Then and Now

It was just one month shy of a year ago that we took some two-year-old birthday pictures of Elora, along with some sibling pics of her and Joshua together. At the same location. Yes, we love the canyon scenery.
Its been interesting to see the differences (and the similarities) in the two of them now that a year has passed.

Then: Elora gave me a goofy fake grin half the times I asked her to smile:


Now: She had fairly natural expressions most of the time, but occasionally she did the goofy fish face:



Then: She was a nature lover, and was particularly interested in all the rocks she could find on the trail:



Now: Still a nature lover, but she was more entranced by the flowers....

(stupid sun glare)

... and she preferred to climb on the rocks.




Then: She kept running away while I was trying to take her picture:



Now: She actually asked me to take her picture, and was pretty good at staying put:


Oh, okay, you know she did run around a little bit:



And as for Joshua...well of course he's grown quite a bit since he was four months old!


Then: He was mostly a floppy prop around which Elora could pose:



Now: He can get around fine on his own, thank you very much!




Then: Joshua's main interest was his fist:


Now: Josh loved the grass, the flowers....


.....and everything else!




Its crazy how fast these two are growing! True, Josh kind of looks the same because of the bald head thing, but in personality he's changed in leaps and bounds! And Elora is no longer just cute, she's becoming beautiful in her own right. (But maybe thats just a mother's eye.)



While its somewhat bittersweet to see them grow so fast, I have to admit, I can't wait to see what the next year will hold!

Tell me, which do you like better?

We had fun taking more pictures up the canyon the other day, this time of our kids. I will probably show some more later (because I can't stand sitting on these and no one seeing them!) But for now, I have a few versions that I tried multiple effects on.

I know which versions I like the best...though I do like them all....but which do you prefer?


Here are two of Josh, with Elora running way in the background:




Here are two of Elora, she looks so old in these! :




And I tried four different versions of this running shot. I think there is definitely one best one here, but what do you think?:







Finally, my sweet girl smelling a flower:

Portrait #8: What a cutie

I like this kid's face. I don't know if its the deep dimples, the big eyes, or the quirky smile, but he's pretty cute. In the first drawing, I don't have the shape of his mouth quite right, but I figured I'd work around it until I could get it right.



His eyes seemed to be a darker blue than the last few kids', with a fun slant to them. I've adjusted the mouth here, but its still not quite the right angle.



I love how his skin tones are turning out so far. I started coloring the mouth but didn't put any really dark values down yet, because I'm afraid I might need to fix it a little bit more before it gets too finished.



After adjusting the shape of his mouth for the 100th time, I decided it was close enough to the photo and I finally filled in the color. Yet another red shirt, as you can see. At least it has stripes so the whole thing isn't red. Hey, my red pencil is really getting small here! I love the colors on his forehead, above his right eye. He has light skin like my kids where you can see some blue veins through it, and I was able to capture that subtly there...though you can't see it so well on this copy.



And then...our scanner died. We bought a new one which is supposed to be better. It does make nicer prints, but as for scanning artwork? I am not happy. A lot of photocopiers and scanners seem to have problems recording artwork as opposed to photos. I really think they need to design one for the public that is specifically for art. Anyway. The picture was somehow duller, like it didn't have as much light or all the colors weren't there. This one I raised the contrast in photoshop, which made it bright enough but it also blew out all the lighter colors on the face so you can't really see them:



I was looking at some of the earlier portraits in this series, and I liked the minimal background, so I did that again on this one instead of filling in the whole paper with color.
For the final scan, I didn't change anything after I scanned it, but I did cut a quarter of an inch off the top of the page so it could lay flat on the scanner bed. This at least eliminated the dark shadow on the bottom. Did I mention I am NOT happy with this scanner? I used a lot of lighter colors to give this photo a fresher feel than the last few, and while it looked great on the original, none of those subtle skin tones are showing up on this, my copy. The only one I have. GRRRRRR.



And here it is with the saturation bumped up, but its still not really accurate. Darn it.

Hiking With Your Spouse: Photography Do's and Don't's

DO: Take fun candid shots together that showcase the beautiful scenery behind you.




DON"T: Argue over who gets to take the picture, and who's camera it really is, then scowl for all the shots your spouse takes so yours will be the only good ones.




DO: Use the natural contrast in your surroundings to take a great portrait that highlights your spouse.




DON'T: Let your spouse try to take pictures at 'interesting' angles, while you slouch in an awkward way that make you look pregnant when you really aren't...


....thus requiring extensive cropping later.




DO: Point out to your spouse a perfect location where you can pose artfully, thus enabling them to take much better shots of you.





DON'T: Ever turn your back on your spouse while he's still holding the camera. Especially after you have already published shots like this of him.