Allison's Project 365

July 31, 2008

2008-07-31T10:43:00.001-04:00

Two of Hannah this morning before she left for daycare.

July 28, 2008

2008-07-28T10:41:00.000-04:00

Taking some photos to show I really went through with it.

July 25, 2008

2008-07-25T10:40:00.000-04:00

How I spent the day.

July 20, 2008

2008-07-20T10:39:00.000-04:00

Hannah on our water slide.

July 19, 2008

2008-07-19T10:32:00.000-04:00

Lots of pictures of us feeding the hippos at the zoo and one of the street dude and our kids that was taken right outside the zoo as we were leaving.

July 15, 2008

2008-07-15T10:30:00.000-04:00

New haircut and color.

July 13, 2008

2008-07-13T10:29:00.000-04:00

A bunch from today. Braids seemed to be the theme today.

July 12, 2008

2008-07-12T10:22:00.000-04:00

Grace and her softball team at their end-of-year picnic.

Also, here are some of my friend’s daughter that I snapped at another picnic we were at that day.

July 10, 2008

2008-07-11T16:16:00.001-04:00

So… I decided I wanted to take a self-portrait in my “natural” state. No makeup… no Photoshopping out my bags and circles under my eyes… no skin smoothing techniques… etc. I’m not really sure why, actually. It was just something I felt like doing because I was bored. So here it is. I applied an ACR preset (which just changed the coloring a bit) and sharpened for web. But I didn’t do any other of my usual “fixes” to it.

Here I am in all my glory. Eye bags, dark circles, laugh lines, and uneven skin. Enjoy. LOL!

AND because the girls were so funny last night, I’m posting this one too. These kids kill me.

July 9, 2008

2008-07-09T07:41:00.000-04:00

The shirt I bought (and had signed) at the Grace Potter concert. And Hannah wearing the matching one we made her using a sticker bought at the concert and scanned into my computer, and then ironed on her shirt. (She says this is her “rock star face”. LOL!)

July 1, 2008

2008-07-01T07:39:00.000-04:00

The sweet fern Steve wanted to boil down for magic skin fixes. Whatever dude.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

2008-06-28T07:36:00.000-04:00

Happy 7th birthday Gracie! I hope you enjoyed your day! :)

Sunday, June 22, 2008

2008-06-25T18:17:00.001-04:00

Isn’t she such a beautiful child? LOL!

Saturday, June 21, 2008

2008-06-21T08:03:00.000-04:00

Hannah at Grace’s bowling party. She’s wearing the bowling shirt that my brother wore in a bowling league when he was about 7-year-old. That was almost 30 years ago. LOL! What’s really funny is that Grace’s party was at the SAME alley that’s on the back of that shirt, and it still has the same name. LOL!

Friday, June 20, 2008

2008-06-20T07:58:00.000-04:00

Me in my natural-haired glory

Thursday, June 19, 2008

2008-06-19T07:57:00.000-04:00

The snakeskin Steve found and brought into the house.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

2008-06-17T07:40:00.000-04:00

Hannah critiques her own artwork.

Monday, June 16, 2008

2008-06-16T09:56:00.000-04:00

A girl and her art…

Sunday, June 15, 2008

2008-06-15T07:20:00.000-04:00

Steve and the girls on Father’s Day, reading his Father’s Day cards. (Excuse the fact that Steve isn’t wearing a shirt. He had come inside from mowing the lawn to open up his presents.)

Saturday, June 14, 2008

2008-06-14T09:54:00.001-04:00

A bunch of photos today. Hannah had her dance recital (and kicked ass), and then we finally celebrated her 5th birthday with some cake at my parents’ house.

Hannah in the hallway backstage, after her big performance.

Getting sung to…

Mmmmm… cake! (I should mention that she was an elephant in the finale at the dance recital, which is why she has random gray paint on her face. LOL!)

Steve and Grace share a moment…

Grace lost in thought…

Thursday, June 12, 2008

2008-06-13T09:26:00.001-04:00

Hannah at her preschool graduation last night.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

2008-06-10T09:25:00.000-04:00

Monday, June 9, 2008

2008-06-10T09:22:00.000-04:00

Sunday, June 8, 2008

2008-06-10T00:34:00.001-04:00

A photo or two from Hannah's 5th birthday party at Libby Lu's. The first one is my favorite.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

2008-06-10T00:13:00.001-04:00

A photo I snapped of Grace on Saturday.

