Happy Halloween!

In the spirit of Halloween, I have a ridiculous amount of photos attached to this post. I apologize in advance. Sorry!


Meet Minnie Mouse.


I couldn't find a bow to fit her head, so I bought ribbon instead and made the bow. Did I do a good job? Ok, take into account that I am artistically challenged when it comes to these types of things and I've never done anything like that before. Now, did I do a good job?




I love this smile! It always makes me laugh and because of that she always does this. She will say, "Momma, look at me!" and I turn around and she is smiling just like this.


Notice anything missing in the photo? Shortly, after we had arrived, she wanted the leggings off and then she broke the bow! The story of a 2 year old.


And she followed all that up by playing in the dirt.


After being a witch for about 10 times in a row, Ariel finally let me help pick out her costumes. I am always surfing the web looking for ideas and I came across this outfit. At first, I was thinking Hippie, but then as I added the hair, headband, all the other accessories, I was thinking we would go with just a 70's look. When she was putting on her clothes, the song that kept playing through my head was "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy. I have no idea why!?! Then as we were leaving, we stopped over at our next door neighbor's house and he said, "Angela Davis!" when we walked in. I was like YEAH that's it! So she is Angela Davis.






I love this one although Cailin is pretty upset. She is in this stage were she loves to be chased. So, that means that running after her makes her run faster. Now this is frustrating ok in the house, it is not ok when you are outside and we are next to a large street that has 4 lanes of traffic. She took off and she had a couple seconds of lead time on me and you add in my belly and she can be pretty fast. I yell for Ariel to get her and I am yelling at the top of my lungs for her to STOP! That slows her down and allows Ariel to catch up with her, but it scares the crap out of her in the process. I felt a little guilty afterward, but when I think of what could of happened.....




Big sister cheers her up anyway.


This is Halloween 2008. Do you ever look at photos and even though it was just last year, it feels like a lifetime ago. I felt this way looking at these. I mean look at the how little she looks.


Ariel was a nerd last year, and this just cracks me up to look at this now. As I was helping her get dressed, I was laughing so hard that I was crying. She told me not to post this picture, but it is too memorable not to post. HeeHee!


We try to keep things fair around this house. So, baby C-C got to dress up for Halloween too!

Thanks for stopping by,

Fix-It-Friday Photo

Over at the I Heart Photography blog, every Friday they post a photo that needs to be "fixed". So I decided to try my hand at the following image, which by the way looked pretty good straight out of the camera (SOOC).

SOOC

This is my first fix. The image was edited in Photoshop CS3. I started out with a Levels Adjustment followed by a Curves Adjustment, increasing the highlights and decreasing the shadows. I done this twice. Next, I used the Spot Healing brush and the Patch tool to get rid of the spots on her legs. Then, I used the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer to bring out the colors in the tutu. Next, I ran the Eye Doctor Action from MCP Actions specifically enhancing the catchlights, whitening the whites and sharpening the eyes. Slight crop and sharpen.
*forgot to add that I used the patch tool to reduce shadows and bags under eyes.


I always try convert an image to black and white. I gotta say I liked the Black and White conversion a whole lot more. I started from the above photo and Desaturated the layer. I then did another curves adjustment bringing down the highlights and shadows trying to create more contrast. I have to say that I also learned about curves through MCP Actions blog. In addition to selling Actions, she also offers online classes. Finally, I cropped the photo then I used unsharp mask to sharpen it again and to create a little noise. The End.

Thanks for stopping by,

Week 42- "Halloween Dress Up" Photo Challenge

I Heart Faces is a photography blog for amateurs and pro photographers. I have been following this blog for about a month now, but this is my first entry. They have weekly photography contest that are centered around a theme. This week's theme is " Halloween Dress Up". When they announced this theme, I thought instantly of this series of pictures. This was Halloween 2008. It was great to look back at this set of pictures and see how much they have grown. Ariel was a nerd and Cailin was a spider. It was so hard to narrow it down to this one photo because I had taken about 6 photos of Ariel being silly and putting her nerd glasses on Cailin. So I went with what made me smile the most.

If you'd like to view more entries, head on over to I Heart Faces Photo blog and check it out!

Thanks for stopping by,

8 months

While I was taking pictures of my big belly, some little Cookie Monster ran up and put sand on me!

