Texture Tuesday - Rain Bokeh

I almost wasn't going to participate in Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday challenge today. The theme is Gratitude, and I was seriously uninspired.

When I was going through my google reader yesterday, I was catching up on all the blog-reading I missed last week due to the holiday. So many, many bloggers posted quotes about gratitude and giving thanks. So, I decided to do up a photo last minute using a gratitude quote.

I found this photo of bokeh created by raindrops shining in the setting sun, and I thought it fit this quote perfectly:

Gratitude is an art of painting adversity into a lovely picture. 

After processing in LR3, I used one layer of subtly yours on multiply at 69%.

i heart faces Challenge - Bust a Gut

For this week's challenge, no shy smiles. The judges want to see our captures of people laughing those big belly laughs. I'm using an outtake from my photo shoot with Zander at book club.

Click on the button to see more entries!

Color Splash Sunday - Camp Sign

<center><a href="http://purple-hippie.blogspot.com/p/color-splash-sunday.html"><img src="http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y293/prin367cess/colorsplashsunday.jpg"></a></center>Welcome to Color Splash Sunday!

Color splash photos are those that have been converted to black and white, but one object has been left colored. Sometimes, it's easy to just isolate your colored object and you're done. Other times, more editing is required, such as adjusting color levels/light/shadow/etc.

This is an open themed link-up, so there won't be any specific themes for your photos. Any photo is fine, as long it was taken or setup by you, has selective color, and you haven't posted it before. You can read more about CSS guidelines by clicking here.

My photo for today is from a state park in CT.

Your turn to link up!

Happy Thanksgiving 2011!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American bloggy friends!

This past month, many people I know have been making an effort to acknowledge the blessings in their lives. I found a trend on facebook in which you post one thing each day that you are particularly thankful for. I started this on November 6, when there were 18 days until Thanksgiving, and added one things to the list each day. Here is my list of things that I am thankful for:

18. I am thankful for my husband. I could go on and on about how much he means to me. Just having him, and knowing that he will always be there for me, shows me how blessed I am.

17. I am thankful that my goddaughter was born last night (11.6.11)! She is gorgeous and healthy, and it seems like the new mama and daddy are doing well.

16. I am thankful for the basic necessities: food, clothing, shelter. I'm sitting in my warm hotel room, eating dinner, while there are so many people who are hungry and homeless. Counting my blessings.

15. I am thankful for my family. They were so helpful and supportive during the wedding planning process. No matter what tries to tear us apart, it only makes us stronger.

14. I am thankful for my friends. All of the birthday messages were very much appreciated!

13. As it is Veterans' Day (11.11.11), I am thankful for all the men and women who have served, have given their lives, or are currently serving in our country's armed forces. They have fought for our freedom, and they deserve this country's appreciation more often than just one day a year.

12. I was unsure what I am seriously thankful for. Then, I thought about my day. I did laundry, watched a movie, and relaxed. So I am thankful for a quiet day with the luxuries that we all take for granted: washer/dryer in my own home, a tv and a dvd player, a couch to relax on.

11. After spending most of the day at work, I am thankful that I have a job. One that I enjoy, provides medical insurance, and earns me a paycheck to pay bills & put food on the table.

10. I am thankful that I scored some sweet deals at small businesses! I love to save money and support the local economy at the same time.

9. I am finding myself thankful for a multitude of things. I'll share just one right now: I am SO thankful that my travel season for work is OVER!

8. I am thankful for music. My life would be so quiet and boring without music. I just wish I could find more small businesses that sold contemporary cd's!

7. I am thankful for the simple luxury of having a dishwasher! It allows me more time to spend with my hubby... And it means that he'll clean up after dinner once a month or so.

6. I am thankful for Sweet Leaf sweet tea! I just found 15.5 oz cans at a local mart for 99 cents each! Sweet deal for organic tea! Ingredients: filtered water, organic cane sugar, organic black tea, and citric acid. However, I prefer the bottles, because there is no citric acid.

5. I am thankful that I inherited just a smidge of my mom's love for tea. The smell of tea leaves is simply therapeutic.

4. I am thankful that we finally have our wedding photo dvd! I am so excited to look through all of the photos.

3. I am reflecting back on 2011 and what a great year it has been. I am so thankful for this year's memories, and excited about next year's possibilities.

2. I am so thankful that my job allows me to be home for the holidays. I can spend Thanksgiving with my husband and our families. I also get a 5 day weekend!

