Blake Ryan ... {four} days new.

Welcomed with much love ... Blake Ryan ... 4 days new.

He is the newest addition to our family - meet my handsome nephew, Blake. I just really couldn't get enough of this tiny little one. I took my girls with me to assist with the shoot, actually, they jumped at the chance to hold their newest cousin again.  

He was wide awake when we arrived for the shoot, which afforded us the opportunity for some lovins. But, we needed to get down to business. So, after feeding, swaddling and a little patience, he soon fell asleep and we were able to capture some sweet shots. 

Much thanks to my niece Brittany and her wonderful husband Tim for being patient with me for my first newborn shoot! And congratulations on your beautiful baby boy!

xo, 
tish

 

Expecting ...

Expecting my newest niece/nephew!
(These matenity shots were taken earlier in the month).
Check back later this week to find out what they had and view the photos from my very first newborn photoshoot!!

Happy WW!!
xo,
tish

Watermelons

Textured with Paint the Moon's Timeworn Texture

The Train

My husband took me for a drive and instructed me to make sure I had my camera. We drove until we came to this scene in rural Pennsylvania. I just loved how the colors of the red train car popped against the natural greenery. 

After safely pulling along side the road, I hopped out of the car, darted across the road, climbed down a little bank and captured a few shots. I love all the angles and my favorite is the reflection of the train cars in the water. 

This is our last weekend before school starts. (sniff, sniff). I'm really not looking forward to summer ending, so we will put it out of our mind for a few more days and focus on enjoying these last few precious days. 

Happy weekend! 
tish xoxo

La Tour Eiffel - Textured

A couple summers ago, our family travelled to Europe. We spent half our trip in Rome and the second half in Paris. One of our favorite stops in Paris was the Eiffel Tower. My oldest daughter has had a love for Paris and the French culture since she was about six years old (she is now fourteen). She taught herself many French words and phrases and actually was able to help us out when we couldn't communicate exactly what we wanted during our stay.

I used two of my photos from our visit to the Eiffel Tower for my homework on Day 6 of Kim Klassen's Skinny Mini E-Course. She was teaching us about textures. 

For the first photo, she gave us a recipe. I made a copy of the background and changed the blending mode to soft light 100%. I then created another background copy and changed the blending mode to Multiply at 58%. I added her Paper Stained Light texture  and used the Multiply blending mode at 53%. I then added a second layer of her Paper Stained  Light texture with soft light at 100%. I just love the result! And don't you just love the two people laying in the grass on the bottom right of the photo? 

For my second photo, she wanted us to "add our own twist." So, I copied the background layer, added an adjustment layer and adjusted the levels. I added a layer of Kim Klassen's Paper Stained texture at 46% opacity. I then added a second layer of her Paper Stained Light texture set to 100% soft light blend mode. Lastly, I added the text, "C'est si bon!" which means "It is so good!" 

I'm learning all kinds of new little tips and tricks I hadn't known about. If you need to brush up on Photoshop tools or you need a good starting point, this is the perfect course!

xoxo, 

tish

Kim Klassen's Skinny Mini E-Course

A few weeks ago, I signed up to take Kim Klassen's Skinny Mini E-Course. It is a free two-week mini course in Photoshop. We just wrapped up week I. If you've been reading my blog, you'll know that I have been playing around and learning Photoshop for a few months now. Despite that, I have learned many new things in the short period of time since we started this eCourse such as becoming more familiar with blend modes, using blend modes with text, using the color drop tool and saving photos for web.

The two photos above were part of my homework for Thursday. She wanted us to apply the soft light blend mode to two photos, apply any adjustment layer to enhance the photos and add text, using black on the lighter photo and white on a darker photo. I then changed the blend mode on the text to soft light. After that, I saved my image as a .psd file in case I wanted to come back later and work with the layers. Then I saved the images for web, which I never knew how to do before. This actually saved me an extra step as I uploaded them here to post to my blog.

This is such a great introduction to Photoshop and I'm really enjoying being a part of it as well as connecting with other bloggers and Photoshop users. She offers a more in depth class, The Essentials - Instant Access and Self-Paced - and it is only $59 for August only. If it's something you might be interested in, click here to head on over to her site for more information. Or you can click on the Skinny Mini button on my blog's side bar. You can find other courses she offers on her site as well.

It appears that the Skinny Mini is still open if you want to register and take part! 

I am linking up with Shoot.Edit.Submit at Mom Tried It and Favorite Photo Friday over at The Long Road to China. Stop over to their sites to see some more fantastic photos! 

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you are all having a great weekend! 
-tish xoxo

Wordless Wednesday | The Beach

Happy Wordless Wednesday,
xoxo, tish