The extra day in February that only comes once ever four years.  In my opinion, I’d like to consider it a holiday.  Only because I love holidays and Leap Year sounds like a day where you should do something out of the ordinary or spontaneous.  I haven’t decided what yet, but I’m sure I can make this day interesting!  (Watch out Leo!!)  Leo and I usually always do our traditional lunch on Friday and then shop a little bit and enjoy a peacefull afternoon at home while Jilliann’s in school.  Gosh, I love our Fridays!  I not only love our Fridays but I cherish them so much!  I thank god everyday for blessing me with such a wonderful man and the most wonderful daughter anyone could ask for.

So on another note, many of you may not know but Leap Year has been the traditional time where women would propose marriage. In many of today’s cultures, it is okay for a woman to propose marriage to a man. Society doesn’t look down on such women. However, that hasn’t always been the case. When the rules of courtship were stricter, women were only allowed to pop the question on one day every four years. That day was February 29th.  Pretty crazy huh!  So I say today all those girls who are crazy in love only waiting for HIM to pop the question - get out there and ask him to marry you!! :)  Then holla back at your girl to schedule an engagement session!!

HAPPY FRIDAY YA’LL!!

I took some photos of a friend of a friends little boy, Cooper!  He was such a ham and loved making those crazy faces!!  And you know me, I love crazy face pictures!! 

We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day.  The wind was cool, the sun was warm and bright and I knew right then and there that Jilliann had to put on her first sun dress of the year!!  I love bright colors!!  She twirled and danced like a litte fairy princess in her little sun dress.  I think she loved it just as much as I did!!

HAPPY THURSDAY YA’LL!!

I love love love hats - even more so on Jilliann considering her curly hair polishes off a hat just perfectly.  The hard part though is trying to convince her to keep one on longer than 5 minutes.  Today was a new day - she LOVED her new hat from her wonderful Nona and Nono.  When she put that adorable hat on the first thing that came to my mind was “Bonjour”, and instantly Jilliann kept on saying “Bonjour”, “Bonjour”.  It’s was too cute to even express in words just how adorable she was as she was speaking French.  Well, okay only one word but I was still a proud momma.  She always knows how to make my heart skip!! 

I receive many e-mails from friends and inspiring photog’s inquiring about what software I use.  I do all my editing out of Photoshop CS2.  Although it is an expensive software, I did some research as to what is more “finance appropriate” for everyone who just wants to spice up their family photographs.

These aren’t the BEST OF THE BEST, but they get the job done and very affordable!

Free Image Editing Applications

In the “free” category we have Picasa and Picnik. Both are really easy to use with simple editing capabilities. They are great for beginners. If you just need to spice up your family’s pictures or do photography for fun I highly recommend using either of these.

Picasa by Google

Price: FREE!

PC or Mac

The Good

• It’s super easy to use, which is good because most people who use it aren’t going to be professionals or even advanced amateurs.
• It will auto update albums when new photos are introduced into the folders.
• You can move and rename pictures inside Picassa.
• Create posters, collages, screensavers, slideshows, burn CDs.

The Bad

• Doesn’t work with RAW. (for some who don’t know what RAW is - it’s the opposite of JPEG.  JPEG’s are compressed photographs.  RAW pictures are not compressed.  I shoot all my photographs in JPEG.
• You can’t use multiple tags per image.
• Editing options are limited.

Cool Bonus!

• You can view your images on TiVo.

Picnik

Price: FREE/$24.95 yr for Premium

PC or Mac

The Good

• Great for quick edits like red eye removal, exposure, and saturation.
• Fast, simple, and intuitive. You really can just start using it.
• Has some really fun effects.

The Bad

• Doesn’t work with RAW
• No tagging system at all.
• Editing options are limited.

Cool Bonus!

• Integrated for Flickr, Facebook, Picassa Web Albums, Photobucket, Webshots! If you use social media this may be for you.

