An Addition to the Family

Canon 7D, Raw, EF-S17-55, 33mm, f/11.0, 1/20, ISO 2000

Well, here is Lily meeting her new baby brother Ian, and vice versa of course.  He was really staring at her. She seemed to like him too. It’s an adjustment for all of them. I asked Shelley the other day if it was easier with Ian this time around. She said with him, yes, but Lily is another factor thrown in. They are all awake at night a lot, but they also couldn’t be happier. We took some newborn photos at their home on Saturday and will do a lot more Christmas morning. I will be sharing more with you. I didn’t do much to this photo:  a little white balance adjustment, noise reduction and a small curves adjustment to make sure all is right.

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Miss Lily at 19 Months Old

Canon 7D, Raw, EF-S17-55mm, 48mm, f/4.0, 1/200, 100 ISO

As you can see, she is really growing up. I was watching her play the other day and she does so much now. She climbs up on her little slide by herself and her feet even touch the ground when she sits in her little plastic chair! I liked this photo of her because you can see some of her little razor-sharp teeth and she is looking at the camera with a smile on her face. I brought the photo into camera raw and made a few adjustments. Then in Photoshop, I did a levels adjustment so the colors would pop. The biggest thing I did was crop it so she is at one side of the image. This looks much better than her being centered. What is she going to think of her new brother Ian coming in December? Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

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In Her Pretty Red Skirt

Canon 7D, Raw, EFS 17-55 mm, 55 mm, f/4.0, 1/640, ISO 2000

I took this photo of Lily in her pretty red skirt. It kind of looks like a tutu, don’t you think? Maybe she will start dance lessons soon! You can see some of the other photos here. The skirt is a tulle fabic with hearts and a satin lining – very nice. She is looking at Papi (Willie) here and she absolutely adores him. I would say it is very mutual. I took these without a flash so I had to use a high ISO. It produced a lot of grain/noise. I was able to run my anti-noise software and take care of that. I also did a levels adjustment and a slight curves tweak in Photoshop. I am getting positive feedback regarding my senior portrait photos, but so far no new orders. Maybe it is too late in the school year. Well, I will be getting out soon to take more photos. Willie thinks I should go back to doing one a day. Now that Spring is here and the weather will be getting better, that is probably a good idea.

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Miss Lily’s 1st Birthday Party

Canon 7D, Raw, f/7.1, 1/60, EF-S17-55mm, 51mm

I cannot believe how fast the first year of this little one’s life went! She enjoyed her first ever cake and ice cream, as you can tell by the photo. I didn’t really need to do anything to this photo; this is how it came straight out of the camera. With such a beautiful subject, how can one go wrong! There are some more birthday photos here. This was on Saturday at her parent’s house. The next day we met down at the Huntington Beach Pier where there was a kite competition going on. It was kind of interesting and there were a lot of people there. You will see a few photos of Lily and Larry and Shelley there.  I also took the panorama that is at the top of this page that day. It was a beautiful week-end in Huntington Beach!

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Happy 4th of July!

Canon 7D, Raw, EF75-300mm lens, 205mm, f/9, 1/400, ISO 200

This is my nephew Caleb’s first 4th of July Party. As you can tell, he loves the water! He is 8 months old now. Here is a photo I took of him at 2 weeks old. He has the most gorgeous blue eyes and blond hair now. He looked like he was going to be a redhead! Anyway, I took a lot of photos and this was one of my favorites. I just did a little fill light in Camera Raw then a levels adjustment in Photoshop. Since I used my telephoto lens, I was able to take a lot of good candid shots. 

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Lily Marie at Three Months

Canon 7D, Raw, EF-S18-55mm, 45mm, f/6.3, 1/60, ISO 125

Lily looked so cute when we were there for a Father’s Day barbecue. I liked this close-up photo because you can see her pretty eyelashes. Her hat looked really cute too. At least she is not frowning! I brought the image into camera raw and did an exposure adjustment to brighten it up a little. Then in Photoshop, I did a levels adjustment, some noise reduction and a little sharpening. I do enjoy taking photos of her but I think she is getting tired of seeing me with a camera in front of my face!

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A Frowning Lily

Canon 7D, Raw, 55mm, f/2.9, 1/200, ISO 320

Here is frowning Lily at one month old, sitting on her mother’s lap. Maybe she is tired of me taking her picture! For this photo I set my ISO to automatic to see what it would do. As you can see, it went to 320 where I probably would have put it at 500 or maybe higher. This did create less noise, but maybe with the higher ISO the shutter would have been faster. I will check that out next time. I got a new Firmware update from Canon today for my camera. This is my first one – I hope I download it correctly!

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Mother and Child

Canon 7D, Raw, 47mm, f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 1600, Nik Silver Efex Pro Software

 I took this photo on Easter Sunday. We played around a lot by putting Lily in a basket with her bunny slippers and Easter eggs. She also went through three wardrobe changes (not counting some topless ones)! Out of all the photos we took that day, this is my favorite. I did a levels adjustment, noise reduction and then converted it to black and white. I love the different choices you have with the Nik software and there are many options to customize any of the settings. It is fun to play with the different settings. The rest of the images from this day and others you can see here.  I will be adding to and removing photos from this gallery so check back.

