Alien Skin Bokeh Giveaway

If you haven't joined I Heart Faces, now is the time to do it. They have contests and giveaways all the time. This giveaway is awesome! It's for

Alien Skin Bokeh Giveaway

What is that you ask? It is a photo editing software and it is so cool! Go to I Heart Faces and find out!!!

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I Heart Faces- #16 Reflections

So here is another challenge/contest for the web blog I Heart Faces! It's such a fun site , especially for photog lovers like me! This week's contest is" reflections". I am sure I won't win with these entries but it's fun to participate just the same.
Here is my children entry. :)Maddyn kept looking at herself in the dishwasher and we would tell her to "kiss the baby"! So here she is kissing herself!!! Too cute!!!

I will enter an Adult entry when I figure out what I am going to do or I look through my 1000s of pics to find one I already have.
If you want to check out a TON of great pics...go to
I Heart Faces!!!
ok..here is my adult entry. I took this with my point and shoot today when I realized that my Canon XTI 's battery was dead.

thanks for looking!!!! Make sure you check out the other pics at I Heart Faces!!

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We Picture This- Daughter entry

I love to enter photo contests and I love showing off my kids. Here is my beautiful baby girl, Maddyn and my entry for the We Picture This contest. Go check out their blog for more beautiful children and awesome photos!

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I Heart Faces- Self Portrait entries

So this weeks challenge at I Heart Faces is a little different. It is SELF PORTRAIT. You have to take it while you are holding the camera. This is not the easiest thing to do especially when you have an SLR. Anyway, I am not super big on my looks these days but I did it anyway. The first is my self portrait Adult entry and the second is Self Portrait Kids entry (had to have a child in the photo with me). I didn't like too many of the adult ones I tried to do. I chose this one because the one thing on my face I like are my eyes and you can really see the color of them in the picture. So anyway- here it is:

Here is my Kids entry. I used a medium Vanilla action on it. I like it in the black and white. My 6 year old son is in the shot with me. He is such a goofball. You should have seen all the ones I took. Most of them he was trying to lick me! I think this one is cute.
Thaks for looking and if you want to see more great self portraits, make sure you click on the buttons above!

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Easter Eggs painting

here are some photos of us making Easter eggs this year. RJ loves it! HE would do it everyday of the year if he could. Carley had Derek over that day and he got into coloring them too. He said he hadn't colored eggs since he was like 7!

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I Heart Face- Amateur entry

I am entering this week's theme at I Heart Faces. It's Spring/Easter photos. Here is my girl or I should say my bunny outside in a basket. She loves the plastic Easter eggs and the grass. It was hard to get a picture of her actually looking at the camera. :)

Check out the other little bunnies at I Heart Faces!

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I Heart Faces -Fix it Friday

I used to think that I had a small grasp on photography but I realized that I pretty much know the bare minimum. Since I found I Heart Faces, I have been on that site everyday trying to soak in all that it has to offer. There is so much to learn about the art. Not only do you have to just have an eye for it but you have to know how to get the most out of your camera and how to use it - aperture, shutter speed, ISO, lighting, exposure, etc. It can be quite confusing. I have taken a few classes so I know some but I always have to refresh my memory. There is a lot to comprehend and retain. Sometimes my brain doesn't work as well as I want it too in order to grasp it all! Then after all that, you have to know how to edit a photo because 9 times out of 10, you don't get that perfect photo right out of your camera. Well, at least I never do. So comes editing- I don't really know squat about that either. I have Photoshop 7.0 that a friend gave me a long time ago. I had it for a year or so before I ever even delved into trying it out. It still totally confuses me! I usually start with a photo and then apply an action that I got off the internet which is some type of color pop or something and then adjust the hue, contrast and such until I get something that I find acceptable. There are a lot of free actions that you can get off the internet. One place I like is http://coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com/. I use a lot of those actions but you can find them anywhere. Now since going to I Heart Faces I have discovered Picnik. I think it is a great editing tool that anyone can use. I don't use the premium features but I know you can do even more with it if you did but for a free program, it's great!

So, with all that being said, I am not the greatest one to teach someone how to edit something. I Heart Faces does what they call Fix IT Fridays. Someone enters a picture to be edited by the pros and they tell everyone how they did their editing. Then anyone can grab that picture and try things out themselves so I thought I would give it a whirl. I used Photoshop 7.0 mainly for this. I used Picnik just to add a drop shadow effect- no reason- just was messing around. I could have done it in photoshop but I didn't. I tried to whiten her teeth a bit with Picnik but it didn't really seem to work. As far a Photoshop went- I used a color pop action (can't remember which one) and then adjusted the levels and hue a bit and saturation- that is the 1st photo and with the second photo I applied another action to my edited photo. The action I used was Coffee SHop Honey Retro. It burned the edges and gave it a glowing look.

This little girl is so cute! Thanks to the photographer who let us all play with the picture. It was a lot of fun!!! Happy clicking!
First picture is original


This is the first edit


This is the 2nd

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