FIX-IT-FRIDAY - #84 ~ Chubby Cheeks!

Original

My take; 

needs a little sharpening, need to lose some of the shadows on her face, lose the light on the right and bright light on the top left above her, face in a cross-section (I use golden rule instead of thirds), needs general lightening and brightening, eyes pop & I want it too look sunny!

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 LR3 Edit #1 (from JPG)

I think I achieved my goals :D

I decided not to do a BW this week because I didn't want to loose all that sunshine and pink-girlishness ;D


To join in, download the original, and link up, you need to head over to I ♥ Faces

This evening I had a go with the RAW file (still entirely in LR3)


RAW edit #1

RAW edit #2

If I am entirely honest, aside from having a slightly better quality original and a few extra options with the RAW I cannot really tell much difference when editing it. If anything I think I slightly prefer my JPG edit (the Bumbo definitely has better colour in the jpg).


What do you think?


(PS ~ sorry about the watermark on the RAW edits, I forgot to turn it off when uploading to Flickr. This is of course NOT my original picture & I do NOT own the copyright on it!)

Black & White Wednesday #13 ~ Scrabbling

Sometimes we play games...

To join in head on over to Lisa's Blog and link in :D

Tuesdays Around the World ~ One Month Old.

Today (well on Friday actually) ...Solomon was a month old ALREADY!!

Now he is smiling, playing a little and generally so much less a 'newborn' ~ not fair!

This was taken just before his bathtime (11pm), playing on my bed.

 (Yes, I did use a flash ~ really no alternative at that time of night!!)

To join in with today's trip around the world link up and link back to Communal Global ~ See you there!

I ♥ Faces - Photo Challenge ~ "Innocent Wonder"

This week's theme over at I ♥ Faces is 'Innocent Wonder'

My little 5yo is a real 'wonderer' ~ he asks endless questions, but even when he is not asking out loud you can see the cogs of a questioning mind at work :D

This shot was taken one autumn afternoon when he and I took a short wander half way down our lane and back. 

He asked many questions in those 20 minutes or so, but here he is just 'wondering', ... about the feathers in his hand (zoom in), about the cows in the field, and probably about when I was going to stop taking pictures and just get going back home (which is only about 100 yards from where this was shot)!


I myself was 'in wonder' at the size of that AWESOME oak tree behind him, and was captivated by the splashes of autumn leaves in amongst its greenery.

To enter this week, head on over to I ♥ Faces and link up to your blog-post or Flickr photo :D

FIX-IT-FRIDAY - #83 - "JUMP!"

Original (from HERE)

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FIX 1

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FIX 2

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FIX 3

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FIX 4

(using Fix 1 ~ a little bit of fun with Photomatrix)

To join in head over to iheartfaces & get fixing :D

Communal Global ~ "Around the World"

We took the children to our nearest 'animal' place.

They are in the throws of moving, changing and upgrading, so a lot of stuff was simply not there, but it was SO cheap and killed a couple of happy hours!

So I give you Stapeley Water Gardens...

Water feature

Mandarin Ducks

Birds

Python

Meerkats (raised from babies)

'Cracker' the mimicking parrot.

Exotic Plants

Some rather 'interesting' looking..!

Some purely stunning (next couple were taken for me by my son, as I was feeding the baby, but I edited them).

To join in with today's CG 'around the world' link up below :D

FIX-IT-FRIDAY - NO.82- "Rachel's Beauty!"

ORIGINAL

Two Quick edits in LR3 :D

Better late than never!!

See everyone else's wonderful edits over here at iheartfaces

Black & White Wednesday #12 ~ Just Dance!

Some times my children JUST DANCE! 

Tonight was one of those nights :D

Natural light or none ~ moments like these are NOT to be missed! 

So rotten old on-camera flash it is then...

My kids are a bunch of crazies!!

I love them for it :D

To join in with BW Wednesday head on over to Lisa's...

Communal Global ~ "Around the World"

We do 'Christmas' twice in our family... one on Dec 25th and again on NY's day ~ each with whichever part of the family we are with at the time. This was My mum's time with us :D The other children were not as miserable as they appear ~ honest ~ only tired after seeing in the New Year at our friend's party earlier that morning!

WHY? do they choose the coldest time of year to give us a day without power while they replace the electricty cables ~ power OFF at 8.30am (before we had chance to get hot drinks & showers, etc...), meaning no heating for the day either, as our oil pump is electrically powered! Power ON 3.30pm! Boiling milk on top of the log burner for coffee was a novelty anyway ~ and the whole day was an education to my children about life pre-power!! At least we were to keep the lounge warm and it was nice to see some games come out that DIDN'T involve a screen! :)

Just Photos!

BABY SHOOT

...AND A WALK