the joy of love - day 1

Here's my first joy of love photo.  The task was to take a photo of your loved one doing what they do.

So, mine is of the girls playing.

 

Also, the blizzard I mentioned yesterday?  Well, it seems to actually be happening.  Right now it's snowing quite a bit and blowing A LOT.

See the map below?  I live where the small red dot is.  Right in the middle of all the blue snow.

{photo from http://www.woodtv.com/}

School is already closed for the girls.  They are very excited.  Me?  Still have to go to work.  They said we could work from home, but I find it difficult to get anything done when I'm here.  Too many distractions!

Happy Tuesday!

Lightroom. Friend or Foe? Discuss.

Up until recently, I had been using Photoshop Elements 8 to edit and organize all of my pictures.  I did a pretty good job of keeping up on the labels and organization, and had a pretty good system down.

Then Adobe came out with CS5, and I had been drooling over that, and sort of drooling over Lightroom.

Well, right after Thanksgiving, I got a Facebook message from one of the people I follow saying that Amazon was offering a "huge" discount on Lightroom 3 for like 8.5 minutes.  I looked at Greg and said "I know what I want for Christmas!" and headed over to Amazon to see, sure enough, Lightroom 3 was selling for $125.  Typically, it's $300.  So, I clicked on "add to cart" and became the proud owner of Lightroom 3.  Yay!

Fast forward (or is it fastforward?) to Christmas.  I open the box and install the software.  I could almost hear angels singing as I'm doing it, I was so excited.

Then, I started to use it and quickly became frustrated and annoyed because wow! was it different.  And complicated.  And hard.

Oh, also, around this time, I had the opportunity to get Photoshop CS4.  Which I did.  Which is also confusing.  I know.  I shouldn't really complain, right?  At least I am fortunate enough to even be able have stuff like that.  But still.  It's confusing.

Anyway, I am finally starting to see the "benfits" of Lightroom, although I can't say I'm a total adict yet.  I have figured out the organiaztion part, which is really important for me since I take so many pictures.  And the developing part (editing) is cool too.  Oh....it's also pushed me back to shooting in raw (different from IN the raw for those of you wondering), which I got away from.  I didn't want to at first because I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get my pictures into jpg form to be able to post here, but once I figured out how to do an export preset, it's super duper easy!  The only downside I've figured out now for shooting in raw is that it literally takes like 10 minutes to upload some of my pictures to the place I get prints from.  But.....when I finally order them, I bet they look fantastic!

Today, I think Lightroom is more friend than foe, but.....it took a while.

Your thoughts on Lightroom?  Easy?  Hard?  Love?  Hate?

the joy of love

Hi!

I have recently discovered a cool photographer/blogger/mom/graphic designer type person out there in internetland.  Her website is http://www.willettedesigns.com/newsite/wordpress/ and her name is Kelly Willette.

Anyway, I check her blog a few times a week, and I added her to Facebook, so one day I got this email, or notice, or whatever they're called, about a free "class" she was going to be offering for February.

It's called "The Joy of Love", and it starts on February 1st, and I'm super excited! 

Every day for the month of February, she will email a different prompt and/or assignments and there will be tutorials and/or some instruction included along with it.  Of course, in the way of my life, I am sure I'll miss or have to skip some here or there purely because I won't have time, but I think (?) I can go back if needed.  And did I mention it's free? 

Awesome!!

Please expect purely professional looking stuff from me after I am done with this.  *Wink wink*

You can read about The Joy of Love here.

Happy loving!

HEY!

Back for just a minute.....

I am starting a new photo project (inspired by my desire to use my nice camera and some new photo editing software) with a new blog.

Please check out MY NEW PHOTO BLOG!

Well, soon anyway.  I promise!

Also, sweet new look, no?

XO

Just Because I Like Flowers

My Dream Career

A few weeks ago, I was at work IM'ing with a friend of mine (yes, I probably should have been doing real work, but hey.....I gotta have social life sometime, right?) and she asked me what my dream career would be.  (If you're interested, hers was working for the Travel Channel like Samantha Brown, who gets paid to go around the world and check out hotels and restaurants).

Anyway, I have had thoughts over the years of what I would do if money were no object, and some of the things I've come up with were:  Owner of a shabby chic type of home decor store, A stay at home mom, and A lawyer.  Interestingly enough, teacher is not one of them, which is unfortunate, since that's what I have my degree in, but hey.....

OK, I am rambling today.  Sorry.  Back to the other day.

So when she asked me what my dream career was, this time, right away I said "Highly paid professional photographer". 

As I have said before, I love pictures.  I love taking them, I love looking at them, I love editing them.  I love it all!  Over the last year or so, I have really gotten more into it, and if I do say so myself, I think I do a pretty good job.  I could use improvement, sure, but for someone who has never taken a class, or read the entire manual that came with her camera, I'm not too bad.

