New Year

Another new year is approaching. One that will be filled with good times, smiles & laughs, tears, memories, dreams, challenges, and new beginnings.

This cat will certainly be a challenge for me! Jon and I have "temporarily" acquired her while his parents are away visiting family. There's a good chance we will be keeping her, which means I have to learn how to take photos of her. My SOOC photo was very dark (see here), so I had to lighten it up in LR3 as best as I could. I know it's not great, but it's the best I could do.

Meet Katniss!

And if you know why we named her that, then you are awesome.

New Year SOOC

I know it's not the new year yet, but it's only a few days away! Hard to believe that another year has passed. And it was a big one for me, mainly because of the wedding and honeymoon. Some other memorable events from 2011:

-Jon and I spent a week in FL and a week in TN in January. We were able to spend lots of time with family, and we still squeezed in a couple days with friends.
-My family threw a big party for my grandma's birthday in February. We tried to take a family photo, but we didn't fit in one room.
-My younger brother started playing baseball, which provided lots of great photo ops.
-My younger brother also went to his senior prom, and graduated from high school. It was a big year for him, too!
-My friends and family surprised me with a wonderful bridal shower in June.
-I went down to NJ with my family for my cousin's graduation party.
-Some friends and I went to NYC to the American Museum of Natural History.
-We also went to the Maritime Aquarium in CT.
-My parents remodeled the master bath and bedroom in their house.
-One of my best friends/bridesmaids had a baby boy!
-I finally made it to the Renaissance Faire.
-I participated in Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photo Walk.
-Jon and I both turned 26, so we are in our last year of saying "mid-twenties."
-Another best friend had a baby girl! Jon and I were given the honor of being the godparents.

I'm hoping for another big year next year! The good times are what make me stronger during the bad times.




New year, new challenges.

f8.0  |  1/10 sec  |  iso 1000
 New year, new beginnings.

f22  |  1/60 sec  |  iso 100
  New year, new dreams.

f5.6  |  1/15 sec  |  iso 800

  Come back on Thursday to see my edits of these photos.

Holiday Traditions Edited

On Monday, I posted a SOOC photo of one of my many holiday traditions: Collecting Barbie ornaments. I had been messing around with the custom Kelvin WB on my dad's camera, so this photo was WAY too cool! (Look here. You'll agree.)

Here is my photo after some quick processing in LR3:

My step is always to crop. Then I did auto WB, but it was too warm, so I had to decrease the warmth. (of course, I probably decreased it a bit too much.) Then I did auto tone, and decreased exposure and brightness. I also increased fill light, blacks, and recovery. I did some noise reduction right in LR3. I used a sharpen preset (set not available anymore) from Pretty Presets. I finished with the It's Good For You preset from naptime momtog for some color pop.

I also did a black and white edit:

Holiday Traditions SOOC

My grandma and mom started a holiday tradition for me when I was in 4th grade. I played with Barbie dolls, so they started getting me the collectible Barbie ornaments. I went through my collection last year, replaced a couple that I didn't have (1993 and 1997), and am proud to say that I now have a complete set! That is, of course, if my mom buys me this year's ornament.

f5.0 | 1/10 sec | iso 250

My plan so far for processing is to crop and adjust WB; I'm not sure what else yet. Come back on Thursday to see my edited photo!

Holiday Bokeh - Edited

A few days, I posted some SOOC bokeh shots. (Click here to take a peek.) I imported some of those photos into LR3 to do some quick edits. I kept it simple by cropping, smoothing the noise, increasing blacks and vibrance, and increasing contrast. That's it! I love simple, colorful bokeh, so I didn't use any of my creative presets.

You can see more of my edited bokeh photos over at my facebook page.

Holiday Bokeh - SOOC

If you've been following my blog for more than a few days, you know that I am a Nikon lover. It runs in my family! My dad has a D80, my dream (for the past 2 years) is a D90, and my brother now has a D3000. I borrowed my brother's camera the other night and sat outside with my dad to capture some pretty bokeh photos.

The aperture range on the D3000 is not as wide as the D80 (edited to add - using the kit lens), but I made it work.

Here are some SOOC shots:

 

f/5  |  1/8 sec  |  iso 1600

f/5.6  |  1/10 sec  |  iso 1600

f/5.6  |  1/10 sec  |  iso 1600

 

f/5.6  |  1/10 sec  |  iso 1600 

 

f/5.6  |  1/10 sec  |  iso 1600  

f/5.3  |  1/10 sec  |  iso 1600 

f/5  |  1/10 sec  |  iso 1600 

f/4.5  |  1/10 sec  |  iso 1600 

Okay, so, I shared more than I expected. But I just love bokeh! Especially colored bokeh. Come back on Thursday to see the edited versions of some of these.