Back From the Land of Color

I feel a little like Dorothy waking up back in Kansas after the brilliance of Oz...only difference is that I brought two munchkins back home with me. The fam and I went to the Portland area for five days to visit family and friends and to test for a potential job. What struck me was how many flowers were in bloom over there! Eastern Oregon is just now starting to get her first cover of green, which every plant, tree, and flower in the Valley are showing their true colors. I, of course, went a little berserk with the super macro setting on our point and shoot. Sorry if you get tired of floral photos, but I just couldn't help myself.
















Oh! And next I'll be posting a tutorial on the Orton Effect. You can read about it here. This article has instructions for Photoshop Elements, which I don't use, so for those of you Elements peeps out there, this will help! I'll be showing you how to do it using Photoshop CS...the original version...not CS2 or CS3 or CS4...just plain ol' CS. It is A-MA-ZING with the right floral photos. So far I've only used florals, so I haven't yet experienced its awesomeness on a different subject.

We'll see how long the boys will let me work on this tutorial.

Old Rusted Cars Rock!

Another One

Story Me A Story

On the Coffeeshop Actions blog, I found this action that helps you create a story board. Lovely for people like me who KNOW how create their own story boards but frankly don't have the patience to do it. Here's one I put together real quick of the last photos I took of the boys. Love it!

Rain Drops Keep Fallin' On My Head

It was raining this morning when I got home from work. I've been waiting for a chance to take photos of rain drops on flowers, but it's been a relatively dry spring here in Eastern Oregon. So when it was lightly raining this morning, I jumped at the opportunity. And yes, I did a little trespassing to get photos of some beautiful tulips and daffodils. But don't worry, it's an abandoned property!









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I have a fear of portraiture. Maybe it's irrational, but the idea of taking photos that make up another family's memories scares the crap out of me...that probably stems from the fact that I have absolutely NO experience with shooting photos of anyone besides my own family. Oh, and the fact that I usually try to take said photos inside my house, with regular house lighting. Not exactly studio lighting.

But today went a long way towards making me feel better about my ability to take portraits. I'm in love with these photos of my boys, not to mention the boys' huge beautiful eyes. Maybe I need to be a little easier on myself, and give myself a chance to try more portraiture. Not saying that I want to make a living out of it, but I believe that I should try every type of photography because...well...it's fun!

I'd have to say that my absolute favorite one is the second to last photo, which is of Asher.

Memories Remembered

The photo is of my wedding bouquet (in the background), but more importantly, of Marla's corsage that she wore at Nathan and my wedding. Marla was my mom's best friend and a second mom to me. Only 7 months after our wedding, Marla lost her year and half long battle with ovarian cancer. The house we live in now is the one she left to us. I miss her so much, that over two years later it still hurts when I think of her, and I would give just about anything to see her hold our boys just once...she was a twin and I can only imagine how much she would love Levi and Asher.

I must say that my favorite part of this photo is how the background just kind of fades away and makes the corsage really stand out. I used Totally Rad Actions' "Super Fun Happy" action to give it the dreamy effect, and then PW's Quick Edge Burn action to pull the focus in to the middle.

Then there were these three photos. I had a very hard time deciding which to post to Mission24. The last two below are actually a different photo from the first photo below and very first photo at the top of the post. The more I like it, the more I really like the B&W just below here. But I also love the colors present when I didn't turn the photos B&W.