Before and After Photo Fun

So my love affair with my camera came to an abrupt halt a couple of weeks ago when one of the knobs started sticking. We sadly parted ways for awhile. I should be getting the camera back as soon as repairs are finished and the store says that I can come to pick him up. But in the meantime, what to do? I am working on a Project Life album and I am trying to take a picture a day. Without my camera I thought it would be difficult. I would again have to rely on my cell phone to capture my treasured memories...

I have to admit, I didn't like this idea at all. My phone takes pretty decent pics for a phone but problems with lighting and shutter speed aren't easily resolved with the phone. It's pretty much a one trick pony and often I'm left with an underexposed/overexposed, shadowy,and/or blurry image. BUT I have to make do...so enter Picnik! I <3 this application so much! Thanks to my friend, Janene for introducing us! I use the free version and although I am tempted to upgrade, I find with some tweaking I can get some really satisfying results with the free version!

I thought it would be fun to show some before and after pics! Now, I am by NO means great at it! I just know what I find aesthetically pleasing and I try my best to see it in my mind's eye and then make it happen. I really know very little about composing a shot and I am just wrapping my head around fstops, aperture and all the other stuff that real photographers know a lot about.

Who knows if you will even find the pictures greatly improved after my editing in Picnik! I guess I just want to show the big differences between the before and afters so you can see for yourself that you can make a not so wonderful picture (even one taken with the camera on your phone) into something more interesting to look at...

Here's the first one:

This is a cute picture as is, in my humble opinion.  That smile is perfect! It's a little dark though.

Here's the after: I wanted to brighten it up a bit and give it a "glowy" look. I cropped it a bit and put the focus on Chloe's face. I also drained some of the color because I wanted the focus of the picture to really be her expression and didn't want any distraction from that.

And here we are side by side.

HA! This is fun! Here's the next one:

Here we have the morning sun blaring in from the window in the background, tragically overexposing the one corner of the pic and casting the baby into darkness. And look...she is so happy and giving that fake baby a kiss. It's so adorable and you can't really make it out so well.

Here's the after! I like it so much better.  Now the sun looks "glorious" and you can see Chloe just loving her baby so much. I messed around with the exposure to lighten up the baby and then used the "cross process" effect to give the pic some more definition.

Here they are side by side:

Better, right?

Okay, NEXT!

Here she is looking pretty.

Here's the slightly funky after. I wanted her to look like a china doll in this pic. So I went black and white and then let the pic fade through a little. Then I used focal B&W and focused on her cheek to give her a little color on face and lips.

Here they are side by side:

She does look like a baby doll in the after shot, doesn't she?

All right, here is the last one:

Aren't they cute? I love it when everyone is in a good mood in the morning!

Here's the after. I cropped it a bit, then I used the "Holga-ish" effect in Picnik which focused us on the girls a little better. Then I cross processed and added a 60's effect on top of that (minus the rounded corners).

And so you may compare:

So much fun...for me anyway (I'm a huge fan of the "before and after" in all it's forms!) Sorry if I bored everyone else!! :)

Popping in...

I've been stressed about getting our taxes filed, but they are finished! Even though we aren't getting a return this year and (eek!) owe, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted. It isn't like me to wait until the last minute...I will not be doing that again next year.

In other news. I am so thrilled with Spring (even though it's dreary today).  I love that when I am pulling up to the house I see a beautiful border of cheery daffodils around the house. I keep cutting fresh bouquets and bringing them inside.  I see tulip buds about to open and the trees in the front yard are just ready to flower.  None of this has to do with any work I have put into these grounds. It's so exciting to me to see what perennials might pop up. I want to take a nice spring pic of the house, but I am waiting until Spring has put on the full regalia!

Today, since it is raining, I plan to go through the girls clothes and swap out the seasons.  A huge task.  I better get to it!

What better way to end a short, but meandering, post than with some pictures? Might as well throw some on!

Chai Tea Latte, You Are My Best Friend

I'm joining a Meme today over at Adventuroo.   She will post a prompt each week and we are supposed to snap a picture and blog about it (or not--the picture can stand alone). I thought it would be fun to use/learn my new camera and join in.

This week's prompt is:

What is one thing you cannot live without?

Okay, I showed you.

It's not a picture of my husband, my children, my dog, my wedding band, my bible...it's a picture of my morning Chai Tea.

