What an opportunity!

I ran across this Amazing Giveaway from Crave Photography and I'm already drooling over the possibilities!! I would love to learn from such a talented photographer and hope to someday achieve results like hers! I love photography and I'm hungry to learn as much as possible... things I want to improve on are: Lighting, creativity, correct skin color, vibrant colors, editing... I could go on and on... I guess I should say "I want to be better at everything photography related!" So here's my chance... I entered as many times as possible into her fabulous Giveaway and now I just have my fingers crossed and I'll say a prayer or two (or three or four). Here's a picture just to make this post interesting :)

Ryley says: "My mom would love to win the giveaway THIS much!"

My Lilacs

I L-O-V-E my lilac bushes!! Every year I can count on them to be full of beautiful/ fragrant flowers just in time for Easter! We have 2 bushes that we planted in our back yard over 7 years ago and I have used them as a backdrop for many, many of my children's pictures! But this time I wanted to photograph just the flowers and left the kids out... well, actually, that's not so true... you'll see later on in this post what I'm talking about.

Anyways, I had a good reason for photographing the flowers. I wanted to make my Easter cards with a photo of them. That was my idea anyways... but sometimes my crazy crafty mind gets away with me and I end up with something different than my first thoughts. This was one such time... what I ended up with was this...

That I turned into this little project... (I gave 8 of them to my dear friends today)

I printed it out and glued it to a piece of foam board. Here's a side view to show how I wrapped the edges for a more finished look.

So to back track a little... I want to show some of the pictures I took of the lilac bushes and some of the edits I made... and yes I used ACTIONS again!

This is the original photo used for my project...

and here's the edited version... I added a action called "Sun Kissed"

The following are the pictures I didn't use for this project but probably will end up using somehow!

Original...

Edited with an action called "Velvet Truffle"...

Original...

Edited with an action called "Simply Vintage"...

Original...

Edited with "Sun Kissed" action (same used in project above)...

Original...

Edited with action called "Sunny Pop"...

My son Ryley came outside to ask me a question... little did he know he'd be sorry for doing that! Don't bother momma when she's got her camera in her hands... you'll get shot (he, he)!

He started out with a nice big smile...

but quickly grew tired of smiling for me so he could go back to what he wanted!

and threw up his arms in complaint!

I encourage you to stop, smell and photograph a little of God's beauty like I did this week... you never know what you could end up with!

Daina's 9th Birthday Shoot

My beautiful daughter Daina loves horses, so for her 9th birthday photos and as a treat for her we went out to my dear friend and mentor Linda's house. Linda serves on our MOPS leadership team as Lead Mentor mom... she's a fantastic woman, wife, mentor and mother and everyone who knows her, LOVES her!! She and her husband Charlie were just so sweet with Daina and sharing their horses with her. It was an awesome gift to us and thankfully I got some nice pictures to remind us of this special day!

Linda gave Daina this hat... which was a perfect addition to her outfit and the pop of color we needed!!

I love the outfit we choose for her to wear... it was simple to put together and very easy on my budget!!

The blouse and vest are a set that was handed down from her friend Ashley, the skirt I found at my favorite thrift store for just a couple dollars, the hat from Linda and the boots were a birthday gift from her aunt.

Like I said... easy & CHEAP!

Regretfully, this post and editing these pictures are WAY over due... they were shot on Oct. 2nd, 2010... but at least I got them done before she turned 10!

Thank-you so much Charlie and Linda for your generosity and kindness... we are so blessed to have you in our lives!!



Princess Mallory turns ONE!

I have had the honor of photographing this sweet little girl for the last year... you can see my previous posts of her here and here.
For her 1st Birthday party her mom wanted to make invitations and asked me to take some pictures of her. The weather was very uncooperative so we couldn't get any outdoor pictures but I think they still turned out good with the last minute changes and shooting indoors.

Happy Birthday Princess Mallory!!

I added an "Action" to these photos called Johanna's Tea Party found at The Coffee Shop Blog.