MomShots

This week’s IheartFaces theme is Black. I wasn’t sure what photo to use and then I saw this one. My son was looking up at me with his grubby little face and big, beautiful, shiny brown eyes and has a silly grin thing going on. He’s wearing a black and grey sweatshirt so I decided that this was the one to use. I took this last week at the old homestead park in my neighborhood.

If this photo was a dish on a menu it would be listed as Big Brown Eyes on a Bed of Black and Grey with a Dusting of Grubby Face. I’ll take one, please!

While looking through my photos, I found the PERFECT one to use for a theme called Yellow. So I’m hoping that color theme comes up in the near future!!!

Leave me a comment and I’ll come comment on your photo. I promise.

One of my goals for 2010 is to learn Photoshop better. I am confident in my familiarity with the basics of the program but I want to be able to rock the house with it by the time the year is over. I haven’t made much progress yet. It’s still January…

So I Heart Faces’ theme this week is Texture. I think that could mean many things. I have been wanting to play with some texture overlays in Photoshop, so I tried a few out on this photo. I ended up going with this one called PaperBox 2 by ShadowHouse creations. I like it but I’m not sure I like it on this photo. The photo is already pretty textured with the grass and tree leaves all around Uly. Oh well. I can’t spend any more time on it right now. My kids are hungry and I need to go make some kind of dinner.

This will have to do.

One piece of advice I heard last year at PhotoCamp was to show less photos to people and be more discerning about the photos that you do share. It’s kind of an “I only take good photos” attitude. I don’t only take good photos. I take some pretty bad ones. I take some good ones too, but I show all kinds photos; good and bad. I don’t think this is one of my better ones. I don’t really follow that advice.

It’s been a really long time since I entered the I Heart Faces weekly contest. I thought I could probably find something in my photos that might fit the bill and I chose this one. It’s from my sister’s 5 year wedding anniversary photo shoot that we did last February. It’s about time to get them together for a 6 year anniversary photo shoot; especially since they have a new addition to their family now.

I didn’t really have any current photos that I liked enough to enter. It’s about time I got out the camera and took some pictures!!!

Did you enter? If not, maybe you should? It’s a pretty wide theme that I am sure you have something that fits.

This week’s theme over at iheartfaces is Hats. I have this MomShot of Magnus wearing the Indiana Jones hat. I really like the sun lens flare here. I have been playing with sun flares a lot lately.

I haven’t really discussed lens flare so some of you might be wondering what it is. I was going to type up the definition I found on wikipedia but it is long and confusing and I have a sore throat so I’m going to skip that part right now.

You can experiment with lens flare by shooting directly into the sun or off to the side a little bit. It can completely wash out your photo or you can get some really fun bright spots and rainbows on your shot.

This photo is a bit washed out but I still like it. I love it because of the hat. When my son puts on the Indiana Jones hat, he starts to sing the theme song from the movie and he grabs whatever is available and starts swinging it around making whip noises. It is super cute. Super cute!

Here’s my entry for this week’s iheartfaces competition.

This is not my entry but I liked it too. It’s just a cropped version of the above photo but I like it because it focuses on his face.

Here’s a shot my cousin Kristina took of her daughter Bella. This shot is so beautiful it looks like Bella has a sun crown and bracelet. Perfect for a little princess like her!

Princess Bella by Kristina McPherson

Do you have any shots with cool lens flare you would like to share with other MomShots readers? I would love to see them!!! Email them to me or send me a link to where they are online. MomShotsatYahoodotcom.

Have you seen this yet?

Third place!

Thanks to Olea & Adam for being such great models.

I know I’m tooting my own horn but it’s such a nice way to start my weekend. I wanted to share it you, my friends.

Obligatory MomShot for the day. It reminds me of warmth and summer.

60mm, shutter speed: 1/2000, f/2.8
Processed with PW’s action Define & Sharpen and Totally Rad Action (TRA) Cinnamon Toast at 70%

Did you notice how infrequently I posted last week. It’s funny how some weeks are like that. Then there are other weeks, or even days for that matter, where I will post a whole bunch. That’s probably because I’m not one of those bloggers who have a schedule. I just post as the whim strikes. That’s pretty much of how I operate in most aspects of my life. I’m an “As the Wind Blows” kind of girl.

Anyhoo… So Sunday was my wedding anniversary. We celebrated on Saturday and Sunday. It was great!

We have been married for 12 years now and for some reason, I was really excited for this milestone. Much more than I was for 10 or recent past anniversaries. I don’t know why, I just was. Maybe it is because when I was a kid we could only have birthday parties on certain years and 12 was one of those years so now as an adult the number has a bit more significance than others. That’s probably it.

