A Girl and Her Lizard

This week’s theme is “Pets Only” but anyone is welcome to enter a photo of any animal (it does not necessarily have to be a pet.) 

Well, for a family of three cramped in a small 2-bedroom condo, we have a virtual zoo.  Plenty of animals to choose from.  But I have to go with the Bearded Dragon.  She loves him…has never been afraid of him!   She loves to hold him, reminds us to feed him, begs to give him a bath.  But most of all, she loves to give him “nose kisses” [because she knows she’s not aloud to kiss him with her lips].

He may not be furry…he may not be soft…he may not be cuddly!  But she tells me everyday how much she loves Flash!

Make sure to check out some of the other pet entries for this week over at iheartfaces!  There are some funny ones, some tender ones, and some absolutely amazing shots!

Waterfront Challenge

This is Week 6…and a week with a challenge that I can actually join over at Linkie Lueville.  The theme is “Waterfront,” and these are the rules:

Beach, river, lake, pond, heck maybe even a puddle! Doesn't matter, the photo just has to be at the waterfront of some kind of naturally occurring body of water. NO POOLS!

I really was going to choose one of the hundreds of adorable beach shots I have of my daughter digging in the sand…but I kept coming back to this one!  I just love it!  It is SO Florida…natural, unspoiled Florida.  The Florida you can only get to by boat or kayak…virtually untouched!  Beautiful!  And I happen to like the colors and the way the photo is framed!

Fix It Friday

This week’s photo comes from Susan Keller's and happens to be her own teenage son….fitting since this week’s them for the challenge was teens!

Here is the original:And here are my fixes.  The first fix was just a general fix, but it let me practice my cloning skills.  I wanted to remove the box and the pole from the photo.  This was certainly a challenge due to the rainbow effect from the sun.  I could have just cropped it, but I didn’t want to lose the awesome flare and it me a chance to practice cloning a difficult area.

I also added a CoffeeShop Sun Kissed Action and warmed it up a bit!  The cloning is a little off, but it was the best I got.

Fixes 2 and 3 are just additions…the first one is “Urban” from the CoffeeShop Action Vivid No Wait Action and the second one is the Creamy Chocolate Action [I wanted to try a black and white edit, but didn’t like it as a straight B&W…but the chocolate was nicer].

Make sure you check out some of the other edits over at iheartfaces.

Fix-It Friday

This week’s photo comes from Julie Rivera [one of my favorite photogs – I happen to love her work]!  The original photo is a pretty darn near perfect snapshot-like photo.  There really wasn’t much to fix.  All of my fixes were done using PSE 5.0.

Original:

See what I mean…super cute and just about spot on!  I did some minor adjustments.  I lightened the photo, bit and adjusted the white balance, and cropped for a more portrait feel.  Then I tweaked the eyes using a CoffeeShop Action.  And in literally under a minute I had this:

Then I added a texture…very subtle:

And finally, going back to the first fix, I used the CoffeeShop Sweet Bakery Action and added a glaze [blueberry 35% and Vanilla 20% – I just happen to like that combo and use it a lot!].

So there you have it…3 edits to an already amazing shot in less than the time it took me to write this blog post.  Make sure you check some of the other '”fixes” over at iheartfaces!   

Garcia-Pons Sneak Peek

Early Monday morning I shot this adorable mom and her cutie-patootie kiddos as a surprise for Father’s Day.  Even as hot as the South Florida sun is [even early in the morning] it was a pleasant morning and a great shoot…and this little patch of green space was two doors down from their house!  The kids were happy…got to love that!  Easy smiles and happy moments! 

“All About Babies”

This week’s theme over at iheartfaces is “All About Babies”…and according to iheartfaces, that can mean:

“anywhere from babies still in mom's belly... to newborns... to little babies who still aren't taking their first steps… to include baby animals or baby accessories”

I actually have access to a teeny tiny newborn, but not in time to get a photo in for this challenge on Monday morning.  But stay tuned later in the week for some precious newborn photos! And this precious newborn belongs to an awesome mommy [and one of my good friends] that I had the privilege to shoot a few weeks ago.

I had a message on my cell phone very early on a Thursday morning. It went something like this:

“Hi, it’s ______.  I had a long night of contractions and I’m not sure I am going to make to our scheduled shoot on Saturday.  Is it possible to come over today and shoot some just in case??”

OF COURSE!  I was over at her house in no time…and got some great shots.  Here is one of my favorites!

Leave some comment love if you like this photo!  And make sure you head over to iheartfaces to check out the other ‘baby” photos.  There will be lots and lots of yummy newborn shots for sure!

Fix-It Friday

It’s Friday…and this week’s photo comes from IHF Contributor, Susan Keller from Short on Words.  It’s an adorable self-portrait of mother and son.

Here’s the original:

And here is my fix this week.  I used PSE 5.0…I increased the sun flair, added some color pop with a soft light layer.  I also played around with the blur in the background.  Finally, I added a warming filter overlay.

Very subtle…but I like it!  Make sure you  check out some of the other fixes over at iheartfaces!

Fix-It Friday

The concept has changed slightly due to someone “stealing” a photo that didn’t belong to them…now all the photos will be coming from the owners of iheartfaces and the contributors.  While even the professional take some “bad” photos from time to time, fixing community photos was a little more thrilling [because we take some doosies and I learn a lot from trying to fix them].  So shame on you…to whoever you are…for taking something that didn’t belong to you…because essentially your dishonestly has cost us all!  Venting over…here are my fixes for an already adorable shot taken by Andrea Riley [a contributor over at iheartfaces].

Original:

Pretty darn good!  But I had to find something to fix or it wouldn’t be called Fix-It Friday.  So, for my own personal baby taste, I lightened the photo a little, did a tiny crop, and rotated the picture.  And because wrinkly baby feet are the best, I sharpened them a little!  Here’s my basic fix using PSE 5.0.

Fix 1: Basic

The next few fixes, not many changes, some some creative fixes.  For the first one I did a B&W conversion [half tone] while leaving full color on the feet.

Last two fixes used CoffeeShop Actions Hot Cocoa and Creamy Toffee [in that order].

My favorites are the last two…can’t decide which one I like better.  Make sure you check out some of the other fixes over at iheartfaces.  Until next week….

Water Wednesday

As the season of lessons wind down, this will be my last post full of little kiddos taking lessons.  Time to get these photos wrapped up, edited, and sent out to the families.  Thanks to each and every one of you for allowing me to photograph your children during such an important milestone in their lives.

I will try to keep up the weekly theme…but will focus on other water activities.

This week, I am posting photos from the last underwater session.  Enjoy!