If Spring...

"If spring came but once a century instead of once a year, or
burst forth with the sound of an earthquake & not in
silence, what wonder & expectation there would be
in all the hearts to behold the miraculous change." ~ Longfellow

It's sure to be a fantastic day filled with bread baking, going to the gym,
playing with the littlest bean, making pb&j's checkered flag style,
& the all day anticipation of fourth birthday parties to attend!

Happy Friday!

Christine xoxo

Shoot & Edit :: Week 5 {Hearts}

{SOOC}

the lyrics are why {iwu} this song!

urnx
urnx, ni, imnx
ictv
ictv, nicu
icu, icu, nurok
urnx
urnx, ni, iw
icatv, icadvd, nicu
icu, icu, nurok
icu, icu, nurok

Translation:
You are an X
You are an X, and I, I am an X
I see TV
I see TV, and I see you
I see you, I see you, and you are okay
You are an X
You are an X, and I, I double you
I see a DVD, I see a DVD, and I see you
I see you, I see you, and you are okay
I see you, I see you, and you are okay

{Raw Edit}

camera calibration :: camera vivid
shot as :: daylight
recovery :: 50
contrast :: 45
clarity :: 55
vibrancy :: 20
saturation :: -15
used healing brush to remove
distracting spot on the surface of the W

{Soft Autumn Glow with Rounded Corners & 1960's Effect Edit}

crop 4x6
action used :: coffeeshop soft autumn glow {glow, contrast boost, slight color enhancement}
with this action i decreased all layers by 50% of their opacity & deleted color mute layer
added new layer {faded pink gradient} opacity 25%
lighten shadows :: 12
darken shadows :: 25
focal soften twice, despeckle once
remove dust & scratches once to reduce the amount of wood grain in background
lastly vignette, crop rounded corners with a 1960's effect

{SOOC}

a part of you has grown in me. and so you
see, it's you and me together forever and
never apart, maybe in distance, but
never in heart....

{Raw Edit}

camera calibration :: camera d2x mode3
shot as :: daylight
recovery :: 20
fill light :: 12
contrast :: 75
clarity :: 80
vibrancy :: 40
saturation :: -6

{Vivid Tie-Dye Textured Edit}

crop 4x6
action used :: coffeeshop vivid (no wait), adjusted layers settings to my liking
added pink tie-dye texture :: opacity 65%
selected hearts with smart brush to increase high contrast {opacity 45%}
makes hearts pop away from the background to draw your eye in
selected hearts with quick selection tool, selected inverse
focal soften twice, despeckle once
remove dust & scratches once to soften the tie-dye texture
added border for dramatic effect



more shot & edit:

You Capture :: Cold

“may you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night
& a smooth road all the way to your door.” ~irish blessing

more cold:

Happy Thursday!!!

xoxo



Shutter Love :: Eyelashes

"in my mind's eye" ~W. Shakespeare

this week's theme for
Shutter Love Tuesday
{eyelashes}

more eyelashes:

 more self-potraits:


“A hidden connection is stronger than an obvious one." ~Heraclitus

i love all the scratches character
many moments of our marriage

more sweet shots:



{his happiness}

more happiness:

Happy Tuesday!

xoxo

Joy of Love :: Days Six & Seven

Joy of Love :: Day Six {the ones they love}

we can't get enough of shapes & colors lately,
my littlest bean just loves being a shape searcher :)

Joy of Love :: Day Seven {generations}

Christmas at Nana's is never lacking in future generations, sadly we are missing two of the eight grandchildren in this image
{& no that doesn't count my littlest bean who just refused to sit with everyone, he's quite the individual you know!}

more joy:

Happy Loving!

xoxo

Joy of Love Day Five:: love to hate

{Rainy Day Lament}

theme for day five is {love to hate}...
{the rain} who doesn't love to hate it!
we need it to sustain life, for puddle jumping & mud-pie making...
but sometimes it can just ruin a perfectly good Saturday...
then again having a guilt-free excuse to stay inside, snug in your pj's all day is pretty sweet!
see how i just love to hate the rain :)

more love2hate:

day 6 theme :: the ones they love
day 7 theme :: generations

happy weekending!

xoxo

Oh Won't You Be Mine?

would you, could you? please, please!!

and believe you me he is quite the stubborn one... selective hearing & blue in the face are two of his top toddler tricks Ü
but oh how he is just the sweetest indeed, i just love that he is my little valentine!

i'm really late with this one {guess we were holding our breath}
her linky is only open til 11:59pm tonight, so hurry!