Friday, June 6, 2008

2008-06-08T08:35:00.002-04:00

Kelly, to answer your question about processing on this photo, I really didn't do that much. I did my standard defog, sharpen up a bit, pump up the colors, etc. For her eyes, I just did what I always do to eyes, which is whiten the whites and catchlights a bit. Then I just did a subtle unsharp mask on the irises. I thought I was done, but then I went back into ACR and applied the Phoenix preset from the Road Trip set. That blew it out a bit, so I just pulled down the whites and that was it.

This one isn't SOOC, but it's what I had before applying the preset. Nothing major was done except boosting the colors a bit and sharpening. I really never have to do much to her eyes, because believe it or not, they're that cool in real life. I'm so jealous. LOL!

It's funny, but it's REALLY hard to get a good black and white or sepia shot of Hannah. See, she has those really dark blue rings around the outside of her irises. Gorgeous in real life, but when you convert a photo into black and white or sepia, they tend to look ridiculous. She has pale skin too, so usually a black and white ends up being a ridiculous white face with REALLY dark eyes and it looks kind of demonic. LOL!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

2008-06-06T09:39:00.001-04:00

OK gang. Sorry. I know this is breaking the rules. But there's no way in hell I could choose between these two photos for today. So I'm posting 'em both. I discovered the beauty of manual focus on my camera today and couldn't be more excited. It gives me WAY sharper pictures than auto focus, and I can make sure I'm focusing on exactly what I want to be focusing on.

These were both taken at Grace's softball game last night. (Grace wasn't as sad as she looks in this picture. LOL! She was in the middle of the game, and I yelled her name so she'd look at me. This is the look that happened to be on her face. LOL!)

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

2008-06-04T09:31:00.000-04:00

Grace brought home the journal she's been working on all year in school. It's sooo cute (and funny)! They were given a prompt every day, and then had to write something and draw a picture. I'm going to put it in a binder and pull it out whenever I'm in a bad mood. Because there's no way you could read them and not smile.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

2008-06-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

The girls were excited to see that the sunflower seeds we planted a week ago have started to grow.

Monday, June 2, 2008

2008-06-04T08:32:00.000-04:00

Sunday, June 1, 2008

2008-06-04T00:35:00.001-04:00

Hannah rests after running through the sprinklers for the first time this summer.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

2008-06-04T00:34:00.001-04:00

Hot husband assembles new grill. Mmmm....

Friday, May 30, 2008

2008-05-31T08:35:00.001-04:00

My favorite picture I've ever taken. I LOVE this picture.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

2008-05-30T06:58:00.001-04:00

This is Hannah pissed at me because I wouldn't stop snapping her picture, when all she wanted me to do was play ball. LOL!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

2008-05-29T01:50:00.001-04:00

Hannah on deck to bat at her T-ball game tonight.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

2008-05-28T00:10:00.001-04:00

Why, what possibly could Hannah be hiding? What is it that made her slap her hands over her mouth while giggling uncontrollably?

Gasp! It's a new gap in her smile! :)

Hannah lost her first tooth tonight. She's so excited about the tooth fairy coming to pay her a visit! :)

Monday, May 26, 2008

2008-05-26T23:47:00.002-04:00

A girl... her Daddy... and a dead animal held upside down by its feet. Welcome to my world. (Um, help me?) LOL!

Sunday, May 25, 2008

2008-05-26T23:45:00.001-04:00

This picture sucks. But Steve decided we were having a picnic today and I had exactly 3 hours to prepare for the guests to arrive, even though the house was trashed, there was no food, and we needed beer. So this is all you get. Deal with it. LOL!

Saturday, May 24, 2008

2008-05-26T22:48:00.001-04:00

We went to a party at our friend, Dan's, property tonight. I didn't take many pictures, but I managed to snap this one of Dan's girlfriend, Rachelle. No one EVER gets pictures of her where she's not blinking, so this is quite a rare event. LOL!

