Little Cowboy

I had a BLAST photographing this little cowboy.  He was so happy with everything he saw....he kept the smiles coming!

Newest Photo Challenge Winner

First of all, I want to thank those of you who submitted photos of your "favorite thing."  GREAT creative work.  Our Favorite Thing winner is:

This photo was submitted by Becky Diestelkamp from St. Louis, Missouri.  It is a photo of her 4 year old Chocolate Lab, Nadia.











I just want to remind everyone that your next photo is due on Sunday (April 17th).  Our challenge this week is "GRASS"  The photos can incorporate any subject in the photo as long as it somehow has grass within the photo.  Here are two examples:

Get creative and have fun!  All photos must be submitted to orders@lovingreflectionsscrapbooks.com by midnight on April 18th.  All photos will be uploaded to Loving Reflections facebook site and we will leave voting open for one week until midnight on April 25th.  

Good luck!!!

Kids Will Be Kids - Learning to Deal With it Behind the Lens

I AM the epitome of a "mamarazzi" Mom.  Since the day my children were born I have had a camera flashing at them (I hope I haven't permanently impaired their eyesight).  In fact, I question if my children even REALLY know what I look like without me having a big Canon camera in front of my face.

People automatically assume that when I get a really good shot of my child(ren) it's because my kids have been in Mommy-modeling-training for 3012+ days of their lives.  In all honesty, I have TRIED to train them....but it involved a lot of bribery, sweat, eye rolling, screaming, bribery, kleenex, yelling, pleading, and more bribery.  I would come home exhausted with 2 kids on a sugar high (from the aforementioned bribery) and with a few photos of my kids with fake smiles plastered on their face.  Those days quickly wore out their welcome.

So instead of me training my kids, my kids began to train me.  If I wanted to capture the true essence of them (in my opinion what a good photograph SHOULD do) then I needed to be patient and quick.  I have found that some of my absolute FAVORITE photos have come about from keeping the lens pointed at them, my finger on the trigger, and following them around in "their world."

A perfect example of this is from a trip to the park last week.  I was hovering over my son as he was throwing bread into the lake for the ducks.  After one of the ducks gobbled up the bread, he looked up at me with a satisfied grin.

On the same day, I was teasing my daughter about a little boy that seemed to have his "eye" on her.  (Seven year olds don't like to discuss BOYS.) She shot me this smirky grin with her hand on her hip.

Letting kids be themselves will create the most wonderful portraits.  Save the yelling, sweating, and bribing for something else (like cleaning their room).

For more Loving Reflections photos, visit us on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Loving-Reflections-Scrapbooks/138824926182102

*******CHALLENGE OF THE DAY***************
I want to hear your funniest, most mortifying, or most horrific portrait session experiences with your kiddos.  Please leave a comment on the blog so we can all share in your story!!!

How to Take Your Photo's to the "Next Level"

I love photography.  The world looks different through a view finder.  If you are really "in tune" with your inner-photographer, you will notice things that normal people walk right by....how the sunlight streams through trees, the reflection in a puddle on the sidewalk, the texture of the grass.  I constantly walk around finding beautiful "photos" in my world...even if I don't have the camera with me.  They say that 'pictures are worth a thousand words' and it is because there is no way to describe the joy on a child's face or the tear's of happiness in a brand new mother's eyes the way that a photo can.

My photo obsessiveness was taken to an all time high when I was introduced to scrapbooking.  The new motto became "Pictures are worth a thousand words, but Scrapbooks are worth a MILLION."  I could now take my beautiful photos, make them MORE beautiful with ribbons and backgrounds, add my personal thoughts or a  touching quote, and then I would have a true work of art.

I began to think of my scrapbook as the story of my life.  I often refer to a scrapbook as a 'pictorial journal.'  I could someday give my son and daughter just a photo album of the pictures of them as babies.  But I would rather hand them a scrapbook filled with photos, momentos, and my emotions and thoughts as their mother.  Can you imagine if such a gift was handed down to YOU by your mother?  It truly would be priceless.

