My Valentine

My husband is not only my Valentine; he's most certainly, my better half. One of these days I'll borrow his wedding ring off his finger and snap a picture of our rings together. But until that happens, his dog tags will have to do. 

I should also mention that today marks two years since he gave me part of the ring below! We added on the rest of it as the wedding band one year ago next week. 

  

Touch-Up Tuesday

I  had so many great responses from the Scrabble photos I uploaded! Scrabble is just so classic—I love seeing pictures of the pieces.

SOOC:

Edit:

What I did: Boosted the brightness and ran a contrast layer to make the black on the letters more defined. Then I ran PW's "colorized" action and dropped the opacity down a bit. Once I had the photo at a place I liked, I gave it some texture (not sure where I found that particular texture!) and dropped its opacity down. 


I'm really happy with the way it turned out—it's soft and romantic, perfect for Valentine's Day! 

Fun with Scrabble

I've been meaning to take pictures of our Scrabble pieces for ages, but always forget about it. Well, today I poured the little wooden letters out of their pouch and gave them their own photo shoot. Then I had fun with a new texture I found. I love letters and I love Scrabble, so you may see more pictures of words in the near future!

And then there's this next one that I love (no pun intended!!). I'm actually entering it in The Paper Mama's Valentine Challenge:

 

the joy of love: how they look

Today's prompt: 

02 how they look

Capture your loved one at their best (or at their worst).  Or both.  What you’re trying to capture is the TRUE essence/expression/attitude/posture that SCREAMS your loved one.

This doesn't necessarily "SCREAM" my husband, only because I'd rather capture him smiling or making one of the many silly faces we make at each other, but it is how he looks in the morning. He always wakes up with his five o'clock shadow, and minutes later, it's shaven away. When I was thinking of "how he looks" pictures, this was the first thing that came to mind, because I think he looks great with his scruff and freshly shaven. Either way, it's a win-win for me :) 

 

the joy of love: what they do

I don't know if I'll be able to work on The Joy of Love prompts every day, but I'm definitely going to try. I've been very busy lately, hence the lack of posts on here, but I'm itching to take pictures again. 

Today, the first day of February, the prompt was simple: 

01: what they do

This can apply to anything your loved ones “do”….what do they do for work?  What do they do for play?  What chores do they do around the house?  Find something they “DO” and document it.

So here is my husband doing what he does after he comes home from work. Putting in a full day's work for the Air Force may be his day job, but once he comes home he slips on his comfy flannel pants and studies for his master's class. We initiated "no TV nights" in our household so he could read, type papers, and work on his class. 

Hue + Texture {greens and piney}

I don't know when I stumbled upon Marta Locklear's blog, but I'm completely floored by her work. I'm in awe of her style and amazed at how she captures her subjects. I literally find myself going back to the same photos and just staring at them, because I think they're so beautiful. Goodness! 

A few weeks ago she started a Hue and Texture challenge. She mentions a color and texture and then it's your job to bring it to life...or just look at everyone's great work. Well, this time I decided to play along. I'm really happy with the way the following turned out, so I hope you like them, too. This was my first time using the macro setting on my camera outside. 

hue: greens. texture: piney

Food Photography

Lately, I've been eating a lot and taking a lot of food pictures. I love setting up the photo and trying to get an interesting angle that shows off whatever dish I'm featuring. I don't know if it's a cop-out—because it's been cold and I don't feel like actually getting out there to take other photos—or lack of imagination and inspiration, but I feel comfortable with food photos. Maybe it's because food is immobile and I know I'll eventually get a shot I like?

And speaking of food, I'm *thisclose* to buying my ticket to BlogHerfood, a blogging conference focusing on food. It's being held in Atlanta this year and I think I'd be crazy not to go. I'm a blogger, I love food, I love blogging about food, and I'm just itching to learn more. I really need to spend some time getting to know my camera. I typically have it off auto, but I need to learn how to do more with it and actually understand what I'm doing. I want to learn.

Enough talking. I want to share some recent food pictures that I've taken. They're from The Tale of Two Kitchens, a site my sister-in-law and I created to share recipes we make. I've been having so much fun with it that my waistline is starting to hate me. 

Coconut Macaroons

Puppy Chow

Tahini Cookie Bars

Black-eyed Pea Salad

Spicy Pesto

Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Green Chile Stew...coming soon

So what do you think? Any tips or suggestions for better-looking photos? As always, I'm eager to learn more!