Friday, May 23, 2008

2008-05-24T11:25:00.001-04:00

What does one do when no one else is home and you're in the mood to play with your camera but don't like taking pictures of things that aren't people? You set up a mirror in your daughter's room (which has the best natural light) and you have at it.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

2008-05-23T06:59:00.002-04:00

Two today. It's actually the same picture. Just cropped differently. This was Grace at the bus stop.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

2008-05-21T07:18:00.000-04:00

A rainbow in front of our house after a short rain. I wish I had a wide-angle lens so I could've gotten the whole thing in one picture. It was HUGE and it's so rare to be able to see the entire rainbow instead of just one side of it.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

2008-05-21T06:22:00.000-04:00

Monday, May 19, 2008

2008-05-20T00:42:00.001-04:00

Grace just recently learned how to blow bubbles with her gum and has become a true gum addict. Tonight at Hannah's dance class, I snapped this picture of Grace blowing another bubble.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

2008-05-19T00:14:00.001-04:00

Grace just hanging out with her stuffed animals.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

2008-05-17T22:59:00.002-04:00

I'm back! OK. I need to start this whole project back up again. It's KILLED me that I fell off the wagon a few months ago when I started working full-time again. But now I have a brand new, kickass camera thanks to my kickass, amazing husband, and so I'm going to pick off where I left off. So here is my picture for Saturday, May 17, 2008.

February 25th-29th

2008-03-04T00:23:00.001-05:00

I'm playing catch up here. I know I missed the 23rd and the 24th here. I have pictures from those days... I just haven't had a chance to edit them yet. So here are a few from last week, and I'll post the missing ones at some point...

February 29, 2008

I arrived this morning , to discover that the office manager had ordered a bunch of new office supplies for me. :)

February 28, 2008

The view out of my window. Lovely, huh? LOL!

February 27, 2008

What I didn't miss about commuting to work. Stupid friggin' traffic. Grrrr....

February 26, 2008

Grace wanted a picture of my computer/desk, so here it is. Exciting stuff, no?

February 25, 2008

A picture of the new building I work in. This was my first day at the new job. On the other side of one of those windows is the cubicle I sit in. But don't ask me which one, because I'm not sure. LOL!

February 22, 2008

2008-02-24T10:29:00.001-05:00

Your kids are NEVER too young to start helping out around the house. LOL! Hannah helped shovel off the patio.

February 21, 2008

2008-02-24T10:28:00.001-05:00

I walked downstairs at 6:30 AM and found Grace already awake, wearing my sweatshirt, and playing games on NickJr.com. Gotta love a fellow computer addict. ;)

February 20, 2008

2008-02-24T10:27:00.001-05:00

Really crappy photo of the moon eclipse.

February 19, 2008

2008-02-24T10:26:00.001-05:00

We really, really, REALLY love garlic. LOL!

Laziness Abounds....

2008-02-19T23:54:00.003-05:00

Hey gang.

So, I did take pictures for today, but it's almost midnight here and I'm too lazy to upload and edit them, so they'll have to wait for tomorrow. But I just wanted to pop in and say that I'm looking at EVERY single one of your Project 365 photos that you've been posting. I read blogs through Google Reader, which is where I see all of your photos everyday. I know I should click on the link to your blog, comment on your photos, etc. And sometimes, I do. But sometimes, well... I'm just too busy, or too lazy, or too ignorant, or whatever. But I wanted to let you know that I DO see them every time you post one. And that I'm pretty damn impressed with a lot of them. I LOVE that all of us have been sticking with it and taking a photo a day. :)

February 18, 2008

2008-02-19T09:14:00.001-05:00

The temperature finally went above freezing today and was in the mid-50's, so the girls got to go outside and play for a little while.

February 17, 2008

2008-02-17T22:52:00.001-05:00

We went to visit my brother and sister-in-law today, where all of the adults (and Grace) spent hours playing Rock Band on his XBox. That's my brother, Kyle, on the drums, Steve in the background playing lead guitar, and my brother's wife, Melissa, on the bass. LOL!

February 16, 2008

2008-02-17T22:46:00.001-05:00

Hannah's friend from daycare had her birthday party at the YMCA, so we went there this afternoon. This is her in line, waiting to jump on the trampoline. (She's the last one in line.)

February 15, 2008

2008-02-17T22:44:00.001-05:00

Steve insisted on getting an elliptical machine today, and we spent almost an hour and a half putting it together. This is him trying it out after we put the last screw in.

February 14, 2008

2008-02-14T23:08:00.001-05:00

Hannah checking out her Valentine's Day loot.

February 13, 2008

2008-02-14T23:06:00.001-05:00

This sight is nothing unusual. This is Hannah's room. Now before y'all go calling me a slob, let me say my piece. I clean this room up every single day (or every other day at best) and it looks great. Clean... no clothing strewn about... etc. However, when you have a 4-year-old who (literally) changes her outfit at least 6 times a day, who also hasn't grasped how to put clothing back on the clothes hanger and put it back in the closet, this is what you get. A disaster. Every day of every week of every month of every year. [sigh]

Something important to me...

