MAKING MEMORIES: CATCH-UP | 8/52

A rough start to the week. DAYLIGHT SAVINGS has me making breakfast while its still dark out and drinking an extra cup of coffee in the afternoon.

This morning I got up a little late. I prayed for AMAZING OPPORTUNITIES!! What I got was a few let downs instead. Stats and unique visitors make me want to throw up can I just say. So. I've got a few extra hormones happening today which doesn't make matters easier.  I want to sulk and cry and put some Baileys in my coffee and watch the Bachelor finale and totally focus on nothing.

But I won't. At least not for long. These little people depend on me. And I depend on me. So I will download while the little naps today. And start again.

Playing catch up this week. Although my camera is never far from reach I've been a bit delayed with retrieving them. Here are a few of my fave from the last few weeks.

I decided to experiment with black and white this time. I'm hoping that this project will help me to learn more about my camera, fine tune my "eye" and do more research/learning on photo editing.   I've been using the free tool PicMonkey for a while, but recently downloaded the Adobe PhotoShop free trial for 30 days to see what I think (and if I can figure out how to use it). I used it to create this product collage and was pretty proud of myself!

So these are the kiddos over the last few weeks. The weather has been all over the place, but if the sun is out then so are we. I'm so excited that they are starting to play together and communicate with each other. He gets super excited when they see each other after being apart. And loves to ask her to read to him. He  says, "book!" or "reeeeaad!" It takes some of the pressure off of me when I can use a little break. I'm all like, "hey! read your brother some books!"

So in my attempt to build some skills here are a few online tip sheets and tutorials I dug up:

Some simple instructions on fine tuning your photos on Design Sponge.
- A whole slew of photography tips from lifestyle to interiors on A Beautiful Mess.
- Tutorials galore on 121 Clicks including this one on kid photography..
- And I haven't had a chance to explore this Canon DSLR basics site I stumbled on, but have it    bookmarked. It has virtual learn, play, challenge sections!
- Oh and I'm stalking following Clickin Moms on Facebook, a great resource for photography inspiration, learning and sharing.

Do you have any tips or references you could share?!

xx,
Bunnie
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P.S. Did you watch the Bachelor Finale? WHAT THE WHAT?! #burnJuanPabloburn 

THREE TIPS FOR GREAT {FALL} PICTURES

Originally this post was going to be about how to get great (the best possible) school pictures.. but since most have already gone through this process for this school year please file this away for future reference. I was doing a little organizing in my home office and ran across some school pictures that munchkin took last year in pre-k that left me feeling like I should have been a bit more prepared. Lets just say a black head band with a humongous flower made her look like she had no hair, and I put a tad way too much vaseline on her face which made her look like she had just finished eating a bag of greasy waffle fries (YUM). At any rate, I filed those pics away (instead of sending them out to the family) and took some notes for next time. I'll let you know how her school pics turned out!

In the mean time, we are gearing up to do some individual pics of the kids (with Our Labor of Love - YAY!! ) and family pictures and so I thought these tips might be equally useful (along with these). I mean professional photographs can be expensive! Not to mention they will be going up on walls and in photo albums. Just trying to give it my best (snap) shot. Ha!

Um, this little lady is flawless right? I wished any of my pictures turned out like this. I mean any pictures of me personally...But the moral of this picture is her (stinkin' cute) accessories. Dress it up a little. Pearls never go out of style an that head band makes a statement that will stand the test of time. Do it.

A little color goes a long way. And some contrast adds character. A bright sweater or contrasting tights would certainly do the trick. Be sure to pick items that are burst of color but YOUR KIDS style (i.e. preppy, bohemian, girly, rocker, etc).

Now this little guys has it all pulled together. And to top it all off. The smile. How many 100's of pics do you have to take to get the littles to look directly at the camera and smile at the same time. And I mean a good smile. Not the one where they look like they are showing their teeth to the dentist or had a mile stroke. I'm just saying. Practice. Say to them.. smile! Okay now a little less. Yes, just like that. now do it again.  YES!!

This advice goes for grow ups a well as the littles. I think I'm a bit out of practice and could stand to brush up on my smize.

That is all. Hope this helps someone:-)

xx,
Bunnie

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