In The Orchard

This week's challenge @ iheartfaces is "In The Orchard".  I knew right away the photo I would use for this challenge.  It is a photo that I took in 1996 while on a field trip with my daughter's kindergarten class to a local orchard in TN.  It is my all time favorite photo of my daughters!  The little dresses they wore were given to them by their grandma. 

I look forward to your thoughts/comments.

You can find other "orchard" photos @ 

fix-it Friday, #74

This week's photo for Fix-It Friday @ iheartfaces is by Dana Suggs. 

My edit was made using Adobe PS, and Color Efex Pro 3.o.  I removed one of the pumpkins and "scooted" the subject left a little to improve the composition.  Then I cropped, adjusted the brightness and contrast, and created a layer, Old Photo in CEP 3.o, and used an eraser at 27% opacity.

Check out other edits here @ 

Fix-it Friday #73

Today's fix-it Friday photo is from Keli Hoskins:

My edit was done in Adobe PS.  I duplicated the layer, colorized with Color Efex Pro, reduced the opacity to 65%, added a vignette blur layer and did a little burn to her eyes to enhance them, flattened and here's my result: 

Go see more terrific edits @ 

Chalk

Chalk is the challenge of the week at iheartfaces. 

My husband and I went to a local art festival this weekend and there were children having a chalk competition.  Go figure, I left home forgetting the camera!!!  So I had to use the cell phone ...

I look forward to your thoughts.  (Click on the photo and you get a larger look. : )  )

You can find more "chalk" photos at

Fix-It Friday #72

It's Fix-it Friday at iheartfaces. 

Here's the original by Julie Rivera:

Her husband & daughter before a recent deployment.

Photos like these can always bring a tear to my eye and a knot in my stomach.  My husband retired from the US Coast Guard in 2006 -- and while our daughters and I hugged him long and hard when he had to deploy for schools, chemical spills, runaway bouys, hurricane disasters or routine duty, he never had to leave us going to fight a war.  I can't even begin to imagine the depth of that emotion, but I very clearly know the joy of his every return.

Thanx to Julie for supporting that service member that fights for all that America represents!

Here's my "fix":

I gave a little more blur to the background, made her shirt a bit more pink, and adjusted a few levels, as well as cropping and adding a border.

There are lots more fixes @

Smirk

This week's challenge at iheartfaces is titled "Smirk".  When I first hear the word smirk, my mind thinks "mouth", but when I start to review my photos, my mind thinks "eyes".  This photo seems to capture both.

Fix It Friday #71

Here's my first attempt at iheartfaces fix-it Friday.  Today's original photo is by Angie Arthur.  The challenge is to bring some color back to the sky.

I used Adobe PS.  Added a gradient layer under the photo in blue, then erased here and there with a couple different brushes and varying the opacity.  Blended the two layers.  Lastly using colorization in Color Efex Pro.

Vroom Vroom

Here's my very first try at an iheartfaces photo challenge. 09.13.10 - Vroom Vroom

I took this photo last week when I was in Salisbury, NC.  I drove around the block 4 times to be able to get a shot that I was happy with of this guy with his bicycle, enjoying his paper, in NO hurry at all.