Sand and Sunsets

April 20, 2012 in Uncategorized

Edit Me

I recently discovered the Edit Me Challenge through another blog I was visiting. Each week they have offer an image for you to edit and the following week they pick the favorite three and an overall winner.

This week I thought I would try it for fun. I also used it as an opportunity to play with different techniques and go further than I would normally do on a traditional edit.

Here is the original for the Edit Me Challenge.

Here is my edit:

I created several layers, one with the background, one with the cutie girl, and another with the canvas texture. I adjusted the opacity on the canvas layer for a subtle look and texture. I added some saturation and contrast and played with the color. I wanted the finished product to be soft.

The following pictures were taken from the car on the way to Cincinnati. I decided to go bold with one and subtle with the other.

I had to take these with a higher ISO and shutter speed, so I did have some noise and graininess. The clouds were irresistible, so it was either shoot from the passenger seat or miss them.…

Girl. Frog. Stuff.

March 29, 2012 in Free Downloads, Graphic Design

Sissy has no fear of animals, insects, reptiles, etc and etc. The wet areas around our house are prime housing for frogs. And Sissy thinks frogs are SSSOOO cute.

She likes to look for frogs. She loves to find frogs. She lives for turning frogs into tiny marionettes, minus strings.

I happened upon this scene. This frog was “pretending” to hop. This makes me smile.

Between frog sightings, I have been working on some projects.

This design was featured on the website Beautifully Rooted and is available as a free 5×7 download.

Brenna Gentry is a photographer from Tennessee and offers  “You send it, I’ll shop it” on Wednesdays on her facebook page. I sent in this photo of sissy and she chose it to edit. It’s was fun to see how another photoshop-aholic edited my photo.

This is an advertisement for a local business that I designed this week. I was also able to take a photo of the building to include in the ad.

Finally, take a minute to view my new portfolio page. There you can see a small sampling of my graphic and web design work.…

Wordful Wednesday: The Importance of Practice

March 13, 2012 in Wordful Wednesday

This past weekend, I got the opportunity to shoot some pictures at a nearby park. My friend and her girls ended up going with us. Her daughter .J. proved to be a very willing poser and I got some great shots of her on a spontaneous photo shoot. I used the one above for the natural light challenge.

You can see more shots from this “session” by clicking here.

This spontaneous shoot was so fun and relaxing. It was also a great learning experience as I practiced using my camera to photograph people.

It’s easy to forget the benefits of practice. What lost skill or talent would you be able to revive with a little practice?

Sharing Here:

Project Alicia

Beautifully Rooted