Friday, February 25, 2011

I Heart Faces : Fix it Friday #88

 

I know, I know … don’t fall off your chair or anything.  Two posts in one day?!

(Today is my day off from exercise and I am ‘treating’ myself to online fun, as opposed to vacuuming!)

 

 

This original image is so pretty to me.  I’m probably partial since I have a daughter about the same age.

Love the composition:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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This picture really didn’t need much, just a little boost:

 

 

 

 

 




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My process (in CS4) :

1. Curves adjustment

2. FREE TRA action 12K from facebook … it’s a new fav.

3. Burned the edges

4. I played around with some creative cropping, but liked the original composition best.

 

 

See more edits for yourself over at I HEART FACES.

 

Happy Friday!

 

~Kathy~

Windy Day

So nice and warm and windy today… with a little bit of rain… that’s how you know Spring is on it’s way and personally, I cannot WAIT!

Things are moving along nicely.  KHP Blog is close to completion … I feel like a broken record!  However, it’s all new to me and there’s quite a lot of details to figure out the first time around.

 

Here’s my two youngies on their way to the bus stop… wouldn’t ya know we were ready early enough to walk (for once) instead of drive, and it started to rain 30 seconds into it.  So we drove (:

 

 

 

Doing a little comparison here.  This first image was resized and saved my ‘usual’ way in Photoshop.

 

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First off, let’s focus on my son for the comparison.  I shot this at 2.5 with the focal point on him , and since my daughter is not on the exact same plane, she is not as sharp.

This image is not as sharp as it was before I uploaded it.  Neither of them actually.  Lost detail during the upload to blogger.  Yuck.

 

 

 

 

This second image was processed the same way, but when I saved it I chose the option ‘save for web’.  It dramatically decreases the size of your image, without much quality reduction (we’ll see).  Makes for a speedier blog load.

 

Some difference in the color, but otherwise not too much … which is nice!  If you use photoshop, check it out.  File<Save for web and choose jpeg.  Adjust the slider as low as possible until you start to see a decrease in quality.  I think this one was set at 80.

This third image was uploaded to Photobucket, as recommended to me by the fabulous Rachel Durik through Formspring.  I sent her a question asking how her blogger images are so sharp.  She recommended uploading to Photobucket and then pasting the html into the blog.  So let’s see :


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Wow!  By far the sharpest of them all.  Can you tell the difference? Thank you Rachel for sharing your wisdom. 

 

I’m gonna hit ‘publish’ and then come back and make comments.

 

 

 

Have a fabulous Friday!

 

~Kathy~

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge : Red

 

How lucky for me I have a photo that works for this week!

 

 

 

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Dare you to knock it off! 

(anyone remember that commercial?)

 

 

More red fun at I HEART FACES this week … click HERE!!

 

 

~Kathy~


Happy Valentines Day!

 

I hope all of you had a lovely Valentine’s Day.

Ours was good … full of chocolate and roses (:

 

Been working on my new blogsite – the completion is right around the corner and I couldn’t be more excited!  Although it’s not going to be fancy – but clean and functional.  Have someone working on my branding right now, so that will be the next step!  I’m squeezing every moment out of every day right now, and falling into bed every night.  It is good to be busy (:

 

Have my first official shoot of the year Thursday morning and I can’t wait!  Newborn, 1year old and both parents … I am capturing their first family photo.  Makes me smile.

 

 

Here are my crazy kids from yesterday…. have a great day!

 

 

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DARE you to knock it off … anyone remember that commercial?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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kiss kiss

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I asked her to put her lips ‘normal’, and she said she was ‘blowing a kiss MOM!’

 

 

 

~Kathy~

 

Monday, February 7, 2011

Sweet 12 ~ Happy Birthday to My Girl!

Howdy-

Hope you’re February is going well for ya … I am so excited that Spring and warmer weather are RIGHT around the corner!

 

My baby girl turned 12 this weekend.  I have a ton of images from her birthday weekend – it was a busy one.

However, tonight I will share with you a 15 minute photo shoot that she styled herself. 

I did pick up the props at the local thrift store day before – LOVE a good (and cheap) find!

 

 

I am so proud of this young lady.  SO proud, and love her SO much …

 

 

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her favorite …

 

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they’re ALL my favorites, but this one touches my heart somehow…

 

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she ROCKED it … despite being VERY cold and a thorn in her toe (she wanted to be barefoot for the shoot)

 

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In the process of organizing image for a photo wall in our living room – not sure which one of these to use!  Definitely see some large prints in our near future…

 

 

Hope you enjoyed these … I am posting the rest on FACEBOOK if you want to check them out.

 

Have a great week!

 

~Kathy~

p.s. I am having issues with the quality of my images on this blog, so please bear with me.  I think they are sharper on facebook of all places!

I am also smack in the middle of developing my new Wordpress blog … will keep you posted!