The Paper Mama Challenge: Family

I was doing so well with my participating in a challenge a week... and then our router broke. And all of a sudden I couldn't get online with my laptop and I was all off balance. But now I am back in business, I think. I just need to get back in the groove.

So my first order of business is to post my picture for The Paper Mama's Weekly Challenge. This week it is to post a picture of your family. This was not an easy task for me to do. I have so many pictures to choose from. Do I go with your typical family shot? Something staged, where everyone is looking at the camera? NOPE! Not even close! In fact if my Aunt Patti finds out that I posted this picture she is likely kill me... hehehe.

This picture is from my mom's 50th birthday party and it just makes me smile when I look at it. My Aunt Patti was teaching Miss A how to do "the bump" as we were all dancing around the living room during the party. I just could not help grabbing my camera and capturing the moment on forever.



For more Family pictures, head on over to The Paper Mama :)

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

It's time for Scavenger Hunt Sunday with Miss Ashley Sisk (sorry, I spelled you name wrong last Sunday Ashely). I almost didn't get my pictures this week because I was down with a migraine all Saturday which is when I planned to go out and snap my pictures. I know, I know, shame on me for putting things off until the last minute, but I was REALLY busy last week with work. Luckily for my mom, sister and I went to the Carolina Christmas Show on Sunday which turned into a WONDERFUL place to capture pictures :) I even got a jump start on the December 2010 Photo Challenge List.

1. In My Home

My MIL gave us this plant when my husband and I moved in together. She started growing it when she got pregnant with my husband. It is called Drunkard's Dream because the the little segments look like little bottles. I can't wait until we move into a house and can give it a space of its own. Right now it is living in my daughter's room because we don't want our kittens to mess with it.

2. It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like....


I almost posted a picture I had of leaves on the ground for this picture, but then it snowed on Saturday and I thought I needed to get a bit more of a Christmas spirit :) This is from the Carolina Christmas Show. There was a little place where a bunch of Christmas trees were displayed and it was hard not to get in the holiday spirit when you seen all of them in one place.

3. Sweet Treat
Okay, you can't exactly eat this sweet treat, but I saw this table scape at the Christmas show and it made me smile. It was a Dr. Seus theme with a center piece full of bubble gum and these mint topiaries with lolly pops! So beautiful! I almost posted a picture of it fully colored, but then decided to do a selected color one. I only wish the lolly pop on the topiary was a colorful one.

4. Time


So my grand idea for time was a table full of watches, but ofcourse there wasn't one. The closest thing I could find at the Christmas show was some watches that were hanging. Bonus points since they aren't all showing the same time?

5. Everyday



Every morning Miso, our little boy kitten, sits on the bathroom counter and watches me as I fix my hair and put on my make up. He has done this since we first got him. He is my little shadow in the morning :)

The Paper Mama Challenge : Black & White

I think I am on a roll with the photo challenges :) Either that or I am just inspired right now. My plans are to try my best to enter one photo challenge or at least post one photo that I have taken a week. Can you all - if there is anyone out there actually reading this blog - try to hold me to this? Hopefully, I will be able to keep this up through 2011 and my photography and composition skills will grow.

So this post is dedicated to The Paper Mama's Weekly Challenge. Her theme for the week is "Black and White." I don't know if I have already said this, but I love turning photos into black and white. I think it makes a good photo really stand out and it can disguise things in a photo that you didn't necessarily like.

This picture is one of my favorites of that I took of Little Ladybug while we were at the Christmas parade. She didn't keep her Minnie Mouse hat on for very long, but she looked so cute while she kept it on!

Be sure to sure head on over The Paper Mama and check out some other stunning Black and White shots from a lot of talented photographers!

November Photo Hunt Challenge

There is a monthly photo hunt challenge that I found thanks to Miss Sisk. She mixes in some of the prompts into her Sunday Scavenger Hunts.

There were 10 different things to photograph for November. I think I got all of them. They may not be my best works, but I accomplished them and that is what I wanted to do. It is an accomplishment, none the less....

1. Home Sweet Home

Okay, so I don't have a picture for this one. I really wanted to put a picture of my husband's feet up. But I never got around to taking one :(

2. Thankful

I am thankful for family. Even if they won't sit still long enough to give me a decent picture. This is a picture of Miss A, my cousin and my sister. They are all goof balls and no matter how many pictures I snapped of them, I could not get one with all of them looking at the me with smiles on their faces! So much for a "Family" picture!