I took some pictures (OK, like 319) of the girls at the beginning of July because it had been a while since we had had professional portraits done.  But since I think I'm so great, rather than paying someone else to do it, I thought I would do it myself.  So, I dressed them up, took them to the park, and played photographer.  I ordered prints at Mpix.com, and I think that I will not pay anyone else to do it again.

These are the two on my mantle:

Not bad, right? 

I had someone at work tell me that he wished he'd known I could take pictures before he hired someone to do his daughter's senior pictures this last week, which only makes me want to do it even more.  Especially after he told me what the guy was charging.  Knowing what prints REALLY cost, and knowing what I've paid in the past?  Man....I could totally make money doing it.  Only problem is start up $$ and time.  What with my "real" job and all.

So anyway, that is what I would do if I could do anything I wanted.

How about you?

In the Meantime.......

I know....it's been a while.  But I promise!  I've been busy.  I should have some time to update this weekend.  I took today off work to get all the stuff I normally take care of on the weekends finished, and we have Monday off for the holiday, so I should have plenty of relaxation time between now and Tuesday (she says, snickering......).

But until then, here is a sampling of the pictures I took of the girls yesterday.  I have my name on them because I'm suddenly paranoid about seeing them elsewhere.  But it looks cool, too, I think.  Like I know what I'm doing or something!

Enjoy, and we'll talk soon.

Hello, My Name is Jodi.......

......and I am an addict.

I am adicted to pictures.

I love to take them, I love to look at them, I love to see how other people take them and how they process them.  I love everything about them.

I suppose that's because my mom took about 5 million pictures of us when we were growing up - it must have somehow seeped into me - like osmosis. 

My dad also takes a lot of pictures. 

So, it was inevitable, right?

I just wish that:

1.  I had more time to take pictures of things I want to take pictures of.  Right now I am lucky to get one or two snapshots each day and they're usually of the every day things that happen around here, like dressing up the dog in a Snow White dress or rollerskating on Grandma's old skates.

2.  I had lots of disposable $$ to spend on fantastic lenses, cameras and software.  Like the girl I overheard in the camera shop saying "well, I know I won't use it that much, but I need a telephoto lens to use when I do weddings.....nah, $2500 isn't too much".

3.  I had beautiful children to take pictures of.

**OH!  Wait!  I already have #3**

Look at that - I am only 1/3 of the way there to getting my 3 photography wishes!

OMG, Where Have I BEEN?

OK.  So, I realize that I am behind the times on a lot of things:  fashion, getting married, having kids, etc. etc.

But today, I discovered something that has made me realize just what I've been missing out on:  FREE PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS!

What are FREE PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS you ask?  Well, they're only THE BEST THING EVER INVENTED!!!

It's late, and I need to go to bed because some of us have to work tomorrow (that's me), but here's a little bit of a teaser for what I can now do with a quick download and 3 clicks of the mouse.

Before (I took this picture this weekend.  It's OK...nothing great).

After (with one of my FREE PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS!  Doesn't it look like something a bit more special now?  I cropped it first, and then chose the action)

Here's another for you.

Before

After (not much difference....subtle color changes)

And another

Before

After (again.....subtle)

So.  There you have it!

If you want to do this (because you're like me and live in the dark ages and didn't even know this stuff existed until today), just google "free photoshop elements actions" and you'll find TONS of stuff.

FREE PHOTOSHOP ACTIONS RULE!

My New Lens

For Mother's Day, Greg and the girls totally suprised me with a new lens for my camera.

Wow!  I was NOT expecting anything like that at all and was quite excited when I saw the box.  And very impressed when Greg told me it was all Elizabeth's idea.

How did she get to be SO grown up?  I mean really - she's going to be 8 next month.  AHHH!

But, I digress.

So I got this lens - it's a wide angle lens.  Once I know what I'm doing with it, I'm sure I'll take some totally awesome pictures, but I didn't have too much of a chance to mess around with it today.  But so you can see what it does (captures a wider angle view of what you're looking at - hence the name, I guess!) here are a few pictures I managed to shoot today.

This is of the dogwood tree in my backyard; it looks mostly regular,

but see how big that front bloom is and how far away the fence looks?

The fence is really about two feet behind that front bloom.

This is a very exciting shot of the cooking island in my kitchen.  I

put it up because of the angle - it looks like I'm standing really far up

and shooting down.  I'm really just standing in my stocking feet, so

for those of you who know me, my face is almost level with the countertop.

OK....maybe not that close, but, I'm not tall at all, but the picture looks

like it.

This is looking out my front door.  Not a lot of angle to notice, but...

you can see a lot more of the neighborhood than you would

be able to with a different lens.

