


Mondays now feature Photo Feedback
Train your eye and get constructive criticism on your own work, too.



Some of you may not remember how I proclaimed my love for HDR photography. It is a touchy subject in the photography world. Some hate it, some love it, and some like it as long as it isn’t really overdone.
When it comes to HDR I look for inspiration from Trey Ratcliff. He has the look I think fits my style the best. While my style for HDR may not reflect my regular photography style, though.
I have not even attempted an HDR shot since October when we went to the Smoky Mountains. But every week we drive by a cemetery on our way to church. I tell my husband that I want to shoot the beautiful building in the middle of it. I wanted to do a blue hour shot, but then my husband asked me if it would creep me out (because I creep easily). I told him that I wasn’t even thinking of it that way, but now I was and couldn’t do it. I have waited over a month for the right sky to come in AND to actually be able to drive over there. It is about 30 minutes away.
Well enough talking. Here is my much anticipated shot. Well anticipated by me, that is. ;) I am sure my husband is glad I will shut up about it now.
In case you are wondering, I shot this on Valentine’s Day while my big kids were at school. I used Photomatix to tonemap it. Since I am a Canon and do not have a promote, this shot is three bracketed exposures at –2, 0, +2. If you have no clue what I am talking about you can email me. I promise to try to explain it better.
I have been doing a lot of self-teaching and on my own learning with Photoshop. I watch countless video clips and tutorials from experts showing and explaining things. I love it and I am learning so much.
But the experts have been doing this stuff for so long and so often that they forget to share the simple stuff. I am talking about the stuff they just say as a step on how to do something, but it is actually a whole new thing I had no clue about.
So I am going to share a couple today and I plan on sharing these little things as I go along and learn more. So if you know these and are thinking “This Kim is a moron” as you are reading it, I am fine with that. This is for that person that had no clue just like I did. These will work in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.
If you are adding a watermark, a texture, or any layer and have trouble with the size of it not fitting correctly simply hot CTRL and the T key (Command and T for Macs). This will make a bracket appear around your object.
Now you can resize it.
So now you have resized it, but did it lose its proper proportions? Does it look a tad funky?
To keep this from happening press the “Shift” key while adjusting and dragging the size. It will make the ratio stay proportioned.
Who knew? Well maybe you did, but I had no clue about 4 months ago. So I am sharing to the one person reading this that had no idea. My work is done and my day is complete. ;)
Joining in with Jaymi’s Tuesday’s Tips and Pics.

Yesterday I glued some clearance candy canes together for Valentine’s Day decorations. Charley got some and started being silly with them. What mom couldn’t resist grabbing her camera?
I couldn’t help but to give it a faded, seventies-ish processing. It just seemed like one of those photos I am going to look back at decades from now and remember what a fun, giggly little girl she was at three.
Sharing this over at I Heart Faces for this week’s theme of “Heart” and Life with My 3 Boybarians’ Sweet Shot Tuesday.
Well here it is, the first week of Photo Feedback. That is what I am calling this. My hope is that photographers of all levels would feel comfortable to get some honest (yet constructive) feedback about their photos. While the blogging is world is fabulous and it helps the confidence to get comments like “beautiful photo” or “great shot”, that doesn’t really help hone your skills or help develop your eye.
There are some fabulous sites that will feature someone’s work and ask for critiques (like Click It Up a Notch), but what about getting feedback on your work while helping others, too? I hope this weekly link up will do just that.
So I encourage you to be brave and put your work out there to get some feedback. It will help you and the person critiquing you. So pleas join me.
Here is my photo.
Aperture: f/4, Shutter Speed: 1/40, ISO: 100, Canon 55-250mm IS lens at 70mm focal length, 1.3 meters from subject.
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Now for the fun! Leave me your feedback and maybe (just maybe) link up a photo of your own. The code is listed below in case you want to post the thumbnails on your post, too. This makes it easier for others to participate and spreads the word quicker. It is not required to use the code in your post, though.

