Good to Wow - Pumpkin (Edit)

Howdy from a wet South Western Virginia city! I couldn't wait to show you my edit of this shot. So thankful for a mid-70's weather on Monday. I was able to do my little guy's 4-year old portraits which I will also share.

Here again is the sooc.

And now the edit:

If you notice the top part of the sooc shot has an overblown streak which is the street (picture taken on our front yard). I added a grass layer to cover that up. Then processed the photo with Oh So Posh's "Love Couture" and "Little Miss Muffet." That's it!

Here's more of our portrait session. I love this little guy. And he is so photogenic, too. Of course, I'm biased.

Storyboards from The Coffeeshop Blog.

Good to Wow - Pumpkin (Sooc)

Barely made it to today's prompt posting for "Shoot and Edit" (Good to Wow). Did 4-year old portraits of my little guy. Friday and Saturday he didn't want to get his picture taken but today, he was a different person. LOL!

Using one of the photos today as my sooc for "pumpkin" prompt. I can not wait to show you all the edited photo. I loved his smile so much, I just had to edit this shot right away.

For the mean time, here a shot from Saturday. The view above our picnic table on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. So, so, blessed to call this area our "home" for a few months. Fall colors are so beautiful! Met an American guy there, married to a Filipina who travelled all the way from Florida just to see the beautiful fall colors. That's a long trip!

Hope you have a great week!

Good to Wow - "Leaves" Edit

Well... not "leaves" but just one leaf. I've been looking forward to this post. I'm really happy with my edit since I really, really love the sooc.

Here's the sooc:

Here's my edit. I loved the dof and the composition that I left those as is. I sharpened just the leaf and finished the edit with Oh So Posh's  "Love Couture" for fall warm tones. 

Have a great Thursday, friends!

Linking for Ashley Sisk for this post: Ramblings and Photos

Good to Wow - SOOC "Leaves"

Love this week's Good to Wow | Shoot and Edit prompt. I got just the shot for it. Yay! Here's the sooc shot of my middle boy holding a big maple leaf. It's maple, right? LOL! Hop on over to Jill's to see more leaves.

I can't wait to show you the edited version! Have a great Monday!

Good to Wow "Orange" Sooc and a Selfie

I have been out of the loop and out of all the photo challenges I was in for about four months now. I miss them but schedule has been so crazy. In fact, we are now on day 12 of our 15-day trek to our supporting churches (we're missionaries on furlough). And more travel to come. So... I'm going to try to slowly start back into those challenges.

Here's my sooc shot for the Good to Wow (Shoot & Edit) "Orange" theme that Jill and Ashley host each week. This was part of the decoration at a church we are in this week.

Over two months ago I started a once a week, one whole year Self-Portrait project as my first 365 Photos project was coming to an end. Here's my Week 9 shot. Click on these links to see shots from other weeks: Weeks 1-5, Weeks 6-8. To all my photo blogging friends... where can I participate in self-portrait projects/challenges? I've been out of the loop.

Good to Wow - Bubbles (Edit)

A little late with my posting for Good to Wow/Shoot and Edit. Just got home from a four-day vacation at the beach. Didn't have bubbles to have my kiddos blow but found bubbles by the jacuzzi section of our hotel pool.

Here's the sooc shot:

I decided to do something fun with this. Went to picnik.com to convert my photo to HDR after adjusting the lighting and contrast just a little bit. Then went back to PSE9 to add a black and white layer in linear burn, a colored layer in linear burn, and cranked up the darks on levels to add more contrast. There you go! I think it turned out to be an abstract photo. :)

Here's me at the beach yesterday.

Jomtien Beach, Pattaya City, Thailand

Linking up with Ashley for this post.

Good to Wow - Looking Up - Pt.2

This is Part 2 of the Good to Wow/Shoot and Edit, hosted over at Ashley Sisk's blog. Click here if you want to see my previous post about my shots below.

I decided to leave this shot as is except for a "soft light" layer at 50% to make the blue pop just a tad bit. That's it! It was a really, really beautiful day! I was sitting in my garden when I took this shot. How blessed am I!

