Gregarious Greg

A few weeks ago my (Julie) nephew turned 19 and Rob and I wanted to take some fun pictures of him. Greg, as you can see from the pictures, is hilarious. He has so many good qualities about him, but some of my favorites are that he’s sincere, fun, a great giver of hugs, has the cutest smile and set of dimples, a jokester, great with kids, and is thoughtful of others.

He’s very photogenic and we wanted to capture some of his many facial expressions. It was really fun having such creative freedom with portraits. People usually don’t want anything too weird done but we knew Greg would love some tripped-out versions of himself.  We also took a few of him with his two brothers and with one of his sisters.

Greg’s cool and everyone knows it.

Foto Friday – 621

 

I (Julie) couldn’t decide which picture I liked the most so I thought I’d post them as a series.

These were taken in downtown Boise last month. Rob and I spent a morning wandering around on our own little photowalk. We were impressed by the cool/funky/historic nature of the area. There will be a few more pictures coming from that day.

To get the grungy, popping look, I first used the “Night Grotto II” preset in Lightroom. This was a good start, but I knew I needed to alter a few things to get the look I was going for. The preset added split-toning, turned the color saturation down, and turned up the luminance on the remaining color. Below is what the original picture looked like straight-out-of-camera. Then the picture after applying the preset.

Then I adjusted the vignette and turned up the black clipping and exposure until it was just right. I love how the red popped out and really makes the bricks look amazing.

So, presets are a great start. They help get the creative juices flowing. But it’s important not to get stuck there. Adjustments usually still need to be made in order to make your picture just right.

Have a wonderful weekend, everybody!

Easter…A Month Ago

Yeah, yeah, yeah…

Anyway, Easter was really great. Rob and I get more and more bugged each year with the commercialization of Easter. I mean, it’s EASTER. We worship and commemorate Jesus’ resurrection. I was at Toys R Us a couple of weeks before the holiday and their “Easter” baskets were taller than I am full of expensive toys and tons of candy. It sickened me. Granted, I am sickened by most marketing and commercialism, but that’s a whole other (really long) blog post.

So this year we kept a low-key, wonderful Easter which I hope will become a tradition. We invited our elderly neighbor, Janie, over for dinner and to watch the kids find some eggs and get pictures of Jesus to put up in their bedrooms. Simple as that. Nate and Madeleine were so cute! Here are our pictures.

And a very belated Happy Easter!!

My Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day was awesome. Besides the fact that I got a 2-hour nap, a homemade card with Nate’s new letter-writing skill, the dishes done and dinner made, and a new shelf built in the garage (so I’ll be able to step into my upstairs storage closet once again), Rob made me a custom photo book with sweet pictures and sweet thoughts.

There are many online services that offer printed books of your blogs and photos but there is quite a variation in quality out there. Rob decided to go through the service that our professional photo printer recommended, My Canvas. The price for a leather-bound, 20-page book is about $45.00, less for non-leather. Rob really liked how easy it was to insert and drag pictures to get the exact look you want. You can see an online version of this book here. Just make sure to have a kleenex handy.

This really was one of the best Mother’s Day gifts I’ve received. It took thought, effort, and love. I am always amazed how much my husband cares for me. I love you, Rob!

What’s Up?

Thought I'd post these funny pictures I took a while back. Turns out, Buzz Lightyear is a little camera shy.

First off, it's wonderful to have our computer back up. I feel so cut-off from the world without my email/internet.

Our trip to Southern Utah was grand. Highway 12 and the the national parks along it are seriously some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. We ran into people from all over the world who flew tens of thousands of miles just to see these places that are a mere 5 hours from our front porch. If any of you haven't been, you MUST!! I can't urge you enough. I was in awe the entire time. We're planning another trip down early this fall if any of you are interested in joining us. And a huge shout-out to Rob's parents for watching the kids over the weekend. Nate and Madeleine always have such a fun time when they're at the grandparent's house...and so do we ;)

Rob's convocation for his Master's Degree was yesterday and it was cool to see him all dressed up like Harry Potter. Everything went so smoothly until it was time to find somewhere to eat. There were hour and a half wait times everywhere! Rob kept deciding on different restaurants, but they all had the same story. Wouldn't be so hard except there were 2 sets of grandparents who can't walk and 2 little kids in tow so it got a little crazy. We ended up driving down to Sugarhouse to eat there and still had to wait! An hour and a half later we finally got dinner. Thanks to all our family who have loved us during all the many years of school. I'm super proud of my hubby and I know you all are, too.

