I Heart Faces "Smiles"

Who wouldn't love a theme about smiling?  I know I sure do.  Little smiles, big smiles, half smiles, sideways smiles...I love them all.  Capturing them is so much fun too!  I love to see genuine smiles, ones that you know are real.  The picture I chose for this week is of my youngest little girl.  She makes me smile just as much as I love watching her smile.

Now why don't you go over to I Heart Faces and enter too?  It's so much to smile about!

Fix It Friday #51

Just thought I would do a quick fix for Fix It Friday over at I Heart Faces. I just love the colors in this photo.
Here is the original:

And here is my fix:

Have a wonderful weekend and play along too.

Fix It Friday #50

Once again I just had to participate in Fix It Friday over at I Heart Faces. I just love the challenge of taking a photo and turning it into something with a little post processing. Since I am still hooked on Picnik here is what I did:

Original:

Edit #1: Using curves I brightened quite a bit until I got the look I was wanting. Then I went to the touch up tab and used blemish removal and then a little airbrush on her face to smooth it all out. Finally increase contrast a bit and voila...my result.

Edit #2: Took the previous photo and using a preset curve did a faded daguerrotype on it.

I hope that you will join in on the fun too! Go to I Heart Faces now.

I Heart Faces "Angles"

It has been a few weeks since I have participated in this fun photo contest they have each week at I Heart Faces. When I saw the theme for this week I knew of a few photos I really liked that I could use. It was hard to narrow it down to just one but in the end this is the one I decided to go with. The goal of this week was to have a photos with interesting angles. Since I am fairly new to photography and all I have been experimenting with lots of different angles and tried to find what looks good.

If you want to enter a photo or just browse through all the great entries this week, head on over to I Heart Faces now!

Fix It Friday #47

I would say this week's Fix It Friday was photo was quite a challenge. It is such a precious photo of this little girl watching her Grandpa play pinball. I just love the lights coming from the game at the bottom of the photo. Here is the original photo:

Here are my edits using Picnik:



It would be so much fun if you played along too! Just head over to I Heart Faces and see what you can do!

Fix It Friday #46

It's been a few weeks since I participated in Fix It Friday. I always enjoy doing it though. It keeps me working on my editing skills plus I get to read about how others "fix-it" too! Isn't this little boy precious? Here is the original:

And here are my fixes:


Yes, I still use Picnik for the most part even though I got Photoshop Elements 8 for Christmas. I just haven't taken the time it takes to really learn how to use photoshop. To me, it's not all that user friendly. You have to know what you are doing and that takes time. Anyways, I just love Picnik and for now I am happy still using it. One day though, I hope to master photoshop too! If you want to play along or just look at some other great fixes, head over to I Heart Faces now.

I Heart "Kisses"

Who doesn't love to see sweet kisses? With Valentine's Day coming up soon, the theme at I Heart Faces this week is kisses. It can be a photo of any kind of kissing. Since I just did this photoshoot a little over a week ago, this photo was fresh in my mind. Can't you just tell how much love they have for each other? How cute! You should play along too. Go over to I Heart Faces and put in your entry. Hurry though, today's the last day!

Fix It Friday #42

Wow, I can't believe this is the 42nd Fix It Friday at I Heart Faces. All I know is that I have learned SOOO much from all the great tutorials and the wonderful people associated with I Heart Faces. I pretty much teach myself what I have learned and any tips and advice are so nice and always welcome. I did my edit with about 25% picnik (since that is still what I am comfortable using) and the other 75% with PSE. I am trying to force myself to use it more so I can feel better using it all the time. I am sure there is so much more to learn and I can't wait to keep practicing. Here is the original photo:

Here is my edit:

I would tell you what I all I did but I just played around with a few things, added a couple of textures, adjusted the brightness and contrast, and who knows what else. Next time I will try to be better about writing everything down I did. I encourage all of you to grab the photo from the I Heart Faces Flickr site and try it for yourself. It's lots of fun!

I Heart Faces "Texture"

I love I Heart Faces because it challenges me to learn more and do more as a photographer. The theme this week is "texture" and since I didn't know the least bit about using textures I decided to give it a go. This is honestly my first ever try at using textures. I am not even sure if I like the results. I am trying to learn how to make it look good, I know I have a lot of work to do. Anyways, I did my best for now. For this week, I decided to use a photo of my sweet Kambry Lynn. As I was working with the photo I realized that it was acutally one I edited for the I Heart Faces logo week and forgot to use it. So, here it is for textures week. Any feedback would be great.