So there you have it - an utterly fascinating look at my new lens.  I know.....I know.....you're so excited you can barely contain yourselves.  Don't worry.  There will be more from where these came from, I'm sure.

*************************

On a related note:  Happy Mother's Day to all you Mothers out there (I mean that in the literal, not obnoxious sense).  I hope that you had a wonderful day and were able to enjoy your children and families.

Thank you to my mom, for being a fantasic mom, friend and grandma......she still takes care of me now, even though I'm grown up, and she deserves the happiest Mother's Day ever.  I hope you enjoyed our time together today, Mom!

And thank you to Greg, for making me a mommy, and to Elizabeth for suffering through my learning to be a mommy, and to Alexandra, for letting me be a mommy one more time.  I love you all and I had a wonderful day.

Hugs and kisses everyone!  XO

Elizabeth

I finally took some time today to mess around with my photoshop.......I don't have nearly as much time as I would like to play with it! 

What I like most is that you can take a good, but not great, picture and make it something special.

My  repertoire is still very limited, and I have to push every single button to find out what it does (yes, I bought a book, but it's upstairs right now and I'm downstairs) so it takes me forever to do anything.  And once I discover something, I tend to use it over and over.  So a lot of my pictures have the same "look" to them.

Anyway, below you will see my beautiful girl.  Can you believe she's going to be 8 in 8 weeks?  I can't either!

A Collage

A very (very!) quick collage I made from Alexandra's school Valentine's Day party pictures.  It's not perfect (some of the pictures aren't exactly the right size), but........I only spent about 15 minutes on it.  Which for me, who had no idea how to do this a little while ago, isn't too bad!

I blurred the faces of the two kids who aren't mine on purpose, in case you were wondering why Alexandra was friends with kids who didn't have faces.

Off to bed now to hopefully get rid of the rockin' headache I'm sporting right now, courtesy of new contacts/glasses/sitting by a very bright window at work all day (not complaining about actually having a window seat at work for anyone that I work with who happens to be reading- just had very sensitive eyes today!).

Later!

I Got Me Some Elements

When we bought our new computer last week (more on those fun times later), I also got Photoshop Elements.  Yay!  I had PSE4, which came with a scanner I bought several years ago; this one has PSE8.  Wow!

I haven't had much time to play with it yet, but I did manage to do this tonight (a collage so far of all my red theme pictures from my 365v40 blog):

Aren't I talented?

A Cat (??) Photo Shoot

OK, I will absolutely be the first to admit:  it's totally weird to have a cat photo shoot.  Because if you were to do something as strange as that, people might start to think that you're a weird cat lady who does stuff like leave everything to your cat in your will.  Or treat your cat like a person.  You know:  weird stuff.

But I can assure you:  I am NOT a weird cat lady.  All I am is a person who likes to take pictures, and NO ONE EVER HOLDS STILL FOR ME.

My kids hardly ever allow me to take their picture.  Or if they do....they make crazy faces.  Or sport totally fake smiles.

My cat never lets me take his picture, either.  As soon as I get the camera out and point it at him, he runs up to me, because apparently, me pointing the camera at him is cat code for "come over here so I can pet you".  Which it isn't.  He just thinks it is.

So last night, he was cute-ly laying on the couch (well...not too cute-ly because he leaves a TON of fur behind which means we have to vacuum the couch 4 times a week) and when I got the camera out, he didn't move.  Which meant I took about 50 pictures of him.  A few of which you see below.

Plus, I threw another unrelated one in there just to prove to you (and myself) that I am NOT a wierd cat lady.  I am a nice mom who lets her kid eat chocolate right before bedtime.

When (My) Photos Go Wrong

As a lot of you know, I got a new camera for my birthday this year.

Yay!

And, as some of you know, I am still learning how to use it.

Boo!

Thanks to my mom (thanks, Mom - in a good way!), I like to take pictures.  A lot of them.  Especially once I had kids.  I had an OK 35mm point and shoot, and sometimes I would use the 2 megapixel (ooooo!) digital one I had for work. 

At some point, I bought a 35mm SLR.  Don't worry.  I had to look it up too.  But basically.....what you see in the viewfinder is pretty much what you'll get as your picture.  It was a Nikon N55.  Pretty basic, inexpensive, but it took very nice pictures.

A short time after buying the Nikon, I decided to buy a digital camera for myself.  So I picked one similar to the one I had used at work, only nicer.  Simple to use, but with some manual settings, and it was a 5 megapixel....WOW!  It was a Kodak, and it took some really nice pictures.  Like this one:

It also took some funny ones, like this one (notice the very determined look on Elizabeth's face as she's forcing Alexandra to look at the camera):

The Kodak served us well for a long time.

