Sweet Shot Tuesday

It's official ... the orchid just might be my new favorite flower! When the flowers don't come to you because it's cold and snowy and wintery, you have to go to the flowers. This past weekend we took the family to visit the amazing Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan where orchids were in abundance. I could've taken hundreds of pictures of them because they were gorgeous!

Camera: Canon Rebel xti

Lens: Canon Macro EF 100 mm 2.8L

ISO 800 ... f/5.6 ... no flash ... WB: daylight

Edited in PSE7

For more sweet shots, visit:

It's a Bokeh Party!

The same site that hosts Sweet Shot Tuesday is also hosting a holiday bokeh party today. And since I absolutely love bokeh, I just had to join in the fun.

This first one is of the garland hanging on our banister...


And the second is of one of my favorite Christmas decorations. My mom painted this sweet nativity scene when I was a kid and I love setting it out each year.

For both shots, settings are as follows:

ISO 800

Shutter speed: 1/20

Aperature: f/2.8

No flash

Auto WB

Edited in PSE7

To see more beautiful holiday bokeh shots, visit:

Sweet Shot Tuesday

I'm totally in awe of the uniqueness and beauty of each snowflake...

Canon Rebel xti ... ISO 200 ... 1/80 ... f/5.60 ... 100 mm (macro) ... auto WB ... no flash

Edited in PSE7 ... Texture from Love That Shot

I {Heart} Faces: Fix-it-Friday

I LOVE Fix-it-Fridays and was so looking forward to having a photo to practice on after taking a break last week for Thanksgiving.

This picture is adorable! It makes me want to get a cute chair and take my daughter out for a photo shoot ... once the weather gets warmer of course.

Here's the photo SOOC:



And here's my edit (done in PSE7):

Isn't she a cutie? I'm loving her adorable outfit too!

I ran some various layer adjustments (levels, brightness/contrast) before running a creative action from Everyday Elements and adding a few photo veils from Love That Shot. I think when I first started learning how to edit, I went overboard and took the photo to a place where it didn't look natural anymore, so I've been trying to practice the "less is more" philosophy in my editing process lately. I like the sweet feel of this edit.

Thanks for stopping by!