Hunter Scarecrow-Last But Not Least

Last post of the so-cute-he's-almost-edible Scarecrow Hunter! More with his cute hat on, then I have to go feed the kids more breakfast - they are SO crabby today! Food fixes everything (let's hope...) :) There are a few duplicates here in different finishes - see if you can spot them! Too cute to pick, so they both go up... :)

A few different posts for a while (like, whoa, my pics in a COMMERCIAL!! Woot! Woot!... and some miscellaneous personal shots), then I will get back to a few cute shots of the whole family together. Enjoy your day everyone!

Hunter Scarecrow - Part 2

Hat On! Well, there is one I forgot to add in yesterday...but too cute not to include, even if it doesn't categorically fit... :)

This costume was just too adorable, and combined with those killer blue eyes and sweet dimples... I must have taken 400 just of him as a scarecrow. Again, can you blame me? So, while it may seem that I am including every.single.shot of him, rest assured that these segments were very well edited - probably what took me the longest was deciding which ones to blog about! One more post after this one, and then we are on to the whole family, cute separate, but much cuter together. :) Enjoy this little scary scarecrow!













I loved the little details on his costume, especially by his little feet!










Again, more scarecrow-dimple-blue-eyed goodness tomorrow!

Scarecrow Hunter - Part 1

Wow. It's just amazing how fast a month goes by around here! Things are just as crazy as ever - I am still trying to sort through all the old stuff - which the oldest is now officially a year ago tomorrow. Ugh!! With only a few minutes a day to edit, sort, etc... it's taking really long - and then I have added a few shoots into the mix as well. My sis-in-law's head shots, a few birthday parties, a few personal... it adds up. :) It's why I always say I am not going to take on any more until I am officially done with the backlog...but then I always do. I love to shoot, what can I say?! Someday I'll be done.... someday. :)

Here's the first part of Hunter the Scarecrow - first up, hat off - saving the best of the little cutie till tomorrow!











And then a teaser of him and his adorable hat...



More tomorrow....

Hunter and His Momma

Momma? Mama? Either way you spell it, this is his Mommy! Meet Laura! My cousin Mike's very cool and beautiful match - a wonderful and loving mom whom I am very glad is good and gracious at taking care of them both. :) Just in my short time with them all, I could see just how much she loves Hunter, how much she dotes on him is truly a sweet thing to see. I wish more moms were this way.

She also made him an awesome scarecrow outfit for Halloween, and it was making me green with envy for her creativity and sewing skills! :) It turned out awesome, as you will see in the next post! I loved watching them just be them, falling into an easy and comfortable rhythm of mom and baby - the bond is obvious, tangible and so. cute.













Next up....Scarecrow Hunter!

Hunter and His Daddy

Here we go! This post is the first in a 4-part series devoted to my cousin Mike - his wife, Laura and their super-duper cute son, Hunter. I took so many pictures that day that I ended up with many, many good ones - and with this guy...really, even the bad ones were good ones because he is just.so.adorable. So, I will have to do a series of posts just to give you the gist of the day - otherwise, you will be on cute overload for the rest of the week. :)

First up in the series... Hunter with his Daddy. I love seeing these two together! I know I mentioned it before, but Mike grew up very close with my sister and I - even though he is 10(?) years younger than me, we spent so much time together that he really felt like a brother to us. We were annoyed by him, loved on him, played with him and occasionally kicked him *gently* into the wall. :) He had so much energy that he kinda liked it! lol Let's just say we made a game out of it to drain that excess energy. He kept coming back for more! :) haha! Good times.

All kidding aside, we love him like a brother, and now I am really proud of the man he has become...and I really miss him now that he lives in Florida with his family. I had no idea just how much I missed him until after they packed up in the van and left this shoot - and I was left with a longing that could only be described as homesickness. When life separates you geographically, your mind sometimes soothes that gap automatically by making you feel alright with it - but the moment he left, I really wished we all lived closer - I can only imagine what his parents are feeling!

Anyway, since he is like my little brother, I feel such pride seeing him with his first born son - seeing how gentle and sweet and loving he is with Hunter makes me very, very happy.

Here is my attempt at documenting just how cute they are together. :) I noticed today that my favorites in this series are mostly black and whites - I think they do a better job at isolating and freezing the emotion between them.

















playing with a vintage, textured look:


love this.


Yep, I snuck a duplicate in here - did you notice? I really like how intimate and cozy this finish is, how it made the picture so different than the vibrantly colored one. What do you think? Which one strikes your fancy more? :)


Stay tuned...next in the series: Hunter and his Momma! ♥

The Raspberry

Texture is a very trendy thing to add to a photograph nowadays. I do know it is a very controversial tool in the photographer's bag of tricks! Some use it well, some overdo it, others think it is absolutely unnecessary. And everyone out there has a different opinion!

Me, I just like to play around with it! I love that it can take any picture and give it a completely different feel, depending on what you choose, if anything...and you can use several on one picture. It's an art form, and one I enjoy seeing others display and one I really enjoy working with. You can take up-close pictures of trees, concrete, the clouds, your hair, wood grain, basket weave, water, paper...do I need to go on? Everything around you has some kind of texture - so it's neat to overlay any kind of texture picture over an existing picture in Photoshop to see what happens. Plus, there are tons of free high resolution pictures on the internet from people all over the world that have offered them up for free use. Cool, huh?

I can see how some people don't like it at all...and I shied away from using more of it in the past based on some opinions...but since this is a learning journey, fun...and a picture of my kid...I figured I couldn't go wrong! :) I especially love what it can do to a mediocre picture, even though sometimes it can be way overdone.

This picture is of Cole....and Spaceballs lovers unite...he's giving me the raspberry. :) (I HATE raspberry!) hahaha, I just love that movie. :)

Here is the original picture...one I was practicing on him with the flash - it came out a little too bright, - it's still cute, but I thought I would play with it - and I think the added overlay texture (a high resolution picture of a blue leather couch, by the way!) gives the picture such an old-time kind of Polaroid feel - I'm liking how different it is from the original. But they will both go in his baby book for sure!

Tell me what you think! Love it or hate it, why? I would love to know your feelings on what it does to you. Texture is so controversial! Of course, I wouldn't do every picture like this, and most not even this obvious, but some just call out for...something to highlight the focus of each picture. Discuss!