Here are the guidelines for Photo Feedback:

And this week's #1 winner is:


This week’s theme for Project 52 is “drink up”. Oh man, I had an awesome idea in my head for this one. Let me just say it involved me trying something new with an off camera flash and trying to stretch myself with some cool editing.
But guess what? That didn’t happen. Not because I didn’t really want to, but real life got in the way of my photography and blogging life. The nerve.
Little Lady somehow picked up a nasty virus called Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. She had a horrible case of it and was covered with nasty lesions. It made the poor thing miserable. Charley had infected tonsils and a high fever starting Sunday night. Cole woke up in the middle of the night Monday night with an extremely high fever and had strep.
So three little sickies home all week with me. The good news is that I was doing my best to keep them hydrated. That means lots of drinking!
Can you tell someone was not too excited to have me try to get a candid of him drinking? This is the true face of a child whose mom is a photographer. ;)
And yes, he chose to wear a buttoned up shirt while he was sick. He is wearing jogging pants with that shirt (don’t ask).
*Reminder: Join me on Monday for the first Photo Feedback. Submit your photo for your peers to give you honest and constructive feedback. It is all about getting better and improving your eye and your work.
I know I am always looking to improve on photography skills like composition, lighting, editing, and well everything! I love getting constructive criticism. I think it helps you grow and learn.
I also love critiquing other people’s work in my head. I know it helps you train your eye. You will start to look for and see the same things when you look through your own lens.
I had belonged to a small group that would submit weekly photos on flickr and critique each others’ work. But life happens and things got in the way, so the group dissolved. There is a series over at Click It Up a Notch called Critique Me that I highly suggest you look at. One person submits a photo and others critique it. Courtney encourages a “critique sandwich”, I love the idea and I will talk about it more in a minute. But with only one submission, it is hard to get feedback on your own work.
So I am going to start a weekly link up. If you are looking to improve your photography and would like genuine feedback and constructive critiquing, then I encourage you to join in.
Here is my idea for the guidelines:
So what do you think? Would you like to join in? I know I want feedback. So if no one joins, hopefully you guys will at least critique my photos. ;) I will start this next Monday.
This week’s prompt for P52 is “Shadows”. I was stumped a bit at first. Everything I thought of I have already done. Then I saw that Project 12 was “Love”. So I came up with this idea to incorporate them together. You know I cheated and did this last time, too. But for the record last time had the same prompt. This month I came up with one concept for both prompts in one photo. I should get bonus points for that, right?
Here is my final result. I am pretty happy with it. I was hoping for more in my head and kept trying to get it in Photoshop, but I can handle this.
No matter what she is doing, this is how I see her. My children are my little angels and I love them with all of my heart! So ignore any tweets I may type that say otherwise. ;)

And this week's #1 winner is:

(If you submit a photo you are granting us permission to copy and paste it onto our blogs if you win.)
**Remember, no theme. Just your favorite/best shot of the week!**

Courtney over at Click It Up a Notch is having a photography contest. You submit your favorite photo that you have taken in January. I am having trouble with this. I did that maternity/family session with the adorable girls that I love so much, but I kept coming back to the photo I took last week for my friend of her daughter. I know you have seen this before because I shared it last week, so I am sorry about posting it again. I wanted to join in the fun.
I just really love this photo. It turned out very much like I had hoped it would. You still have time to enter so head over there, grab a button, and link up! And if you don’t read Click It Up a Notch, you totally should!


I shared with you last week a photo from a recent maternity/family shoot I did. I shared it because I had done all of my editing without actions and I have been experimenting with adding textures to my portraits. Well today I am just going to share some of the photos with you.
Here are the two sisters together having fun. They were such a joy to work with, too.
I caught this shot as she was hiding from me and popping in and out from between the trees. She had some twigs in her mouth and just being nutty. Just like a true 3 year old. I loved it.
This is the biggest sister being sweet to her soon to be born little brother. I asked her if she thought she could hide completely behind her mom’s big belly. She proved that she could. I snapped this as she was laughing and being a tad shy about being able to.
I loved the sweetness that I caught interacting with them. I really feel like every one of the pictures I took was a genuine moment and not a pose or forced situation. If only all shoots would go this great, I think I would be the happiest and most laid back photographer ever.