Enjoying springtime...

Got out to enjoy the beautiful spring weather yesterday... here are a couple worth sharing.

Who needs Photoshop?!

So, like any photographer I know, I've always put Adobe Photoshop on a pedestal. It is the be-all, end-all of photographic retouching and editing. You can do anything with Photoshop. I mean, its a verb! "Can you PHOTOSHOP me out of this picture?" Well, I don't think I can Picasa you out of a picture, but when it comes to my everyday retouching, Picasa is the way. Today, I'm gonna share some of my edits...

I've been suffering a LOT of self-doubt. I peruse photo blogs, websites and Flickr on a regular basis and to be honest... I'm not half as good as some of the other photogs out there. I'm not even talking about the masters... I'm talking about my friend Krysten, who picked up the *hobby* around the same time as me. She's amazing now! I'm talking about the dozen or so photogs who joined me at my recent NILMDTS training session. They all had their own websites... I have a blog. I checked out a couple websites. Boy, I hope one of them will take me under their wing and guide me...

I AM a pro photographer, but I don't feel like it! It pains me that I can't share my everyday images. The little itsy babes who keep me going. The little guy I did this week who was so special, so adorable. His parents had tears in their eyes when they thanked me for putting so much time, care, and attention to their son's pictures. The little lady who was small in comparison to the gerbera daisy her mom had me place in the picture. The chubba baby who I placed in my basket to photograph, much to the consternation of her great-aunt (who also shook her head in disbelief at my suggestion of undressing baby for a diaper-only photograph).

But, anyway, today I took some pictures of the park where we played. My husband and I have wanted photographs for our bedroom... something simple; an understated image of a single tree in a field... or something like that. We've seen some stuff we liked, but never wanted to pay the price that was asked. But, today, Russ finally found some images that were worthy of putting on our wall...and the best part? They were MY images from the park. So, I'm sharing them below. Let me know which you like best!!! (Oh, and you knew I'd include bug & lou, right?!)

Straight outta the camera... no time for edits.

I wanted to share some images from last night's visit to the park, but I didn't have time to edit anything. So, these are SOOC. I actually think the original images are pretty good. It was just before dusk, a cloudless night, and a beautiful location (Festival Park in Elgin). The girls weren't ultra cooperative, but I still got a few that I was happy with. This is definitely a location I'll return to (for fun AND for pictures!).

We didn't have our swimsuits with us, so I had to take pictures of random kids playing in the fountains. They sure looked like they were having fun and I was tempted to run through the water in my regular clothes!