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Baby Lily Marie

Canon 7D, Raw, f/8.0, 1/60, 17mm, ISO 2500

She is now six days old in the photo. I used a very high ISO because I didn’t want to use the flash. Inside her little bed in the living room there wasn’t a lot of light. You can see the reflection of the window on her eyes. She is getting very alert and her eyes are attracted to the light. I didn’t remove any noise but I think it looks good. This camera is great! It is doing exactly what I wanted it to do. Next week we are going to take a four generation photo. All I did to this photo was a levels adjustment and a slight temperature adjustment.

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The First Family Portrait

Canon 7D, Raw, 17mm, f/8.0, 1/40, ISO 800

As you can tell, we have a new member of our family. This is Lily Marie and her parents. She was born Monday, March 15 (10 days early). I took this photo and others of the happy threesome. I used a high ISO because I didn’t want to use a flash. I adjusted the white balance in Camera Raw then just a levels adjustment in Photoshop. I will be taking a lot of photos of this little girl for as long as I can. I will try not to bore you too much. But she will be a great subject as she grows up!

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A Great Headshot

Canon 7D, Raw, 50mm, f/11.0, 1/160/ ISO 1600, Fill Flash

Isn’t this a handsome young man? I took this photo as an assignment for a portrait photography lesson. I think it came out very well. Those gray-blue eyes have flecks of gold and yellow in them. This is my son, Larry. I called him this morning and said I wanted to come over and take some head shots of him that I needed. He said ok. When I got there, he was putting together the baby carriage for his daughter who will be here in a month. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt.He  didn’t understand what I was going to do because he said, “I would have shaved!” I said the shot is to show his personality and that is what it is doing. They had just gotten home from the mountains a few hours before and were catching up on some chores at home. I haven’t gotten feedback from him yet.  We used natural light in his living room, but I ended up having to use some fill flash because of the shadows on his face. It evened the light out. I do not think a reflector would have taken care of that – the light was too uneven.

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A Precious Baby Boy

Canon 20D, Raw, 45mm, f/10.0, 1/30, ISO 800

I really wanted to take photos of this baby boy. He is my “great” nephew, born October 28, 2009. I took the photos in his bedroom and luckily it was bright enough that I did not need to use any other lighting. I used a high ISO (800) and then got rid of the noise with a plug-in in Photoshop, along with a levels adjustment. I converted it to a soft sepia tone and added a  vignette. I took many photos and this is my favorite one. The others can be seen on my gallery pages.

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This is the final day of my goal to post one photo a day for a year. I did it and I am very proud of myself. I feel a little lost right now, what do I do? Larry said go to two photos per day, but that is not going to happen! As I am writing this, I have no idea what photo I will post today. So if there is a photo here, we will all be surprised! I was thinking of doing a self portrait, but no, that will not happen either. This is my Kyla and Donnan on the day they met. It was love at first site.

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Driving Down the Coast

I must admit that I did not take this photograph today. I was in Huntington Beach all day today and not anywhere near Dublin. It would have been very nice to be there though! I took this on a trip I took with my mother and my dear friend Robin. We have all shared many, many memories of this trip and Robin and I are so glad mom was able to go before her death. For those of you who have never been on the east coast of Ireland, this is only the beginning of how beautiful it is!

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Cosmos, Not the Drink But the Flower

Isn’t this a very pretty flower? I took this photo at Larry and Shelley’s. Shelley grew it from seeds and it is so pretty. I really like the thin, delicate stem. Shelley said you can buy them at a nursery already started but that the stems tend to be thicker and not as pretty. I agree, I don’t think it would be as pretty. It is a very pretty purple/pink color and this particular one is more purple. The leaves are a very beautiful deep green. Quite often it is difficult to take photos of flowers in nature because of the ocean breeze – especially one with a thin stem!

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A Rough and Tumble Cowboy!

This is my nephew Geoff at Blue Skeye Ranch. I believe this was his first time on a horse and he was such a good sport. This is the second photo of Geoff this month! He is a champion race car driver competing in the VARA  (Vintage Auto Racing Assoc.) circuit around Southern California. I have shown other photos of him in his MG Midget at Fontana Raceway. He is a great young man along with his girlfriend Randi. We all laughed so much – it was a very fun day!

Remind you of Gene Autry or Rhinestone Cowboy?…

Another great day today here in Huntington Beach. The weather was a little warmer. I was looking at the school schedules at GWC and CCC for the Fall to see what I can take. I cannot decide if I want to take Flash again or try Illustrator again but with a different teacher. I took Illustrator several years ago so I could use a refresher. Larry wants me work on a family crest so that could be my project. I am going to lunch on Thursday with my friend Carol. We have a lot in common (photography, school, the dogs, etc.) which gives us a lot to talk about! I love spending time with her!

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