A PHOTOGRAPHY TIP

I spent the whole day yesterday hanging out with my kiddos. It was just us girls in the house while the husband was at the PGA tournament in Atlanta with some guys from work. We went to church together and then hung out in the kitchen making homemade whole wheat bread. It took all afternoon for 3 rises but the hot warm bread, fresh out of the oven made it all worth it. YUMMO.
I took so many great photos of the process and then something on my memory card wigged out and I couldn't upload them. I ended up having to delete all of them!  I think the card needs to be replaced. BLAH....
The weather was so beautiful this weekend and we spent a lot of time outside. My youngest would live out there if I would let her. She LOVES her swing set. I took my new camera out there to play with the exposure settings. Learning this camera has been frustrating, to say the least, however I captured some really beautiful photos of the girls while I was learning.

My friend Sarah Cook of Cookwire Photography gave me some really great tips that I have held onto with a tight grip. I am so grateful for her knowledge. One of my favorite tips was for capturing the eyes of children, especially toddlers.

To photograph the eyes in a beautiful way, have the child look up into the camera at you. I always tell my youngest to look up into my lens to see if she sees a butterfly or a bug or whatever I feel like saying at the time.  I then place the focus box directly onto her eyes and take as many pictures as I can while she is standing there. It usually takes me about 10 to get 1 great one. This weekend I was able to capture this.................


It's a little over exposed, but I am working on that. I still LOVE this color shot. I couldn't really fix the exposure problem in photoshop without ruining it,  so I turned it into a black and white and got this...............


 I downloaded some actions from The Pioneer Woman and used the Fresh Color action and her Black and White action. The original photo was still great, this just gave it a little boost.  Ree will give you complete instructions on how to download these actions into photo shop and they are all free.  I use Photoshop Elements for photo editing in case any of you were wondering. It's a lot cheaper than the full version and is great for where I am now.
You don't have to have a fancy camera to get these shots. They are just as easy with a point and shoot or a beginner SLR. All you need is a little knowledge about how to put your subject in your lens and a little photoshop help.