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Remember this gorgeous mama I shot at 38 weeks?  Well, she is now the proud mother of this sweet baby boy.  With the most awesomest (you won’t find that in the dictionary) head of dark soft hair.  He was a dream to shoot once he fell fast asleep.  In fact, he was so sleepy that we couldn’t get him to open his eyes at the end of the session for some awake pictures.  Now that’s what I call a dream newborn client!

I loved the opportunity to work with this family.  They are sweet and sincere and kind.  She was even making me cookies last night when I came by to pick up my vintage scale I’d left behind.  Thanks guys!  Enjoy your sneak peek and enjoy that sweet boy!

Shana Rae, an incredible photographer and artist,  is guest judge this week.  Her Florabella textures and actions are wildly popular in the photography community!  They are also my very favorites!

Go take a peek at more inspiring “texture” entries this week at iheartfaces!

This week’s photo comes from a very special family.  Angie posted about them today:

“The dad in this family has been struggling with cancer for years and they found out the devastating news in December that his cancer is now terminal. They are now doing everything they can to enjoy the rest of the time they have together on this earth.”

Having lost my own dad to cancer, I have an idea what this family is going through.  I wanted to add my edit to the list of participants in this week’s fix-it friday.  My thoughts and prayers are with them.

Original:

In CS4:

1.  I adjusted contrast with a levels layer

2.  Increased saturation to 130% with channel mixer layer

3.  Added a Florabella action, Sweet Color, and adjusted the layers to taste

4.  Added a Florabella overlay, Honeychild, decreased opacity to 44% and masked off the areas where I didn’t want it.

5.  Adjusted the contrast once more with a levels layer

6.  Increased saturation with a hue/saturation level, inverted it, and painted Mom’s shirt back to give it a little more pop and bring the parents back into the main focus.

7.  Decreased noise

8. Sharpened for web

My edit:

To see more edits, head over here.

Happy Friday!

When I checked in today, I was over the moon to learn that I had won first place in their logo contest!!!

If you want to take a look, go here.

If you’re looking for a community of supportive friends who just happen to love taking pictures, a place to get inspired, encouragement from others, please go and take a look around i heart faces.  It just happens to be one of my favorite spots on the web.

This week one of my favorite photographers is judging the i heart faces photo challenge.  Audrey Woulard will be taking a look at all the entries and choosing her favorite.  If you haven’t seen Audrey’s work, you are missing out.  Her images are crisp, clean, bright and full of joy.

My entry this week  is a photo from a family session I did of one of the sweetest families I know.

I’m sliding in at the absolute last minute with my entry.  I had no time this week to take a new photo for this contest so I’m using one I took during Christmas break of my little niece.  She is the sweetest thing.

Head on over to i heart faces for more inspiring face photos.  And take a look at the list of incredible photographers who are playing Guest Judge this week!  Some incredible talent!

Original:

I’m loving black and white conversions right now so I thought this would work perfectly.

In CS4 I switched to black and white mode, moved the sliders around until I got a good balance.

A new curves layer, using the hand tool, increased the contrast to taste.

Removed noise twice.

Resized and sharpened for web.

Go check out more entries here.