more valentine's:



random fact about the littlest bean {ahem... he loves candy}
photo above is evidence {see fingerprint in top left corner}
attempt at making his own breakfast, tic-tacs & old as christmas candy canes!
my husband & i are quite baffled where the candy cane bits even came from?
we know we had tic-tac's atop the fridge {used to be the little hands free zone}
but Houdini {littlest bean} strikes again.
see he loves chairs & has figured out that if he scoots the chair to the counter & hops up
{cue the horns & trumpets} he can reach every no-no stash galore
{or maybe he has just watched his older brother do this on too many times :}
anyhoo that kid has candy seeking super powers; hearing of a bat,
can hear you unwrapping a sweet treat from a mile away &
will come running at such sound, a sense of smell like a hound dog,
he will smell that reese's peanut butter egg that you gobbled down as lunch while kids weren't
paying attention, no matter how you try & hide it, he smells everything!
well needless to say we had to have a little talk about breakfast essentials &
the tic-tacs have a new-even-higher-behind-a-closed-door-hiding-place!

more macro's:



my entry for Six Cherries on Top & Webbisodes {my funny valentine} cutest couple photo contest that is open until
Feb. 14th so if you haven't already joined in you really should! This image is a re-edit {first version here} & i had so much
fun doing it, not to mention i just love remembering this moment!

more couple's valentine's:



also i want to say a BIG thank you for all of your beautiful & supportive comments, especially on this week's Shoot & Edit,
each one was so thoughtful & truly appreciated, so thanks so much ladies!

now let's go make some new friends:

Happy Friday!

xoxo

Shoot & Edit :: Week 4 {Red}

{SOOC}

to {know him} is to {love him}

{Raw Edit}

here is what i did in {Adobe Camera Raw}:
white balance: as shot
slight use of recovery
increased black light & brightness
increased clarity
increased saturation & vibrancy
once open from Raw, then used the healing brush
to remove any distracting spots on the hearts surface!

{Lustrous Edit}

for Lustrous edit:
used Lustrous Pop to help bring out the beautiful shades of red,
a {free} action from The Coffeeshop Blog
once applied, decreased the color pop layer to 50%
but kept the sharpened layer at 100%
used hue/saturation to increase the {reds} just on background layer
next used the elliptical marquee tool; select {love him} & increased sharpness
once finished choose inverse select & applied a gaussian blur effect {twice} & used despeckle once
and last but not least, inserted some vignetting to draw your eye into the heart!
phew, finally... all finished!!!!!!!!!!!


though i do quite love my {SOOC} shot, i am OH! SO! IN LOVE! with my final {Lustrous} edit :) that action is just wonderful {not to mention FREE}
& with a bit of tweaking you can have those reds bouncing right off the page without a harsh over edit of the color!

{Flickr Edit}

{a year living positively 19/365}
Ashley is encouraging texture use this week & since i already touched on that last week thought it would be nice with this edit to show everyone that you don't have to use PSE, CS5, Lightroom, or any other fancy/expensive program to get a great edited result. uploaded my {SOOC} shot into my Flickr account to solely edit the image in Picnik. notice that the spots on the heart are still there, you can upgrade your Picnik account in Flickr to offer features that will help eliminate those distractions. point is that a Flickr account & upgrade in Picnik are still cheaper to purchase than some Adobe editing systems, not to mention it is a very wonderful/helpful photography community to be involved in Ü

Second Shot {Optical Illusion}

{SOOC}

{Raw Edit}

here is what i did in {Adobe Camera Raw}:
white balance: daylight
slight use of recovery
increased fill light & brightness
increased clarity
increased saturation & vibrancy

{Vermont Edit}

for my Vermont edit:
applied maple & cream layering to soften lighting
{not to mention take those wrinkles away from my hands, ewww!}
used hue/saturation to increase the {reds} just on background layer
next used the elliptical marquee tool; select within the circle & increased sharpness
once finished choose inverse select & applied a gaussian blur effect & used despeckle
and again added vignetting to draw your eye in!

{Flickr Edit}

{bench monday & a year living positively 20/365}

here is my Flickr edit, used for Bench Monday! no prior editing on in Picnik :)
many of you asked on Tuesday how i achieved this effect...
well to be truthful it was much by accident with a bit of
experimenting thrown in!
you will need to have a {fish-eye} lens to achieve it:
lens comes apart in two sections
once apart you will notice that there is a larger convex lens that will bulge your image
and a smaller concave lens that {like the lens of your eye}
will flip images upside down, plus make objects seem extremely smaller than usual!
so there you have it, so simple, yet an awesome optical effect, now go grab your fish-eyes & start flipping the world upside down Ü



pop on over to Ashley's blog & link up for her part of Shoot & Edit...
& thanks for all the great/helpful tips Ashley & Jill!!!!

more shot & edit:

You Capture :: Red

“so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens.” ~W. Williams

this week's theme at I Should Be Folding Laundry
for You Capture is {red} too!
more red:


oh & if you didn't know ole Puxatony Phil
is predicting an early Spring this year... Hallelujah!
And Happy Chinese New Year {The Year of the Rabbit}
to those who are celebrating today!

Happy {Red} Thursday!

xoxo