I Heart Faces "We are family"

I know this week at I Heart Faces is sure to bring some wonderful photos of families. Any and all types of families are welcome. The photo I am submitting is a very traditional family. I haven't actually done many family photo shoots and didn't really have a lot to work with but I still really love this photo. You can the the pure innocent joy on the daughters face as she looks back at her dad playing with her hand. What a sweet moment!

To see more family photos or to submit your own, go over to I Heart Faces now!

I Heart Faces "Best Face Photo"

For I Heart Faces Birthday on Tuesday the theme this week is best face photo. They want a recent photo, something in the past two months, so they can see where our photography is right now. When I look back even at the past six months I can see what a difference I have. I have really learned so much in such a short time and can't wait to learn even more. This was actually a really tough decision because there wasn't one that just jumped out at me. In the end, this is the one photo I chose. It is of my oldest daughter, McKenna. I just love the look she is giving me, it makes her look so much older than she is.

To view more wonderful faces, visit I Heart Faces.

I Heart Faces Week 1-2010

What a fun celebration they are having over at I Heart Faces this week for their first birthday next week! In honor, all the photos submitted this week should have the i heart faces logo in them. I haven't had a lot of time to work on these because I am trying so hard to get my house back in order after the holidays. Here are four, I am hoping to get one more done in the next day. I love looking at all the entries, they are so fun to see!!


You have to look closely in her eyes.


“I am submitting this photo into the I Heart Faces logo photo contest. By entering, I am granting I Heart Faces LLC permission to consider my photo for use in the marketing and promotion of their website.”

I Heart Faces "Constructive Feedback Friday"

I am so glad that this week is Constructive Feedback Friday at I Heart Faces. Earlier this week I took some photos of this sweet baby girl who is 4 months old. I don't know what I was doing with the camera at the time but it is overexposed and I can't seem to fix it. I really need help with what to do. Here is the original photo.

And this is the best I could do with editing it. I really wanted it in color but went with black and white because it didn't look as bad. I don't know what else to do with it.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much. To see more visit I Heart Faces.

I Heart Faces "Sports in Action"

Since t-ball is over for my oldest, McKenna, and we haven't been to any baseball games around here, I just had the photos I took from t-ball season to use for my "Sports in Action" theme for this week at I Heart Faces. After looking through them I knew I wanted to use this photo:
Little Griffin, as I refer to him, was the youngest and smallest player on McKenna's t-ball team. It was so cute watching him bat. His helment almost swallowed him whole but he played with all of his heart. I hope you enjoy this photo. It brings back sweet memories of watching the little ones play.
As far as the pets category goes, I have this photo I took when I went to the zoo a little over a month ago. I just wish I could've gotten as close to all the animals as I did to this one. I guess I need a zoom lens huh?

Now go to I Heart Faces to see what some great entries for this week!!!

I Heart Faces "Just for Fun"

This week at I Heart Faces the theme is "Wedding Bells". As you can tell, I do not have a wedding bells photo. I have not been to a wedding in a while and have not taken any photos of a wedding. So, needless to say I have no wedding photos.

I am glad they decided to have a "just for fun" category so I can still enter something this week. This category is not judged but it's still fun to throw a photo in and see what everyone else has to contribute. This photo is of my sweet Kambry Lynn last week. She can be so cute when she wants to be. I just loved this expression on her face.

Fix It Friday #18

Who doesn't love this sweet face?? Isn't he precious? This sad little boy is the photo of the week to "fix up" on I Heart Faces. Every week I have so much fun doing this. Even though I didn't take the photo, it's neat to try to make it stand out even more. I also enjoy seeing what everyone else did with it. Here is the original:
And here are my fixes(I can never do just one):

Let's Hear it for the Boys: I Heart Faces

Since this weekend was Father's Day and all the theme at I Heart Faces this week is "Let's Hear it for the Boys." You can submit any photo of a male, no girls allowed. My first entry is for the kids category. This is a darling little boy named Garrett. He was a bit shy but let me snap a few cute pics of him one day at my daughter's t-ball game. You can see the innocence on his face.