Fix-it Friday #50

I had a minute today to play fix-it friday. Here's the original image from I heart faces.com




Here's what I came up with. 





One for Mom - traditional...
Levels - entire photo, healing brush & blurred w/ history brush - skin, sponged colored background areas and burnt and dodged as needed.



B&W for me...
B&W action conversion w/ small amount of additional burn.



Cool vintage for the teenager...
Soft Elegance by HD Stock actions with some additional burn as well.

Well, that was fun, back to work.

Fix-it Friday #50

I had a minute today to play fix-it friday. Here's the original image from I heart faces.com




Here's what I came up with. 





One for Mom - traditional...



B&W for me...



Cool vintage for the teenager...

Well, that was fun, back to work.

iheartfaces - weekly challenge

So I was reading one of my favorite blogs tonight before bed and saw this interesting weekly challenge.  I have loved this photo since the moment it was captured nearly 2 years ago now, but I thought it would make a perfect entry for this week.  So here it is. 



I have 2 memories of this day that still smack me in the face each time I look at this image.  One, it was the first time I shot my brand new Nikon D70s, my first DSLR, and we immediately became fast friends.  Two, my boy did NOT want to wear those goggles but his Popo (my father-in-law) had brought them over and was determined that Max would look adorable in them.  Adorable and pouting, but adorable none the less.

Anyway it was a dramatic day which lead to what I consider a dramatic b&w photo, so iheartfaces weekly challenge #13 seemed like a good fit!

Olivia Grace...take 2.

I had the pleasure of photographing the gorgeous baby girl and her momma for the 2nd time in her 8 months on this planet the other day.  Momma and I used to work together at St. Mary's Hospital before lil' Olivia was born but sadly (for me) the family relocated to Massachusetts just after Olivia arrived.  I wish I could see them both a lot more often, but I'm just so happy that I've been blessed to take Olivia's photo twice!  Her newborn photos and now her 8 month portraits, and I have to say Olivia is just as gorgeous as her parents!

The kicker is that both times I've gotten to photographer she has been a sick wee one, the first time she was jaundiced and needed to get back on the bili-light treatment ASAP so I had just a few moments to snap her pictures, and this time she had a horrible cold/flu thing going on with chest congestion/runny nose (which she HATES having wiped)/fever the poor lil monkey was a trooper though and eventually even gave me a couple of little grins.

Her mommas says I may even get to photographer her first birthday...I know if I had a candle to blow out I would wish for that to be true! 

I love the Poe Family

A couple of weeks ago I got to photograph the Poe family out at Fort Daniels Conservation Area.  It was a perfect location (thanks Kelly) for this family!  I'm lucky and get to work with (and laugh with) Megan every day but when I see her with her kids and her husband she is always the most amazing to me in those moments! 

I love this photo!

Perfect Harmony

I had the opportunity to photograph 3 wonderful women this week.  The local gospel group 341 - Thanks ladies and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Chi Town

I just got back from a flying trip to the Chicago Suburbs.  Back to my old stomping grounds and back down memory lane.  It's amazing how Decatur is my home, but the 'burbs are still a place of great comfort for me.

I grew up in Sleepy Hollow, Illinois.  Yeah that's right, headless horseman, Ickabod Crane...that Sleepy Hollow.  The horseman still rides every year on Halloween - I want to get Max up there some year for him to experience it. 

Anyway different time of year, different memories, but same old place.  We moved there when I was 12 going on 13 - the summer before 7th grade = rough transition time for a girl (probably boys too but I can't speak to that as I'm not one).

The thing is, as rough as that transition was it has become the center point of making me who I am today.  Being in that little north western village, meeting those people, loving that town.  I miss it some days but the best part of going back to visit is reconnecting with some parts of me that I often forget about in my new life in Central Illinois.  The girl that lived on that cul de sac is still part of who I am.  The friends I made while living in that house with my family are still my friends.  We share a collective history and being with them helps me to remember.

I love my life friends that I get to stay with whenever I make it up that way.  I also love my college friends that I got to see for the first time in years and years thanks to this little enterprise called Facebook.

I took so many photos and had such a blast, I can't wait to go back in August for my 20 year class reunion - yep 20 years!  As my brother says, "Dang you're old!"

Moose:


Marcie and her kids:



More to come from the Chi Town shoots!