Editing Eyes

As I mentioned before I am trying to avoid excessive editing of my photos or at least keep the editing that I do fairly natural and believable or go all out an make it artistic. Anyway, not that I think this little girl needs any edits but I am now obsessed with enhancing the eyes, I don't do a whole lot, I take the natural eye color and lighten the highlights (so I am mainly adjusting the level of light). See how her eyes pop? I love that it's a simple enhancement that truly captures her personality!

Before edit

After Edit

Sunlight

I love the sunlight streaming down from behind the clouds! Perfect day on Whidbey with the Hammonds.

Julia

Meet my niece Julia, she's hard to catch but when you are lucky to get a shot it is well worth the effort!

Monica

Meet my niece Monica, my camera really likes her and I do too, it works out swell!

Dusk

Leaf:

One of the first pictures I took with my DSLR and it's one of my favorites.

Who

I often start blogs and abandon them, it's kind of a personal trademark of sorts but I am hoping that this one sticks. I decided to start chronicling my journey in photography in weblog format, this journey started about 10 years ago when I took a high school photography class where I worked with REAL film and a dark room. I enjoyed the change of pace from my academic schedule and I was actually pretty decent but I never really had any desire to further my short lived interest. Fast forward 10 years, we chronicle everything today in photo format, we post on Facebook, Twitter, blogs (ahem), and society as a whole has embraced photography as not only art but as a form of communication.

I feel that in some ways photography has almost become a competition, who can post the photo that insight the most interest or generates the most comments by friends. Photography also, in my opinion has become over processed in post editing and I myself have fallen into this trap. Don't get me wrong, I love artistic license and filters, shading, overexposing and burned edges all have a place, but when a whole photo-shoot is masked in edits it loses something and I would dare say that it's genuineness (is that a word?).

So, am I a good photographer, will I post images that will get you talking, that will move you to comment and praise my work? No, but in all fairness a lot of my work is not for you, it's for me. Photography is not always something I enjoy (although I am sure my husband would disagree citing the camera that is constantly in his face), but the artistic release is, I also like to paint and sculpt.

So this blog is for me, a regular photo-jane, another girl in the crowd with a DSLR. I hope that from time to time you visit my blog and let me share with you a glimpse into my world behind-the-lens and maybe behind the brush and canvas as well!