Don't you just wanna eat her up?

Man, she is just too cute for words. I'd forgotten what a fun age this is. Everything is just so thrilling to her. Plus, she's so friendly, she's got the world eating out of her hand (and me too). She smiles and waves at everybody (and they all stop what they're doing, smile, and wave back). But not just ANY wave, it's the side to side wave that I call the "princess" wave. She cries when I leave, and when she passes my house and I'm not home, and yes, she's definitely captured a little bit of my heart. I look forward to being a grandma (Colin, don't get any ideas..I can wait, trust me).

I upgraded to the 85mm 1.4 a few months ago, and I am still working on getting the hang of it. Of course practicing on a squirmy toddler probably isn't the best idea, but it's all I've got ;) I'm ending up with quite a few that are OOF which drives me nuts. I'm going to have to drag B out and practice on him a bit I think (poor guy). Unfortunately this is an in-camera crop, my back literally was against the window.

ISO 1000, F/2, 1/160

PS, I didn't do anything to her eyes. When I get it right with that lens it's pretty amazing, eh?!?

$54+ later....

I chickened out.

Last week I talked about painting the laundry room this fabulous orangy-red color. I have a healthy respect for color, and love it and am typically not fearful of it. However, I have never, ever painted any room red (or anything close) before.

I did paint a sample swatch beforehand and was ready to go (with a little bit of concern). Once I started cutting in I started having serious misgivings. NOTHING in our house is this kind of color. B says: "the only ones who will see it are us." Which is true. But the room opens right into the kitchen, and it just doesn't feel right to have such a jarring color right THERE.

So. As I was painting in there, our new living room rug arrived which means it is FINALLY time to choose paint for the main floor. Hooray! So, once we get that done I'll figure out the laundry room. For the time being it is going to look awful in there for sure!

Couple more from Pioneer Square

B and I had lunch in this gorgeous building with walls of old, old brick and these stunning chandeliers. Of course I had to take a few pictures of them.

Added some grain when I converted this one. I didn't notice till now it's a little tilted, oh well...



Just played around with funky colors on this one. I like how you can see the shadow of the chain on the ceiling.



And if you know me at all you knew a close up was coming too ;)

This week's theme...

B and I spent this past Saturday's sunny afternoon at Pioneer Square. We intended to go to the waterfront, but parked near Pioneer Square and got sidetracked for hours. It's the oldest part of Seattle and has many interesting galleries and shops to wander through. These were in the ground. I think they may be the bottoms of bottles, I'm not sure. I loved the texture of them. Of course one of the old boozy homeless guys had to come up and find out why I was photographing the ground. Pioneer Square is filled with "colorful" people ;) In fact, much of the time they outnumber the "regular" folks.

SOOC:



Edited and slightly cropped.



And part of a totem pole

SOOC



And edited 2 different ways:





Angela, in answer to your question about yesterday's processing, I left out a key word, I'm sorry.

It should have read:

To correct some of the magenta in the SOOC, in selective color, in RED I pulled the magenta down a bit. Then in hue/saturation in RED I pulled the HUE slider up a bit.

If you go into Selective color, in the RED, and move the magenta slider down you are pulling magenta out of the red. Then, if you go into Hue/Saturation and in RED, pull the HUE slider up a bit you're actually pulling some of the magenta out. Hope this helps!

Before and after :)

From Pioneer Square the other day. Love that B always is so willing to stand and smile for me. One of these days I need to get my hands on a funky teenager wearing fun colors, and shoot down there. It is filled with old buildings, lots of crumbling brick, and cool alleys.

SOOC:



Edited:



What I did:

1. To correct some of the magenta in the SOOC, in selective color, in RED I pulled the magenta down a bit. Then in hue/saturation in RED I pulled the slider up a bit.

2. Curves, to further adjust the colors and lighten a bit I adjusted each color in the curve individually.

3. Levels, pulled the middle slider up a bit to lighten the mid tones.

4. Then I did a duplicate layer and messed around with B's skin a bit. I tried to minimize some of the wrinkles (yes, it stinks getting older) and imperfections a bit using the clone tool at about 50% opacity, and also used a very soft brush on lighten at a low opacity sampling from an area close to where I wanted the fix. I also cloned in that light patch to the side of his forehead which was caused by a reflection off his glasses. I also adjusted the contrast of his eyes a bit, they tend to get a little muddy behind his fairly thick glasses.

5. Duplicate layer again and ran portraiture at a low opacity, probably about 30% if I recall correctly.

6. One more duplicate layer and used softlight at about 25% opacity to add some contrast to the image.

7. Cropped to 5x7 @ 72ppi (I like the 5x7 ratio for posting on my blog). Sharpened @ 200/.3/0 and then resized back to 300ppi. Once you resize again to 300 ppi it makes it very difficult for anyone to make a decent print of the image over about 1" x 1.5"

8. Once I got ready to upload, I realized I wanted more contrast. I did an overlay layer at about 50%. I brushed B's face back at 100%, his hair and clothing at about 50%.

