Noise Reduction Filter….AMAZING!

I was reading out on this site the other day and got excited when I saw that I could have a noise filter for FREE!!!!! She said to go to this site and choose the Community Standalone Edition and install! Well, you see for yourself the difference. The first picture I have here is a very, very noisy one. Click on it and you will see for yourself!

There are a lot of ones to choose from and I just tried the first one. I can’t believe the difference in the pictures with the noise reduction!

 

There was an action on the Digital Mom’s Photography site that I can use in my Photoshop Elements program, but what a concept that we can save pictures that may have seem lost. Yeah!!!!

St. Cloud Photowalk

Photowalk of St. Cloud, MN

Cheryl and I participated in the 2nd Annual Worldwide Photo Walk on July 18th. It was an early day since we had to be to the St. Cloud Library at 7:00 in the morning. The walk was scheduled from 7:00 – 9:00 am and was pretty much set to be anywhere within walking distance of the Library.

It took me a little while to get awake in the process, but I think there were a few of the 250 I took that may have turned out. I still don’t think that I was able to capture everything that I had hoped for, but without really knowing what I was looking for, I couldn’t say it could have been any different.

Over the course of the next weeks, I will be sharing some of the pictures I took that day. The two I am including now are the two that I entered in at the contest for the Worldwide Photo Walk . I really have no expectations of winning, but I am still happy with these two pictures none the less! There are 900 other cities that participated with as many as 50 at each of those locations. Crazy amount of competitors. My only hope through all of this is to get stretched a little in my photography!

The sun coming down yesterday

I hoped when I loaded this picture onto my computer that it would indeed look just like this. This is is actually unedited so it just captured the sun the way I was hoping it would.

 

He Set Me Free

Minsan did a special on the same Sunday as the Cardboard Testimonies. Here is the note he set with it on YouTube:

“Minsan Sauers and the band at church playing a funky version of the old song He Set Me Free. Kind of a mix of Keith Green and Lindell Cooley. The audio is off the house mixer so naturally things aren't balanced quite right for recording, but you get the idea.”

I heard it live and it was amazing! It is a bummer that the house mix for the video feed didn’t capture it well at all in comparison. BUT, it is indeed better to have a bad version than not one at all!

Minsan knows that this is one of my favorite songs he does so when I had asked him ahead of time what special he was going to do, he actually chose to make me wait and be surprised on Sunday morning. It was a delightful surprise! Plus, because of the cardboard testimonies being done twice by Will it allowed me to hear it live twice :)!

Yeah, I love Minsan for just being him, but I really, really love his gifting in music and “playin’ it funky”!

Another favorite!

Here is the pic I loved so much last summer.

Here is the pic with a simple defog action.

Here is the pic after I edited it in Photoshop with the Vivid action and chose bright. What a difference in the picture when all is said and done :)!

An Old Favorite

This picture above was an favorite I had taken back in September 2007 when Will was only 2. I just love, love, loved it. I even have it hanging on my wall. Of course now that I am understanding my Photoshop Elements program better, suddenly I am tempted to print out a new one from my wall based on the one I edited below. I used one of the Coffee Shop actions that she called Vivid and did the soft edit from it. Then I ran her vignette action. You know, it is indeed fun to improve upon an old favorite! What do you think? 

Here I used the Hot Cocoa action from her site and I believe the picture is even more improved :)! I just love this shot of Will, oops I think I already said that a few million times, LOL!

Win a lens!

Check out this site and you can also try to win a new lens!!! What fun to have a chance to get something that I need!!!

The Littlest Guitar Player…

This little man is sooo the cutest thing I have ever photographed! He is a year and a half and already learning how to strum his guitar (the very cool one that his talented grandpa built for him), tap his toes and hum a tune. He is amazing! Here he is playing while his grandpa played guitar with him.

Isn’t he the cutest thing ever?!

Some pictures along the way home from a friends home…

I couldn’t help myself today on my way to Cheryl’s house but see many different things that just need to be taken pictures of…yeah, their are fields and skies and rotting wood and roads, etc. It all needs my attention!!!! So here are the views on my way back home from her house!

 

RJ’s American Grill

We had the opportunity to go out with friends last month at RJ’s American Grill. I had never heard of it before, but it has great ambiance and the food is spectacular. I would have to say that it is a bit on the pricey side, but very tasty none-the-less.

Wonderful cheese and bread appetizer…sooo good!

Their hamburgers were great!

They had this yummy pear, apple salad! Their house dressing is Apple Cider Vinegar with Lavender…so fabulous!

Here is the dining crew! It was a great to connect with them!

So one of my favorite things to take pictures of and capture color is and has always been food. This opportunity was no different! Ahhhh, so good. Using my 50 mm lens really does help make all this possible. In the past I had the hardest time getting the food shots to turn out. I am so glad that the Canon 50 mm lens/ 1.8 just rocks!

Riding the Motorcycle in Minnesota…all to get the blue skies on camera!

No kidding, it was the perfect day for taking blues skies and the green grasses and fields….AMAZING beauty here in Minnesota!!!

Summertime Beauty!!!

 

A little sprinkler action in the summertime!

I took this picture yesterday afternoon and was happy to get a clear one of the sprinkler with all the water cascading around. The sun was right, the grass was green, it was perfect.

Then I started in on some edits...

I love the edginess (is that a word?) of this black and white one. With the darker edges and crisp contrast, it just made me proud ;)!

This one I just kept the sprinkler and a little water clear, increased the contrast and blurred the edges, I love this one too.

Both of my edits, in my opinion, were great improvments on the original picture. Of course for both I was using the coffeeshop actions I had downloaded for use in my Photoshop Elements. They work great and I think look perfect. What great fun!!!!