girls. A little distorted, here we are.

baby Anna

I had the honor of taking some photos of 9 day old baby Anna last week. I was envisioning a sleepy baby, easy to pose on all sorts of fun backgrounds. But, Anna did not want to sleep at all. I must have this effect on babies! We still got some keepers. Here are my favorites.

creating an impossible exposure: tutorial

Here are my dear friends, Scott and Angie. They're getting married in less than a month! My sweet hubby gave me the free round-trip ticket he won so that I could attend their wedding in Nebraska. I'm so excited to be there to see them tie the knot in person!


The SOOC image(straight out of camera.) I exposed for Scott and Angie, not for the sky.

I always shoot in camera RAW, and here's why. I was able to create another exposure, but this time for the sky.


I opened both images in Photoshop Editor, and moved the image exposed for the sky on top of the first one. I chose a soft edged eraser, and erased Scott and Angie so that the image exposed for them appeared. A little cropping, white balance adjustments, and voila! Here it is. An impossible image now made possible with technology. Love it!

wildflowers part deux

Here are the rest of my wildflower pictures. The girls loved picking these. We'll have to go back to this field again soon!

patience required

Dying eggs is not an activity that can be done in a jiffy. First you have to boil the eggs.


Then they have to cool off.


After the tablets of dye dissolve, the eggs have to sit and sit and sit...


But, it's sure worth the wait!





Happy Easter! Just a quick health update--A is recovered from her strep throat, but has broken out in a rash that we think is an allergic reaction to her anitbiotic. Poor girl! David has been feverish all weekend--pretty sure it's the flu. M and I are still healthy! It's been a quite a sick week for us and for a lot of our Orlando friends. Hopefully we'll all get well soon.

sneak peek

I took some family photos last night for our friends, the Hands. Here are a few of my favorites. I'm looking forward to showing them the rest. Their kids are so photogenic! After our session was over, and I was back home, I realized that I should have taken a photo of their hands. Hand photos for the Hand family would have been a clever idea! Oh, well, next time, guys!









And, thank you so much for your kind comments on yesterday's post. You are all so encouraging, and it means a lot! Thank you.

wildflowers

There will be more of these, as I'm still going through them. The girls loved picking these wildflowers in a field near our home. I'm glad that I took lots of photos too, because now there are no more wildflowers!



On a different note, A became sick with strep throat over the weekend. It came on very suddenly, so we took her to the Urgent care right away. Anyway, my posts this week may be fewer because my baby is sick. She handles being sick remarkably well, though, but I have take advantage of this time to cuddle her! It doesn't happen as often anymore.

The Bryan Peterson workshop was sort of like reading his books, "Understanding Exposure" and "Learning to See Creatively". Though I am far from mastering all that he talks about in his books, I'm pretty sure that I intellectually understand the principles. Having said that, the majority of his workshop came from his books. There were of course, a few nuggets that I gleaned from him. And, there is also benefit to aural learning. I'm glad I went, but the workshop wasn't as informative as I was hoping.

clean and fresh

After giving the girls baths a few nights ago, we still had some beautiful evening light. And, since I'm determined to learn how to use it, we headed out the front door in their pj's to snap some more shots. I'm really, really, liking this light! I'm think I'm becoming "light-obsessed." I was happy with these results!











Thank you for all of your sweet, kind comments on yesterday's post! It's nice to be affirmed, so thanks! Also, on my conversions, they're mostly mine, but I do use Jess's set of "Lightroom presets" and like 'em a lot!

I'm going to a Bryan Peterson photography workshop tonight and all day tomorrow. It's geared towards beginning and advanced amateurs and emerging professionals. I'm really hoping to hone my skills this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes!

pajama girls

As I was driving home from teaching Jazzercise a few nights ago, I couldn't help but notice how georgeous the sun was looking. I just had to take some pictures! David already had the girls fed, bathed and in their footie jammies (what a great husband I have!), but that didn't stop us from heading out the front door for a quick photo shoot. I'm just learning how to get that cool, sunflare, lit-up-hair look. Here's my first try on this:



M is really getting into writing little notes. She was following her friends around earlier that day writing everyone little sticky notes. They said things like "I love you, Bethany. Love, M" I still have little yellow post-it notes all over my house.









And, now for a little distortion. A came up really close to my lens. I kind of like the funky look here.



My bobble-headed children. I'm kinda liking this distorted look. It's fun and different. What do you think?