I normally wouldn't do this much, however, since this week's theme is SOOC vs PP, I thought it would be fun to show what I'd do if I was printing this out.

Also, a reminder, this is the last call for notecards. I'll accept orders through midnight PST, the info is a couple of posts down if you're interested.

Camillia - with flash

I really enjoy the freedom of using flash outdoors, and I think I'm getting better at it as time goes by :) This was in deep shade, with the flower facing downwards, so it would have been very dark on the inside and bright on the petal tips without the flash.


f/4, SS 1/40, ISO 250, handheld
Flash set to TTL at about -1.7 with a "Flip-It" diffuser

More signs of spring

Found an azalea with a couple of blooms on it already! The branches are all curly and very cool, though because of my limited access to it, it doesn't really show in the picture. Such is life...



My focus on this one is a little off but I wanted to post it anyhow. Isn't the background on it cool? It is branches (no blooms or leaves) from a shrub behind. The color of these branches really is this vibrant in real life. I love this color! In fact, I like it enough that we're getting ready to paint our laundry room a very similar color (and I'm not even a red girl). It's a color called Sherwin Williams "Chinese Red" and is a slightly orangish-brownish vibrant red. Once we get the new cabinetry and counters installed I'll post pics.

One time deal

I'm putting together some boxed card & envelope sets for a special order and have decided to also offer them here through Monday evening the 23rd.

These are blank folded note cards with 10 different cards per box. The cards measure 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" and are a nice size for jotting a personal note, thank you, thinking of you message without feeling like you need to write a short story to fill up the space! They are boxed in a clear acetate box so they also would also make a lovely gift.

Pricing is $19.95 per box + $3 shipping (no matter how many boxes you order). If you live in Washington State please add 9% sales tax to the total (and yes, the shipping is taxed as well....sorry)! If you're local, you're welcome to pick them up in person if you prefer.

Please allow 2 weeks for receipt.

There are two different sets below. To order, simply go to Paypal.com. Send payment to LaurenHartmanPhotography@comcast.net. Make sure to specify which set you'd like, and please be sure to add in the shipping to your total. If you'd prefer for me to invoice you, just drop an email to me at LaurenHartmanPhotography@comcast.net.

Please note, orders must be paid in full by Monday evening.

The colors are slightly wonky here simply due to me converting the files from my lab's color space to web viewing. Rest assured the colors will be as lovely and vibrant as you see in my blog postings as a whole.

SET 1



SET 2

A vent

I had to take these pictures today for a sales rep, so I thought maybe it would do me some good to post about this and just get it off my chest.

We moved in here on August 3rd. There have been a myriad of issues we've had to deal with with our builder which still aren't resolved 6 1/2 months later. It is frustrating to say the least! We thought by buying new construction we'd be good to go. We couldn't have been more wrong.

One of the issues is our flooring. Everything is hardwood except 2 of the bathrooms and the laundry room. At some point between when we did our punchlist a week before we moved in and the day before closing when we did our final walk through, the fridge they had in here (which we had them remove since we bought our own) leaked and damaged the wood flooring in the kitchen. The flooring was replaced hurriedly before we moved in and it:

1. didn't match the existing flooring
and
2. warped and buckled because the subfloor wasn't properly dry before they laid the new floor.

Fast forward to yesterday and FINALLY the flooring was replaced (after the builder and flooring sub-contractor argued all this time over who was responsible). ARGH! They also reinstalled some of the wood on the stairs as they were loose and potentially a big hazard.

ANYHOW, I was so excited to finally have THIS done and move forward.

Not so much.

In what world does this darker flooring match? Or even blend in a little bit?





So, now we have a kitchen floor with 80 square feet that looks obviously patched (everything else is light in color), and it's a nice big chunk right in the middle and is very noticeable.

Of course our builder doesn't take responsibility for it. The boss at the flooring company doesn't want to take responsibility for it. The installer was obviously rolling his eyes at me in his mind, all the while being pleasant(ish). So, the sales rep called me asking "what did I expect?" I told her all I expected was for the flooring to not look obviously patched and offered to send her pics.

All I want is flooring that looks somewhat similar to the flooring that was in the house when we agreed to buy it.

Sure hope this doesn't take another 6 months to be resolved.

On the plus side. The fence that was part of our purchase agreement and has been hung up partially done since the day after we moved in is slated to be completed by Friday (weather permitting). Boy, that's another LONG story that I won't bore you with. Fingers crossed!

It's rare to find true blue in nature:

And while I did boost the color a bit, these viburnum berries truly are very blue in real life.

Close to spring:

Getting closer! The arboretum has a "winter garden" and I found a few things to shoot there the other day.