2008-02-14T00:28:00.002-05:00

I have two dear friends who both have sons that have been diagnosed with autism. I have learned a lot about autism from both of them and I admire the two of them SOOO much for what they've done to make their sons' lives as "normal" as possible.

One of my friends is a special ed. teacher in Chicago and the Early Childhood department in her school district has put together a team for the Chicago Walk Now for Autism. The walk is on Sunday, May 18th, and my friend is accepting donations on a website. If you have a few extra dollars to spare (Or even one! Every little bit counts!), can you click on the link below and offer a donation? It would mean so much to me, her, and all of the people out there dealing with autism on a daily basis. Thanks gang! Love ya!

Go support Tracey & Billy!

My photo for today will be posted tomorrow. Tonight, I landed a full-time job and I'm just WAY too hyped up about it to upload my photo right now. :)

February 12, 2008

2008-02-13T07:58:00.001-05:00

Grace had early dismissal from school today because of the snow. WOOHOO!

February 11, 2008

2008-02-13T07:57:00.001-05:00

I sat around waiting for this to ring so someone could update me on my mom' s trip to the ER.

February 10, 2008

2008-02-11T09:37:00.003-05:00

Tonight, we made some homemade popcorn and all watched a movie together.

February 9, 2008

2008-02-11T09:37:00.001-05:00

Hannah's had an earache, se we've been putting these drops in her ear to try to make her feel a little better.

February 8, 2008

2008-02-11T09:36:00.001-05:00

Grace's school had a fund-raiser tonight where kids could stuff their own animal and pick an outfit for it. This was Hannah's choice -- this freaky looking horse with a soccer outfit. Weird.

February 7, 2008

2008-02-08T08:24:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, after school, Grace wrote out her Valentine's Day cards for her party at school next week. Such concentration...

February 6, 2008

2008-02-06T23:23:00.001-05:00

Steve didn't work today so he spent the day working on widening the doorway between the old sunroom and the living room. Hannah "helped" him all day long.

February 5, 2008

2008-02-06T02:07:00.001-05:00

Um, Hannah put this on today and declared herself a "rock star." I think she looked more like an old school rapper, but who am I to argue?

(I didn't edit this photo much because it's after 2:00 in the morning and I don't feel like it.)

New Weekly Layouts

2008-02-05T13:53:00.001-05:00

So the original template/layout I was using for my weekly Project 365 photos wasn't working for me anymore. I'm not even sure why I started to not like them, but I wanted a "cleaner" look I think. So I redid all of my weekly ones and I think I'm much happier with this format. What do you think?

I think I'll change out the color of the background with each new month, but I haven't decided for sure yet.

Week #1

Week #2

Week #3

Week #4

Week #5

February 4, 2008

2008-02-04T22:58:00.001-05:00

Today we had digital cable, a digital modem, and digital phone installed. It rules. Lots of new channels... cool new features... a new remote control... and a faster Internet connection. Life is good.

February 3, 2008

2008-02-04T08:55:00.001-05:00

No great photo today. We went to a Superbowl party at our friend's house last night, and I snapped this picture of some of the guys gathered around the food table, watching the game. Um, enjoy the view? LOL!

Project 365 Monthly Template

2008-02-03T08:58:00.001-05:00

Here it is! FINALLY! LOL! I stripped out the stuff I had to and I finally have the template for those of you that want to download. It's the one that looks like this:

Obviously, I stripped out my photos (LOL!) and I had to take the date stamp out too since that's made by another designer, but everything else is there, including the number stickers. The numbers 2 - 31 are flattened, but I left number 1 as a layered file (the background and then the number), in case you wanted to use a different font or change it or something. I'll post February's template a little later today.

Oh, and this is nothing fancy. Since I originally didn't think I'd be sharing this, I didn't bother making the layers different colors or anything, but everything's labeled in the layers palette, so you shouldn't have too much trouble.

So without further ado, the download link for January's template is here:

Download Template Here

Enjoy!

February 2, 2008

2008-02-02T22:06:00.001-05:00

Me, in the (very dirty) mirror, getting ready for "date night" tonight. Since the girls sleep over at my parents' house every Saturday night, Steve & I decided we should go out those nights. Tonight, we just went right down the street for dinner and a few beers at the bar, but it was nice.

