Baby Shower

I attended a baby shower today for one of my good friends from our homeschool group. She is expecting her third child/daughter in August. It was a great shower!

Post processing: All shots were "defogged" and I adjusted the hue/saturation. I also added a vignette (top photo) and used the burn tool to add a soft dark frame around the photo (rest of photos). Top photo, I converted the image to b&w using Stacy's b&w conversion tutorial. Third photo, I also added a "memory lane vintage" action.

Photographer In The Making?

Since I got my D40, our son has been having fun with my old ultra zoom camera. He's so excited to learn photography and videography (since it can also take short videos). Of course, once the novelty wears off, we'll see just how interested he really is. :D But it is fun having him alongside me taking pictures. He's my cutie-pie!

Here's a shot I took of him taking a picture of me. :) As soon as we get his computer setup with the necessary Panasonic software for the camera, I'll feature him as a "guest photographer" to showcase some of his work.

Post processing: defog and "virtual photographer" filter (halo effect)

Watermarked Photo

Thought I'd test out "watermarking" my photos. This was a lot of fun to do in CS2 (creating a "brush" with my watermark logo). I realize watermarking doesn't guarantee anyone will not copy my photos, but I think it helps. I will start watermarking more. This photo is of our handsome soon-to-be 10yo son. I took it yesterday while he was resting on his bed. This is one of my favorite photos I've taken of our son.

Post processing: converted image to b&w using Stacy's "b&w conversion" tip and added a vignette. I also cropped it, just a tad, for better composition. I also used Stacy's tip on watermarking.

You can visit Stacy's photography tips page here. Her photos are amazing, especially with a Nikon D50 (which has been replaced with the D40). So you CAN get pro-like photos with an entry level DSLR! I'm so inspired!

More Tea Party Photos

Here are a couple of more photos from the Tea Party....

Top photo: My first official "portrait" shot with my D40 and I love the way it came out! This beautiful young maiden is the eldest daughter of one of our church families (and also dear friends). She is such the sweetheart, isn't she? I did my typical post processing with (my new favorite technique!) "defog" with unsharp mask, adjusting contrast/curves, and adding a vignette. Lastly, I cropped the image for better composition.

Bottom photo: Same post processing as above but without any cropping. I really like the angle and perspective of this shot.

Btw, have I mentioned yet how much I'm enjoying my dslr camera? LOL. DSLR's are a totally different breed of cameras. They're just amazing -- the richer colors, levels of sharpness and depth of field!