We’ve had a couple weeks of supreme summer-like weather, and since tomorrow is June, I’m declaring it summer ’round here.    Because of all our sunshine, those in charge of our neighborhood pool decided to open it early, which really makes it feel like summer.  This is one of the many times of year when we feel so blessed to live where we do.

My guys enjoying the pool this evening…

PS – It’s Monday morning now and we’ve just discovered that Ethan has grown nearly 1 1/2 inches in the last three months!  Seth made a remark about how big he is, and Ethan went and stood next to the spot on the wall where we’ve done some measuring and marking.  Seth went to check him out and noticed that the last time we did it was on Feb 25 (to mark his 7 1/2 years).  And he was 1 3/8 inches taller than that mark!  53 1/4 inches now.  No wonder some of his pants have suddenly become short.  It’s a good thing we’re into shorts weather now!

It’s Fix-It Friday at I ♥ Faces again!  It’s been awhile since I’ve participated, so I felt a bit rusty.  But this shot of Little Miss Cutie-Pie sure was fun to play with.  I mean really, who can resist that much cuteness?!  Certainly not her mom, who submitted the photo.  Great catch, mom!!

This shot has a lot going for it.  Super cute kiddo with an adorable smile…check.  Natural light pouring in from a window and providing soft shadows and wonderful catch-lights in the eyes…check.  Focus on the face and the background blurred to reduce distraction from said face…check.  And there ya go!  Three of the best ingredients for a wonderful portrait. 

The one distracting element, for me anyway, is the white shelf on the right.  So, I immediately decided upon a square crop.  I felt this photo lent itself to this crop very well, as her slight head tilt put the right eye directly on intersecting rule-of -thirds lines.  In other words…I liked it square. 

I also decided to do as much as possible in Lightroom, and I felt like the light in the photo would work well with a contrasty treatment, both in color and black and white.  I always begin by adjusting white balance if necessary, and with one click of the dropper tool on the edge of the white shelf, it warmed up the shot nicely.  Then I tweaked the following tools to get a good base to work from:  exposure, recovery, blacks, clarity, vibrance, tone curve.  I played with the crop tool and made a virtual copy of what I had done so far.  This is a wonderful tool in Lightroom that allows you to make as many virtual copies of your photos as you like, without clogging up your computer or sacrificing performance, so you can make as many different edits as you like, and then compare them to choose your favorite.  Veeeery nice!

Then I began playing with presets, and I landed on a free one called A-Game 2.  Sometimes presets give you just what you want with one click, but sometimes, as with action layers in Photoshop, they need to be tweaked as well.  So, I played with exposure, recovery, blacks, clarity and tone curve again.  I also used the adjustment brush tool to bring up the exposure a bit, just on her hair that was deep in shadow.  The whites of her eyes were quite blue at this point, so I used the adjustment brush set to desaturate to remove that color.  I also brightened the exposure (just a smidge) on the catchlights.  The dust removal tool was handy to remove a couple spots on her chin.

At this point, I was pretty much done.  However, I was noticing quite a bit of “noise” (grain) in this photo, and I realized it was because it was shot at ISO 1600 on a Canon Rebel XT.  I am not in any way knocking the noise or the camera!  I just wanted to make the point that different cameras handle noise differently.  As a rule, however, the lower the ISO, the less noise.  The shutter speed for this shot was 1/640. If the ISO had been set lower to avoid the noise, the shutter speed would have been slower.  And it’s possible this shot could have turned out fine with a slower shutter speed. But toddlers move pretty fast, and it’s also possible that a slower shutter speed would have resulted in a blurry shot.  Boo!  I say, use that higher ISO setting to ensure you get a clear shot and then just embrace the noise!    Thank goodness our digital cameras have the ability to produce images with higher ISOs, or we would miss an awful lot of shots!  And it would have been a shame to miss this one.

For my color version, I did want to go for a smoother shot, so here’s where I brought it into CS3 and used Noiseware, a noise reduction program that can be purchased to work inside Photoshop.  You have to find the balance between getting rid of noise and not over-smoothing to retain detail in your shot.  So, I try not to use it in a heavy handed way.  While I was in Photoshop, I went ahead and used Pioneer Woman’s Sharpen THIS action on her eyes, and the healing brush on a couple little spots on her face.  Then it was back to Lightroom for exporting.  I was going for contrast and some pop, so the shadows are a bit deep, but I love the way her eyes just pull you in!

