Black and White Wednesday

Another Wednesday is upon us, so it is time to share another Black & White photo. This week I decided to show you my start-to-finish process for one of my favorite photos of my little Ladybug.

This past summer, my daughter was playing outside. She had on an adorable gardening hat and gloves, while dancing around in a frilly princess dress. Quite a silly combination, but she looked adorable. As she was walking around our deck, I happened to stop her just at a time when she was trying to pick herself up on the railing. This quick pause in her otherwise busy afternoon of playing and dancing produced an amazing image that I knew I could create into an ethereal delight. I used Photoshop Elements to do all of my edits on this image.

Here is the original image,



From there I softened the face, cropped the image a little bit and boosted the contrast. I really wanted those soulful eyes to pop, so I brightened them as well. Below is what I came up with,



After this, I turned the image into black & white. I absolutely love how beautiful this image looks as a black and white. It translates so well because of its simplicity.



But, as is often the case with me, I just had to play with it a little bit more. So, I went back to the colored image and "posterized" it with Photoshop, then cropped it into a square image. I then turned each of those two photos into black & white. Below are those four photos,









When I look at these last few photos now, I honestly see a girl far beyond my daughter's three years of age. The softened colored images also give her an almost porcelain look. As beautiful as these images are to me, with the soulful eyes and delicate features, there is one thing missing in all of them... my daughter's amazing, joyous, infectious smile. And that, is what I will be sharing next week. Until then...

~~Aloha!

Black and White Wednesday

My little girl has the most gorgeous, beautiful, rosebud lips. And, with those lips she can make the most amazing "kissy lips" I have ever seen, and boy does she love to make kissy lips. She walks around the house, smooching her lips together, without even realizing that I am watching her, smiling. What makes it wonderful is that the Ladybug (Lovebug) also loves to give lots and lots of hugs, loves, and great big kisses and to her daddy and I all the time. She is a very loving, lovable little girl who walks around with a great big smile on her face almost every minute of the day. That fact just makes me love those lips even more. (Click the photo above to see more wonderful Black & White Wednesday photos!)


See? Now wouldn't you love those lips too?

~~Aloha

Black and White Wednesday

Black and White Wednesday - Frost-cicles

This week marks the first time that I am going to try my hand at Black & White Wednesday!

A fellow blogger started this idea a few weeks ago on her blog (click the above photo to see her wonderful photos!). As she stated on her blog back in January,

"Black and White photos have always been a favorite of mine......and seem to be a popular choice with others too. Two years ago I started to hang black and whites on one of the walls in our home. My goal was to keep adding photos until the wall was completely filled. Well....let's just say that I can still see a whole lot of wall....LOL!

I take so many photos, but for some reason I don't process a lot in black and white.....and I would like to change that, so this is what I have come up with.......

"Black and White Wednesday"

Each Wednesday I am going to post a black and white picture. It doesn't matter what the picture is, it just has to be processed in black and white.

This will give me something creative to work on each week. It will help me refine my processing skills, because black and white conversions are not as easy as you think and last but not least.......IT IS GOING TO HELP ME FILL UP THAT WALL IN MY HOUSE:)

So what do you all think.......Anyone want to play along with me?

You can post a black and white portrait or a snap shot style photo, it can be a person, place, or thing.....whatever your heart desires, as long as it is black and white. You can tell a story with the picture, or just post the picture!!

It doesn't matter if you are a photographer or an ameteur, if you own a camera and have a blog or FB account, you can play along!!! And don't fret..... I will be posting every Wednesday, but you can come and go as you please. Play along as often as you would like. All you need to do is title your post "Black and White Wednesday"

So, I decided to join along. My first entry into this Wednesday endeavour is a few photos that I took recently of the "frost-cicles" outside on our tree in the back yard. Every branch on the tree had these gorgeous, yet ominous spikes, that were actually very fragile, delicate. Despite the freezing cold, harsh weather that we can get out here in the Dakotas, we do not often see nature in quite this way. I am so happy that I took the opportunity to capture the gorgeous crystals in photos. I hope you enjoy.






And... of course, one fun photo of the Ladybug playing in the snow!



~~Aloha!