Hoppy Easter!

Spring is such a busy time a year and it seems as this spring has been an especially busy one.  Because West Texas is still in an extreme drought, we decided to take Hallie to the Brewster County Courthouse lawn to hunt Easter eggs after church...it is one of the only places I have seen with semi-green grass.  I also wanted to attempt a few pictures of her in her Easter dress since most of the time now-a-days she resembles "Pigpen" from the Charlie Brown cartoons.  Most pictures ended up being mere snapshots rather than portraits, but I did manage to capture a few.    

The Perfect Model

Every spring, like little children on Christmas morning, my sister and I anticipate our annual photo shoot. It's a time for us to dress in our wildest couture and attempt to imitate the pages of a high fashion magazine. It's a time for us to bond as sisters, be silly, creative and usually end up having "words" with each other before it's all over...just for old times sake. This year I was even more so excited than usual as I was eager to put to use my last few months of sporadic photography study. I have to say the results were all I was hoping for and more! I learned a lot about lighting and feel like my photographs and editing skills continue to improve. Best of all, I have the perfect model who naturally I don't mind bossing around just a bit to get the shot. Not only that, she is one of the most beautiful people that I know both inside and out. How lucky I am to have the best sister in the world!

Whitley - 21 months

Taking pictures of this little sweetheart was such a joy. In the back of my mind I kept imagining my own little toddler (one that never sits still) as a mere flash across the camera frame. Whitley was so very cooperative and as long as Mommy kept the "smarties" coming, we managed to get a bunch of neat shots. I guess you could say this was my first real jab at a photo session from start to finish. I even managed to figure out Adobe Elements enough to edit a few. Thanks to Chelsea and Whitley for being so cooperative and patient with this "work in progress"...that being me and my journey to becoming a photographer.

Finally...A Little Q.T. on the Ranch...

Lately, it seems like finding time for a little Q.T. on the ranch is nearly impossible. Luckily, Cody must still be in slight vacation mode because to my surprise he said he really didn't HAVE to work today...but of course there is still ALWAYS stuff to do on a ranch...so we went. All three of us loaded up in the pick-up and tootled down to the south part of the ranch to check on cows, horses, windmills and anything else that needed to be tended to along the way. Hallie was an angel and for once Cody and I managed not to get in a petty argument, so the outing was absolutely pleasant. I managed to take a few interesting shots and got to practice with a few of the settings on my camera. Most of the cows were calved out and those babies couldn't have been any more adorable. The horses sure were happy to see us...or maybe it was the green alfalfa hay... All and all, it was an enjoyable morning and if all the stars align again some day, I hope to do it again real soon.

A New Perspective

Between being a little under the weather and juggling "mi vida loca" in general, I barely had time last week to take my new lens out of it's box, much less put it to work. However, sick or not, the suspense was killing me...I simply couldn't wait any longer. Luckily lately Hallie has been loving every moment she spends outdoors so I took advantage of a willing subject. The results were all I had expected, the bokeh or blur (isn't my new photography terminology quite impressive?) is fabulous for taking portraits and well worth what I paid for it. Needless to say buying a lens does not automatically a photographer make, but it does give me a new perspective...

The Eyes Have It!

Continuing with photo shop theme, I turned to the Pioneer Woman (that gal can do just about everything can't she?) to guide me through a tutorial on "How to Make Eyes Pop". Very useful as eyes seem to be the focal point in most portraits. I chose a photo I had recently taken our our good friend's darling little girl Carleigh. She and her family came to visit us at the ranch and I could hardly get her to sit still for a photo she was so excited! Nevertheless, I managed to snag this shot and wanted to make those baby blues stand out just a bit more. The top picture is the "after" picture (still trying to figure this blog stuff out) and the second is the "before". Now if I can just remember the zillion steps it took me to get there...

Practice Makes Perfect...

Practice makes prefect...or does it. As is if diving head first into the amazing, yet complicated world of photography hasn't been enough overload on my brain, I decided to tackle the equally complex photoshop. I am not very "techy" as they say, and being "techy" would prove to be a large advantage when self teaching photoshop. Thankfully, I am very good at Pinterest, and managed to find a couple of tutorials that guided me through my first task...color layering. Unfortunately the guiding that the nice lady that wrote the blog may not have quite been enough for this uber-beginner. However, an hour and a half later, task is completed and now I can make my digital images look like Polaroid snapshots.

P.S. - My next lesson will be that of blog design, as I know I need it.