I Heart Faces Weekly Photo Challenge ~ Photojournalism

Photojournalism. Tell a story with a photo. (Or a few, but I'm just using one.) Here it is!

Check out all the other great Photojournalism photos at I Heart Faces!

the paper mama ~ baby legs giveaway!!

I'm blogging about the giveaway over at the paper mama! The blog has quickly become one of my favorites and she's giving away a pair of Baby Legs Leg Warmers. These things are SO cute! My baby is eight months old now and she's on the brink of crawling! I think leg warmers would help keep her legs nice and un-bruised... or at least less bruised from clammering over the wood floors. :)

So pick me, pick me random comment number generator!!! I'd really love a pair of Baby Legs for my Baby! :)

You want a pair for your baby? Go on over to www.thepapermama.blogspot.com and enter to win! Or don't, so I have a better chance. ;)

(And, Thanks Paper Mama & Baby Legs!!)

Trendy Treehouse Shutter Love Tuesday ~ Laughter

The theme this week at Trendy Treehouse is Laughter! It should seem like an easy theme but, holy cow do I have a lot of cute laughter pictures!! I'm sure it was hard for everyone to pick just one. :)

Here is what I finally whittled down to as my entry. Even better, it was taken last week! So I'm not completely pulling from the archives. It's always so rewarding to snap a one great shot of both my almost-three-year-olds at the same time. I did a little processing/editing & I like the way it turned out:

Share your laughter pictures over at the Trendy Treehouse!

the paper mama Photo Challenge ~ Self

This week's photo challenge theme at the paper mama is "Self".

So... Here I am! Hi!

My eyes really are blue. I think the green scarf changed their shade...

It's fun taking pictures of myself. One time I did a whole series of myself in all my hats. I should really post it here sometime because it turned out pretty cool.

Share your Self Portrait and check out all the rest of us over at the paper mama!

Landscape Edits with Brent Riggs

Ashley, author of one of the blogs I follow (Ramblings and Photos), is participating in a photo challenge of sorts with Brent Riggs. Here's the deal****:

1.Download this original landscape photo he took by clicking here…

2.Do your own version of improving, enhancing and otherwise putting “wow” into this image.

3.Put up a post on your blog displaying your enhanced photo, and explaining what you did.

4.Come back to this post, and enter your photo and blog post on the Thumbnail Linky.

5.Then, Brent Riggs will do a private online demonstration of what he does to get his outdoor photography to come alive, and send a link to every person who participated by following these instructions and entered the Thumbnail Linky list.

(****instructions courtesy http://www.ashleysisk.blogspot.com/~ Thank you Ashley for letting me use your words!!!**** )

Sounds like fun, right? And on top of it, I'll get some pointers on photography from someone who knows more than me. Can't beat that! So, here goes! :)

Here is the original image:

Here is what my final edit looks like:

I rather like it!

Here is what I did to get this edit. I don't have any fancy schmancy photo editing software. I just use what came on our computer, Windows Live Photo Gallery, so my editing instructions might make no sense at all. :)

First, I straightened the photo out a bit, just a smidgen to the left (to make the photo turn to the right...)

Then I lowered the brightness and took the contrast to the ceiling (um, so moved the brightness about 10 degrees lower than 50 and moved the contrast all the way to 100).

(Unless otherwise noted, all edits are being moved from a 50% position.)

I moved the shadows up to about 75%.

I took the highlights down to about 40%.

And then I made the color temp a little warmer. I like what this did for the photo.

Then I messed with the tint a bit and settled for about a 45% tint.

Following the tint, I increased the saturation by about 10%.

My favorite part of editing? Sharpening and reducing noise. I don't know why, I just like it. So I sharpened to about 85% and reduced the noise (which brought the noise level pretty much smack dab in the middle at about 50%).

