Whimsy

A Touch of Whimsy
These sisters had great costumes - a bumblebee and a butterfly.  They had a fun time dancing around in them under this huge willow tree. 
There are many more great pictures to see on this theme at iheartfaces.com - check them out!

May Flowers

The unused railroad tracks in our town are overgrown with these beautiful yellow flowering shrubs - forsythia, perhaps?  They are gorgeous, and I've been wanting to take some pictures there. After running a couple of errands with me today, my daughter kindly agreed to let me photograph her in that setting.  Of course, I had to take a few of her with her newly acquired little stuffed koala bear - part of the cost of good behavior during a boring store run - as well as several of her being goofy (none of which are posted).
   

Same photo with less alteration

I'm also experimenting with using some Photoshop actions to alter the contrast, color, etc., of the image. My tendency with portraits has always been to try to keep the color and contrast pretty natural looking. But these actions can make nice pictures truly striking. I'm a little uncomfortable making very extreme changes - in fact, a friend mentioned she couldn't tell the difference between the two photos I posted.  I'd dialed back down on the actions so much that it was hard to see the difference it made on the monitor.  You could say I'm conservative in my use of actions, but I think I could get used to adjusting my photos to be more dramatic.  What do you think - more dramatic or more natural, and can you see the difference? 

Dandelions

Yellow Dandelions

I love taking pictures of kids with dandelions.  The bright yellow flowers, the white puffballs.... it's all good.  I wish the yellow of the flowers stood out more in this picture.  Maybe the strong sunshine in the background (these were growing under a tree), keeps them from seeming as yellow as they were. 

Can't wait to see what the other entries will be for this week - check them out at iheartfaces.com.

Motherhood

"Motherhood"
This week's challenge at iheartfaces.com is photos on the theme of Motherhood.  It's been a whiile since I've posted, but this seemed like a good one to join back in on.  I mainly shoot families, and love it when there are nice, natural moments like this one.
There are so many great entries this week - check out all the beautiful images at iheartfaces.com.

Smile

There are so many great photos at iheartfaces.com on the smile theme this week!  Here's my entry.  This girl and her mom were having a great time together.  She was really precious.  It was hard to choose which of her smiles to post! 

Black and White

This week's photo challenge theme at iheartfaces.com is "scenic black-and-white."  This picture was taken at a nearby park I love to go to.  It's especially nice for photos when the dandelions are allowed to grow - kids love to pick them.
To see more beautiful scenic black-and-white photos, visit iheartfaces.com. 

Paper

Paper

This week at iheartfaces.com the challenge theme is "paper."  My submission is this moment from a 4-year-old's birthday party.

There are some really beautiful entries this week - check them out!