This page was created for my daughter's album.  I love the pictures of my two children (even without turning it into a scrapbook page).  But with the addition of my thoughts on their sibling relationship, it takes the photo to a new level.

Journaling:  "He is your protector and your biggest fan.  He will push you harder than anyone else because he loves you and believes in you.  He is your best friend. He is your big brother."







Another example of taking a good photo and making it into a scrapbook is on vacation or trips.  It's hard to remember all the moments of a trip just looking at a photo, but a scrapbook page will help you remember all the details:

Journaling:  "This is Grove Park Inn where we got to stay in Asheville. It is almost 100 years old. Ten U.S. Presidents have stayed here in addition to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Harry Houdini, Will Rogers, George Gershwin, Thomas Edison, Eleanor Roosevelt, Henry Ford, and lots of other celebrities. This photo of the hotel is the view from our room looking up to the main hotel area.  The two smaller photos are of the spa (on the hotel property) that I got to spend the entire day in for my birthday. It is ranked the 13th best spa in the U.S. It has 43,000 sq ft of amazing-ness. It has heated mineral pools with underwater music. They also have "therapeutic" waterfalls that you can stand under and it will massage your muscles.  My favorite was the outdoor hot tub. It was wonderful to sit in hot tub and breathe the cold mountain air. I also got an 80 minute facial was the most amazing 80 minutes of my life!"


If you invest the money in nice cameras, photographers, and photo prints to capture a moment in time, then why not take it to the next level and have a scrapbook to preserve your memories?

Please remember to leave me some comments!  I love to hear from you.  Have any of you ever received a scrapbook passed down from a family member?  What are your thoughts about taking photos to the "next level" in a scrapbook?  Remember to tweet/fb this if you enjoyed it.  I appreciate it so much!

The Art of Capturing Objects

A few of you have mentioned that for the photo challenge you would like to take pictures of OBJECTS but are not sure where to begin on the best way to do that.  I have recently been introduced to Christa Toulson of Adore Photography.  She is a journalistic professional photographer who has graciously agreed to write an article for all of you giving tips and tricks on getting awesome photos!  You can find the article at:

http://www.adorephotogtheblog.com/2011/03/how-to-take-better-pictures-of-objects.html

PLEASE make sure to leave some comments/feedback and thank her for being so kind to help us all out!

Thank you, Christa!!!!

(you can also visit Adore Photography on Facebook, Website, or on Twitter)

Advice from a Dog - Stealing Life from Death

I have determined that the most beautiful element in the art of scrapbooking, is that the scrapbooks are the stories of our lives.  They are about the beauty, fear, happiness, anger, joy, sadness, and love that we have experienced.  They are an artistic representation of our journey.  They are a pictorial journal.  They are our legacy.  


This morning, my Grandmother is on my heart and my mind.  While I woke up to an absolutely GORGEOUS spring day, she was headed in for surgery while battling pneumonia.  While I was breathing in the fresh air on my walk, she was breathing in an oxygen mask.  While I was listening to the birds chirp, she was listening to the beeping of the heart monitor.  Oh the things in life we take for granted.


I have recently finished a book titled "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein.  This book is narrated by a dog.....a most profoundly deep and insightful dog.  As I read through it I found one enlightening quote after another.  This morning, as I thought of my Grandmother and the moments we take for granted, I was reminded of one of the greatest quotes from the book.

 "To live every day as if it had been stolen from death, that is how I would like to live. To feel the joy of life. To separate oneself from the burden, the angst, the anguish that we all encounter every day. To say I am alive, I am wonderful, I am. I am. That is something to aspire to."

