18 Months & The Little Yellow Rainboots

Today is Bennett's 18 month birthday. I remember looking at this date on the calendar back when I had marked them off months in advance and thinking, "That will take forever to get here!" Wow. Totally proven wrong. What a whirl-wind.

Today it was a nasty, rainy day and I was bummed because I had wanted to take him out for some beautiful pictures to document this month. I decided to just "go with the flow" (one of my resolutions for this year) and use the weather to our advantage!

I scooped him up some cute rain boots at a local consignment store, let him bring his favorite truck, and headed for a place with puddles! There is an alley that I'm really familiar with in downtown Greenville because it's right outside one of the places I used to work. I knew it was safe and that there are ALWAYS puddles there! I remember many walks with Bennett down that alley to work with my own rain boots.

I just let him play. He loved splashing in the puddles and driving his truck through them. He would not look at the camera of course because he was mesmerized by his new rain boots that were two sizes too big. (Hey he'll grow into them by spring.)

Here's a few of the shots I got. I absolutely love them and cherish them for what they are. I love seeing him just being a boy. And a boy's story is the best ever told. (Thank you Charles Dickens).

Inspired by Kiralynn: Fall Color Hair

One of my besties, Kira, is always changing her hair color. She's one of those girls that can literally pull off any shade. She's your bubbly blonde in the summer, your fierce caramel-brunette in early fall and this year she surprised me by going red for mid-late fall! We never know what it will be next! :o)

Her and I both go to the same hair girl, Ashley Owens, at Pomp Salon in Greenville. Ashley is seriously amazing,extremely talented, listens to you, protects your hair to keep it healthy, and always has a smile on her face. I love that she can keep my hair looking natural with three colors that all blend into one, or transform Kira from color to color. If you need a hair girl- she is it! I know she runs specials for new clients all the time for cut and color, so be sure to check her out!

Today I had the chance to snap a few pictures of Kira to document her turning twenty-one! (Yes she makes me feel very old). Here are the pictures! Doesn't she inspire you to go red...just a little bit?

My Lightroom Photo-Editing Software Adventure!

I recently decided to purchase Adobe Lightroom 4 for editing my pictures! I am so excited about it because I've never had photo-editing software before. I've been using the free trial version for the past day before I actual open and use the software I bought because my cousin is rebuilding my computer this weekend to make it brand new again.

I thought I'd share some of the photos I've been messing around with! It's addicting, fun, and makes me want to learn so much more! I've always loved taking pictures- but this is really starting to open up a whole new level of fun for me!

Picture one: Bennett and I from his baby dedication.

I played a lot with the luminance tool so I could eliminate the noise for this one and worked on manually blurring the background. This was the first picture I've ever edited! It was so much fun!

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Picture 2: Bennett eating cheese at my mom and dad's house today during lunch. I was also practicing using my Aperture settings on my camera so I wouldn't have to blur the background later while editing. It worked! Yay for F-stop settings! :o)

I used the vibrance tool to bring out the blues and also brought out the blacks in this picture.

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Picture 3 & Picture 4: The boys postin' up @ Santiva on Captiva Island. & Us girls at Wild Wings in Greenville.

I worked with high contrast in black in whites and the luminance tool to eliminate the noise again.

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Picture 5: Stevie and Chris on his birthday.

I focused on blurring the background, contrast, adding in and correcting whites, bringing in blacks, using vibrance tool again to really make the polarized glasses stand out.

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I'm really excited about learning all there is to learn about Lightroom! It seems like there is so much in the program! I'm doing really basic things right now, but I'm so motivated to learn the more difficult editing techniques. I've been on Pinterest and on a bunch of websites trying to research tips and tutorials.

I also purchased Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 even though I really wanted to get Photoshop CS6. The price tag was a little hefty for me right now at $700 bucks! :o( Maybe eventually!

If you're interested in purchasing Lightroom try the free online trial first! It's really helped me!

Happy editing...and if anyone has any cool Lightroom tricks I'm all ears! :o)