There you have it! If you'd like to join in, I think there is still some time left today! Enter your photos here.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone! :)

In A Yellow House Photo Challenge ~ Trees

This is my first entry for the In A Yellow House Photo Challenges! This week the theme is Trees. I knew just what I was entering. We have a ginormous Black Walnut tree in our backyard. It's over 100 years old and you should see the black walnuts that come off it in the Fall. I love this tree!! This picture was taken this Spring just before the buds came as a storm was rolling in.

Check out all the other great photos at Ramblings & Photos ~ Ashley is hosting the In A Yellow House Challenges this month! :)

the paper mama Photo Challenge ~ Flower!

the paper mama Photo Challenge ~ Flower

Share your Flower pictures with the paper mama!

www.thepapermama.blogspot.com

Trendy Treehouse Shutter Love Tuesday ~ First Day of School!

Not doing Trendy Treehouse this week because the theme is 1st day of School... and we don't start until next week!! :)

This post serves more as a reminder to me of why I skipped a week.

Eligibility & Photo Protection

So, I have HTML on my blog that protects anyone from right-clicking & saving any photos I have on here. Not to say someone couldn't find a way to grab my pictures if they really really really wanted to... I just think having this step might prevent it from happening. A road block of sorts.

Anyways. So since I have this HTML thing, does it mean that I can't win any contests that I enter because my photo can't be grabbed by the contest-holding-website?

Just a thought of mine! Do you have a thought on the subject?? Do share!! :)

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge ~ Beach Fun!

This week's theme is: Beach Fun!

I love this picture of my husband! We went swimming with the dolphins & this was the largest lifevest available at the place! He's 6'1" and it was really pretty funny! :)

Check out the great pictures and share your beach photos at I Heart Faces!

the paper mama Photo Challenge ~ Orange!

This week's Photo Challenge theme over at the paper mama is: Orange!

This is my picture!

Check out all the other great pictures over at the paper mama!

Trendy Treehouse Shutter Love Tuesday ~ My Favorite Things!

It's Tuesday over at the Trendy Treehouse... and that means it is Shutter Love Tuesday. This week's theme is: My Favorite Things.

Entrants can make collages of lots of their favorite things but I'm choosing to keep it simple (for my own sanity!) and enter one of my top three favorite pictures of my girls. We had just brought the baby home from the hospital and the girls were finally all together, the three sisters. They could not have been happier to be Big Sisters!!!

My Favorite Things? My Three Girls.

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge ~ Got To Wear Shades!

This week's theme at I Heart Faces is "Got To Wear Shades"! So... SUNGLASSES!!! To my surprise, I actually had some pictures from a couple weeks ago. The girls had gotten into Hubby's hat, wallet, keys, and sunglasses. They were pretending to be "Daddy going to 'Goffing' ." (Golfing).

Share your sunglasses pictures at I Heart Faces!

the paper mama Photo Challenge ~ Water

Yes, I'm having fun with photo challenges. Could you tell?

Anywho... so the paper mama also heads up photo challenges on her blog.

This week's theme? Water.

Here's my entry:

Share your "Water" pictures over at the paper mama!

Trendy Treehouse Shutter Love Tuesday ~ Vacation!

This week's theme over at the Trendy Treehouse is Vacations!
My husband & I went to Mexico with his parents. We spent a day of our trip at Chitzen Itza, the famous Mayan pyramids. Part of the "tour" took us to a very small village where there is a beautiful cave. After we had seen the cave, we were piling into our tour van when the driver started to collect the money everyone owed him. Some of the village children had come up to the van... we had given them Swedish Fish and other goodies but what is so striking about this picture is the look on the little girl's face as she watches, what to her, is an enormous amount of money being passed over her head. I can only imagine the better good it would have done her & her family than it did for us and our "fabulous vacation".

Play along every Tuesday over at the Trendy Treehouse!

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge ~ Surprise!

This week's theme at the I Heart Faces Weekly Challenge is: Surprise!!