(Wow. I kind of look like a crackhead in that photo with those dark circles under my eyes. LOL! They didn't really look like that in real life. I swear. See? I look rather normal. Stupid dirty mirror and bad lighting. LMAO!)

February 1, 2008

2008-02-01T23:58:00.001-05:00

No child should have this many stuffed animals. And yet, this is literally only about half of them (if that). Grace LOVES her stuffed animals. But if she keeps acquiring them, the humans in the house may have to move out.

And I'm behind in posting these, so here are my digital scrapbooking layouts for weeks 3 and 4 of Project 365, as well as my completed monthly layout for January. :)

January 31, 2008

2008-02-01T23:48:00.001-05:00

I looked forward to the season premiere of "LOST" all day today. And it didn't disappoint. Sweet.

January 30, 2008

2008-01-30T23:28:00.001-05:00

Today we FINALLY started gutting the sunroom that connects to our kitchen. We were supposed to do it (literally) 3 years ago, but well, you know how that goes.

Anyway, when the girls got home from school/daycare they wanted to "help." So here's Grace (with Steve) prying nails out of a piece of the plywood Steve pulled down from the walls.

January 29, 2008

2008-01-30T07:47:00.001-05:00

Steve and the girls having a pillow fight. This means they hurl pillows at each other as fast and as hard as possible. Lovely.

January 28, 2008

2008-01-29T00:49:00.001-05:00

This is my home within my home. The place where I sit for the majority of my day (and night). Where I work... where I "play"... where I keep in touch with the outside world. This, my friends, is my haven.

(I went on my interview today and when I got home, I found that Steve had rearranged half the downstairs. He pushed those two shelving units on either side of the desk and I'm LOVING it. For the record though, everything ON those shelves was just thrown back on there since I found it scattered everywhere when I got home. Tomorrow I'll go through everything and move things around, etc. The new arrangement also explains why there are photos hanging BEHIND the furniture in this picture. Men are asses. LOL!)

January 27, 2008

2008-01-28T00:25:00.001-05:00

I spent a good portion of today putting together writing samples for an interview I have tomorrow. It's a royal pain in the ass because I have to strip out previous clients' names and other information, so I spent hours doing just that. Sounds like fun, no? LOL!

So here's a little glimpse into the world of a technical writer and the kinds of things I write about when someone pays me to do it. It makes y'all want to run out and get some schooling to become a tech writer, no?

Um... yeah... didn't think so...

(PS: I REALLY want this job tomorrow for so many reasons. So any extra vibes/good luck you could spare would be greatly appreciated.)

January 26, 2008

2008-01-27T13:34:00.001-05:00

My family all met at my parents' house today to celebrate my mom's birthday (which was Thursday). This is Grace eating some birthday cake. I think she was stuffed, but kept eating anyway. LOL!

(I used Phaunt Actions Glam It Soft action on this photo.)

January 25, 2008

2008-01-25T23:07:00.001-05:00

The girls being, well, themselves. Hannah sees a camera, poses pretty, and smiles as sweetly as possible. Grace? Well, Grace is just Grace. This is what I get from her. LOL! Ya gotta love her.

January 24, 2008

2008-01-25T23:04:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure I can explain what's going on this picture, since I'm not sure myself. LOL! All I heard was that Hannah had caught a "fish," which was actually an old, non-used keyboard. Steve played along, called it a keyboard fish, held it up with his foot, and told Hannah to gut it, at which point, she started frantically typing. Um, yeah. Whatever freaks.

January 23, 2008

2008-01-24T17:12:00.001-05:00

Grace went to a pool party for a little boy in her class. It was at the hotel down the street from our house. She had a blast until she almost drown (literally), but that's another story altogether. LOL!

January 22, 2008

2008-01-24T08:16:00.001-05:00

Yes, I know I'm behind a few days, but I've been busy. Here's my photo from Tuesday. Hannah got all dressed up, grabbed her horse, and declared she was a cowboy. Ride 'em cowboy!

January 21, 2008

2008-01-21T19:30:00.000-05:00

Our power went out tonight at around 7:00 PM. Grace was NOT happy about it. LOL! This is her sitting at the kitchen island, amongst the candles. I knew this picture was going to suck quality-wise. I took it with just the candle light and no flash. So here it is. Enjoy. LOL!

January 20, 2008

2008-01-20T08:36:00.000-05:00

Gracie reading Steve a book during halftime of one of the playoff games.