I actually have a photographic point to telling you this. The tie-in here is that for an anniversary present, Ben got me a copy of Aperture 2. That is the Apple pro-level photo editing and managing software. I have read many great things about it and I’m excited to try it. I’ll probably be installing it tonight or tomorrow after I have my current to-do list checked off. I’m excited about it and I’ll let you know what I think.

I use iPhoto to manage my photos but I don’t use it to edit them, I use Photoshop CS3. I have been pretty happy with that relationship until I tried to switch over to RAW and then I encountered some minor hiccups. iPhoto would convert my photos into JPGs when I imported them to Photoshop so I wasn’t able to use the Adobe Camera RAW program and that was a bit frustrating. Then I solved my problem by bypassing iPhoto and pulling the files directly off the camera. That works but I don’t like it as much because I like to have my photos all organized in iPhoto so they are in one place and I can easily find them.

Aperture is supposed to fix this problem. I’ll let you know after I install it.

It’s a new week over at iheartfaces. The theme is Natural Light. Since that’s pretty much all I use I thought I would enter. I am going to enter in both the children and adult categories this week. I rarely have adult photos to use but I am going to use one of the shots from my sister’s anniversary photoshoot. I have posted both of these up here previously so sorry for the repetition.

If you are thinking about entering the competition, DO IT!!! It’s super easy and super fun. It is great to look through the other contestants and get inspiration. I love it. The deadline is Tuesday so go get crack-a-lackin’ and one of you natural light shots to enter!!!

My Kid’s category entry:

This is my entry into the Adult’s category:

The final word from me today is about iheartfaces giveaway. They have partnered with Photojojo for this contest. I am pretty sure I have mentioned them in the past. I love Photojojo. They always have the best newsletters full of either awesome products or projects to make that have a crafty photographer in mind. I always look forward to new newsletters from them. They never disappoint!

Over at my newest favorite site, I heart faces, there is a really great article about reading your camera manual and understanding what it means. It is focused toward beginner level photographers and is a wonderful resource. So if you have heard me shout over and over again, “Read your manual” and you are always thinking, “I tried that and it didn’t make any sense!!!” then read this little post and you will be suddenly shot up into a whole new world of camera understanding.

This post uses a DSLR as an example but it all applies to any camera. A point and shoot works on the same principals as the DSLR.

So the MomShots tip of the day is to go here to read the article written by Rachel Durik.

This week’s theme for iheartfaces is “Messy”. Well with a theme like that you would think I would have tons of photos that fit the bill. But for some reason I can’t really find any that I like. Or at least none that I want to enter into the contest. Until I saw this photo. It is funny how inspiration strikes, isn’t it? I saw Kerry’s great shot (which I think is absolutely ADORABLE, btw) and was reminded of this shot for some reason.

This is from Magnus’s first birthday, last July. He had his birthday cake and got to eat it too! I love this shot. I love the angle and the focus. It’s just abstract enough. Plus, you know he was having a blast!!!

Have I mentioned how much I am enjoying that blog? I hope you will post an entry too. Ohh, I almost forgot! This week they are having a special beginners section. Only beginner level people can post in that category. This is really cool because usually beginners are putting their shots up against all levels of photographers. It can be a little intimidating and some people might feel it is unfair. I love it that way because I think it forces me to really be creative and try harder. I am not a beginner anymore but I can sure shoot some shoddy shots ( I love alliteration!!!) sometimes. So the point is, if you haven’t entered in the past because you were intemidated by the divers pool of photographers, don’t let that hold you back this week. Find your favorite messy shot and post it up there! Even if you have to give your kids your kids a bucket of mud and stage a messy shot. Do it! You will really have fun.

Thanks again for the inspiration Kerry! I always love your blog!!!

turning 5.  

On my family blog I have been posting a photographic countdown to Ulysses’ 5th birthday.  I want to share this shot with you.  I am also submitting it to the current iheartfaces challenge.  Their current theme is “Joy”.  You should submit a photo to them.  It’s really easy and fun.  Who knows?  Maybe you’ll be the winner!

I love this photo.  It’s not a technically “good” photo but it captures a certain Essence of Ulysses.  I love that he is laughing and his eyes are closed.  He does that when he really gets going.  It really captures what he feels about turning 5.  He’s very excited about it.  He made this blue Lego “5″ and then showed it to me.  I couldn’t pass up that photo op!

Also, thanks to everyone for their comments about inspiration and copying.  I think we are all on the same page here.  It’s nice to know I’m not crazy.  Or maybe you’re all equally crazy.  Either way it is good company!