Week 43 good to WOW SOOC Costumes

Well, I won't have any pictures of the kid's costumes until Monday night, but since I've been slowly moving my old pictures out of iPhoto into my Lightroom Catalog it seemed right to share old pictures from Halloween's past.  Now they aren't great photos, but that just makes the edits more fun on Thursday.

First year with a digital camera:

This is the year that Huckleberry was a Knight and SnapDragon a pumpkin.  The digital age missed the year Huckleberry was a trapezoid.

The year Huckleberry was an Astronaut and SnapDragon was a bear.  Thank goodness for older cousins that pass on their costumes--we have had several years of astronauts.

The year Huckleberry was the "Prince of Stars" (started out Prince Caspian and then he changed it to a "made up" prince) and SnapDragon was a pirate...a very nice pirate as he informed every one.

That brings us up to the end of 2007...as far as I've gotten in moving my pictures.  Sunflower was born in August 2008...so 2008 is gonna take a bit of time to move.

Be sure to come back Thursday where I'll share my edits and perhaps a few pictures from this year's Halloween.  Huckleberry made Sunflower a really adorable elephant outfit.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday Snapshot -- Pumpkin Edition

Today we went to Auntie J's to carve pumpkins.

At first, Sunflower was a little skeptical at the request to touch the gunky stuff...Mommy wasn't doing it.

But then she decided it might be a little fun, though Daddy did end up doing most of it.

So since they were all busy playing safely with knives, I decided it was a great time to do my Scavenger Hunt.  In a quest to find balance and to organize my photos better, I had ignored it all week, hoping I'd have the will power to just skip a week.  But since I had nothing else to do...

Macro/Close-Up:

Found Texture:

Certainly if you take away the texture on the pumpkin, it would still be round.  These were very juicy pumpkins.

 Tree:

This is the Kent Weakley tree...at night.   Okay...maybe not. 

Finally, the pumpkins were finished.

They chose creations that didn't take much skill at pumpkin carving.  Frankenstein and His Bride.

Huckleberry chose a castle and a catapult.  He did a fine job on his pumpkin all by himself and no one lost any blood.

Cover:

Sunflower had trouble putting the cover back on the pumpkin, but no worries, it'll be there for Monday.

Home:

We are so thankful Auntie J and Uncle M opened their lovely home for pumpkin carving.  We are also very glad to have relatives so close to our own home, because family is what makes a house a home.  Now if we'd been there a few weeks before, I would have had a more creative "seeing faces in strange places" to share that week:

As we left, I found one more...not so pumpkin related...macro.

Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home.  That is what we did.

I hope you have a fantastic Sunday.  Check out the other Sunday Snapshots and Hunt Photos!

Shades of Autumn -- Red

I bought my newest accessory to my camera.  Most of the things on my wish list are a little pricey--well, I can afford one, I just don't know how to choose.  So I went with a cheaper accessory, though I spent a little more than I usually would on this type of item, but I couldn't resist the color.

These boots, at $30, help me to go outside when the light is gorgeous, but the ground is wet.  So much more fun to go outside and take pictures if you don't get wet feet or have wet cuffs on your last pair of clean jeans for the rest of the day.  If it means Sunflower gets to play outside more often (she also has boots) then that is only a huge bonus.

Now for some leaves, since I've been hunting them the last few weeks.

Have a Happy Friday!  And check out the other Red photos.  There is some serious talent out there.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Time to share our hunt finds for the week.  I just spent the last hour shooting a macro...or trying to...only to just now realize the prompt was orange.  What?  That's what I get for writing my prompts on a 3x5 criss-crossing all the different challenges.  Well, my orange might be a stretch, but I do like it better than my macro attempt anyway, and it is from this week.  So on to the hunt...

Orange:

Orange buttons and orange leaves?

Words:

Under:

The car is UNDER Sunflower.  She has amazing climbing skills.

Always Look on the Bright Side:

When things seem dim a can of coke can help me look on the bright side.

Fly:

Look, Mama!  Ducks!  (They were actually geese.)  I fly, too!

I hope you had a fun hunt and a great week!

Sunflower...Again

I found our church parking lot is the most spectacular place for photos!  Even though she wouldn't be still...no reason to assume she would...I got several favorites of Sunflower from the 30 minutes we had to kill before Bible Study that I absolutely love.  I shared one for Wordless Wednesday, but this is my favorite.  I didn't even bother to edit it; I love it so much!

Mommy!  I'm flying!  Like the Geese!

Shades of Autumn -- Orange

Lots and lots of orange!  My mom's favorite color was orange--growing up our kitchen was a bright, cheerful orange.  Growing up I never understood the attraction...not with pretty pink around.  But as an adult, I can see it.  So many shades.  Such a happy color with the ability to be dramatic.

At the Zoo:

My church parking lot:

Did you know if you stand in the church parking lot at night with the street light leaves look like fire?

Have a happy Friday!

Week 41 good to WOW Edit Pumpkins

Time to share our edits!  This weeks edits were pretty straightforward.  I am very glad Ashley shared that video on split-toning...it makes a ton more sense now...kind of similar to a two colored gradient map in PSE, but in some ways a lot simpler.  However, neither of my photos really lent themselves to split-toning well...though I did try.

But with the pumpkins I ended up with a clean edit...basic sliders in Lightroom, crop, and white balance.

Oh, and I took out the distracting, little, round bits of bokeh in the lower right hand corner with the LR round clone tool.  I find it much simpler to do in PSE but I don't like to go back and forth. 

Then I did a very simple edit on Sunflower...simple and subtle was my goal.

I adjusted the white balance and used an adjustment brush on her face to lighten, brighten, and soften just a smidge. Plus a tiny bit of noise reduction -- + 25 luminance, +6 color.

Then I played around with split toning quite awhile.  Here is my final...split-toned, but not necessarily favorite...edit.

 

This is with a pinkish/purple for the highlights and a green for the shadows and with my blacks boosted (removes the haze a bit and gives it some shadows for split-toning.)  But I just couldn't get the colors or balance right, so I desaturated it all.  I definitely see the potential for what split-toning can do (that video added a blue sky to washed out sky voila!) which is very exciting, but for this one...not really necessary.