I knew I wanted to work up a somewhat vintage black and white version as well.  The natural light in this shot was just calling me to it!  So I went back to my very originally edited photo in Lightroom and made another virtual copy.  In fact, I made a number of virtual copies so I could try a bunch of different presets and see which one I wanted to work with.  I ended up using a free one called BW Dependable.  Then I tweaked the tone curve and used the split toning tool to give it a hint of vintage color.  I reduced the clarity to give it a softer appearance, used the adjustment brush tool to bring up the shadows on her hair and added some overall sharpening.  For this version, I decided to embrace the noise by actually adding a bit more!  So, I brought it into CS3 and used the noise filter to add a little bit of monochromatic grain to the whole photo.  I also used Sharpen THIS on the eyes.  At this size, it may be kinda hard to detect the extra grain, but it was a subtle addition. 

Thanks for letting me play today!  Let me know if you have any questions.

A couple weeks ago, I had a dream that I got a new, red-leather Bible.  I don’t often remember my dreams, but when I woke up from that one, I remembered that detail.  It was so pretty.  I told my husband about it, and I also told him that I would like a more compact Bible.  One that would be easy to add to a book bag or take traveling.  That little red Bible image would not leave me alone, and so I began looking for one online.  (Since it’s our 15th anniversary tomorrow, I figured it would be a nice way to mark that occasion as well!)  I discussed Bible translations with my husband, who has read a different version through for each of the last 5 years.  I grew up with KJV and NIV, but I thought it might be nice to have a compact Bible in a different version.  I discovered a lovely Bible in the English Standard Version, which sounds rather agreeable to my somewhat old-fashioned ears, and I ended up ordering it from a local Bible book store.  It came today, and I love it!

This weekend, a family in our church and community suffered a shocking and devastating loss.  Husband and father of four young children, Scott Resnick, was killed in a private plane accident early Saturday morning.  His wife, Holly, among other things, is a worship leader at our church.  Scott, among other things, was a small group leader and mentor for some high school guys.  Their family is woven into our church and community in indelible ways.  Sunday’s Memorial Day service took on another level of meaning under these circumstances.  The sermon was ditched for a last minute replacement that was personal and moving…one of the best ever.  I’m confident God used it to draw people together and begin the incredibly arduous task of binding this wound.  The music came from a worship team of people who are very close to the Resnick family and it was transparent, raw, heart wrenching and beautiful.  The grief, the concern and even hope were palpable that morning, even in a room of 1,000 people.

The Resnicks have an incredible support system in their friends and family.  They have banded together to surround Holly and her children and take care of their physcial needs.  For those wondering how they can also contribute, please see this comprehensive post by Jenni Clayville.

It’s silhouette week at I ♥ Faces!  I really like silhouettes, and I don’t look for opportunities to shoot them nearly enough.  Hopefully this summer I’ll find some more.  This one is from two years ago of my sister-in-law’s family during a fabulous Oregon coast vacation.  It makes me happy!

As a Fix-it Friday contributor, I’m not eligible to win, just to play along! 

No, I did not go to the moon in search of cheese with Wallace and Gromit, but yesterday, I did ride the MAX (light rail) into Portland to attend a Photoshop Lightroom 2 Live seminar by Scott Kelby!  Seth and Ethan drove me to the station in the morning, and as I was going to buy my ticket, it occurred to me that I haven’t done anything sorta independent like this, well…for years!  Pre-Ethan, certainly.  I felt like a student again…back-pack over my shoulder, attending a class, traveling alone.  As long as I didn’t catch my reflection in a window, I could sustain that long-lost (younger) piece of myself.  The glorious weather added to the excitement of the day.

I’ve been working with Lightroom for about 6 months, and I’m glad I was already familiar with it or I may have been overwhelmed.  The class confirmed that I was doing some things right, and I learned quite a bit of new stuff, too, so it was well worth it for me.

After the class, I hopped back on the MAX and Seth picked me up at the station for a date night.  Since we’re coming up on our 15th anniversary next week, we went to one of our favorite  spots, Papa Haydn.  After a delicious meal and awesome dessert, we enjoyed the beautiful evening with a walk around the eclectic neighborhood.  It was, indeed, a grand day out for this mom!

I wanted to put some of my new Lightroom knowledge to work, so here are some snapshots of the day (from my point and shoot), put together in LR’s print module.  They are small here, but this was just for fun!

Photos (top to bottom, left to right):

MAX platform, MAX coming to pick me up, view of Portland and Union Station from the MAX

view of the Willamette River from the MAX, Burgerville for lunch (where else can you get an asparagus and tomato melt sandwich?), flowers and bench where I ate my lunch

bell outside of the Oregon Convention Center, huge artwork inside the Convention Center, sprawling wisteria on a house in NW Portland

Hope yours was, too!