Year of Change

It's been an incredibly eventful year so far this year.  With one daughter getting married and the other graduating from high school and leaving for college, this momma isn't quite sure what to do with herself.  Empty-nest syndrome....big time!  On top of all that, we sold our home of seven years and are in the process of purchasing a new home.  I have no option but to adapt, deal with the emotions and move on.  So, to help me deal with all of these feelings, I usually find that I pour myself into something creative.  Here is a look at what I've been up to recently.

 

Touched

Spent some time at our local Botanical Garden yesterday to get in some of the last few blooms of the season. They are fading fast, but hopefully to be replaced by some fall colors soon.

 

Thought I'd try something new and give a quick tutorial on how to create the effect on this photo.

Touched

 

I use Photoshop CS5 to create all my textured photos.  First I bring my RAW files into Adobe Camera Raw and adjust for exposure, contrast, and sharpness.  Opening the file into Photoshop, I then add my textures.  In the above photo, I added a bokeh layer set to Screen at 78% opacity and then a second texture layer by Distressed Jewel set to Soft Light at 58% opacity.  I then ran an action from Paint the Moon's Photoshop Elements Set, Fresh Wonderland, called Candy Light Pop adjusting layers to desired look.  If you'd like more information on using textures and actions, visit Rita at The Coffeeshop Blog.  She's got awesome tutorials, as well, as lots of freebies. 

 

To download your free bokeh layer, visit here.  I'd love to see what you create, send a photo to Facebook.  While there, please like our page.  Thanks for stopping by.

Sugar and Spice

Baby A was almost a month old before we were able to schedule her session.  But, she was so sweet and did an amazing job. 

A New Baby

Little C was born in July on his momma's birthday...what an awesome birthday present.  He was so fun to photograph and look at that adorable head of hair!  Photos taken at 7 weeks old.