I took Nate to the doctor the other day due to his incessant fatigue. Everything seems fine but the doctor had blood drawn to check for anemia, etc. It wasn't fun getting his blood work done. Nate had his blood drawn a few weeks ago for his regular endocrinology appointment and knew exactly what was about to transpire. I had him and Madeleine on my lap. I've never heard a higher, louder, longer scream come out of that boy...and that's saying a lot! BUT, his vein collapsed and they had to do it all over again! The nurse took Madeleine so I could hold Nate down better and he let out another soul-piercing scream. This really freaked Madeleine out so she decided to start wailing, too. Finally, it was done and we went and got a Jamba Juice. We'll get the results by the end of the week and will let everyone know what they are, but I'm pretty much counting on everything being fine. Maybe just a growth spurt.

Here's one funny story to end on. The other day I was outside playing with Nate and told him it was almost time to go inside. He told me he was going to see what time it was and ran inside. A moment later he ran back out and told me, "The clock says it's time to play outside." Cute.

Happy Birthday, Dianne!

Today is my sister Dianne's birthday. She turned 39, so that's 12 years older than me. She is married to Troy Denter and has 6 kids (Gregory, Elizabeth, Jacob, Brianna, Sarah, and Vance). They live in Taylorsville up the street from my parents.

Since there are so many years between us, I don't have many memories of us when I was real young, but I do have a few. I have more memories during my teenage years. Here they are:

• I remember her taking me to see Willow in the theater when I was pretty young. She met a guy there (I'm not sure she was supposed to…hehehe) and the movie totally freaked me out. I decided to go sleep in the car and wait for the movie to end. To this day, I will not watch that movie.
• She moved into an apartment down the street from my parent's house and she let me have sleepovers with her. She was so grown up to have her own place. During one of those slumber parties she showed me one of her favorite snacks, at least at the time. It was saltine crackers dipped into frosting. Kinda weird, but tasty!
• I remember getting the crib and everything ready when she was expecting her first baby. I was so excited! That feeling was repeated 5 more times throughout the years and I've just loved visiting her in the hospital after each one. She's shown me that babies are beautiful blessings.
• Speaking of babies...she has big ones. She is one tough lady. Greg was over 10 lbs!! She even had Sarah naturally at home and let me be there to witness it. It was such a cool experience. I credit her with diminishing my fears and anxiety about giving birth to my firstborn (NOT naturally) because I knew what to expect and that it was doable.
• She moved to Germany for a couple of years while her 1st husband was stationed there in the army. After they separated, she flew all the way back to us by herself with 2 toddlers. See...tough chick! We met them at the airport and I was so happy that she was back!
• Many of my memories revolve around her visiting with her kids at my parents house. A family function isn't a family function without her and her family present. With 6 kids, there have been a lot of blessings, baptisms, ordinations to the Priesthood, birthdays, etc. We're so blessed to be a part of all these important occasions.

Some other notable things about Dianne now:

• She loves to be around family and wants her kids to be close to us all, especially since they're not that much younger than us. We all just sit around and chat and enjoy each other's company. It seems we could talk forever before we ran out of things to say.
• She is a fantastic mother and she is raising fantastic kids. I'm not sure how she juggles all the stress and responsibility, but she does. She's fully present and participating in their lives. She teaches them to be responsible and obedient, to trust in their Heavenly Father and His plan for each of them, how to recognize and listen to the Holy Ghost, and the importance of family.
• She always tries to help those who have less than the ideal family and living situation. She has taken in quite a few of her children's friends who don't live in a loving home. Sometimes they've been in her home for a few hours, but other times it's been for months. She shows them that someone cares and loves them. She has provided meals, new clothes, and someone to talk to. It's also such a good example to her own children on how to care for others in need. I think that is an amazingly charitable gift she has and I know she's changed lives by her efforts.

Happy Birthday, Dianne!! I love you!!

Erica & Aspen

Some friends of ours invited us to dinner and asked us to take pictures of their daughters. We were more than happy to oblige!

Erica and Nate are so alike. They’re both energetic and happy. They have so much fun playing together, egging each other on. When Nate saw her pictures on my computer, he was so excited and said, “Hey! That’s Erica! Mom, I love Erica.”

Aspen is such a sweetheart. She was awake for most of the shoot, which is pretty amazing for a 2-week-old. It was fun to get to see her beautiful eyes.