3. Family

Here is some of my family - The family that is that came down for Thanksgiving that is. And really the only way I could get a picture of all of them is when they were sitting down eating. The only other member that was missing was my Aunt Nina who was also taking a picture of the group of us :)

4. I Ate This - Thanksgiving Edition

This is our spread for Thanksgiving. We are not a formal family. We are more a "Come and get it!" family.

5. A Turkey

Here is our turkey on Thanksgiving. This wasn't pretty, but man it was yummy. I almost didn't get a picture because my dad was in a rush to cut it up.

6. Something Hand-Made

This dress was made by Cakelady for Little Ladybug to wear on her 1st birthday. I swear there isn't much that Cakelady can't do! She is super talented!

7. Something Hot

What isn't hotter than some Dunkin Donuts coffee on a cold fall day? And it was yummy too! This is one of camera phone pictures :)

8. Something Cold

This is the infamous Little Ladybug. We were all a bit cold on the morning of the Christmas parade, hence her super cute Minnie Mouse hat! I actually entered this photo into The Paper Mama's Black and White Challenge and she picked it as one of her favorite photos! This is the first pictures I have ever taken that has ever been awarded anything, so I am really happy about that!

9. Something Orange

My "Something Orange" was an orange car featured in the Raleigh Christmas Parade.

10. Anything Goes (Any photo you take in November!)

One of my favorite pictures from this November... Miss A and my grandma playing with some legos during her visit here to NC. It a special moment that am glad I was able to capture on "film."

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I am not quite sure how I stumbled upon Ashley Sisk's site called Ramblings and Photos, but if you haven't ever seen her photos she is AWESOME! I wish I was as dedicated a photographer as she is... maybe in 2011?!? Each week she puts up a new list of items for people to look for and photograph each week and each week I tell myself I am going to find all the items and photograph them. I have been doing this for over a month now, and you can see how many times I have posted on Sunday with my items... ZERO!!! So this Sunday, even though I am short one item, I am going to post my photos. I blame the fact that my family is down...

1. Black and White

I love turning photos black and white. This photo, however, I must admit I ended up taking with the "black and white" setting on my camera photo. I find that lately, since my phone comes with a "8 mega pixel camera" on it, there are times when I can get away with taking pictures with it and do a bit of minor editing in PhotoShop and actually be pleased with how things turn out. Don't get me wrong, I won't be turning in my DSLR anytime soon, but when I need to snap a quick picture and my phone is handy, I find that it will do the trick.

2. I Ate This


This is another picture from my phone :) Something I ate this week... SUSHI :)

3. Historic

Okay, this is the picture that stumpled me. Let's just pretent that I had picture up here of historic car, which I thought I might of taken at the Christmas Parade (but, obviously I didn't). Or some lovely historic landmark that we took my family by while they were visiting us here in wonderful NC.

4. Off Center



I took this picture of Miss A while we were at her Girl Scout adventure at Umstead State Park. My cousin joined us for the afternoon of cabin clean up and turtle hunting. It was wonderful having her along and Miss A loved being able to spend the extra time with her older cousin.

5. The End



So I had two different pictures lined up for this prompt. One was the end of the Christmas Parade (a.k.a. Santa) and the other, as you can see above, is my chihuahua's bum. Honestly, this one makes me smile more, so this is the one I choose.


Be sure to visit Ashley's site and see what creative picture's others came up with this week :) Oh and she is also hosting a give away for one of her beautiful pictures, so enter for that too!

Love That Shot - Link-Up - Nov 11th

There are so many shots from Little Ladybug's first birthday party that could choose from for this week's Link-Up over at Love That Shot! I took almost 200 pictures that day :) I cannot wait to make some series photos out of her smash cake!

I ended up choosing this picture because of how fascinated Ladybug became with her new teddy bear after she pulled it from the bag. Just look at her face. She has not let anyone near that bear since. She loves her new pal and I LOVE THIS SHOT :)


For more great pictures from talent photographers, head on over to Love That Shot.

The Paper Mama Challenge: Food

Little Miss Ladybug turned one last week. It is a bittersweet event thinking about it. How can she possibly be getting this big this quickly?!? On Sunday, we celebrated with an Owl themed birthday party (Look WHOOO's Turning 1). There were so many pictures for me to choose from for The Paper Mama's Food Challenge. Should I go with a picture of when we placed the cake in front of her? Should I go with a picture when she was first just getting into the cake? Or should I go with a picture where she was all into it - you know the one, where the cake is smeared all over, but it is still cute, because well, Little Miss Ladybug is one?

In the end, I decided to go with the picture below, because she has this sweet little smile on her face that I feel in love with. I hope you like it.

