{christmas templates}

Merry Christmas Eve!

{stacked frames} w/more freebies!

I found this link from Carin for this vintage stacked frame which was a freebie from Melany and it is totally awesome! To process this picture I ran a defog action that I learned from a photog friend of mine (also free), thanks Julie! Then I ran an action called "Grungy" by Mulletgod's Action-A-Plenty which happened to be free. I reduced the opacity to where I liked it, then I ran another vintage action that I just love aptly titled "Vintage Love" by Autumn Love Actions, you can find her flicker group here, did I mention this action was free and finally I ran Totally Rad's, Demo TRA2-The Revenge "Slice Like A Ninja-(Sharpen)" which happened to be..., yep you guessed it, FREE. It was part of a sampling to entice me to buy the rest of The Revenge series, which I am totally tempted. Must save up for those though! Anyway, it pays to search for free actions on flickr and photoshop tutorials on the web. I've already learned a ton and hope to learn so much more. Enjoy!

{christmas photo shoot} an attempt anyway

This is a duplicate post from my family blog so if you visit both then sorry for the repeat. I originally wanted to post pictures that I tried really hard to make look good on this blog, but I decided that since I am new to photography and have much yet to learn I could share my feeble attempts at capturing the poetry of my family life here also.



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Well, I am still learning alot about my old camera and it's settings, but it can be very frustrating at times. Like when you want to take your own family photo for Christmas cards which includes trying to get 7 people to look forward and smile without blinking or making silly faces. Not to mention trying to get the right settings on the camera in a low light setting and then having to use flash while trying to not over expose our faces or cause a glare from Jack's glasses. All the while running back and forth from the tripod to where I am supposed to sit after pressing the timer being careful to not knock over the camera in the process of getting into position after quickly making sure everyone is looking ahead and not at me and then brushing my hair out of my eyes before the camera "clicks". WOW, that is a challenge.


So....here are a few tries and the last one is the one we ended up going with even though Dan was alittle off to the side atleast we are ALL looking ahead, smiling and there is no glare from Jack's glasses. I only realized after I ordered the Christmas cards that I'd forgotten to change back into my red shirt I had picked out especially for the picture. Oh well, you can't have everything perfect.
These first two shots are SOOC, but the last one was sharpened over PW's fresh and colorful action.

{shining star}

This little beauty is not mine but belongs to a friend of mine. The star which happens to be the focal point of this picture (which was intended) does belong to me. It is actually the star that belongs on top of our christmas tree. We were having fun taking christmas pictures of her beautiful girls for christmas presents. More christmas pictures to come, it's my favorite time of the year!

{ring and water jug}

Just playing around with processing again.