Tears of  gratitude filled my eyes as I allowed the words to absorb into my heart.  For this scrapbook page I choose to not include a photo.  I wanted the observer to not be distracted with a photo, but instead be struck by the beauty of the words and what those words mean to them.  I want to live by those words.  I want them to be the story of my life.  I want people to look through my scrapbook, my journey, my pictorial journal, and see that I lived each day as if it had been "stolen from death."  What will your scrapbook have in it?

(As always, please comment or share this on fb/twitter.  I would love to have your feedback!)

FREE Photo Editing Software - How to make your photographs look like the professionals

Probably FIFTY times a month (that may be a slight exaggeration) I get asked by Mommies, "What software do you use for your photo editing and scrapbooks?" Deep down I slightly wince every time I am asked.  It isn't that I am opposed to sharing this information.  It is that I use a  program called Adobe Photoshop.  For those of you who use (or have attempted to use) Photoshop, you understand my hesitation in suggesting this software to the work 40-hours-a-week-with-3-kids-soccer-Mom with her point and shoot camera.  For those of you who have never heard of or used Photoshop, let me get you up-to-date....It's "da BOMB."  It is the ultimate super star in photo and graphic arts software.  It will do EVERYTHING except your laundry (it may even do that and I just haven't found a tutorial on it yet).  The downside to it?  It is highly complex.  It will be your best friend and your worst enemy.  There are students who have gone four years of college using Photoshop to get a graphic arts degree and STILL do not know how to use it to 100% of it's capabilities.  Not only that, Adobe is proud of it's products (and should be) so you will pay a pretty penny for it.  All that being said, if you are willing to invest the time and money Photoshop is the ultimate software.

However, for those people who ACTUALLY have lives and do not want to commit 3 hours every evening "playing" with photos in Photoshop (I know I am a geek), I have the solution for you....Picnik.

The first thing I like about Picnik is that does a great job of encouraging the user to "play."  For instance, I can go from making my photo black and white to a sepia tone with the click of a button.  While many online photo editors give you those options, Picnik gives you THIRTY-SEVEN of them....and that's just for filters.  There are hundreds of other options for effects.

Picnik also does a great job of balancing the "professional" side with the "fun" side.  Many professional photographers use Picnik because it is so simple to use.  I can remove red-eye and add a soft filter on my photograph in Picnik much more quickly than I can in Photoshop.  However, the software is still something that is fun and easy for kids to use because there are digital stickers, text, and fun frames that can be added to the photos.

For those of you who use social media (and who doesn't?) Picnik can import photos from your social media site and export them directly to your site.  Which means I can sit down at ANY computer, load one of my Facebook photos directly into Picnik, edit it, and export it back to Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Photobucket, Webs, Picasa Web Albums, etc. so they can be seen instantaneously.

Picnik provides online forums for users to find out more "how to" information or discuss creative ideas with other Picnik users.  It has a very in-depth FAQ section to help you with any questions you may have.  However, Picnik is so user-friendly most people I know have never even needed it.

The best part about Picnik?...it is free.  You do not even need to register to use most of their features.  There is a premium package that can be purchased at $4.95 for 1 month, $19.95 for 6 months, and $24.95 for 1 year.  This package will allow you to use more of Picnik's advanced features such as airbrushing and manually adjusting the levels of a photo.  For me, the $24.95 for a year is worth it.  But again, I am a photo geek who will spend hours playing with photos.

I have used this for about 4 years now and have not been able to find any other software that is more user-friendly and versatile than Picnik.  It is the perfect software from the amateur who just wants to remove red-eye, to the professional who needs to remove elements with the clone tool.  Come over to the "dark side" with the rest of us photo geeks and upload and play with a photo.  You can find Picnik at www.picnik.com

I would love to know if any of you have used Picnik and what your thoughts are on it.  Or if you have never tried Picnik before and played with it after reading this amazingly inspirational blog, come back and let me know about your experience.  Has anyone ever run into any challenges using Picnik?  What is your favorite feature on Picnik?  Please share!  As always, please remember to tweet/fb this post if you like it.  Thank you so much!