I Heart Faces - Fix-It Friday #77

Happy Friday everyone. I am multi-tasking this Friday night :) As I am watching the Carolina Hurricanes take on the Florida Panthers (LET'S GO CANES!), I am working on my Fix-It Friday photo. Can I tell you it it is a wonderful way for me to unwind!

Here is the before photo of Michelle's lovely daughter


To get my edit, I started by cropping in to the 5" x 7" size. I then removed some of the blemishes I noticed by her chin area. Now I am ready to play with the picture.

My first edit involves sharping the image and saturating the color some.


I then decided, I would try something I have never tried before, but have been meaning to try... textures... I started by giving the image a semi-vintage look and then applied a light floral texture in the background.


These were my two fixes for the week. Be sure you check out what the other talented people have done over at I Heart Faces. They will be sure to inspire you!

Halloween Scavenger Hunt

Over at About A Boy, Katrina hosted a Halloween scavenger hunt. Well, I was a bit late with my posting my pictures. But with all things, better late than never right? So here are the pictures that I meant to submit, but never got around to posting.

A black cat

Striped

Orange

A treat -OR- Teeth

Cute

You Are Beautiful

The new book The Beauty of Different is available from Bright Sky Press and Amazon. This book has such a beautiful and powerful message. I CANNOT wait to pick up a copy for myself. From what I have seen of it, Miss A and I will be reading and looking through it together.

Also, if you haven't already checked out Karen's blog chookooloonks you should. She inspires me on a weekly basis.

I Heart Faces - Fix-It Friday #76

My Friday night tradition... Fix-It Friday over at I Heart Faces. This week we were give a picture that was a bit of a challenge for me. Usually, some sort of vision comes to be right away, but this picture just didn't speak to me. I am pretty sure it is because my parents and sister have been at the beach this week enjoying the lovely Florida sun while I have been stuck dog sitting, working away... No, I am not bitter :p

Like, all my edits, I started by cropping to standard size. This time it was a vertical 8" x 10". I then adjusted the colors of the photos in PS3 in the levels palette by using the eyedropper. I clicked on various areas of the photo using the white and black eyedroppers until I was happy with how the colors looked. After turned the photo black and white and then brought some of the color back, so the image had sort of a vintage look, without looking too warm.

I hope you like it :)

Before:


After:



Be sure you head over to I Heart Faces and check out what other fixs everyone have come up with!

Love That Shot - Link Up Oct 28

It is Link Up time over at Love that Shot :) This past Saturday, I had a lot of good camera time between Booger's 5th Birthday Party and Miss A's Girl Scout Fishing is Fun Outing. I was able to get really good pictures at both places. And because of this, I had a really hard time choosing which picture to feature.

I decided to go with the row of fishing rods the I came upon at Miss A's fishing outing. They just looked so perfect not to take a picture of!



Please be sure to stop by Love that Shot and see what else the other talented photographers have captured with their cameras this week!

I Heart Faces - Pink Week

I haven't done an I Heart Faces Photo Challenge in awhile. Mostly because I haven't had a picture that fit. This week the challenge is near and dear to my heart as it is to many of you. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, this week's challenge is the color pink.

Below you will find my entry, which is of not of Miss A, because Miss A does not often sport the color pink these days. This muse of mine is my best friend's daughter who I shall call Lady Bug on here :) Lady Bug never ceases to make me smile and I only pray that her and Miss A shall never suffer from breast cancer as some of my relatives and friends have. Please ladies remember to do your monthly self exams and "get squished" when the time comes.


Be sure to visit I Heart Faces and check out what the other amazing talent have captured for you!

I Heart Faces - Fix-It Friday #74

So it is time for I Heart Faces Fix-It Friday. I almost didn't participate today because I did so much photo editing at work today. But who could resist playing with such a cute picture? I started with cropping it down and played with the colors to give it a sort of vintage look. I would've loved to play more, but it is getting late and my eyes are starting to burn. Maybe next time....

Before:



My Edit:

Love Your Shot! | Link-Up - Oct 14

So my favorite picture from this week came from our trip to the Arboretum. As we were on a portion of the garden called the Sky Bridge (I think) I came across a pot with pretty red flowers. They were just too perfect not to take a picture off as they cascaded down.

I knelt down and set my camera on the Macro setting which on most DSLR's is indicated by flower symbol (how perfect) and snapped away! I got a few others of the blossom close up, but this is my favorite of the bunch.

f/8.0 | 1/200 sec. | ISO-100

Don't forget to visit Love Your Shot to see what others have done this week!