Playing with Photoshop

Every once in a while I try play with Photoshop with "old" photos... and I was in such a mood earlier this week (must have been the rainy weather that brought this on).

This photo was taken in 2008 during a hike on Castle Mountain.

The photo on the far left was the original.

The middle & right photos are with much dramatic changes.

Amazing how much a computer program can change a photo. 

The lily pad photos were taken a few years ago while I was in Vancouver.  

From top to bottom:

Original Photo

Minor saturation boost & a border

Black & white version

That's all for now, folks!

Remembering Riley

She was planted on earth to bloom in Heaven.

- by Unknown Author

This morning I met 2 beautiful newborn baby girls, Riley & Olivia, who entered the world 4 weeks earlier than their due date.   Surrounded by love & their loved ones, Riley left this earthly world for her eternal world.

Riley will be missed much by twin sister Olivia, parents N&K, first-time grandparents S&D, F&J, Aunt A. & Uncle A., Aunt J & little Miss H and by many more loved ones!

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share in this precious moment of your lives.

For more information about Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep or to donate to this organization, click here.

I Heart Faces: Fix-It Friday

It's been a long time since I participated in I Heart Faces "Fix-It Friday (FIF)" but here's my first FIF of 2011.

Original photo (SOOC) taken by Angie Arthur Photography

Edit #1 - I used a variety of actions to give this result.

Edit #2 - B&W

Edit #3 - Sepia

Edit #4 - Sepia + Grunge border

Remembering Grace

An angel in the book of life wrote down my baby's birth,

Then whispered as she closed the book,

"Too beautiful for this earth."

Author unknown

Last night I had the opportunity to photograph a little girl who arrived in this world much too early. Little Grace was born at 23 weeks and weighed in about 500 grams and measured 30 cm in length. She was a feisty little gal, but she left this world about 24 hours after she was born. Grace: you will be missed much by your family.

My thoughts are with this family during this time of loss.

I am so honoured to have witnessed the short life of little Grace.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is a nonprofit organization that offers remembrance photography to families who have lost a baby. Donations to support the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

foundation can be made here.

Baby Kezia

Little 3 1/2 week old Kezia was a long-awaited answer to prayer. She is an adorable, beautiful little girl, and we are so happy for our friends Jen & Steve. Congratulations again!

Thanks, Steve & Jen for coming out to show off Kezia for this photo session!

Remembering Baby Samuel

Ten little fingers

Ten little toes

One belly button

One little nose

One tiny mouth

Two little eyes

Two little wings

And tearful goodbyes

Samuel was 2 days shy of one month when I photographed him. He was a little fighter who had to battle heart surgery and then some other complications. His parents & 2 adorable older siblings loved him dearly. Samuel grew little angel wings on his 1 month birthday.

Samuel, you will be missed very much by many people.

I am so honoured to have witnessed the short life of precious little Samuel.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is a nonprofit organization that offers remembrance photography to families who have lost a baby.

Donations to support the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep foundation can be made here.

In Memory of Baby Amara

Just before Christmas, I photographed a little girl who arrived in, and departed from, this world much too early but she will live on in her parents' hearts forever. She was so very, very tiny but also so very beautiful, and I am blessed to have met little Amara.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is a nonprofit organization that offers remembrance photography to families who have lost a baby.

Donations to support the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep foundation can be made here.

The "L" Family

Three cute little munchkins came to see me for a photo session last week. Their little cousin was visiting from "out east" so this was a perfect opportunity to capture some cousin photos.

The 2 sisters & their cousin:

Miss Tatum:

Master Carter. I love the hat!

Miss Isla

The sisters even had time for a "tea party." Oh, what fun!

Not to be outdone, the little man had to show off his clothing. What a little stud-muffin!

Thanks for a fun visit!

Before & After Photos: Nose Hill Park

This past Saturday was a beautiful day, and we had a little family walk at Calgary's Nose Hill Park. I had my little pocket camera (Fujifilm EXR)with me, and I snagged a few photos of these interesting dandelion-style plants (?flowers?).

I did some Photoshop processing this morning... & just for fun I added some textures & gave the photos a bit of a grunge look.

If you look closely, you can see the wind blowing through the "flower."

Chad & Christine and Baby Isabelle

I had the opportunity to photograph the beautiful little Isabelle & her parents this past weekend. It seems only yesterday she was a small infant, and now she's already 5 1/2 months old! How time flies. It has been so much fun watching this little gal grow up, and I'm looking forward to watching Isabelle grow even more!!

I just LOVE her smile!

Isn't she just absolutely adorable??!!

Rub-a-dub-dub, Isabelle is in the tub...

Thanks, Chad & Christine, for coming by for this photo session!! It was fun!!