1. I am thinking about all of the experiences I've had growing up, everything that has led me to where I am today. I am so thankful for the values I learned from my family, the quality education that my parents sacrificed much for, the love and fun times from my friends, and all of the lessons I have learned in the past 26 years.

Today, on Thanksgiving Day, I am thankful that our country has this tradition of taking the day off, spending time with family, and enjoying some good food. This is what our country needs more of: less work, more time to relax, and more time with our loved ones.

Please, everyone, have a safe and happy holiday, and cherish your family above all else!

Texture Tuesday - Old Building

For this week's Texture Tuesday challenge, Kim Klassen gave us another open theme. We could use ANY one of her beautiful textures. I chose this photo of a beautiful old building, and used the chamomile texture from KK, as well as an old tone texture from Shadowhouse Creations. I did a clean edit in LR3, then brought the photo over to pse8 to add texture. My layers can be seen below the photo:

Additionally, here is a collage of my various takes on this photo, all from LR3:

Color Splash Sunday - Birthday Cake

<center><a href="http://purple-hippie.blogspot.com/p/color-splash-sunday.html"><img src="http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y293/prin367cess/colorsplashsunday.jpg"></a></center>Welcome to Color Splash Sunday!

Color splash photos are those that have been converted to black and white, but one object has been left colored. Sometimes, it's easy to just isolate your colored object and you're done. Other times, more editing is required, such as adjusting color levels/light/shadow/etc.

This is an open themed link-up, so there won't be any specific themes for your photos. Any photo is fine, as long it was taken or setup by you, has selective color, and you haven't posted it before. You can read more about CSS guidelines by clicking here.

My photo for today is a cake that my mom got for my birthday last week.

Your turn to link up!

Edit Me - 11.18.11

Disclaimer: This is not my photo. I did not take it.
Copyright belongs to the original photographer:
Alita over at Alita Jewel's Treasures

SOOC:

My edit:

I processed this with 2 steps in LR3:

-crop
-Seasonal Winter (my own preset)
-sharpened branch with adjustment brush.

Okay, so, it was 3 steps. Sue me.


Anyway, I've been creating my own LR3 presets, and seriously having fun with it! I've made 13 so far, and I've considered making them available to all of you, if anyone is interested. My only problem is that my photos aren't professional quality. I've tested some of my presets using photos from the Edit Me challenge (as above) and i♥faces' Fix It Friday, but I'd really feel more comfortable doing more testing on professional photos WITH the photog's permission. Anyone want to offer up some photos for me to use?? Email me at yma367 at hotmail dot com.

*If you offer up some of your photos for me for preset testing, credit will be given for all online use. JPEG and RAW files are acceptable, SOOC preferred with some minor editing (blemish/spot removal).

Texture Tuesday - A Rainbow

For this week's Texture Tuesday challenge, Kim Klassen wanted us to use her new texture, Phoebe. It's a beautiful texture, so soft and sweet. I processed a photo of a rainbow in LR3, and brought it over to pse8 to add the texture. After I added the texture layers, I still felt like it just wasn't done yet. It sat, unfinished and unsaved, in my work bin for 3 days while I pondered. Out of the blue, I decided to add a quote. And I knew exactly which quote to add!

Here are my texture layers, but I can't remember my blending modes:

I love how this one turned out! I've added it to my etsy shop; CLICK HERE for the listing.

Color Splash Sunday - Green Asparagus... And Pure Honesty

<center><a href="http://purple-hippie.blogspot.com/p/color-splash-sunday.html"><img src="http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y293/prin367cess/colorsplashsunday.jpg"></a></center>Welcome to Color Splash Sunday!

Color splash photos are those that have been converted to black and white, but one object has been left colored. Sometimes, it's easy to just isolate your colored object and you're done. Other times, more editing is required, such as adjusting color levels/light/shadow/etc.

This is an open themed link-up, so there won't be any specific themes for your photos. Any photo is fine, as long it was taken or setup by you, has selective color, and you haven't posted it before. You can read more about CSS guidelines by clicking here.

I honestly can't remember if I visited any of last week's participants. I'm going to assume I didn't, for which I am very sorry. I haven't been putting as much thought or care into this link-up as I should be. I've actually been considering ending it. I usually forget to plan a post, and then I have to rush to get it up late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. I don't like when I don't have time to go visit everyone who links up. I'm also running out of photos to edit or add selective coloring (since my point and shoot camera usually doesn't work).

