{custom white balance}

Here's a question for all you photographers out there who care to answer: Do you use a custom white balance when you take your pictures? If not, which setting do you use? I have been practicing using my WB settings and so far I like the shady the best, but I also made a custom white that I've stored in my camera. I used my custom white on this picture of Ben. Lately I've been taking pictures in AV mode because I pretty much know which f-stop I want to use but I don't always know which exposure will be best. Which mode do you all use most of the time? Any tips or advice?

{butterfly}

My new favorite tool that I learned in PI through the Beginner's Workshop that I've been taking. Using the colorize pen I transformed this picture to black and white but left the butterfly in full color.
This poor butterfly was trapped in our garage with me snapping pictures and all the kids screaming to hold it. I eventually helped him find his way out unharmed.

{watermelon}

Ahh....the watermelon, summers fruit! I wish it felt like summer here. We planted our vegetable garden over memorial weekend and had to cover the plants last night because of the frost warning. It's the end of May and we had frost last night. I hope the blankets worked and the plants made it through the night.

On another note, Ben is six months old now. He turned 6 months on Friday. He now weighs 17 lbs 5 oz and is 28 3/4 inches long!! Talk about a tall boy. He loves eating too, in case you hadn't noticed, he loves watermelon. Grace, Sarah, Adam and Jack enjoyed some watermelon too!

{new layout}

I was messing around with my template again. I just can't seem to find one that I like. I created my banner in PI and adjusted the colors of the background in blogger to match. Here's another dandelion picture. Our weeds are now dying because of the recent visit from the Weed Man.

{dandelion}

This first picture was taken using f 6.3 with 1/1600 exposure time and an ISO speed of 800

These do make for some great practice shots, however when you're trying to sell your house and your lawn is covered in them along with other nasty weeds then drastic measures must be taken. The Weed Man is coming next week to get rid of these weeds. I guess I'll have to take as many pictures as I can before they die.



This picture was taken using f 5.6 with an exposure time of 1/4000 and an ISO speed of 800

Eyes {pop}

Thanks be to Jessica Kettle for emailing me about Pioneer Woman again. I've heard about her before from another friend and then I read again about her at Photog Tips and Resources . She is freak'n awesome to say the least. I read about how to make eyes "pop" on her blog and did Ben's eyes. I know I will get better the more I do it. I had to read between the lines and figure some out on my own since I have Photo Impact and she has PhotoShop, but I did it and I made it work. I am so excited. This totally rocks!!

{Mr. Nizzer}

One of his many nicknames. I know I'm not the only one with silly nicknames for my kids. LOL

Storyboard {cowgirl}

So I thought I would try to create a storyboard. I've seen such awesome storyboards from other photographers and they look so neat. Here's mine of one of my daughters, Grace.

{scratches}

Here is a recent picture of my boy Ben again. I took this yesterday practicing my new found knowledge of depth of field and using manual mode to choose apeature and setting the exposure accordingly. I like learning! I processed this one using a combo of presets and then added this "scratch edge". I kinda like the way it looks scratched like that.

{Book}

Thanks be to Kim at Unscripted Moments Photography who suggested this book, "Understanding Exposures" by Peterson. This book is totally awesome and I am learning so much from it already and I am only a few pages in. I have been practicing taking pictures in manual mode and trying to be creative. I am learning about exposure, apeature, and depth of field. So far my lens lust has increased ten-fold and I am now wanted a wide angle zoom lens in addition to the 70-300mm IS telephoto lens I've been lusting after for a few months now. LOL

Ben {old magazine page}

Grace {torn b&w}

{the tree}

{playing...}

{spot filter}

Well since I don't really know what I am doing as far as editing goes I figure I will just play around until I finish my tutorial and then maybe I will know more about what I am doing. I see all these presets and they are so awesome and what you can do with layers is amazing, I just don't fully understand all that yet. Also, I am still pretty much learning about my camera and how to take pictures in the first place. I usually just take pictures in fully automatic in the basic modes, but lately I've been practicing more in the advanced modes, mainly the manual mode. So here are a few pictures I took manually and then edited using the spot filter. These functions are pretty cool!

{A}

{B}