I do not feel complete in the morning or for the rest of the day if I do not have one of these. I do not drink coffee.  I do not need a glass of wine at the end of the night (although that would be nice some time!) But there is something about sipping my cup of tea in the morning that is, well, JUST MY CUP 'O TEA!

A tea bag, some hot water, and about 3 tablespoons of flavored fat free coffee creamer makes it taste yummy.  Today's cup has FF Italian Cream coffee creamer in it.

It's the little things!

I'd love to see what you can't live without, so get out your camera and link up over at Adventuroo!

Look Mom, I'm Famous!

I had to share because my girls get the first few seconds of their 15 minutes of fame. A pic of them in the snow has made it to grace the homepage of their school's website! And they look awfully cute, if I do say so myself!

Here's the link: http://www.mqaschool.org

In other news: I was hit hard by the "bug" on Wednesday with Jim following behind yesterday morning. I had a doctors appointment Wednesday morning and somehow the thing didn't hit me until after I was at home...but unfortunately I'm sure I spread my germs rampantly through the office. Sorry, Dr. Hazel!

At the doctors' office I nervously giggled through my weigh in. I knew it would be bad, what with the winter house arrest. (All I did was eat.) I gained 9 pounds in 4 weeks. OUCH! I know some people who only gained 12 pounds during their entire pregnancy!!!! Well, the bug helped me to shed 5 pounds over night and my stomach still feels too little to really pig out...so I'm just going to ease back into it...and maybe by my next appointment in three weeks things won't be so abysmal.

Also, I gave up Facebook for lent! So far so good...but then again, we've all been too sick for me to be concerned about every one's status updates! I can still get posts to my wall and messages through my e-mail, so it isn't a complete withdrawal, but it's better than nothing! And I'm sure I will have saved myself lots of time. Here's hoping that I can parlay that extra time into a few finished scrapbook pages, or a cleaner house! We'll see.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll be blogging more frequently this month which won't be a bad thing either. Maybe I'll even change up my layout...A friend has offered to help, so I will perhaps take her up on it. Thanks, Janene! And to show my appreciation I'll plug her blog too! You can visit her at: http://imperfectionperfectly.blogspot.com

Pictures, Pictures Everywhere!

In the midst of the arctic blast we are currently experiencing in the Pittsburgh area an idea has blown in, most unexpectedly (much like this snow!!). I was sitting on the couch the other day with my digital picture frame in hand watching as some of the pictures that I downloaded recently (from Christmas and above mentioned winter weather) played out for me on a slide show. I started to smile and then I started to think, this is so great to be able to look at my pictures. Then I began to get a nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach...

All of my pictures are digital now and the ones that I actually have a hard copy of are unorganized and spread into various unfinished albums/boxes/envelopes/drawers throughout the house. and GASP! I don't have any backup for my computer, so if it should go down, with it will go at least 6 years of photographic memories...This is a very scary thought.

I blame it on my "Mommy Group." at our last get together there was some talk about scrap booking and my friend Amy (an avid scrapper) brought out one of her albums. I oohed and aaahed over that thing like nobody's business, but I said to myself and out loud that I am just not into this...I've tried several times to get started on an album and have met up with complete and utter failure. But oh, how I long to have books of pictures beautifully bound to flip through with my kids.

Problem one: I'm unorganized.
Problem two: I'm a perfectionist.
Problem three: I have to be in the mood in order to create. (In more ways than one! ;) )
Problem four: I hate to spend money. (Even though I know if I ever came out of it with a finished product I would have the money back 10-fold with all of the happiness that I would gain each time I flip through the book.)
Problem five: I need validation. (Someone tell me that this is THE most amazing scrapbook you have ever seen...asking for too much? I thought so.)

I'm on the way to tackling some of these problems...well, okay, ONE of these problems. Getting organized! I finally backed up my photos today. And the next step is to try to dig out all of my mislaid photos. I'm going to start with My life with Jim and the girls first: to be clearer, photos from the wedding on... Then I will try to categorize them.

I might make a mess of things again, but I think if I stay on top of the "organized" part it might not be too bad.

So I am going to start up my on-again, off-again, love-hate relationship with Scrapbooking. With 10 years of memories piling up I guess I can't expect it to be easy...but no relationship worth salt ever is!

Wish me luck!!!