Watermark

For quite a long while now I have been considering adding a watermark to some of my photos that I post.  I do this as a hobby, yet as I improve a little in my skill it is just smart in this digital age to protect your work.  I love to share my photos and composition ideas.  I have learned SO much from others who have shared their work online (helloooooooo  Pinterest).  In fact, it has been fun to pin a few of my own shots and see them actually get repinned by strangers who like them.

One of my photos has a few dozen repins, and it just made me decide to take the plunge and watermark some photos.  Below is sort of what I had in mind (although I might make it just the tiniest bit larger) … just a really simple signature so that if anyone stumbles across my stuff, they can know that it belongs to someone.

Just to be clear … this is NOT to glorify by own ability.  What I love about photography is that it takes God's beautiful creations and helps our eyes capture even more of the surrounding light (which is the essence of God himself) over a period of time into a condensed form which creates something even more beautiful than what our own naked eye can perceive.

"For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servant's for Jesus' sake.  For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."  2 Corinthians 4:5-6.

Garden Bugs

Two years ago I had my first ever little garden.  This year my goal was to plant as large a variety in my two boxes (2' x 8') to see what would grow the best in my sun/shade spots.  We have a few winners and losers for sure.

Winners:
1.  Kale (still going strong after several rounds of picking … I hope to plant some more just to see if we can get a fall crop)
2.  Celery!  TONS.  My mom and I have a date to make celery soup this Monday.

3.  Strawberries (although they are annoyingly taking over)
4.  Green onions
5.  Cabbiage
6.  Lettuce (although I pulled it after two crops worth at the end of July and haven't replanted because we were traveling so much)

Losers:
1.  Beets (they just didn't grow much)
2.  Brussel sprouts (they grew super leafy, almost like cabbages … not what I had expected)
3.  Broccoli (for the amount of space it took up, it barely gave any actual trees solid enough to eat.  The stems were edible, but they are sort of boring to eat)

I haven't sprung it on Matt yet, but next year I sort of want a third box.  I think I want to do some squashes and do carrots and pea pods again (did them last year but not this year).

I also have raspberries and blueberries in the ground so that hopefully next year we will get some fruit from those.

Tonight, the boys munched on celery and helped me do some much needed weeding.  We pulled the broccoli out because it was taking over and not really producing much.  We found some runaway tomato plants that have actually produces a few cherry tomatoes.  They are green but hopefully they will ripen up, so that was a fun surprise.

Some celery was eaten and some became swords.  Naturally.

Overflowing garden box!  This was before we attacked it with some pruning and weeding.  Check out those strawberry plants on the right.  Crazy.

I bet you didn't know spider man liked to weed.  I guess it helps him feel close to his insect friends.

A little wrestling … of course.

Love my garden super hero.

Granted it's a touch over-exposed, but I didn't edit the color on this image.  Those are his eyes.  This is why I call him Mr. Blue Eyes ;-)

And speaking of garden bugs, I found these pics of this cutest little bug.  These were from last January, so Ms. Anna has grown like a weed herself since then, but I just had to toss these up on the blog for fun.  

So just to nerd out a moment for the photo people (since Kelly will be reading this, haha) … I almost didn't even bother publishing these because they were not in crisp focus (or at least not her face … her shoes look good, doink!).  They were also really noisy images because the light was really low so my ISO was between 2,000 and 4,000.  A couple of them were pretty wide open and slow (like f/2.0 and 1/60) which is tough with a wiggly little worm subject (hence the shoe focus), but with a touch of exaggerated sharpening and noise reduction I decided she was cute enough that the quality didn't matter ;).  Just to add to the nerding, the white balance was TRICKY in post-processing because we were under pretty yellow indoor light with no flash.  I ended up using lightroom's auto tungsten setting which took away the orange hue in the full photo and then just adding the smallest amount of warmth back on just her face in a couple.  They still are not amazing so I didn't spend more than a few minutes on them, but they are a world from the raw files ;-).  Ok, done nerding.  

Here's the last cute-as-a-bug-in-a-garden-rug, little miss Anna.

Isn't she the cutest little dancing thing ever? 

Too funny because all you can see in this shot is that something has her a little concerned.  To find out what, have a look next.  

Poor Anna, such a trooper when scary boys in costumes accost her.

I couldn't get her to smile up at me, but the minute she saw Kelly she just LIT up. It was so cute, even captured from above.  Little momma's girl.  

Bed Head

Matt and I are back home from our little getaway to Black Butte ALONE, and it was incredible.  Don't get me wrong because I love being a mom, but to have 4 days without buckling a carseat, scolding anyone, making dozens of meals and snack, and getting interrupted 8,000 times a day was so refreshing.  The kids had a blast with the grands, so it was win-win.

A good chunk of our time away I actually spent at the computer just going through old photos.  So often I grab the camera and snap a few everyday moments around the house but never get around to even looking at them once I upload them.

I came across these of Gavin from spring, and I just loved the nap hair!  His hair is a lot shorter now for summer (and blonder).  Nap hair is much less dramatic in the summer months.  Here is the springtime post-nap look on my blue eyed boy.

Kelsey's Maternity Shoot

Kade has been here for a good 6 weeks now, but I never got around to officially posting Kelsey's maternity pics I shot for her.  I'm using Matt and my vacation away to get through a bunch of photos and it has been heavenly.

When we took these in April it was my first time renting the 70-200mm, and so it took me a little while to get used to it.  Plus, we had some location and lighting challenges, but thankfully my subject is so beautiful that all of that didn't matter.

Kelsey, you are one of the most beautiful people I know inside and out.  I could not do life without you.  Your faithfulness, depth, commitment, and deep love are a rare treasure.  I'm so lucky that God had us set aside to be the best of friends.

It has been the most amazing pleasure to watch you embrace motherhood.  You were SUCH a beautiful pregnant woman, and it was a pleasure to get to try and capture Kader-tot in all his belly glory.

Can't you just see the love between these two?  Shawn was born to be a dad, and I can't wait for him to help show Kade how to grow into man shoes :-).  Kelsey framed the last shot for her nursery, and it really symbolizes how Shawn will be a man of God as he walks with Kade through life.  Love, love.

Kelsey, you are so beautiful!

Too funny Shawn.  I had a whole series of this one and also of the dancing ones that are so hilarious when scrolled through really fast.  

LOL smack it!  :-)