Day 50: Friday, June 12, 2009

1: I just liked her facial expression here.

Today we got out the mini pool and filled it up with water.  Greta and I also woke Matt up from his nap and made him get in the pool, which he did under the condition that I take no pictures of him.  Done.  But I took lots of cute ones of Ari!  Actually, I'm pretty excited about these!  I'd say my ratio of good pictures to bad was better during this session than any I've ever done!  And I hope you realize that there are dozens that I left off of this post that were also good.  Matt and Greta should pay me for this...oh wait...they are.  Anyway, enjoy!

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3:  Looking up at Daddy when he first got in.

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7:  Just after a tush-pinching.

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10: I followed her around for a good long while waiting for her to look up at me candidly.  Finally, her mom just said "Ari, look up at Cousin Sheri" and therefore I got the "cheeeese" smile.

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15:  I just like the expression.

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25:  I thought this was a cute moment.  She wanted to help empty the pool and got her towel soaked in the process.

26:  Would have been quite a pretty picture of her had I caught more on the bottom, like her hand.

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Day 49: Thursday, June 11, 2009

1: 

Surprise!  Actual new photos today!  Yay!  We had a big huge thunderstorm today (which happens, like, every other day I feel like), which caused the resulting sky to be absolutely GORGEOUS.  I didn't get any good shots of the sky, but I couldn't resist wandering over to the Nicholson's garden to catch a few shots of the water on the plants.  This is my life right now.  I get distracted while trying to go to Barnes and Noble and wander around taking photos for hours unexpectedly.  This time I only took pictures for a few minutes though, because it started raining again and I will NOT let my precious camera get wet. 

Also, on an editing note, I'm going to try to edit all new photos before posting them, so these are edited.  In addition, per your request Nate, let me tell you exactly how I edit them.  I almost don't want to say because anyone who was impressed will no longer be so.  Nevertheless, here goes.  All I do is I play around with 5 settings: Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation and Sharpness.  Actually, I almost exclusively use Contrast, Saturation and Sharpness.  Actually, I almost exclusively increase those three.  Very simple.  I just go straight to those 3 settings and increase them until I am satisfied.  The end.  The program I use is "Digital Photo Professional," which came with my camera.  Yes, I have access to Aperture (the professional Apple editing software which costs hundreds of dollars) on my aunt's computer and yet I use 3 settings on the software that came with my computer.  Don't worry, I fully plan on expanding my editing knowledge over the next few weeks and months.  Any knowledge you'd like to share Nate?

2: In case you haven't noticed, I usually do extreme close-ups of the plants, because, well, I find those are easier for me to make look good.  However, I actually quite liked this not-so-close up one.

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6:  I would prefer the entire flower to have been in focus on this one, and probably would have gotten that shot had the rain not started while I was shooting it.  The focused part still looks quite neat though.

Day 48: Wednesday, June 10, 2009

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Edited 1:

Original 2: I'm not actually sure wether I like the edited or original copy best on this one, so let me know what you think!  I don't like that she's washed out in the original but i don't like that it's darker in the edited.

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Day 47: Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Original 1:

Ok, so the problem with posting edits is that it's pretty hard to tell the difference on blogger even if the difference is absolutely stunning when the picture is larger.  Should I just scrap this and go back to making myself take photos everyday even when I'm uninspired?  Thoughts?  I would really like to keep focusing on editing right now while still keeping up on my photo taking to a lesser extent, though.  Is there another blogging site I could use that give the option for larger photos?

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Day 46: Monday, June 8, 2009

Ok, so I have had SO many little computer problems lately that have combine for huge computer problems, which has made this very blog post very difficult to make.  And yet, I have made it!  Whew.  Such relief.  Hopefully next editing post will be easier.  At any rate, I've fallen in love with editing!  I've only played around with just a few select functions, but wow is it addicting!  Anyway, here I have provided some of the photos I have started editing.  I've provided both the original and the edited copy for your pleasure.

Original 1:

Edited 1:

Original 2:

Edited 2:

Original 3:  This isn't really even a great photo, I just liked to see how much the editing enhanced the colors.  THough I don't like that it put a shadow on the side of the bird feeder.

Edited 3:


Let me know on these too, what you think, especially if you DON'T like the edited version.  Thanks!