thursday thriving

signs of early SPRING are emerging everywhere here in Nor. cal The rain has been amazing! Everything is green. Trees are starting to blosson and it is so beautiful.
It's times like these when things are new and fresh and you can feel the earth beginning again... the energy is breathtaking. I feel like all I want to do is walk around all day with the camera in my hand.

Gods Love can be felt through the beauty of nature...

Free texture!!!!!!

Hi everyone! So I just wanted to give a little something back. I can not even begin to tell you how I have been inspired by other photographers and also been the recipiant of so much generosity. Especially with photoshop and cute and creative freebies from all the great forums I am a part of. I LOVE the photography community. Even if you are not a photographer and you have photoshop or another program you can still use this too! here are my before and afters using the texture I created:

The texture is basically a picture I took of some rusty metal and then I layered and brushed until I got this final result!





So how do you get these kind of results from a jpeg texture? if you do not know, this is what I did... first you do ALL the adjustments you want done to the picture. Then just drag the texture onto the picture to make a new layer. It will completely cover up the picture. Select that layer and choose OVERLAY. it will most likely make your people look crazy if you are using it on a portrait. So do a duplicate layer of the origional portrait and drag it above the texture so the texture is sandwiched. Then you can erase the parts of the top layer so the texture shows through in the places you want. Layers can not be done wrong. You can get all sorts of different looks by choosing soft light, hard light, or adjusting the opacity etc. So just play around and have fun. If you do use this it would be fun to see the pictures you use it on so leave me a comment and a link to see your creation! :)

here is what it looks like: there is a link at the bottom to copy full resolution.




Link:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3476/3296384129_73620e5f89_b.jpg

Thursday Thriving

These were actually taken this past summer when my family and I took a day trip to San Fransisco...


this is a view of the golden gate bridge from the boat we were in. I love those sail boats and the mist of fog that is over everything. It actually got so foggy about 2 hours after this that we could not see a single thing.




The roof top of the guards living quaters at Alcatraz.

This was such an amazing place. So old and full of so much history. My Son was terrified, and the only thing he remembers is...
"If you break the rules, you go to jail. If you break the Jail rules you go to Alcatraz" and my sons last few words of his own he added on.... "And if you break the Alcatraz rules you die"
thats not really true, but to a 6 year old... it's a scary place.

Happy Valentines & CHD awareness day!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

I have had so many wonderful experiences and met amazing people as I have had the opportunity to photograph a lot of precious children..I have been given the gift of getting to know and photograph some wonderful kids and families who have been touched by CHD.



February 14th, is CHD awareness day. To find out more about this and how you can help or donate go to these links below

http://www.gopetition.com/online/16298.html

http://www.childrensheartfoundation.org/donate/index.html

Thursday Thriving

I have been doing more than just portrait photography, and I want to share that too! I will be dedicating each Thursday to the world around me and how I view it.... and that is Alive and THRIVING. . .just beautiful and amazing. Here is my first first post for Thursday Thriving!
(it's actually the end of Thursday, but it still counts!)




FYI: my hubby is holding that leaf. . . just so you know I don't have man hands LOL!

WINNER! WINNER! WINNER!

CONGRADULATIONS TO: ALI



you have won the free photoshoot! Please send me an email and we can book it!!

I used a random picker on the internet to select the winner.

Thank you to everyone who entered and all of your great words about my new site!

O.K. this is exciting!!! my first giveaway. . .

Hello! It looks like you found me... and my new blog and website. . . feeling all fancy!

To kick it off I want to do a GIVE AWAY...

It will be one photoshoot. This will include any session with session fee waived, my time and talent with the C.D. included. (see website for further info on sessions and pricing)..

All you have to do to earn this is leave me a comment on this post and in a few days I will have one of my unbiased children draw names from a hat or jar or whatever we find that works...
I am so excited to hear from you! GOOD LUCK and tell your friends!

oh! and BTW this counts for all you Utah people too. I will be there Feb. 16-19th!!!