Beach Portraits: Just the Girls!

It's fun to me that of the ten grandchildren in my hubby's family, there are five girls and five boys. My children love their cousins and have such a great time on the rare occasions they all get to be together. As you can imagine, any family photo opportunity must include pictures of the grandkids.

Here is a picture of just the girls:

Joel's sister, Dawn made the matching pillowcase dresses and his sister, April made the hair bows. I love how cut they all look! And the white and pink are perfect with the blue of the sky and sea.

I played with the black and white here. I converted the photo to black and white, then "erased" the black and white on the ribbons of the dresses to allow the pink to come through.


See the man walking the beach? I tried as hard as I could to shoot in a way to avoid seeing the other people on the beach. But it just didn't happen every time.

Thank goodness for photoshop! Here is the same photo after applying the "healing brush"(and a few adjustments to contrast and color).


Here's another edit in photoshop just for fun. Have I ever mentionned that I DON'T know what I'm doing? I DO know I'm having lots of fun!

Beach Portraits: The Whole Family

My hubby's family is a big one! He has four sisters all of whom are married with children. Add in Nana and Papa and that makes twenty-two family members. We are rarely in one place at one time, so a recent family vacation was the perfect opportunity for family pictures. I was very nervous about how these would turn out. After all, any photo attempt that includes ten children is trouble waiting to happen. As it turned out, everyone was very cooperative.

So here is our favorite of the group shots:


I can't just let the photo go. I'm addicted to playing with photoshop. Just for fun, I changed all but the water and sky to black and white. It's not something I'd hang on the wall, but its a fun picture.


And because I just had to play some more, this one is converted to black and white with reduced opacity. Just a touch of the color is coming through the black and white.

I don't pretend to know what I'm doing, but I sure do have fun taking pictures. Here are some of the tips I learned (with the help of my friend, Lynn) for taking portraits on the beach:

*Evening shots are the best.
*Use your tripod for best results.
*Put the sun behind you with soft, setting sunlight on the faces of your subjects.
*Don't use flash.
*Watch for unwanted shadows on faces.

*Before sun sets but still low in the sky, use Fstop between 3.5 and 4.5; ISO 100-200. This will make sharp and clear photos.

*As the sun sets, change Fstop to between 2.8 and 3.5; ISO 200-400. This makes a softer photo.

*After sun sets, use the lowest Fstop on the camera; ISO 400-800. These photos will have soft edges.

My Little Man and Photoshop

I just wanted to post some of the fun I've been having with photoshop. This photo was taken of our son a couple of Sunday mornings ago. This shirt has a pink stripe in it, which bugs my hubby. That's why I took the pictures of our son in it!

Anyway, the photo on the right is the original photo. The one on the right is enhanced by photoshop. I used the auto contrast, unsharp mask, adjust hue/saturation and omni light features.




















Here is the same photo converted to black and white.

Here's another shot: the original is on the left, the right is converted to black and white!

Portraits at the Beach

There is no better subject in my photos than my children. There aren't many better settings than the beach. So I took the opportunity during a recent stay in Destin, Fl. to photograph my children.

Beach Beauty

I love the beach! Of course, I also love the mountains, the prairies, the big cities, the farm and more. I am grateful that God is such a creative God that He created variety and beauty. He is so gracious that He allows us to enjoy it. I have been privileged to see a good bit of the U.S. this year: we have driven from south Alabama to Colorado and back, we've been to the beach in Florida as well.

Every time we travel, I am struck by the awesome power and grace of God. I can't resist trying to capture the beauty we see with my camera. I'm not a pro...its just for my own pleasure, but I want to share some photos of God's creation here. I hope you'll praise God for his creative power and grace as you look at them.

Summer Snapshots

Some photoshop fun: I applied the watercolor filter to the above picture to get this pretty effect:

Photos of Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Garden of the Gods is a spectacular place! We recently visited there and I had a blast snapping lots of pictures.


I loved the orange and blue contrast created by the rocks jutting up into the sky.



I had fun with this large window at the visitor's center. Because the sun created a great reflection, I was able to photograph myself with the landscape of Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak behind me.


We visited the park in the late afternoon. It was beautiful, but I wanted to go back and get a couple of pictures in the morning sun. These were taken in the morning light:



What majestic beauty. I envy the people who wake up every morning to see this out their window. God's creative work is beyond description!