I Heart Faces: Fix-It Friday

I did not much to this photo, as I found it difficult to work with: the photo I downloaded was a small JPEG file. Oh, how I wish they would put the RAW files on IHF for us to download & edit!

The original:

My edits:

I lightened the skin & eyes then made the background B&W.

Check out some other photo edits here.

I Heart Faces: "All About Babies" Photo Challenge

This photo of my son was taken when he was only 6 days old.

Check out other great IHF photo entries here.

I Heart Faces: Fix-It Friday

It's Fix-It Friday #58 here at i heart faces and this week's photo was submitted by our IHF Contributor, Susan Keller from Short on Words.

The original:

My edit: vintage, B&W, vingnette

Check out other IHF FIF here.

Remembering Baby Sean

The world may never notice

If a Snowdrop doesn't bloom,

Or even pause to wonder

If the petals fall too soon.

But every life that ever forms,

Or ever comes to be,

Touches the world in some small way

For all eternity.

~ Author unknown ~

Little Sean arrived in this world 13 days ago, but last week he suddenly became ill and required hospitalization, including life support. Yesterday, he was taken off mechanical life support. I had the opportunity to give this family some photo memories of their precious son. What a beautiful baby!

I am so honoured to be a volunteer photographer for the non-profit organization "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep."

I Heart Faces: Play

I Heart Faces' theme for the week is "Play" - oh, what fun!

I have so many photos, but this photo jumped out at me when I was considering a photo for this entry. In April when we were at a family reunion, I snagged this photo of my husband's cousin's daughter playing the piano. I simply vintaged the photo & added a border.

Play on, Miss K!

Check out more "Play" entries here.

I Heart Faces: Fix-It Friday

For some reason, Fridays seem to be busy days for me, but yet I find time for IHF's FIF photos. It's so fun to edit a photo then check out how other photographers edit the same photo.

Here is a photo that was originally taken by Andrea Riley:

My edit #1 (Sepia tones):

My Edit #2 (B&W + Vintage tones)

Check out other IHF's FIF photo edits here.

I Heart Faces: "Barefoot Week" Photo Challenge

This week, the photo challenge at IHF is bringing attention to a charitable organization called Soles 4 Souls.

Soles4Souls is a Nashville-based charity that collects shoes from the warehouses of footwear companies and the closets of people like you. The charity distributes these shoes free of charge to people in need, regardless of race, religion, class, or any other criteria. Since 2005, Soles4Souls has given away over 7 million pairs of new and gently worn shoes (currently donating one pair every 9 seconds.) The shoes have been distributed to people in over 125 countries, including Kenya, Thailand, Nepal and the United States. Anyone can join our cause, and we need your help.

In May I took this photo of my son playing in the grass for the first time (yes, it has been a very, very long Calgary winter!!)

However, I wanted to do something unusual with this photo... I antiqued it then added the polaroid border.

Check out more "Barefoot" photo challenges at I Heart Faces.

I Heart Faces: Fix-It Friday

Every Fix-It Friday at IHF, I am always wondering if the photo this week will be a boy or a girl. Oh, I was so excited it was one of each... & Twins, too!! (I am still wanting to find some twins for my photo sessions, folks!!)

I am just looooooving this picture of these precious little 6 week-old twins, children to JaimeLee Candidly Grateful.

The original:

My edit:

I added some gaussian blur to the skin, converted the pic to CS's B&W (70%), adjusted some levels, added a 70% High Key, cropped, then added a frame. Very simple.

Check out other great photo edits here.

I Heart Faces: "Yellow" Photo Challenge

This week's photo challenge theme at I Heart Faces is "Yellow."

What to do when you don't have a yellow house, yellow wall, yellow clothing, or big field of yellow flowers????!! Oh, and I have a boy... and boys don't generally wear yellow!

So, I looked around the house... and found this pale yellow laundry bag... placed my 8-month-old son in the yellow bag... and this is the result.

Check out more great "yellow" photos here.

I Heart Faces: Fix-It Friday

It's that time of the week again... our turn to learn new editing trick from other contributors to I Heart Faces and to play along as well.

This week's photo was submitted by Shelle from Mommy Can't Sing.

Here's the original:

My Fix-It #1... I adjusted levels, curves, colour balance, then added gaussian blur to soften the face. I then did some adjustments to lighten skin & eyes and give the skin some glow.

My Fix-It #2: I converted the pic to B&W but did some colourizing. Not to crazy about this one as there is so much noise on the pic that I wasn't able to remove.

Fix-It #3: I darkened the background, added a gradient and a texture (just for something different) then brought in some colour.

Fix-It #4: I like this one the best. It's basically the same as Fix-It #3 but I removed the texture then added some vignette & borders.

Check out other great photo edits at I Heart Faces.