Michelle Black Actions

Oh my goodness, I think I'm in love . . . with these actions!! I really like the dark, moody look of some of them. While others give a light, airy sort of feel to the photos. There are several vintage options and I really, really like the variety of black and white actions too!

Here are a couple photographs using funky, one of the black and white actions and dramatic:

New Blog Header

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this photograph. I took it while photographing Lisa's kids. I think it would make a great canvas print.

More Digital Pages

So I spent a portion of yesterday doing some more layouts. I got a couple new kits from Little Dreamer Designs and even made a scrapbook page for my new Jill-E camera bag already!

My Christmas Tree

A couple shots of my patriotic Christmas tree:

Bradley is Arting!

He is painting a self-portrait of himself for his Dad for Christmas. I printed a sketch of him on canvas and suggested he use my NEW box of pastels, but no - he wants to sketch and paint himself!

A work in progress:

Photos of the Boys Together

Yesterday, I tried to get some photographs of the boys together. It was getting late in the day and I couldn't get my 50mm to work (taken care - a DUH moment - no further explanation needed). Needless to say, I'm not happy with them but today it is raining. Hopefully next week, we can get some better shots.

POTD Blog for 2008

I'm gearing up for 2008 . . . those who know me well, realize that the fact that I've done anything in prep for 2008 is a miracle in itself!

I've decided to take on a POTD challenge which stands for Photo of The Day. In this case, it is designed to function as a Photo of The Week event instead - more my speed!

Check out the blog, if you want to play along - create your own blog or leave a photo on the comment block each week.

L.

Jess and Reese

Last Thursday, I took photos of Jess and Reese for their Christmas card. It was a bright day, but soooooo COLD! We first met in the morning, but because it was so cold - Reese was shivering too bad to get good photos. My fingers were literally hurting from the cold. So we met again late in the afternoon and while it was a bit warmer - it was windy. (I need to figure out how to do this inside for the winter!)

I was disappointed that so many shots had hair in the face and focus issues, but I was able to capture one that looked like a winner to me (the second one is more representative of the day though!):

Lisa's Family

Lisa has six GORGEOUS children . . . it is enough to have six kids, but they are all BEAUTIFUL too! Ranging in age from 1 to 18, I'll admit that I was very worried about getting a shot of all of them! Well, 250+ shots later . . . here are some of my favorites:

A Picture of Me Taking a Picture!

I just loaded the pictures that Bradley took today with the D40. My sweetie was taking photos of me taking photos!!

FINALLY . . .

I feel like I'm getting a handle on the D200. I got a video from Blue Crane Digital for $20 titled Introduction to the Nikon D200. It covers the basic functions/modes/options of the camera in a logical fashion and it just started to click. The D200 does not offer an "auto" mode, so you must learn and understand the technical functions in order to get the pictures. While I'm FAR from appreciating it all . . . I FINALLY got some great shots.

I used my 50mm 1.8 lens and took photos of a few of Bradley's friends (Bradley used my D40 to get some of his own shots to be displayed later):

Reese's Photo Shoot!

This morning, Jeannie and I took her grandson Reese out for a photo shoot. We started in my backyard and then drove down to the park. The light was harsh on some of them, but it was still a successful shoot. After 300+ photos, I showed her 38 good ones!

Here are a couple of my favorites:

Another LO with Bradley's New Pictures!

A Bradley Layout . . .

I couldn't resist using a couple of the new pics in a layout:

More Pics . . . Bradley and His Friend Michael

Tonight I was supposed to do photos for a friend's daughter and grandson, but they canceled last minute. So, since I had my day planned around this and had the night off now, I took Bradley and his friend Michael to the park for a photo shoot.

It was about an hour before dark and the sun, which was GLOWING orange was just starting to set. It made a very warm glow on the skin in some of the shots, which I really don't like but couldn't figure out how to correct in Photoshop.

Here are the results: