A Day at the Beach

 We braved the weather forecast of 50 percent chance of rain and went to the beach this morning. It turned out to be beautifully sunny. :) (I'll ignore the fact that it poured right before we got there, stopped, then poured after we left.) We splashed in the waves, built a sand castle with the most awesome tunnel ever, and hunted ghost crabs. 

Summer's almost gone, and we start school this week. It's gone so fast....

Have a wonderful day!

HDR Effect?

Do you remember my post about HDR?

Well, since then, I've doing more researching and reading about HDR.

And I've found out how to simulate the HDR look in Lightroom.

I took some photos of beautiful sunsets while on a trip last week,

and I decided to try something.

 You see this photo? The sky is a lovely color. but the waves are so dark...what if I lightened the photo so that the waves are exposed properly...?

Ta da! But look at the poor sky. Washed out. :( So much for that.

But then I remembered something. Lightroom has this awesome tool called "adjustment brush".

You can set exposure, clarity, sharpness, saturation, etc, and then "paint" it on the photo wherever you want it. 

So:

I took the adjustment brush and lowered the exposure just a tad. 

Then I painted over the top quarter of the photo, where the sky is. 

See? It is darker. The photo is way more balanced, and it has an HDRish look to it!

Isn't that awesome!?

Naturally, I went crazy with it, and had a ball editing these next photos. :D

Those stars made my day :)

Okay, now you go try! It isn't hard. If you don't have Lightroom, don't despair. Look around a bit, and you might find other options. I've heard good things about GIMP, a free photo editing program. 

I'd love to see your edits! 

(Feel free to leave a comment with a link. :))

Service Trip!

Swinging with friends on the rope course

Last week I went on a kind of mission trip with a group of around 60 high school students.

Here are a few photos from our adventure!

This is where we worked for a few days....helping back fill houses with dirt for local flood victims.

I worked at this church one day, chipping away at the concrete walls.

Hey, are you impressed?! I actually got in some of these photos ;D Thanks to friends who took photos of me!

The beach at the camp we stayed at.

There were some lovely sunsets...I'll be posting more photos of them later ;)

Braiding hair....

A glimpse of the camp we stayed at...

Water balloon wars! :D

Dinner

We pulled some great pranks...like stringing the openings of the bunkbeds. ;D

This cat was at one of the churches we worked at. I had never seen a cat with two different colored eyes, and this one was stunning!

Loading up the baggage for the ride home...

Love this photo!

We worked a ton, learned a lot, built some great relationships, and grew in Christ. It was a wonderful trip! :)

Marine Biology Field Trip

Last week we went on a marine biology field trip...out to the ocean to learn about the sea and the creatures that inhabit it. :)
It was a fun (but tiring day!) and here are the photos I promised you:

What a place to live...

We were taught about tides, water pressure, currents, and sea creatures by a dive instructor.

The water here is amazing....so clear! And when you look out over the ocean, you can see the different shades of blue where the depth of the water changes.

Have a wonderful week!

Boats at the Wharf

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days...I started off the new year with a pretty nasty fever/cold, but I'm doing much better now :) 

Here are a few photos I took last week. Enjoy!

On a happy note, my first photo shoot is tomorrow morning.
I am very excited, (and a bit nervous) about getting to photograph three adorable sisters. :)

Have a lovely day!