finding the one...

One of my struggles in learning my camera is understanding all the jargon that goes with it. Aperature, FStop, ISO, White balance, it seems a bit daunting, but it is necessary to really set up

for the kind of shots I would like to get one day. In the meantime I set up the shots best I can

using Katrina's book as my guide. But when I need to tweak a photo I either go to Lightroom

and play with it or I apply actions from photoshop. My favorite actions right now are Florabella's Spring Sets I & II. I wanted to upload my favorite pics from recently and decided upon two that both use these actions, they use a layering of several actions, but I so loved the results on them both.

I was lucky in that the bottom photo captured sweet girls new baby teeth are showing, it had been so hard to capture them for a week or two and as I edited this shot I was just delighted to see them. These shots seem very posed to me, although the first one was just some play time at the park and the bottom one was playing in the front yard... What I hope to concentrate on this year is taking really good everyday shots, shots that include the scenery and help tell the story of the bigger picture...

And just because I thought it would be nice to compare the before and after... here is the before of my sons wish photo.... in my case actions saved the bleary photo.

shutter speed 1/250 fstop f/4.5 ISO200 Focal 73.0 shot on canon rebel xt