Mari's Green Dress

I just adore this little dress of Mari's.  It's the same bright green of the grass and makes her look like a sprightly little fairy.

"VICTORY!!"

I just had to share this picture of Tommy... he cracks me up.
Proper post scheduled for tomorrow, cross your fingers that I'll actually get it posted tomorrow! ;)

"Artsy" Photo

I think this picture is awesome.



Yes, over-edited, but still really cool and "artsy", and I like that every now and then.
I took this picture really early in the morning at Camp Lebanon two weeks ago.  It was foggy over the lake, and it looked eerie and mysterious, so I took pictures.  I really liked this one, but it wasn't as interesting SOOC, so I edited it.  And then edited it some more.  And then edited it until I couldn't edit anymore.
And it turned out pretty dang cool, don't you think?
For reference, here's the picture BEFORE I edited the life out of it.


I added a ton of contrast to make the trees on the other side of the lake stand out more, then I adjusted the exposure a bit, added a little texture, and voila!


What do you think?

Bonfire

Since I got way more participation in the caption contest than I anticipated (I was only excpecting maybe two comments at the most!), I'll keep that going until, say... Friday?  Sure.
So keep on commenting!
In the meantime, I'll keep posting here since I've still got some catching up to do!

The pictures for today's post are kind of boring, but I like them. I took them last Monday at my brother's birthday party bonfire. I've never gotten good bonfire pictures, so I was excited about how these turned out.

This one was taken when the boys were throwing sawdust into the fire...

Caption Contest! (update)

I've never done a caption contest before, but this picture just has so many potentially funny captions, that I can't NOT do a caption contest!
Anyway, a little background... this is my cousin, Vinny. I took this picture at camp two weekends ago. He was running by, and I snapped this shot and laughed at how it turned out!

Now, because I'm so bad at coming up with captions and titles and such, I'm leaving it up to you people to come up with something.
The winner gets the satisfaction of having "won" something, and I might throw something else in there for fun if enough people comment.
So have at it! And if I get more than two comments, I might consider making this a regular thing... we'll see!

*Update*
Sorry I kinda forgot about this... the winner of the caption contest is Jander with
"Double dream snaps...pause, shoulder, shoulder..." too funny!

Flowers

I've never been a big fan of flowers.  I always thought they were kind of overrated. 
But since I've gotten into photography, I've developed a new appreciation for flowers.  They're so naturally beautiful and fascinating.  And very easy to photograph.









Which one is your favorite?
Happy Monday, everyone!

I can't stop!

I can't stop taking pictures of Marek.

It's becoming a problem.

But I'm not worried, because the pictures always turn out SO CUTE! :D

I might have edited his eyes a liiiiitle bit on this one... ;)

Picture of the Day

It's August.  The weather is already cooling down, and the back-to-school ads are back in full force.  I don't mind it at all, but I will miss the delicious strawberries of summer. :)

Hair Accessories!

I got home from Wisconsin yesterday, and found that my long-awaited (well, not THAT long, I'm just impatient) package from Josiekat's Trunk had arrived!
I bought a couple of headbands and a set of hair clips that I could use as accessories for my photography, and they are absolutely adorable!  As soon as I took all the pretty things out of their package, I pulled Lina over and put the headbands on her head and made her pose for me.



"The Louise"



"The Lillian"


And our two little neighbor girls, Violet and Siena, just so happened to be visiting at that moment, so I got to use them as models, too! (and aren't they GORGEOUS?)


Hairbows from "The Sophisticate Collection"



My new favorite lens

As some of you may know, I recently got a new lens.  The lens I've been lusting after for months.
Yes, that's right.  The 50mm 1.8 lens.
To give you an example of how amazingly wonderful this particular lens is, I'd like to share with you the very first picture I took with my new 50mm.
(And this is completely unedited, SOOC)

I'm pretty much in love.
More pictures to come!

My little buddy

I'm sure you remember my cousin, Marek, a.k.a., The Cutest Baby on Earth.  Well, in the few months since I last posted pictures of him, he's just gotten cuter (if that was even possible).
Proof:












I love this last one--classic "Marek" expression...

Fireworks!

I know it's a little late for this (the 4th of July was a whole month ago already??), but I need to document my first attempt at photographing fireworks!
Fireworks are an incredibly tricky thing to photograph well.  Through a LOT of trial and error, I managed to get a couple good ones at our Independence day party last month.
All photos SOOC.





Firework bokeh is amazing. I got this first shot TOTALLY by accident!



I love this one with the silhouette of my uncle in front of the fireworks.





Sparklers!


The Grand Finale!