Then, because he's awesome, Greg bought me a brand spanking new digital SLR:  a Canon Rebel XS (I love it so much I have to type the name in bold and red to make sure you know how much I love it).

This camera takes some REALLY NICE PICTURES!

But, I have also discovered that unless you know what you're doing with it, it can go horribly wrong, very quickly.

Below are the most recent (over the past two weeks) examples of some of the horribly bad pictures I have been able to take with my Canon Rebel XS.

Enjoy!

This is Elizabeth on Halloween.  I know.....it's so blurry that it's really hard to tell.  But it is.

This is Alexandra on her birthday yesterday, getting ready to blow out the candles on her cake.  No big deal that I missed this shot.  I mean, there will be plenty of other times that she turns 4 years old, right?

This is Quinn, our cat.  In my defense here, he kept moving.  I'm pretty sure that's why it's all blurry.

Right.

Moving along, this has got to be one of the best bad ones I've ever taken.

Now, I know this may look like a black box, but it's actually a picture of Alexandra at school a few weeks ago.  If you look really closely, you can probably see the flowery pants she's wearing*.

*Hint:  they're near the bottom of the picture.

I am pretty sure that I have two main issues:  shooting in low light does not work well for me right now.  And, I'm moving the Canon Rebel XS when I'm shooting.

I'm going to keep practicing though.  And one of these days, my Canon Rebel XS will worship me, rather than the other way around.

And I will be able to take pictures like this*:

*Thank you, Pioneer Woman for your free high res downloads!

Hey! Check it Out!

I've started a new project!

Go here to see.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, OK, it's not really my birthday yet, but it's getting pretty darn close, so we'll call it good.


Earlier this week, Greg had asked if he could go out for a while (yes, we do ask each other permission to leave the house alone because leaving one parent alone with the kids could potentially turn dangerous - for the parent left behind). Anyway, I asked him if it involved shopping for my birthday gift and when he told me yes, I told him Of course you can go out shopping for my birthday gift! Anytime!


He ended up coming back a while later to get the kids (a bonus early birthday gift?!) and they all left for a pretty long time.


Flashforward to to Saturday......after an incident in which Alexandra announced what my gift was (NO! I did not hear......not sure why, but I didn't) Greg and I were talking about how the kids cannot keep a secret to save their lives. I then started asking questions about the gift: What shape is the box? How heavy is it? Had I said at some point that I wanted one? The suspense was killing me!


So, after about 3 1/2 seconds of trying, he talked me into opening my gift early, saying that it was a pretty useful gift and I might even be able to use it ON my actual birthday. Well, OK. Yay!


This is what I got:

It's a pretty small picture, but you should get the point: I got a new camera!!

It's TOTALLY AWESOME!!

It's much too advanced for me, has more functions than I can possibly use, takes fantastic photographs, and did I mention: it's TOTALLY AWESOME!!

This is one of the first pictures I took with it:

My favorite part about it so far is it blurs backgrounds for me. Oh, my other favorite part is that it will shoot 3 frames per second. Oh, I also like that the colors are so pretty in the picutres. And oh, did I mention: it's TOTALLY AWESOME!!

Happy Birthday to Me! :)

Look What I Can Do!

I have Adobe Photoshop Elements on our computer, which is photo editing software. But, I've never really used it before....mainly because it's a little confusing, and I never have time to read the instructions, or sit down and just play with it. But MckMama, who writes one of the blogs I read, My Charming Kids, is actually a photographer and some of her posts have been all about how to do different things to your photographs using Elements. The instructions she gave seemed pretty simple, and I thought they sounded like stuff I would be able to do. Plus, I wouldn't have to actually read the instruction manual.


So tonight, instead of cleaning the bathroom like I'm supposed to be doing, I am sitting down and fooling around with some of my pictures. Mostly what I've been experimenting with are blurry backgrounds and color enhancing. I've been working on a few, but this one has turned out the "best" so far (I say "best" because I need a lot more practice before my pictures turn out the way I really want them to....but the ones I'm playing with have turned out better than they started).

This was taken of Elizabeth the winter she was in preschool....so, probably early 2007. It was during their sledding expedition (to the hill on the side of the preschool parking lot). This is the picture that came right out of my camera:

I opened the picture in Elements and did some background blur, and some color enhancing (changing the saturation). I can't tell you really what color saturation means, but it makes me sound very knowledgeable by telling you I changed it, doesn't it? Anyway, this is what I came up with:

I like the "new" one because the background blur makes it easier to focus on her, and the color enhancing makes her cheeks and coat a more vivid pink.

That's it for photography today!

I'll post later about Elizabeth's music concert and Donuts for Dad....both exciting school events that happened today.

But first, I have to go clean the bathroom.