Best Shot - Bluebells & Ball Games

I find it hard define what is 'best' but below are possibly my best shots this week.

But my 'favourites' can be seen in my 5FavesFriday post (please feel free to join in!)

Then when you're done, hop on over to Melissa's Best Shot and join in there too! :D

Fix-It Friday #53- Big Brown Eyed Boy!

Original

First three edits done on Laptop (which gives different colour saturations) and in Picnik Premium today ~ Paul had the PC with PSE7 & LR3 ;)

Next three edits done in Gimp.

Sorry ~ I didn't keep a record of what I did today, I just played whilst watching the progress of our election on the telly. It's been a restful day, but I'm sorry I can't really tell you what I did!! :D I knew I was going for a soft look in the first three and a bit of vintage.  Less softness in the next three and more vintage. The cardy the little lad was wearing shouted vintage at me, so I went with that.


For more lovely fixes of this brown-eyed boy, head on over to Fix-it-Friday ...

You Capture - Spring II

Spring ran away this week and more-like-winter returned!

But we played out a bit, despite the chill factor...

'Teens' arrived at our house (counting candles) ~ Uh Oh!

And we played 'Rounders' in the park for some (chilly) Bank Holiday fun with a crowd of friends!

For some more pictures of Spring head on over to Beth's ...

Communal Global ~ "Today"

On Tuesday's Communal Global opens up for links around the world ~ time for YOU to join in! :D

The theme is 'TODAY' and although it was not actually today, but Sunday, my eldest, handsome son hit his teen years ~ so now I'm really for it!! :D

SOOC Saturday/Sunday ~ Welcome Teen-hood!

This really isn't the best shot of him, but possible the funniest :D. Today my eldest hit his teens! 


For Something prettier...

And for more Slurps of Lovely Life nip over to Melody's :D

5 Faves Friday ~ 7

(my first 'assignment' for a friend ~ she needed a picture for a magazine article she had written ~ I think she used this shot, but in colour.)

FIX-IT-FRIDAY - NO.52- "Just For Fun!"

Original ~ Angie's beautiful daughter :D

__________________

Fix 1

LIGHTROOM 3 (beta)

• Opened RAW image in LR3(beta) ~ never worked with RAW before :D!!
• Auto tone
• punch
• portrait sharpen
• Crop to 7x5

___________________________

Fix 2

From fix 1

• Set WB to 'flash'
• use adjustment brush to dodge her face a little (increase exposure and brightness just a touch) ~ looking good!

_________________

Fix 3

FROM FIX 1

• apply my own preset 'snow natural'
• dodge her face again a little

I liked the warmth of this, so I took it into PSE7...

_______________________

Fix 4

• ... where I cropped it further 
• cloned out the distractions in the background
• used CoffeeShop 'Web Color Block It' action

____________________

Fix 6

• undid the block-it and duplicated
• applied Coffeeshop 'Johnna's memories of sunshine' action
• adjusted layers like so; contrast down to 36%, orange colour fill layer to 18%, blue colour fill layer to 50%
• flatten image
• applied Coffeeshop 'little perk' action
• Flatten

I really like this :D!!

_________________

Fix 7

FROM FIX 1

• applied 'aged photo' preset in LR3 (beta)
• dodged her face a little as in fix 2

_____________________

Fix 8

FROM FIX 6

• back in LR with edit 6, converted to B&W
• changed to B&W and applied 'high contrast BW' preset 
• auto tone
• increased contrast a little
• decreased brightness a touch
• increased recovery a touch
• lightened darks a very little

_________________________________________

Fix 9

• used fix 8 and just applied 'aged photo' preset
• auto tone
• a few lighting adjustment.

I think THIS is my favourite of all!! :)

_________________________________________

POST SCRIPT

(the kids are in bed now, so I did this..)

(words from 'Road to Nowhere' by Talking Heads)

This was fun and easy this week :D 

Hope you like my work Angie!

To join in and have a go, or to see the handiwork of others, hop on over to Fix-It-Friday.

You Capture - Spring

Different Blossoms everywhere you look :)

New Life.

Even weeds are beautiful through the viewfinder!

Playing outside barefoot

The Village in Bloom


For more beautiful Spring pictures hop on over to You Capture ~ and wish Beth well, she's not feeling too grand today :(

Tagged!

I was tagged by Marvellous Mommy (alias Amy)

This is quite fun so I joined in :D

Post your 8th picture in your 8th folder and tell about it. Then tag 8 bloggy friends!

OK ~ so WHICH 8th folder ~ I have my photos divided into main folders differentiated by periods of time (and cameras) and then subfolders of subfolders!! I picked to use the one I'm currently adding to and go from there :)

So here is 8th of the 8th (after Nov 09)  ~ taken 17.11.09.

This is my eldest son (13 this Sunday) working on his maths in school time (he uses an on-line course). Behind him you can see a fraction of our home library and on the lower shelves some of the 'school' resources. Crisps help your brain ~ did you know that?!!


Now to play tag ~ I'm choosing my photobloggy friends for this one!


TJ
Yolanda
Julia
Drew
Becky
Suki
Lisa
Lolli

Blog Award

My friend TJ left me a blog award today for this blog, but I know she won't mind if I transfer it over to my other blog to answer it ~ See you there!

Communal Global ~ "Relax!"

Well, I am a contributor over THERE now (YEAH!!) ~ and this was my entry for today's "Tuesday Around the World" ~ which has a 'relax'ing theme!!

It's not me, but it used to be... my teenage son, lying on his back in the spring sunshine, playing guitar ~ so relaxed!

On Tuesdays YOU get to join in too ~ so hop on over and show the world how you like to RELAX :)

(apologies for those who've seen the picture before!! :))

I ♥ Faces - Fix it Friday - #17- "Smiles!"

I'm not sure this is a winner, but there is something about this photo and the little girls gentle smile that I just love. This is my daughter's best friend ~ she is a crazy, carefree, fun-loving, go-at-it girl ~ she's always messy and loves to be that way ~ there's nothing she loves better than crawling around in our field ~ and it shows in her face :)
There's something about the lack of focus and the messy background that enhances this shot to me, so whether it's a winner technically or not, it's a winner to me!


I had SUCH trouble picking a smile for this week ~ how to choose when I have SOOOO many! :)


To see lots more wonderful smiles head on over to iheartfaces and make yourself happy!