After a Nap

I've been bad at taking pictures lately. Squishy is sucking the life out of me. The nausea, oh the nausea. I can still function and I'm not getting sick, but I'm just tired and "blah" lately. But I'm going to make a conscious effort to get my camera out more often now, practice with my new Speedlite, and not neglect one of my favorite hobbies! Plus, GG always asks to see new pictures of Braden and I need to fulfill that for her!

These series of pictures were taken after a nap one afternoon a couple of weeks ago. Braden was just beside himself, didn't want to be alone, but didn't want to get out of his crib. So we just hung out in his room for a good 1/2 hour after his nap, and I snapped away.

All these images were taken with my Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens. LOVE. A great investment!

P.S. Flickr has a new size option for 800 width pictures...how do you like? Too big, or bigger is better? Let me know your feedback please!

Perfectly Spring?

Oh I'm a Canadian girl. An Albertan girl. I have been all my life. I know it is too early for spring, but this past weekend we've had record breaking high temperatures! It got up to +14C or close to it and the seasonal temperatures are usually around 2 degrees C! So Braden finally got to enjoy his birthday present Thomas Power Wheels on the deck!



 

 

Everyone was having fun outside!

Well....almost everyone!

 

No animals were harmed in the making of this blog post.

Mom was here for the weekend

 

I am loving this picture of him...this is Braden's version of a ride-on lawnmower I guess...

And then some play time on the slide!

I'm quite certain this beautiful weather isn't here to stay for too long, but while it is, we're outside playing on the deck every afternoon! There's always a spring blizzard (or 2) in our forecast before spring really settles in...but we can only hope!

Don't forget to enter to win one of my mom's crocheted hats!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Pets

This weeks challenge: Pets

 The challenge: Your kids don't have to be in this challenge! Photos of your pet! Or, any animal!

 
I have a ton of pictures of Kihei that I love...but this one of Gus soaking up the sun just caught my eye again!

And yay! We got a favorite for last week's challenge "Favorite from November"

I Love You, Pioneer Woman!

Not in that way...but in a way that you have taught me free photography lessons and lessons on editing in PhotoShop Elements (PSE) which I had no clue how to use. I still don't reeeeeeally know how to use it, but in all honesty I learned the basics and then just stopped! With all the new blogs I've been following, I have learned so much more, and am so thankful. It's no secret how much I love photography and capturing memories. Because that's what pictures are - captured memories.

Today a fellow mommy blogger Becky posted on her blog about "Actions", meaning how she edits her pictures. I love photography-related blog posts and preeeetty much only follow blogs who focus in on photography (meaning that they care what their pictures look like) on their blogs. It inspires me to take better pictures and it sure did today.

Back to The Pioneer Woman. My Mom introduced me to her and her blog back when I first got my DSLR camera, as PW has a lot of easy-to-follow tutorials. Not only that, but she cooks, bakes...is a country mom and wife - a big inspiration to me! Well, Becky posted about PW "actions" that you can download and install right onto your PSE! No fiddling with settings and using masks and layers and all that confusing stuff! And the best part...it's FREE! So, unless you want to know more about the editing process specifically...I'll just show you what I've done today. Please leave some comments and let me know what you think of the effects!

(Note: "SOOC" stands for "straight out of camera" as in the picture right out of the camera, unedited and the other names written on the photos is the 'action' that I used)

Soft faded:

Seventies:

And just some more lovely shots!

Ahhh! Aren't Braden & Gus just too much!? If you have PSE or PhotoShop click here to download your own PW actions! I hope Becky doesn't mind that I used her idea for this post...she probably doesn't even know I exist! :)