This week's photo is not a good one. I took this photo of asparagus in my parents' kitchen with crappy lighting, so the coloring was all off. I did my processing and my selective coloring in LR3, but my heart wasn't in it.

I'll keep going as long as I can; however, to my regular participants, please be prepared, because this meme will eventually cease to exist.

Edit Me - 11.11.11

I wanted to post today because it's 11.11.11 and that only happens once per century. I just couldn't decide what to post about. A life update is not really needed because, let's face it, my life is a bit mundane. I work, I eat, I sleep. Occasionally, I see my husband. The only exciting thing that has happened recently is that my friend had a baby, and we are the godparents!

Besides that, though, we are just enjoying married life when we are together, missing each other when we are apart, and that's about it.

So, I decided to make a post for my edit of this week's Edit Me photo. I have only been posting these photos on flickr for the past few weeks because it's much easier than typing up an entire post. I'm doing it this week because I love how my edit came out, and I need some blank space to explain how I did it.


Disclaimer: This is not my photo. I did not take it.
Copyright belongs to the original photographer:
Kristy over at Through a Photographer's Eyes

SOOC:

My edit:

My steps in LR3:

-crop and straighten
-auto wb, add warmth
-auto tone, add brightness/fill light/blacks
-sharpen preset from Pretty Presets
-Color Years Xi preset from Seim
-export to save my clean edit
-my own aged photo preset
-export again to open in pse8

I used an aged postcard texture from Shadowhouse Creations. Here are my texture layers:

Just wanted to say...

I'm sure you've all noticed that I've been posting more often lately. I've been in the office a few days here and there (thus having more reliable internet), and I've also been able to work out better timing with scheduling posts.

However, I've noticed myself also paying more attention to  
my facebook page and my flickr photostream. It's much easier to post a quick note and/or upload some photos on both of those.

If you enjoy seeing my photos and hearing more from me, I highly recommend that you head to either one of the links above and follow me there! And today (11.10.11) would be a good day to write happy birthday on my wall.

Texture Tuesday - 2

For Kim Klassen's Texture challenge today, the theme was 2. So I chose a photo of 2 flowers, and I used 2 textures, stained linen and sweet treat.

Before adding texture in pse8, I used LR3 to crop and fix WB issues. I had tricky lighting when I shot this, so the coloring was all off. Here's a before-to-after image:

And here are my texture layers in pse8:

i heart faces Challenge - Black

So, I was THISCLOSE to using a black and white photo for today's challenge... It's a good thing I checked the rules before I posted it! Straight from www.iheartfaces.com:

Nov 7th – Black

We enjoyed our white photo challenge so much that we decided to have a theme just for black. Please Note: You must enter a color photo that features black in it this week. B&W photos entries will not be passed on to the judge! As always, a human face must be clearly showing in your photo entry as well.

Instead, I decided to use this photo from a Hanson concert back in 2007. I shot it with my friend's point and shoot camera. The flash on that camera is sweet.

Click on the button to see more entries!

Color Splash Sunday - Blue Lights

<center><a href="http://purple-hippie.blogspot.com/p/color-splash-sunday.html"><img src="http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y293/prin367cess/colorsplashsunday.jpg"></a></center>Welcome to Color Splash Sunday!

Color splash photos are those that have been converted to black and white, but one object has been left colored. Sometimes, it's easy to just isolate your colored object and you're done. Other times, more editing is required, such as adjusting color levels/light/shadow/etc.

This is an open themed link-up, so there won't be any specific themes for your photos. Any photo is fine, as long it was taken or setup by you, has selective color, and you haven't posted it before. You can read more about CSS guidelines by clicking here.

Another photo from the cruise! I had originally shot this photo, planning to apply selective coloring, but I hesitated when I first opened it in pse8. I wasn't sure if the composition really worked for color splash. But I went with it anyway, obviously!

Your turn to link up!

Insta-iPhonography 11.5.11

I take photos with my iPhone constantly... Anywhere from 2 to 22 photos every day. So, you'd THINK that I would post them here more often.

Alas, that is not the case. And, as a result, prepare to drown in September's iPhone photos. Here is a collage of random moments:

I learned to mix filters in instagram:

I had some fun cooking & baking adventures:

I haven't been posting photos on instagram for the past couple of months because I have been too busy. I do hope that will change once my work travel season is over. Also, I hope to post some new apps next week! (Don't hold your breath, though... Just in case I forget.)

InstaFriday at Life Rearranged
iPhonography at One Mom's Perfect Imperfections