More on photography, although I know you are all getting bored.

Just bear with me here.

Today I spent my spare time going through last year's photos and importing them all to Lightroom, which is my new favorite photo management software.  These were all taken with my tiny point-and-shoot camera, my loyal companion for many years now.  Alas...

Because I believe in truth in advertising, I thought I'd show exactly how powerful lightroom is.  I'm showing two photos before and after from my point and shoot, as well as a recent before and after from the DSLR camera.

This photo is one of my absolute favorites of Ivy.  I have always liked the composition, angle, expression... but it just wasn't quite there.  As we know, no baby will do the same pose twice, so I just figured it was "good enough".

Until today, when I imported it into lightroom and within a minute had exactly what I wanted.  Now the baby I always see as an angel actually looks like one in the image.  All I did was warm the tone, adjust the exposure, and soften the image slightly, with the exception of her eyes.

Next candidate, same manipulations as before. 

And finally, my current favorite picture ever taken by me:
Before and After

Birds

Self Portraits with a Tripod

Once again, I'm probably overdoing the "special effects" available in my software, but desaturating and tinting go a long way towards fixing skin imperfections...

These are some nursing self-portraits.  We don't get to see a lot of pictures of older babies/toddlers nursing.  There is a lot more horsing around than there is with a newborn.

Easter Eggs!

I was so excited this year to dye eggs with Eliot for the first time!  It was even more fun than planned, and no permenant stains!  Eliot is so careful and meticulous, but his toddler exuberence still comes through... two eggs were harmed during the process.  I kept running back and forth from behind the camera to Eliot's side... loved every minute.  And the best thing about having so many grandparents is that we'll be doing it all again tomorrow!  These eggs were boiled by my mom (Nana), dyed by Eliot and me (Mommy!), and will be made into Devilied Eggs Sunday by my grandmother (GG).  I like the intergenerational shot.  Another extremely fun thing to photograph due to all the colors and excitement and happiness shared.

Ivy and me

These were taken by my mom and I like them a lot.  It's so rare that I'm actually in the picture.  :-)

This week in pictures

This is just a bit of what we did this week. HIghlights included a trip to the park with my brother and Haf and Anne and Michael, the local pre-school carnival complete with face painting, and a trip to the zoo.

Swing

I am recieving emails from a website called Digital Photo School. Last week's letter included a tutorial on taking silhouettes, and so I completed my homework yesterday at the park. I like the result!