Before and...

I came across this little gem today in my mom's family album. That's my ma on the right there, with the rockabilly haircut and dress, sitting with my Aunt Paula, Aunt Marlyn, Uncle Tom and a mystery girl, there in the pinkish dress. How FABULOUS are those curtains, the French Bulldog, my uncle's suspenders and my aunt's dress (far left)? This is one of my favorites.

On the left is the original scan; the photo was hot pink! I scanned it and took it into photoshop, but I think I'm going to stick with the original... the colors may be whack, but I'm a lover of original flaws. . . everything takes me back to the Velveteen Rabbit. And I could go on a tirade about "people and things earning their scars" and the glory of getting "loved up til your eyes pop out and your fur gets worn," but I'll save it for another day. For now, I'll just say that the vintage actions for photoshop are great, but I'll always have a deep affinity for film.

Which edit do you like better?

Inspired by Vintage: Vintage Engagement

I received an email a few weeks ago from a girl looking for a wedding photographer. I had a good feeling about her right away and ran to check out her Engagement Board on Pinterest to see what kind of photos she was looking for. I was thrilled to see a bunch of quirky, funny and cute photos. My favorite kind of shoot is with a couple or a family willing to go wild experimenting and enjoying-- each other, me, the time we spend together creating... because it's not just 'the photographer' who creates the images; the whole shoot really relies on a group effort.



Everything started to come together and though I hadn't intended the 'fairy tale' vibe, it just started happening in editing the images. The quilt above is an antique log cabin style, just a beat up quilt I found on an auction. I took a ton of props to the shoot from my etsy shop, a pink vintage Coleman cooler, an old guitar, vintage picnic baskets and several other quilts, and when Seth picked up that guitar and started playing, I was surprised. He was fantastic. I think I fell in love with both of them!







More photos after the break... click below to see more.

Hand coloring black and white images in photoshop

When I found these images on flickr from the Glenbow Museum, I was aching to put some of them through photoshop and just mess around. If you don't have photoshop, there are some good (and free!) online alternatives, like gimp.com and picnick.com (goofier, but some fun options; my step-daughter is in love with it, because it's very user-friendly). Anyways, to get this watercolor effect on black and white images simply load the photo you want to color, and select the paintbrush tool (has a picture of a paintbrush on it and located in the toolbox at left). Select the color you'd like to use in the "swatches" bar (upper right). Then make sure you turn the opacity down (top bar) to something like 17-25%... more for more saturation, but be careful; if it's up too high you'll just get lines of color that look like they sit on top of the photo, rather than watercolored in.