Learning to read

A normal everyday moment captured on film (or pixels rather). I feel blessed in so many ways, despite life's curve balls, I am humbled each and everyday.

Work in progress

It's a Friday night, nothing else to do...except purge out some old files on the computer. I stumbled across this photo of Tony and myself from 1999. I definite reminder as to how much I've changed and how far I've come over the last 11 yrs. There are very few photos of myself in the home, and my FAT photos, well, I've made sure no one will find them!

#1 was taken when my little guy was about 7 months old. Some will say "well that doesn't count, you just had a baby". Sure I had a baby 7 months prior, but that doesn't account for the 20+lbs I had on me before I was pregnant.

12 yrs ago I had a wake up call from my physician and decided it was time to change my lifestyle. High blood pressure, PCOS, infertility, and a history of diabetes on both sides, I needed to make some serious changes. As I changed my diet, incorporated regular exercise, the weight finally started to come off very slowly. After 18 months of trying to conceive. I was pregnant (still overweight, but happily pregnant).

It's been a slow process over the years, and naturally it ebbs and flows. The truth is I've struggled with my weight all of my adult life. Even though I've struggled, I haven't given up. I'll never be a person thats able to stay thin without trying. In order to maintain, I have to work at it by staying "plugged in". I will always have to watch my food (journal), and exercise. It's been a hard reality, but once I accepted it, I've been able to maintain longer and even break my plateaus to get closer to my goals.

I'm healthy now, healthier than I've ever been. I feel fantastic and that's what matters most. My body is not perfect and I'm okay with that. I may not meet societies "skinny", but I WILL reach my "skinny" goal weight/size. Gone from a size 14/16 to a 6.

I'm a work in progress.

BTW, Friends, please don't ever let me do that to my hair again!!!!

Piggies

I had my backdrop equipment out today for some passport photos. I decided I might as well play since it's not getting used these days. Natural light coming from 2 large windows one to the south and one east window. I used my reflector to the right of the kids. Ran the coffeeshop vintage over both images. Oh, I almost forgot to introduce...Hershey and Alex.


Settings from left to right f3.5, 1/100, iso 400. F4, 1/125, iso 400

Front Porch

The kids have been excited to decorate the front porch for weeks. I have to remind myself that "holiday decorating" is big event for the kids. After a few days of procrastinating, I/we finally found some motivation and patience to finish the job.

Our sweet neighbor stopped by tonight and says to me "Nice set up, Julie". Now how cute is that from a 9 yr old? Photo taken on a tripod. Not really lovin the photo but love the twinkle in pumpkins eye! I used my kit lens18-55, settings iso 200, f22, 30sec.

Macro, I'm intrigued but have no clue where to start. I don't even know what kind of lens you would use, tripod or not. I remember struggling to get this sharp. 28-75mm. F2.8, 1/1000, iso250

Pumpkin Patch

Would you believe we went to the pumpkin patch and didn't pick out one pumpkin? How can that be? It was our first time at Biringer Farms in Everett (or maybe it's Marysville). There was so much fun stuff for the kids to do we couldn't be bothered with picking pumpkins!

Btw, the whole outing consisted of action shots. Not only will my kids no longer pose for me, they now find it amusing to run and hide from me! Oh well, it was a great time for all!

On a side note, Andrew is very self conscious of his teeth so he rarely gives a teeth smile. With my mommy goggles on, the photos of him smiling with teeth have to be some of my all time favorites! Not to mention that's him really being himself.

In search of color

The leaves are just starting to turn, some are farther along in the process than others. I brought my camera along to the bus stop in search of some vibrant color this morning.


I used the Topaz Adjustment on all 3 images. First photo is from Fort Worden. I did a very low opacity on 1&2 photos. The #3 photo of a water, it's too heavy on the processing for my taste, but it was fun example. I'm anxious to play with it more to find a happy medium!

Thank you

I wanted to thank all you wonderful gals from 2peas. Thanks for the encouraging words on returning back to school. I'm very excited about going back and photography will always be here for me.

I decided to download the trial vs of Topaz Adjust 3. Can I just say, how much I love it! Not sure how it would work on people. Here's a before and after. These are from our Boston trip in May.