Intermediate Image Editing Applications

Making the jump towards the middle I really only recommend a couple of programs.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 is a complete photo management and editing package. It really covers all of the basic needs anyone could really need for editing software. Note that I said basic needs. Here’s the deal. If you take many photographs you need to be able to archive, locate, edit, print, and send images out. Elements covers all of these wonderfully. I mostly recommend this program for amateur photographers, although, portrait photographers will love the photomege feature. Adobe is slated to put out the Macintosh version late March 2008. Here’s the breakdown:

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6

Price: $99.99

PC or Mac

The Good

• Organize- import, tag, sort.
• Nobody does tagging better than Adobe.
• Easy to use with great tutorials for newbies.
• Three ways to edit: Quick fix, full editing, and guided editing (runs you through a checklist of common editing sequences).
• Includes layers (which I use a lot on my photos)
• Creative scrapbook pages, cards, CD/DVD labels, themes, text effects, etc…
• Flash slideshows are very popular for studio websites.
• Advanced editing tools will handle most jobs.
• RAW support.
• Batch processing.

The Bad

• Using Elements 6 is essentially using two programs at once. The Editor and Organizer will, at times, conflict with each other when using the Create and Share features. This has something to do with the features being on both programs, I assume. It’s a nuisance that most people can work around.

Cool Bonus!

• Photomerge does three really great things to photographs. You can use photomerge to create a “perfect” group photo, stitch images together to create a panorama, or have fun by copying facial features from one image to the other. While there are plenty of other software options in the same price range as Elements, I can only really only recommend one other.

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

Price $99.99

PC

This editing and graphics software picks up where Elements left off with editing power. It’s much closer to what you’ll get with Photoshop but be forewarned the learning curve can be steep, especially if you are already an Adobe user.

The Good

• Editing features are professional quality.
• Batching is more extensive, great for photographers that take many images like stock or wedding photographers.
• Tons of special effects and graphics enhancements.
• Organization is efficient and quite easy.
• Learning Center uses laymen’s terms.

The Bad

• Steep learning curve.
• Text tool is cumbersome and difficult to master.
• Uses traditional drop down menus instead of task tabs. I find this slows me down considerably, however, a more consistent user may not.

Adobe Photoshop CS3

Photoshop is what most professionals in the digital imaging age would call the grand daddy of them all. I really couldn’t disagree with anyone at that. If you can’t do it in photoshop, you probably just can’t do it. If your needs exceed the editing power and control of the programs listed above, then it is in fact time to pony up the dough ($649.00) for Photoshop CS3.

The truth is, not everyone needs Photoshop CS3. I’ve been shooting digital for years and learned photoshop because I had to. Most photographers these days don’t need, or want, the total control that CS3 has to offer. If you find yourself overwhelmed by your editing software or not using many of the features, consider moving to something more automated and streamlined. Typically, you’ll know when, or if, it’s time to upgrade to something more robust. The key is to find what works best for you.

It will keep you out of the digital dark room, and out using your camera instead!

P.S.  If you do download or purchase any of these programs and get lost, e-mail me or comment and I will be than happy to assist!

HAPPY EDITING!!

I wanted to share with you some pictures that my mother had taken while visiting me in Mississippi.  She loves the nature and the ducks, so I thought they made for some beautiful “pictures of the day”!

HAPPY MONDAY YA’LL!!!

Once again we took advantage of the beautiful weekend weather by spending a little time at the park!  What’s so great about taking Jilliann to the park is not only to see her laugh and giggle with all the fun she’s having but at night when it’s time to go to bed - she doesn’t make a peep!! :)  She’s so exhausted at the end of her busy little day that I actually think she’s glad to see her blanket and pillow!

Jackson was a pro on the jumprope!  Made for some neat pictures!!  I love action shots!!

Happy Sunday!!