Here is my entry. My big girls (twins, almost three years old) have so much fun playing in the pool. The one on the bottom of this picture is about to get a big surprise... and her sister is LOVING IT!

Play along at I Heart Faces!

Trendy Treehouse Shutter Love Tuesday ~ Weddings!

This week's theme over at Trendy Treehouse's Shutter Love Tuesdays is: Weddings!
I've been married for just over three kids now. Haha. I meant to write "just over three years now"... I can't imagine what might have caused me to write "just over three kids now" instead! I would normally have erased such a typo but this was too funny. I had to leave it in! Anyways... So Hubby & I have been married for just over three years now. We have three children, ages almost 3, almost 3, and 7 months. I may or may not have been a (doubly) pregnant bride. You do the math. :)
...ANYWAYS...
Weddings are so fun! We were second of all my friends and in the middle of all Hubby's friends to get married. We were the first to have kids. Out of every one of our friends. And we had two at once! So when our friends get married we tend to bring the kids along for the ceremony (an all-day babysitter would break the bank!). It's fun to dress them up and they almost never take away from the bride.
My entry for this week's Trendy Treehouse Shutter Love Tuesday is of my second oldest daughter (by two whole minutes!) at the wedding of her 'older' sister's godfather. The old church had floor vents that were blowing air straight up. When the girls would walk over the vents, their little dresses (vintage from my own toddlerhood) would bloom up like little bells. I love remembering how they used to toddle back then and with their dresses filled with air, they're even cuter than usual.

Play along every Tuesday at The Trendy Treehouse!

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge ~ Random Acts of Kindness

This week at I Heart Faces is a week off from photo challenges but there is still a "thing" going on. The theme this week is "Random Acts of Kindness". I think the idea behind it is to share pictures of a time when you used your photography as a random act of kindness for someone. One person shared a photo from a series she did of a family who had no home. Another person shared photos she takes of dogs available for adoption at her local shelters. This week's challenge also goes hand in hand with a charity called "Inspiration Through Art (Littlest Heroe's Project)". I couldn't figure out how grab their button but you can check them out here. The Inspiration Through Art/Littles Heroes Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering young people to give back, and make a difference through the beauty of art.

I am not a professional so I struggled a bit with this week's challenge last night. I thought about it for a long time and determined I had never used my photography to "help" someone or for someone's benefit. I mainly just take pictures of my kids! Or the cat! :)

It wasn't until I was doing laundry later that night... that I got an idea. Or, the idea found me. I discovered something in the basket. Discovered... or perhaps, rescued? Could it be, a "random act of kindness" had found me. Kindness of some sort of all? I decided to grab the camera and have some fun! I knew my girls would enjoy seeing pictures of Little Clown's adventure in the laundry. So, a random act of kindness was born. The kindness of a story for my daughters.

(Please note this post isn't meant to trivialize the real, true, and good random acts of kindness posted by other readers and bloggers. I only mean to have some fun with this week's challenge ~ and keep participating! ~ since I don't have a real, true, and good random act of photographing kindness to share!)

The Rescue of Little Clown and How He Helped Mommy Finish the Laundry

Laundry.

Something strange about that sock...
There's something inside!!
What could it be???
Why, Hello Little Clown! What are you doing in there??
Hi there!

Was it nice and cozy in that sock?
Time to do some laundry!


Set the buttons!

And don't forget the soap!
Careful, Little Clown! Don't fall in!
When the clothes are done, Little Clown will help Mommy load them in the dryer.
Wheeeeeeee!!!!!

Peek-a-Boo, Little Clown! Don't forget a dryer sheet!

Hendrix the Cat is too busy to play with Little Clown today.

Home, Sweet Home!
Time for bed! Goodnight, Little Clown!

THE END.

"The Rescue of Little Clown..." story is property of TheUnexpectedWorldofMommyhood.Blogspot.Com and its author. No reprints or use of this text is allowed without express permission.