Getting My Feet Wet.

Hmmmm.....this blog thing has died down for me. Let's try reeving (revering? You know, the sound your car makes. Rrrrrrrrr?)

Because you Friendternets know about my fixation with photos, let's throw some of those in too. To get the (enter car noise here) going.

In the last SEVEN (!) months we've moved to Colorado, I've become a running machine, lost 30 pounds beeyotches, totally fell in love with my family all over again (News flash: My kids are the greatest. Sorry about your duds.)

I love it here. Sure, everyone is high off medicinal marijuana but it's all good.

Begin random picture showing: NOW! (feel free to comment on how big my boobs look and how skinny my waist is. It seems to be an optical illusion going on up in here)







That's all you get for tonight. Baby steps, people. Baby steps.

The one where my husband leaves for three weeks and I almost make out with blueberries.

OH MY GOSH, YOU GUYS!

Did you know how CHEAP produce is here compared to Hawaii?

Did you know how everything tastes DIFFERENT?

Did you know that I made tomato sauce from scratch and almost got naked with it in my kitchen?





*There'd be more pictures, but I suck at this food photography thing. And it was starting to feel porn-y.

Road Trip

Hello Internet friends! Boy, has it been quiet around here.

Did I mention we moved to Colorado? We flew to San Diego and then drove through Arizona, Nevada and Utah. I loved every minute of it. The United States has amazing landscapes and small towns--it makes me want to head out in a Winnebago and explore!

I looooove taking pictures.....

....but it seriously cuts into blogging time.

well, there goes the "candy-free" holiday

I had forgotten about the neighborhood Easter egg hunts when I declared this Easter candy-free (and don't think Blake hasn't huffed and puffed about it being that way too)

Exhibit A: Colin's chocolate-stuffed face.



Exhibit B: Kate's loot.



Exhibit C: Blake trying to figure out which candies he can nab without Kate noticing.



In unrelated news, Kate got this tiny little pink mixer and if it really mixed things I think I would steal it away. She put on a cooking show for us tonight and my head just about exploded with awesome.



*side note: We leave Hawaii in 67 days. That's not a lot of days.

link-o-rama

*image via the purl bee

*I've decided this Easter is going to be candy-free. My kids aren't super interested in the crappy Easter candy anyway. I'm going to make these jelly bean bags during new episodes of "Lost". And since I'm buying all this felt, I might as well squeeze these in too.

*I've been reading this book, and found these "happy tickets" as a reward system. Works like a charm and seriously, how cute are they?



*image via ambrosiagirl

*Did you watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution? I might have watched it, gone shopping and now have an entire fridge of green things. Bok choy, anyone? Find more of his recipes here.

*Kate's favorite toy yesterday? An egg. The day before that? A red pepper. I really just think she is the funniest little thing ever.



*I took pictures of a friend's baby last weekend. I don't want another baby.....but I really wish she would have thrown up on me just to seal the deal. And not smelled quite as good.



*passed out in between poses.

scenes from this morning

Photo Friday: Positive/Negative Space

Today's Photo Friday can be done no matter what type of camera you have! We're talking about positive and negative space.

Negative space is defined as "the space around the subject of an image." and positive space is your actual subject. If you're more visual, in the photo below the black area is negative space and the baby is the positive space . Areas of a picture that contain "nothing" are important visual elements that provide balance in an image.



Why do we care about this? Sometimes I think we are so caught up in just TRYING TO GET THE PICTURE that we forget about the space around our subject. Especially with children, I think having negative space around them makes them look little (and helps us focus on their faces instead of our unfolded laundry in the background) Don't forget to look up or down to find some clean spaces--sometimes the sky or even your carpets work great!

Used correctly, your negative space should compliment not compete with your subject.

Settings note: Having your camera set to a lower aperture also helps to blur out your background and really make your subject stand out as that positive space.

The Image Is Found are photographers who ROCK at positive/negative space. This session for example.

A couple examples:







Go out and try it!

{this is where I would write something about making negative space a positive experience, but I won't. That would be cheesy}

Kate: Two Ways

Silent.



LOUD!



Those seem to be the only two settings she came with.

Photo Friday: Adding Contrast In Photoshop

Hey! I guess I don't do regular updates on this blog anymore. Photo Fridays are just so much more fun.

I had a questions about which type of editing software to use (Picasa vs. Photoshop Elements vs. Photoshop Premier?) I personally have Photoshop CS3. It took me a long time to figure out how to use it and still I think I only use about 10-15% of it. I think Photoshop Elements is a great place to start with basic editing to your pictures.

That being said, I was recently at a friends house and got to play around with her Lightroom program. IT IS SO EASY! I would say if you want to quickly be able to edit your pictures without learning a bunch of Photoshop talk, give Lightroom a try. You can even download a trial at the Adobe website.

Today I'm going to show you how to add contrast to your pictures in Photoshop.

In Photoshop go to Image --> Adjustments --> Curves



Once in there, you'll see a box like this ...



See the way the line curves? That's called an S-Curve. To get that, click on the line right in the middle. Photoshop will put a dot where you click. After the first click, click again to the left of that one (there is a dot where I put mine) and pull it 'til the line makes an "S." You'll see the photo changing as you do this and after a little playing with it, you'll be a contrast adding pro.

Here's the thing. I use my contrast very sparingly on color pictures. I don't think I would have added quite this much contrast if I wasn't showing it as an example.

Black and white pictures is where I really think contrast shines. I love deep, dark black tones and bright whites. So here's what I do--I convert my pictures to black and white first, using Images --> Adjustments --> Black and White.



I know! This kind of a flat, blah black and white. Use the same method I explained above to add contrast to your black and whites. Again, for this picture just a small amount of contrast works.



See? Much better, right?



Let me know if you have any questions. I'd also love to hear anyone's experience about various editing programs!