If you’ve ever taken your kids to get their pictures taken at a photo studio, you know what I mean by stress! First, you have to get the kids clean and dressed and to the studio on time, then you end up waiting forever in a boring waiting area (aka, chairs in a corner), all the while you’re just praying that the baby doesn’t wake up and need feeding and your toddler/preschooler doesn’t run out the door, and then after you and your kids are at whit’s end, there is such a small window of opportunity to get a smile. Yeah, right…most of the time it ends up being a wet-eyed half-smile. It’s so much more fun and relaxing when the photographer comes to you!! The kids and adults can just play, visit, snack, and wait for the perfect moments to present themselves. Oh, the sweetness! Much better than the alternative!

Here are a few of the sweet shots. Remember to keep us in mind next time you want a fun-filled and relaxing photo session!

Side Note: We blurred out the last name on Aspen's announcement, so that's why it looks weird.

Foto Friday – Around the Corner

Taken with the Nikon D40 in Boise, Idaho on April 4, 2009. Aperture-Priority Exposure Mode, 18mm, 1/20 sec at f/5.0 ISO 800, -2.0 exposure compensation, Nikon Raw Format converted to Adobe DNG format. Edited in Lightroom 2.3

Here is another image from our trip to Boise a few weeks ago.  I (Rob) wanted this to feel really dark so I shot it at EV –2.0 (two stops darker than the “normal” exposure). I came across the dark hallway and got the shutters.  I had to photograph it so I could share that creepy feeling (your welcome). Much of the penitentiary is painted in a sickly green color which really works well with a lot of the photos I took. I slightly emphasized the greens and browns here (with split toning) and increase the blacks a little.  In fact, this image is very dark and I’m afraid that some of you may not really get to see it well without a calibrated monitor.  :(   I guess you’ll have to come by the house and look at the print.  :)  

It has been a crazy week with computer outages with failed hard drives on our main computer.  I’ve also had tons of issues with my work laptop and after two visits from HP (one motherboard and screen later) we decided to ship it out to HP for repair.  :(   Crazy Man!  I got the images from our Southern Utah Trip into Lightroom last night so you can expect to start seeing some of those images soon.  Sweet! Graduation today and Star Trek tomorrow.  The weekend is looking up!  Peace.

Beyond

I’ve (Julie) been sitting on this photo for months thinking I’d use it as a Foto Friday, but we have so many newer photos I can use, I decided to just post it for fun.

This picture was taken in the backyard of the house we stayed in while in St. George last October. The landscape is beautiful and so is the sky. I didn’t do much editing to this photo, as the colors are really that great. We would frequently go to the edge of the backyard and look beyond the fence. We’d look for bugs and lizards on the rocks and just enjoy our surroundings. It brings back good feelings.

For fun, I wanted to contrast the same picture with a different treatment; in this case, a darker one to contrast the bright, happy one above.

In this picture, Nate looks caged instead of curious and playful. The shadows on his face emphasize the jailed-in feeling. To me, it’s a sad picture. The possibilities are endless if he could just break free.

I wanted to show these two pictures to show the importance of editing your photos with both the subject and the mood in mind. What do you want the viewer to feel?

Rob and I went to an art gallery a couple years ago and there was a sculpted piece of a chair with a belt strung over it. In the explanation of the piece, the artist meant it to be cheerful and relaxed, like an evening after a long day of work. As it turned out, it ended up tormenting one of the viewers of the piece. Seeing the belt resting like that had reminded her of her abusive father.

Art is very subjective. That’s one thing I love about it. We hope that some of our photos aren’t just pretty to look at, but evoke some kind of emotion. Any kind, really. Art IS emotion.

Foto Friday - Her Special Day

~Written by Julie~

Obviously, it's not Friday. Last week was crazy. Between Nate getting sick (don't worry, not with the Swine Flu), our hard drive crashing (we knew this was inevitable, yet our new one is still in "Shipped" status. GRRR.), and then leaving on our awesomely awesome weekend trip to awesome southern Utah, it just didn't happen. Did you follow that sentence??

So, since I don't have access to my computer, I don't have access to any new pictures. But here is one that I really like that was taken last month when my sister was sealed to her husband and daughter. I have to give props to Rob for actually lighting and taking the picture, but I edited it and she looks like a little angel! I love the glimmer in her eyes, her rosy cheeks, and the drool on her chin.

To get this shot, Rob and I used our magical powers...
I could do a lengthy write-up on all the tech aspects of the shot, both at the camera and at the computer, but I don't want to. We got home a couple of hours ago and we're tired. If you truly want all the dirt on this shot, you can read it here.

A bientot.