January 19, 2008

2008-01-19T23:04:00.001-05:00

Steve and I had a date night tonight. The kids sleep over at my parents' house every Saturday night. Steve decided we need to start taking advantage of it and actually going out every weekend instead of just sitting here at home, watching TV, and falling asleep like we normally do.

So tonight, we headed out to a local place for dinner. This restaurant is so cool. The food is good. Not mind blowing, but good. But the building itself is why I love it so much. It's HUGE. And since in this same immense building, they also have concerts (we've seen Rick Springfield there, Taylor Hicks, Kevin Sharp, a bunch of famous country artists, etc.), the restaurant is decorated with all sorts of cool musical memorabilia. Album covers, huge canvases of famous musicians, old license plates, old vinyl albums, etc.

The car with the restaurant's name was right above where we were sitting. I didn't want to look like a total dork, so I was taking pictures without my flash. LOL! So forgive any bad quality or graininess.

So that photo up there I'm considering my "official" photo for Project 365 today. But here's another one that I took across the room. Those are statues of the Blues Brothers up in one corner of the restaurant up near the ceiling. I LOVE the big pipes and beam work that run the length of the ceilings.

(Oh, and a little trivia tidbit... When I first met Steve back in 1998, I met him in a bar. For our second "date," I spent the evening with him at this job site. He was pouring the 8 bazillion square feet of concrete for the floors of this building, and there I stood that Saturday night, holding a spotlight for him until midnight, while he finished the floor with his power screed. That was the night I first met his mom and step-dad. Who knew they'd be my in-laws one day. Awwww.... true love. LOL!)

January 18, 2008

2008-01-18T23:02:00.001-05:00

Today Hannah decided she was going to be a rock star. So she donned her "rock star" outfit, complete with fake pink hair that you can't see in this picture because it's attached to the back of her head. Then she set up her microphone stand, but couldn't find the microphone so substituted an old baby rattle instead. Pop in the "High School Musical 2" CD, and we were good to go. This is her during the "concert" she performed for me.

Let's Talk About Presets...

2008-01-18T00:22:00.001-05:00

OK. So I've gotten a lot of questions about the presets I use on my photos lately. I'll start out by saying that presets RULE. LOL! I use Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), which came with my Photoshop CS3. Lightroom (another Adobe product) also uses presets, but that's something you have to buy separately, and that ain't happening anytime soon with my budget. LOL!

Anyway, with Photoshop CS3, you can use ACR on .jpgs. Before that, ACR and Lightroom could only be used if you shoot your pictures in RAW format. Since I only have a stupid point-and-shoot, I don't have the option to shoot in RAW format unfortunately. One day though, I WILL own a D-SLR, and then watch out world... But I digress.

We'll use my deer feeding photo as an example right now. Here's the original:

See? Nothing fabulous about this photo. Cute and all. But there's no "wow" factor involved what-so-ever.

So basically, I open Adobe Bridge (comes with Photoshop) and click on the photo I want to apply the preset to (in this case, the deer feeding one). I then select File --> Open in Camera Raw. That opens my photo in ACR.

Adobe Camera Raw is a plug-in that really lets you play with your photos. You can adjust exposure, curves, white balance, etc. There are different "tabs" with sliders that you use to make your adjustments. Presets are basically something you click on to move ALL of those sliders to pre-determined areas, which totally change the way your photo can look with one click.

So I opened up the photo in ACR and just clicked on the St. Louis preset I had (purchased at www.pinkinkstudios.com). (That list you see in the photo below is all of my presets. Each one you click on adjusts the sliders to change the different aspects of a photo.)

This is how the photo changed, literally, in an instant.

Cool. I already like it better. But something was still missing in my opinion. So I stayed in ACR and jumped over to the first "tab" in ACR. I had seen slight purple and pink colors in the clouds and sky after using the preset, and I really wanted those to pop out.

So I increased the saturation in the photo. Since the trees, grass, and the people in the photo were pretty much blacked out, I knew I could increase the saturation and only have it affect the sky and clouds, which is exactly what happened. I then went into another tab and increased the pinks and purples individually if I remember correctly, and also toned down the blue. (I honestly don't remember exactly what I adjusted, but that's the gist of it.)

I then did some stuff outside of ACR and in Photoshop, like duplicate the photo, apply a Gaussian blur to the top layer, made it a Soft Light layer, and then decrease the Opacity of it. (This can totally be a separate tutorial if you want. I don't assume everyone knows what I'm talking about here...)