I haven't got a clue what this is. It's a small shrub and was barely starting to bloom.


And it looks like I was just a few days too early for the pussy willows to be open all the way. I hope to get back to try again soon. Dontcha love how the trees that were FAR behind and in shade made a perfect background? Looks like a piece of fabric to me.


F/5.6 @ 1/200

Seriously pink

Aren't gerberas such a happy flower? :)

When it comes to Orchids...

...I have a black thumb.

I don't know what it is about them, but I cannot seem to keep them alive. I do great with just about everything BUT orchids. I fill a tray with pebbles and put water in it just enough to provide humidity, but not enough to touch the bottom of the pot. I have it in decent light. I keep it in a warm (by Seattle standards) location. This is the first one I've tried in our new house (not so new I guess, we've been here 6 months now!), so we'll see. If you've got any other tips I am all ears!

This guy has got one good sized stem with about 6 flowers in bloom right now, and another stem full of buds waiting to open, so IF I was good at this, I could keep it blooming for a month or so. Time will tell....



Yes, it's a bit noisy, but I'm not going to sweat it.

So, since I have such a hard time with orchids, you'd think I'd be satisfied with one plant, right? Oh no, no no!

I was at the grocery store this afternoon, and of course had to look at flowers to shoot. The floral department is very well stocked since (you know) Valentine's Day is coming up. I couldn't decide between what I wanted until I spied this guy:



LOL, I know, I know....another orchid plant (yes, you may roll your eyes). Isn't it gorgeous though? I mean, how could I resist it?!? It is huge and has 3 stalks of potential blooms - if I can keep it alive.

So then, knowing I was going to shoot it inside, and knowing that blue is the compliment of yellow, I decided to shoot it against the newly painted blue walls of our entry. As it turns out, I think I've found my new favorite place to shoot in the house without using my flash.

Mid afternoon, the light comes in at an angle through the entry way window and bounces off the WHITE front door and makes beautiful light against that blue wall. I can always hang up some colored cardstock or fabric for other backdrop colors. I am a happy camper :)

Last pine picture

Found one more from the other day that I like:



Been snowing off and on (that icky, mushy, wet snow that's good for nothing) the last two days so I haven't been out to shoot. I'm not complaining though, we had a picture perfect weekend!

More interesting (to me) winter stuff

These are sarcacoca berries. They are lovely small shrubs with very fragrant tiny blooms and such pretty green leaves. They actually are starting to bloom now, however the blooms are really not very interesting looking (in my opinion) so I'd rather shoot the berries instead :) We're planning on planting two of these right next to our porch this spring. It'll be so nice to smell them when we're out there!



I have no idea what this is, some sort of small tree/large bush:



Don't know what this is either, but the seed pod kind of reminds me of an octopus. I love how that soft, directional, end-of-the-day light I talked about in yesterday's post brought out all the depth and texture to this:

Next year's Christmas card possibilities?

While I love shooting during the spring and summer because there are SO many flowers around, I kinda like shooting in the winter (on a nice day) as well. I feel like when I find something outside to shoot this time of year that I've found a treasure. I also love watching the progress of the trees and such, you can definitely tell that some of the plants are starting to get ready for spring.

So yesterday I timed my shooting absolutely perfectly (for once). It was very lightly overcast and later in the afternoon so the sunlight got progressively nicer, softer, and warmer. It really, truly became perfect light in my opinion. Usually I seem to hit it too early or too late...so I was really happy about it.

I'm thinking there may be a card possibility or two in this bunch - I'm leaning towards #3 or #5. So, what do you think?

1


The colors were so subtle in this that I felt I ought to try it in B&W as well:

2


3


4


5


6


7


I've been shooting the pine cones on this next particular tree since September. Most of them have fallen off now, but I found a few still clinging on for dear life.

8

Haven't got a clue in the world what I am doing....

I'd been thinking about trying to learn to bead for a while. Finally last week I bit the bullet and took a "beginning beading" class at a really fabulous bead shop (Fusion Beads in the Wallingford neighborhood for those who are local). I'm not sure why I would think it would be easy! My eyes aren't what they used to be, and the fine detail work is tough on my not-so-nimble fingers as well. That said, I did enjoy it a lot... so much so that I'm going back next week to take a "beginning wire wrapping" class :)

One of the focuses of the class was to learn to make tiny loops with the wires. I needed to practice this big time, so I decided to make something that would force me to do them - a lot! The wires for the earrings are really cool, they hang down a couple of inches off the ear. The beads are fresh water pearls of some sort. The shop had lots of different shapes, colors, and sizes of them. Besides the detail work, the other thing I'm having a hard time is being able to visualize how the piece might look with this thing or that thing. I think that will come in time. I thought in the class they would have pre-set projects for us to do, but once the instructor showed us how to do stuff, it was up to use to go out into the store and decide what we wanted to use (no pressure there...LOL).