Flower Girl - pick your favortie edit

I love taking photos, I really love taking them. And then I love getting them up on my computer screen (yay digital!) and looking at them - and finding that one amazing image, that treasure of a captured memory that's just beautiful and exceptional and special. That's the reason I take photographs.

But the editing....

The editing is about to kill me (boo digital!). I've gotten to a point in my photography that individually, my images don't usually need much editing, thank goodness. But the sheer volume of the photos waiting to be edited can still be a little overwhelming. And very time consuming.

I need at least one day to get away from my editing, and that day is Sunday, of course. I've decided that if I must get on the computer at all on Sunday that the time should be used to work on my own family's photos, my personal blog and my personal scrapbook pages.

I bought Brynn a darling new dress on GapKids the other day - I just adore it. She wore it to church today and I couldn't resist taking her picture afterward. And I love this photo, it's one of those special ones - to me at least.

I brought it in to Photoshop and performed my standard edit: crop, a little unsharp mask, a smidgen of levels adjustment and a squeaky bit of curves, and this is what I got:


Pretty girl, don't you think?

(oh, and I burned the edges just a tad)

And then, because this image is just for me and I can go a little crazy with it, I decided to play with some of my favorite Florabella actions. Let me know - if anybody's out there - which of the edits you like best. Or maybe you don't like any of the fancy stuff and like the "normal" one best. I'm curious to know.

Ready? Okay.

Edit #1: Primrose ~ soft & feminine with a rosy tint....


Edit #2: Retro Lolipop ~ dramatic & colorful with a bit of 70's feel to it....


Edit #4: B/W Chestnut ~ (I LOVE the Florabella black & white actions, they're so easy and gorgeous! No more muddy black and whites for me.)


Edit #5: Wisteria ~ Dreamy and slightly hazy...

Edit #6: B/W Rain ~ Another lovely black and white action with a cooler tone....


Edit #7: Morning Glory ~ Sunny, bright and warm....


Is that too many to choose from? I actually could have done dozens more. Let me know which ones are your favorite. I'm so immersed in photo editing for so much of my life that I feel like I loose my perspective, so all feedback is greatly appreciated.

For my good friend Katie, because I love ya....

I've been so busy taking photos for people lately that I haven't had time to blog any of them!

My friend Katie had a baby a month ago and I went down and took newborn pics of her gorgeous little girl when she was a couple of weeks old. I told Katie how behind I was on my editing and that it might be a while before I could get the photos to her.

And Katie, being a good friend, totally understood. Except that every time I talk to her she tells me how excited she is to see the pics and that she just can't wait. And then today I talked to Katie on the phone and she said, "Can you pleeeese just send me one? I just want to see one so bad!"

So I stayed up tonight and edited a few to put up on the blog - because Katie's a great friend. So here's a sneak peak for you Katie. Congrats to your great family, you deserve to get such a gorgeous, sweet little girlie, and she's so lucky to have been sent to such an amazing family. Love you guys!





Not only do they have a new human baby, but new puppies as well. This little toot buppy snuggled right down in the basket with little Mayzie and went right to sleep.