Somehow I convinced the Yeager Family to be my FIRST family photo shoot! What a brave family! Ha! Really, this family was super great, not to mention, super cute! We did the shoot at the Burnside Plantation in Bethlehem and had a really good time! 

Here are my favorites from the shoot. Enjoy! 

Being a photographer is so much more than taking pictures. Once the picture is taken, post processing helps to bring out the best in your subject. From lighting tweaks, to removing that trash can you just didn't see, post processing is very important and can take up a lot of time. Good thing I love the creativity involved! There are so many things you can do these days with editing software. 

So, I've been focusing lately on really learning Photoshop (I have Elements 12). It has been really fun, but incredibly frustrating at times. Photoshop does not come with a How to Guide. There are countless books and online videos, but you still have to figure out what to google or what to look up when you know in your mind what you want to do, but can't for the life of you get Photoshop to do it! 

Today I was playing with saturation, dramatic black & white, and a really cool tool that creates a drawing effect. Here are my results. Enjoy! 

So I have a love/hate relationship with spiders. On the one hand, they completely freak me out when I find them in my bathtub or desk at work. On the other hand they kill all the other bugs that I really hate, like mosquitos and ticks! Really, as long as they stay outside or in my basement, I'm all good with them. 

Anyway, there has been a monster of a spider on my deck for the last few weeks and this morning I decided to finally photograph her. Sorry if you really don't like spiders, but these shots were way too cool not to share! Enjoy! 

The husband went golfing on Saturday, which left me with a free afternoon. So I grabbed my camera and headed out to a few places that I'd heard about and had been wanting to check out. 

My first stop was the Kreidersville Covered Bridge in Allen Township PA. It's about 15 minutes north of the Lehigh Valley Airport. The bridge has been restored and is closed to traffic. The area around the bridge is a nice park with flowers and a gazebo. I got some great shots of the bridge and surrounding area, when a couple with their dogs showed up. So of course I took some shots of the pups enjoying the creek! 

Second stop was the Burnside Plantation in Bethlehem PA. This farm dates back to the mid 1700s and is now a preserved park of 6.5 acres in the heart of the city! The farm is open to the public and is home the the city's police horses. 

It was a great day (though a little hot!) and I really enjoyed getting to see these two pieces of our nation's history. Here are my favorites shots from the day. Enjoy! 

There are all sorts of photography challenges that you can do to practice and improve your photography. There's the 365, the alphabet challenge, the 52 week challenge, and so on. They are all designed to make you pick up your camera as often as possible. 

I've been intimidated by these challenges and the commitment they require. A picture a day for a year? Do I really have time for that with a full time job? So I decided to start small and do a color challenge. It's simple enough, take a picture each day for a week focusing on the colors of the rainbow: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple & Pink. 

Here are my results. Enjoy!