"Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep"

Last night KARK ran a story about Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, a non-profit organization that administers a network of more than 7,000 volunteer photographers in the United States and 25 countries. At a family's request, a NILMDTS Affiliated Photographer will come to the hospital or hospice location and conduct a sensitive and private portrait session. The portraits are then professionally retouched and presented to the families on an archival DVD or CD that can be used to print portraits of their cherished baby that has been lost.

In June of 2009, some very dear friends of ours, Sarah and Taylor Adams, lost their precious baby Mamie. Sarah's best friend, Crystal Goss, was at the Adams' side, armed with her camera, and caught amazing images of their sweet baby girl. Sarah tells everyone that those pictures mean more than the world to her...and now she wants to pay it forward. In memory of her sweet baby girl, Sarah has decided to become a photographer for the NILMDTS organization. The strength of that woman never, ever ceases to amaze me.

I wanted to share the news story with you all--as I am so proud of my friend. She is such an amazing person! Again, the strength and will power she has truly amazes me!

Click link below to see the story that ran last night.

"Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep"

More Pictures...Edited Just for Mrs. G

Ok...per Lauren's request, I worked some more on the photo from yesterday's post. What do ya'll think? Do you like either? You might just see one of them reappear some day...

Picture Playtime

I told you all that I'm trying to teach myself some photo editing techniques...

This is much more difficult than I thought it would be because I don't have the "standard" (which is Photoshop...where tutorials are found EVERYWHERE). Nope. I am having to do a lot of "self-teaching" and let me tell you, it's FRUSTRATING at times, satisfying at others. Tim avoided me half the night last night because I was just getting so frustrated. Well, I found some tutorials (for previous editions) that gave me a basic idea of where to start. So, I'm trying out some new things...here goes:

Here is the original photo:

Here I have edited out a few things, focused the lighting on the center of the picture, etc.

I added some effects to make the purpose/center of the photo pop out:

This one is super busy...I was trying to focus simply on the first kiss after the proposal but at the same time trying to figure out different commands, which then I couldn't figure out how to back track (go figure)...hence the "busy-ness" of the photo.

Much less busy, edited more things out, can you find what is missing? (One is more obvious than I'd like, but one "missing item" has been disguised very well, I'm quite proud actually)...I still don't think I like the finished product, but I'm much closer to satisfaction than that "busy-ness" above. One of these days I'll have this figured out!! Practice makes perfect, right?

I'm trying a new trick at enlarging my photos that I learned from I ♥ Faces tutorials...at least I got that right!! (if ANYONE has tips for Photo Impact Pro 13 I'd LOVE to hear them!!)

I ♥ Faces--Messy

I stumbled across a photography blog that holds weekly contests. Well, I've enjoyed looking at the pictures, but have never felt that I qualified to enter any of the contests, as I am definitely a beginner!

Well, this week, they opened up a beginner's level and so I decided to enter...I'd love to improve my photography skills, especially with all the big events coming up in my life!

Here's my entry....my niece and goddaughter, Lizzy girl, chowing down on her birthday cake:



Make sure you go and check out all the other photography on I ♥ Faces.

A Quiet Weekend

After all the excitement and adventure of last weekend...I'm hibernating in my house this weekend with my pups. Tim has been in Dallas since Wednesday night and we miss him terribly! Fortunately, he's coming home tomorrow (woo hoo!!).

For Christmas my parents got me a photo editing program. It's been so long since I've been trained on any program so I'm kind of re-teaching myself. I am working on editing photos for Tim's and my "Third Year" book and started messing around with Tyson pictures.

This is the original:

This is the edited version...I'm not really sure what I did with it, I was just messing with different options. I have a great model, though...don't I?

I'm going to watch some of my "pointless" tv and go to bed! I'm loving this evening of doing nothing!