 

So it’s been long over due!!  Visiting the warm, sunny, tropical Gulf Coast of Mississippi that is!!  I miss the sandy beaches, the glamorous casino lights, palm trees – gosh do I miss those palms trees and of course those twangy, yee haw SOUNTHERN accents!  All the stories you hear about the extraordinary southern hospitality, I can’t even begin to describe how by far the southerners are some of the greatest people I have ever encountered.  Their true politeness, kindness and sincerity are things you don’t find just anywhere!!

So I’m ready to go back for a week long vacation to not only soak up some sun but to catch up with all my old friends and muse over the good ole’ days!! My friends are having babies, families are expanding, others are finding their true love, the little ones are teenagers now and I can’t wait to catch up on it all and of course my camera will be in one hand documenting it all while my other hand will be holding my margarita as I sip selfishly!

I was rummaging through some old photos from almost three years ago when some of my family came down to visit after Jilliann was born.  These photos were taken at the Biloxi beach before Hurricane Katrina came and demolished it.  Going through these pictures sure makes me miss the GOOD OLE’ DAYS!!

We’ve most definately been blessed with this wonderful warmer weather here lately!  The smell of fresh air and the sparkle of the sun can put anyone in a fabulous and motivated mood.  The only reason I know that is because Wisconsin was bombed with snow and when it snows, no one goes ANYWHERE.  It’s like an unmotivational kind of weather!!

Here are a few of my conversations with my family:

Me ~ “Hey mom, how are things going?”

Mom ~ “Roxie, things are horrible here!”  “I can’t go hiking, or even take a walk outside because it’s so cold and we have too much damn snow.”  “Wisconsin is just pitifull with all this snow”  “I hate winter and this year has gone on way too long”

Me ~ “Well I’m sorry to hear that mom because it’s like in the 50’s here and we’re running around with t-shirts on and enjoying this warm and fabulous weather!!!”

Mom ~ click

Me ~ “Mom, are you there……..” 

Me ~ ” Hey Ranae(sister), how is everything?”

Sis ~ “OMG Roxie, you have no idea how much snow we’ve received”  “I mean like I couldn’t even go to work today it was like so bad”  “I mean seriously, we have received over 80 inches of snow this winter - CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?”  “I mean like OMG!!”

Me ~ “Seriously, that much?”

Sis ~ “Oh ya there hay, it’s crazy!”

So as my family and friends in Wisconsin were nestled with their hot cocoa and dreaming about the Florida beaches, I managed to work my camera these last few days.  The best dose of medicine for any camera is natural sunlight and I can’t get enough of it!  It makes me soooo happy!!!

Remember being kids and loving to enter those photo booths with your friends and trying your hardest to make the most idioctic faces you could and capture them on those little film strips?  Man I loved those!!  I even remember having them hanging in my locker like I was the coolest kid ever.  Gosh, the good ole’ days!!

So as Jilliann was posing for the camera and making all those crazy faces, I would say to her “Now Jilliann, you need to make your pretty and sweet face for mama’”.  Well she did it for a couple of frames but then went back to her crazy faces!!  Gosh, she’s cute when she’s silly.  So to make sense with my first paragraph, after I created this little collage strip; I thought to myself how much it reminded me of those photo booths and the picture you get with them.  I know, call me crazy!!

 

I’ve recently joined a couple photography clubs here in the Tri-Cities of Washington and of course you have to create an online profile which should include a portrait of yourself.  They say it’s better to put “a face on your work”!  Ughhhh, I so dread portraits of myself!!  I guess since it’s yourself, you tend to me a lot more criticizing.  I can find every little flaw there is - well I guess I have an “eye” for that sort of thing!! :)  But I think we all know what I’m talking about!  So my friend and inspiring photog porposed to shoot some pictures of me.  Luckily we’ve worked together in the past that she totally knew what I was going for.  Once I saw all my pictures, I couldn’t have been more grateful for her fabulous work.  So Donna girl ~ Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!  You were awesome and I was actually able to choose a couple of my favorites.  Which never happens considering I’m so picky about myself!

So here are a few of my favorites and please leave me some “blog love” on which one is your most favorite.  Your opinion is much appreciated!!