I can't believe that I am 8 months already! I have almost 6 weeks left and although I am ready to meet my new baby, I am also a little afraid. Afraid, because I am such a wimp when it comes to pain. Every pregnancy is different and as a consequence I have learned that each delivery differs as well. My first baby was a C-section delivery and my second baby came naturally. And when I say natural, I mean the natural way but I really mean no EPIDURAL. Yeah, I arrived at the hospital in active labor, my water had broke in the car, and my baby came rolling out 10 minutes after we had arrived. I had no I.V. and the delivery room they rushed me into didn't even have a baby warmer. Although the painful contractions lasted about an hour, I was thoroughly terrorized by that experience.

So, now I'm wishing for a fast delivery, but I am praying that I make it to the hospital early enough to get an epidural.

A self portraits of us. You like the way I put Jerry all in the frame and cut off my fat face.....ha!

St. Pete Beach

This weekend we went down to St. Pete Beach. I knew it was chilly outside but it was downright cold. Over the last few days, it literally went from a sweltering 95 degrees to a chilly 70 degrees. Which meant it felt more like 50 degrees when we were at the beach. Since the kids didn't mind we stayed and played for a little while.

I like to sit back and watch them play. I think I get the best photographs that way. I spent the first year of her life photographing her this way. I have like a 1,000 head shots of this little girl!

But she has changed so much over the last 2 years, that I never want to forget this face. Although I could do without all the other stuff that comes along with having a 2 year old, but that's another story.

I bought this little outfit when I saw it on another photographer's blog. It also gave me the idea for her Halloween costume. I love Halloween and picking out costumes.

I have no idea what she is doing here(??).


But this is always very familiar. This is the way she would be caught watching television when she was just 3 or 4 years old. The child is just a natural gymnast. Look she even has poor Cailin doing it as well!

No matter how cold it is, they will always get in wet.

This applies to the big one as well!




This was the sunset as we were leaving. This shot is straight out of the camera (although I did a little sharpening), but that's it.

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I am still officially on bedrest and off work. I am always saying I would like to be a stay-at-home Mom. That I would love to just hang out with my kids, especially while they are little. I have been home for the last month, but the truth is I think I would be bored out of my mind if this is all I had to do everyday. Of course my choices of doing things are severly limited right now (because of the bedrest and all). We've been hanging out at the beach, park, library, and the mall and all that's been pretty fun, but I don't know. Maybe what I need instead is the "perfect" schedule. And I know I haven't found that yet!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by,

Happy Birthday "Z"!

This little cutie is Amanda's niece. I got to know Amanda years ago, first as my preceptor at Saint Petersburg College, where I was finishing up my degree. Five years later, we would find ourselves working at the same hospital. Also can you believe, she lives right down the block from me?! Small world isn't it?

Anyway Amanda (or Auntie Mandy) asked if I could capture her niece's birthday. And of course I agreed. I love birthday parties. I love that parents can relax and enjoy the party festivities knowing that they don't have to run around and take pictures of everything as well.

Anyway meet Ms. "Z"!

She had a swim party (if you can't tell).

She had one of the tallest water slides, I have ever seen. I think I would have tried to slide if I didn't happen to have this belly. I have a picture of Auntie Mandy up on the water slide but I'll save that one just for her :0)!




And a kid party would not be complete if you didn't have a pinata. This little guy busted the pinata and just look at his face!

Even though it doesn't look like it, this was the most orderly candy collecting activity I had ever seen. Each kid was allowed to get some candy and then move so the little ones weren't left out.

The theme of the party was High School Musical(HSM) and Ms. Z loves HSM!

But she loves Sharpay from HSM the most. As you can see she saved her from her birthday cake that she was eating (cute right)?

I know I said this before, but just look at that smile. I love those missing teeth! This reminds me to always cherish each day with your children because they grow up. I always want to remember each age and what they looked like. So much so, that my oldest daughter (who was at the party) wouldn't get in any pictures because she said she gets enough of that at home already! I thought that was pretty funny!

Anyway if you'd like me to come out and capture your child's party. Give me a call or send me an email. I would love to share in your day!

Thanks for stopping by,

~Keshia

Sneak Peek.....

I got to shoot a birthday party Saturday that was loads of fun. It involved Auntie Mandy (as she is so affectionately called), a brand new 6 year old, swim suits, and High School Musical. Stay tuned because I have more details to follow.

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sidenote: Don't you just love 6 year olds and their missing teeth :0)!

Thanks for stopping by,

~Keshia