last month we went to visit my cousin in Michigan and this was taken at an artists … what would I call it….retreat? Haven? Yeah something like that. It’s a place where artists get to go and work for a few weeks at a time. Anyways it as super cool as they had all kinds of art strung up through out the woods.

I read about a new way to develop black and white photos today here: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/want-your-bws-to-pop-a-quick-and-easy-tutorial. It’s super easy (it even says so in the title) so I tried it here and really liked how it did in fact make the black and white pop. I’ll keep this in my bag of tricks for sure. Done in photoshop.

I’m realizing I’m a few weeks behind in editing photos, and I have a lot more cool ones from the trip to Michigan and a few other things I’ve been working on. So stay tuned. You never know, I might update more than once every month.

I just got the Gary Fong  collapsible diffuser and holy crap is my life changed for ever for the better. I realize that this picture is probably not that interesting to you (to me it is because OH MY GOD LOOK AT HOW CUTE THOSE BANGS ARE!!!), but this is just about right out of the camera.

Hardly any shadows and I would say the exposure is perfect. The color of everything is right on.

I took some new born photos on Saturday morning and I used it there for a couple of the family photos and a few of the baby and again, the coloring and lighting was just perfect. I can’t believe I’ve waited this long to get a diffuser. Ok to even know it was something I wanted.

Anyways, I high recommend it. It’s a little on the big side (that’s what she said), but really nice output.

Wow am I behind in getting my photos processed and posted online. I took this at the end of September when we went to visit some friends at a forest preserve in the Chicago suburbs. This is Ethan who is about 9 weeks older than Lucy. There was a point in the day when Lucy was chasing him screaming, “HUG”. He looked at her like she was crazy and ran away . I told her the boys will never like you if you don’t play it a little cooler. Like I know anything. I married my best friend in college who I acted like a fool around until I realized I liked him and then I was like, “Hey…what’s up Jason. Look at how cool I’m playing it.” So I suppose she should just continue to act her crazy self and someone will love her for who she is .

Eli, his mom and I met the other week outside of the main building at Fermilab for some photos. Again Eli was a wonderful subject and I learned a lot. Of course when I say “I learned a lot” means that many of the things I had tried didn’t work out like I had wanted them too. But there were still quite a few good ones. Thanks again to Eli’s mom because the ability to meet Eli every other month or so has been such a fantastic opportunity for me to learn what works and what doesn’t. Plus. I mean. Look at that face. Who wouldn’t want to take pictures of him!

I went for a walk the other day with a 50mm lens on my camera (I am noting this because I never take off my 17-55mm lens and I wanted to just force myself to try just one focal length) and just took some random pictures of the neighborhood. I have to do this more often, if for nothing else just to practice. Also to try and see the same streets that I walk on every day in a different way, or at least notice different little things. Like what the hell is this thing sticking out of the bricks in the alley?

I took this about  a month and a half ago and realized that I never included my friend Mr. Eli from that photoshoot, although I have featured him before…although a little younger then: http://leahcphotos.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/eli/ apparently i like only catching Eli’s right eye

I got an Olympus tough camera, and this is a picture of the three of us underwater. I love our hands around the baby girl.