St. Cloud Photowalk (20)

St. Cloud Photowalk (19)

A model?

I have been taking graduation pictures of family members that are graduating this year. It actually is an honor to be asked to do it and I hope everyone is happy with the turn outs. I have been learning a lot about editing through this process and this specific picture made me very happy!

Here is the original shot out of the camera in RAW and then just converted to JPG for this purpose of sharing with you.

Here is the same picture after I have done some editing via the action “Picture Perfect” from CoffeeShop that I actually ran through twice and then did a noise reduction software which smoothed out her skin. I think what I am realizing more and more is that photo editing is amazing and can take a simple picture and really jazz it up :)!

I have barely touched all the pictures I need to work with, but thought I would share one quick! If anything you will know what is keeping me busy :)!

Check out this contest!

http://mcpactions.com/blog/2009/08/18/win-a-lensbaby/

What a wonderful chance to win a really cool lens kit!

St. Cloud Photowalk (18)

Close Ups

You know the relatively close up pictures are great, but I just love it when I dig out my Hoya Close Up Kit and get in even closer!!!  

St. Cloud Photowalk (17)

Sunsets are fun to catch when they are this pretty!

The sunset was beautiful tonight so I stopped along the road on the way to capture it! What always amazes me how quickly it it disappears. Even by the time I was putting the camera away, the sky had turned black…amazing!

Old Toy

Just love the bright colors of this old Tonka truck that was Minsan’s when he was a little boy. Isn’t it great when your own kids can play with your own toys from when you were a kid?

Summertime Flowers!

I just love the summertime flowers in my yard when they are in full bloom.

I always get a kick out of my globe thistle plant. If I didn’t know that I had planted them, I would have pulled them out as weeds months ago!

Coneflowers are always a favorite for me too! I am glad that they are growing bigger and more plentiful in my garden! Wonderful!

 

Here is my liatris too! They are really quite beautiful even though they don’t bloom for very long.

I love the pink and purple flowers in my yard. I do add yellows and whites as accents, but my true favorites are the purple and pink ones!

Beautiful Niece!

Andrea is more than half way through her pregnancy and looking completely lovely. I love this picture and all the wonderful color in it!

Outside my front door lies sweetness…at least to me!

This was during the evening when the kids were all tucked in. it was cool to take the pictures as the sun was going down…the richness of the color was wonderful!

I love these daisies  below when the sun had gone down.

Swing Redo

The original picture I took on the 4th of July:

Here is a partially cropped version:

Here is the fully cropped version….totally different picture eh?! 

Sonoma Valley and San Francisco

My sister is in California on a little vacation and she has been taking these beautiful pictures of her adventures. I couldn’t help but share a couple of them!

Here are two from San Francisco!

4th of July gathering!

We had been invited to the Annual 4th of July gathering at the our friends the Anderson’s. They love celebrating the 4th of July since it is after all Ashlee’s favorite holiday! It was actually a lot of fun to join them in celebration. I ran around taking pictures of everyone! I really love capturing candid shots of kids (and a few others of course). Ashlee’s kidlets are perfect for that too!

There was lots of eating, visiting, games to play and even some time for song. For the purposes of this post though I just really wanted to share my artistic kid shots! My goal is still to capture some great color while trying my darndest to be creative….I am still learning I will fully admit to that!

I just thought this pic below was so sweet. Nothing beats grandma and granddaughter hand in hand.