Then I saved it and posted it here on my blog, which is what you all saw. Do I highly recommend presets? Abso-freakin-lutely. I love them. But my main point here is that ALL of you take great photos. It's just a matter of how you post-process them that takes them to the next level. If you scroll up and look at my original again, you'll see that it's not that fantastic. It really isn't. But once I spent a few minutes on it in ACR and Photoshop, I at least got it to the point where I'll probably have it printed out and I'll frame it.

Most sites sell Lightroom presets. As I mentioned earlier, if you don't have Lightroom and "only" have ACR, you'll need presets that were specifically created for ACR. Pink Ink Studios sells them, which is where I get mine. And sometime in the next day or two, I believe, Kylie over at Phaunt Actions will have some for ACR as well. Kylie RULES, and I'm totally looking forward to what she's come up with. She sells kick ass Photoshop Actions too, and has a few free ones in her shop, so you may just want to jet on over there and check her out. Just this past week, she started a message board/forum and we're all having a great time over there. Swing on by if you get a chance. :)

Also, just make sure that if you decide to buy some presets from somewhere, that you can actually USE them. Like I said, anyone who shoots RAW can use them in either Lightroom or ACR. But for those of us that can only shoot in .jpg, you'll need to have the very latest version of ACR.

But I've digressed (shocking, I know... LOL!). My point is that if you have the right tools and the right knowledge, you can take a photo from this...:

...to this...

... in about 10 minutes tops. It's not always about the photo itself as much as it's about how process it once it's off your memory card and on your computer. I didn't alter my photo in any way in that I added colors and stuff. I just used the tools I have to "alter" different aspects of it. Those pinks and purples were there before I messed with it. You just couldn't see them. Once I told ACR to pull out certain colors, all of a sudden, my photo went from something average to something I truly love. If you compare my Before photo to my AFTER, you'll see in the Before photo that there IS some pink/magenta in the clouds... especially right above the grass. Once I "told" ACR to increase the saturation on those colors, all of a sudden, my photo looks totally different.

So I guess this is my way of saying that any of you out there that take photos, should invest in some sort of good photo editing program. Photoshop Elements... full-blown Photoshop... whatever. You'll be surprised how good your photos can look once you know what you're doing. LOL! I'm not that great of a photographer... I'm just good with my Photoshop. LOL!

January 17, 2008

2008-01-17T20:04:00.001-05:00

There's nothing like a favorite pair of jeans. And today, my new favorite pair arrived in the mail. I used my Aeropostale gift card last week that I got from my parents for Christmas, and today, my order came. I LOVE the new jeans I got. Perfect fit... perfect wash/color... perfect wear and tear... holes and tears in the perfect spots already. Sweet. It's the little things, ya know?

(By the way, I purposely cut my head out of the picture because I didn't bother straightening my hair today. At the length it is now, when it's in it's naturally curly glory, it's um, "interesting." LOL!)

And since I got my photo up early tonight, I'll post again later about presets and stuff. It's coming. I swear. LOL!

January 16, 2008

2008-01-16T23:40:00.001-05:00

Nothing exciting tonight. Just me and the girls playing some Operation Spongebob. But ya know... sometimes NOT having excitement is a good thing. ;)

(For those of you asking about presets, I'll post tomorrow. Right now, I just really, really want to get into my pajamas and crash...)

January 15, 2008

2008-01-15T23:24:00.001-05:00

Every night, the girls and Steve climb the hill at the end of our property and dump some dried corn out for the deer to eat. It's not unusual for us to look out our windows in the evening and see 10 deer standing there, eating the corn. The girls LOVE climbing the hill to feed the deer.

(I used the Road Trip - St. Louis ACR preset on this photo.)

Week # 2 Layout

2008-01-15T08:30:00.001-05:00

Here's my layout using week 2's photos. And now it's on to week 3... :)

January 14, 2008

2008-01-14T23:22:00.001-05:00

Hannah had dance class tonight. I finally remembered to take my camera with me to snap a few photos. (And no, she does not get private lessons with two teachers. LOL! The other little girl in her class just decided she was done at the moment and had walked over to the side to take a break. LOL!)

January 13, 2008

2008-01-14T00:01:00.001-05:00

Tonight, the girls emptied out one of the bins we keep their toys in and played with that sucker for a good 90 minutes while Steve and I finished watching the Cowboys vs. Giants game. Sweet.

January 12, 2008

2008-01-12T22:45:00.001-05:00

It's not unusual at all for me to see Hannah in (literally) 20 different outfits throughout the day. What always cracks me up the most is when she puts on her dress-up clothing, like this dress with a hoop skirt. She wore this a good 3 hours until she changed into her next outfit...