As mentioned in my previous post, I used Kim Klassen's textures on this one. After I took this shot, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. And that's a rare occurrence. This is also my submission for Kim's Texture challenge this week - all about gardening. These are flowers from my own garden.

Here are my layers for editing beginning from the bottom:
1. copy original photo layer as "screen" at 60% opacity
2. copy original photo layer as "soft light" at % opacity
3. Kim's Warm Sun texture "soft light" at 100% opacity. Used soft brush at 60% opacity on the flowers.
4. copy the Warm Sun texture "soft light" at 30% opacity.
5. Kim's Sweet Tart texture "soft light" at 100% opacity
6. Solid color - aqua green (71a197) "soft light" at 73% opacity
7. Solid color - navy blue (11314c) "overlay" at 20% opacity
8. copy original photo layer as "soft light" at 80% opacity and vignette with a dark green color.
























Have a great day, friends!

Good to Wow - Looking Up - Pt.1

I missed last week's "Shoot and Edit" (Good to Wow) just because we don't have sidewalk chalk where we live. Or chalk for that matter. LOL!

Anyhoo... I have a couple S&E/G2W shots.

I don't think this one would need to be edited. It was such a beautiful day - who would want to change this beautiful blue sky? I just loved looking up into the sky when I took this shot!

manual * 1/500 * f8 * 28-80mm at 28mm * WB sunny * JPEG

And so... since there's no fun in not editing the above photo, here's another shot. The flowers are looking up into the bright noon sun. I will be using a Kim Klassen texture on this one for this week's Texture challenge - all about gardening.

manual * 1/200 * f5.6 * 70-300mm at 300mm * WB sunny

So long, friends. See you Thursday (or before) for the edits. :)

Good to Wow - Rain/Umbrella

I was so excited about this week's prompt for "Good to Wow" (Shoot and Edit). It has been a very unusually wet summer for us here in this part of Asia. We're experiencing an early start to the moonsoon/rainy season this year. I took lots and lots of shots of rain stuff and umbrella until I found this shot below last Sunday right after a big downpour. I went outside and found this upside-down hibiscus in my garden. It looks like an umbrella!!! I was so excited!

I wasn't sure how to go about with editing. I tried Ashley Sisk's gradient map tutorial from last week but none fit right. So I did it in just simple "soft light" and "levels" layers.

SOOC

EDIT

 I tried several edits but decided to keep it simple and just focus on the flower and the raindrops. I added "soft light" layer at 100% and "levels" (darks 10, light 430) at 50%.

Linking over at Ashley's for "Shoot and Edit."

Good to Wow - Mother's Day 2011

I have been out of the "Good to Wow"(Shoot and Edit) linky for a month now. But I'm back!

Here's my shot of my middle son who made me a big card. He actually made a different one on Sunday (actual mother's day) which I took a picture of but my toddler desecrated it. Hahaha! So I asked him to make me another one and took this shot.

SOOC
1/200 * f4.2 * 70-300 at 90mm * Sunny - WB

EDIT

I clone stamped the blue pail on the lower left, added levels for more vivid colors, lightened his face, and added more color saturation to the card. He told me, this is a mother's day parade for me! So sweet!

Linking up with Ashley for this post.

Good to Wow - UP

Here's my SOOC shot for this week's Good to Wow (Shoot and Edit) theme - UP. This was taken during our trip up north for an English Camp. Below is my edit.

Here's my edit. Went for 60's style photo and added Kim Klassen's "bent edges" texture.

Please visit Ashley Sisk's blog for more "UP" Good to Wow shots. 

Good to Wow - GREEN

I failed. I had every intention to link up to Jill's SOOC post for "green." When I tried to the other day, I couldn't find the link up button at the bottom of her post and none of the other buttons was showing up. Could be my internet. I have been working ALL day on the computer on a pressing job and so here I am at 1:30AM, my time trying to post my "green" edits.

Here we go! Can't decide which photo to use so here they are:

Photo 1




Photo 2




Photo 3
This is a young, green, tiny Asian pumpkin at our neighbor's garden. 

For more "greens" and editing tutorial, visit Ashley's blog by clicking on the picture below:

Next week's prompt: UP