January 11, 2008

2008-01-12T14:28:00.001-05:00

Last night, our friends came over with their two boys. This is Seth and Grace just hanging out on the couch and playing with Grace's GameBoy.

(By the way, I HATE this photo. LOL! But I almost forgot to take a picture yesterday, and when I snapped this, it was at about 11:00 at night in our living room that is notorious for having HORRIBLE lighting for photos. So this picture was so underexposed and grainy, I'm actually surprised I could salvage it. So anyway, that's why it looks all wonky and, frankly, sucks. LOL!)

January 10, 2008

2008-01-10T23:31:00.001-05:00

So, one thing we've been trying to do lately is "Live Green." We're not freaks about it in any way, shape or form. But we're trying to do what we can in terms of saving energy, saving the planet, etc. This week, I switched out a bunch of our regular light bulbs for the high-efficiency ones. I put three of them in the pendant lights above our kitchen island, since our kitchen lights are pretty much kept on from morning until night. These suckers are supposed to last 5 years, so we'll see how that goes. And if they reduce our energy bill, like their supposed to, well then, I'm a happy camper.

(And the fact that they're a cool, funky shape is just an added bonus.)

January 9, 2008

2008-01-10T00:11:00.001-05:00

Yup. We've officially become a family with a child that needed a trip to the ER for stitches. Hannah ran into the doorknob on the bathroom door tonight and put a good gash above her eye. It stopped bleeding after a few minutes, but I knew it needed to be closed up, or she'd have one hell of a scar for the rest of her life. She was one hell of a trooper. She didn't cry a SINGLE tear or make a SINGLE noise the entire time they stitched her up, including when they gave her the shots before they started stitching. I was shocked, and so, so proud of her. But in true Hannah fashion, she couldn't care less about the stitches -- she just likes the ID bracelet they gave her at the hospital. LOL!

See? She's just fine.

And note that in this photo, she's wearing her sequined dress-up shirt. Because the second we got home and walked in, she stipped off her bloody pajama top and declared that she was going to play dress up. LMAO!

January 8, 2008

2008-01-08T21:54:00.001-05:00

Today was another warm (for us) day, so Hannah & I took a walk around the corner to the gas station to grab some candy. We walked back home, sat on the bench in the backyard, and had a little candy picnic. :)

Other Project 365 Stuff...

2008-01-07T23:22:00.001-05:00

I've been working on something for the past week. I decided that it would be really cool for me to put together a scrapbook of all of my photos for the project. I just think it will be awesome to look back next year (or any year after that), and on any given day, know what I did exactly one year earlier just by looking at my photo for the Project that day. Like, next year on January 5th, I'll know that one year before, I watched the Steelers lose the playoff game by one point (which totally sucked). And on January 6th, I'll know that one year earlier, it was fairly warm for us around here and Steve pegged Grace with a snowball. LOL! I also think it would be the kind of thing that my kids would think was pretty cool when they're grown up and I'm like, dead or something. LOL!

So anyway, I've decided to have 12 pages that have all of the photos from each month, and then 52 pages that have a week's worth of photos on them, complete with short blurbs that explain why I took the photo, or what the photo is, etc. This is what I've come up with.

This will be the monthly pages. Nothing fancy. Just each photo from each day on one page. (It will look much cooler once all of the squares are filled in. LOL!)

This will be the weekly pages. On each page, I'll switch out the backgrounds and move the frames around a bit. And I might vary the things I list like "Favorite Photo This Week", "Most Memorable Moment" etc. to be other things. And I'll add some more other scrapbooking stuff here and there, but for the most part, here's what they'll look like. I'm excited to see it when it's all done. :)

If any digital scrapbookers out there want that first template (the monthly one), let me know. I created that from scratch and even made the numbered stickers, so I can send it to you if you want it. Just comment or email me (if you have my email) and I'll send it off. I'd offer up the weekly one too, but I made that using stuff I purchased from designers, so I'm afraid you're on your own on that one.

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I'm giving a shout-out to Kelly, who was awarded Pink Ink Studio's "Photo of the Day" honor for one of her Project 365 photos. Kelly and I love Pink Ink Studios, and I know she's too humble to tell the world about it, so I am. Leave her some love AND check out Pink Ink. Their Flickr group is amazing to browse though and gives me tons of inspiration for my photographs. :)

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