I have OBD!

It’s official folks, I have OBD!  The official diagnosis is in, I have “Obsessive Blog Disorder”. If you look at the DSM, that’s the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, OBD is defined as:

Compulsions as defined by repetitive behaviors (e.g., hand washing, ordering, checking, reading photo blogs at odd times of the night or early morning) or mental acts (e.g., praying, counting, repeating words silently, drinking coffee while searching for new photo blogs) that the person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession, or according to rules that must be applied rigidly.

I’m just joking, but am I?  Sometimes I feel that need to search and research for information related to what I’m doing.  Heck people, it’s how I’ve learned what I’ve learned!  So, if reading blogs is an obsession,then I’m obsessed.  With that being said, let me share with you some of my new finds/reads for the week.

The following are some that I found while searching I ♥ Faces, or My Life with 3 Boybarians:

Amy Hinkle Photography

Better In Bulk

Diana’s Photos

Eclectic Whatnot (Ruthanne, whom I met at the I ♥ Faces Photo walk in Nashville)

Work of Heart Photography

And then there are other blogs that have offered giveaways, but actually have a lot of good information on them:

Shutter Sisters (Yes, I’m a guy who follows a gals photo blog)

La Pomme Design

Go{4}Pro

Chicktography (Once again, I find myself drawn to female photographers)

4 The Love Of Focus

And then there are ones I’ve found by following Scott Kelby or various Twitter Feeds:

Ken Kaminsky Travel Photography (Wonderful HDR travel photos)

Stephanie Cross Photography (Moose Peterson’s assistant, and Dave Cross’s daughter)

Brad Moore Visuals (Scott Kelby’s technical director)

And one last blog that is not directly related to photography:

The Frugal Girls (Wonderful savings, and the occasional money deal for cheap prints)

 

And of course, since this is a photography blog, here’s a snap from a recent outing!  Whatever you do in life, stay ahead of the pack!

Enjoy life, snap some shots, and have fun…
That’s what I’m gonna do!

Sweet Shot Tuesday

I’ve been working on some shots I took for a new friend lately.  And  I’ve got to tell ya, I LOVED IT!!!!!  That’s right, I yelled it from my keyboard!  I LOVED IT !!!!!!  I said it again, it was fun, and the kids were great! 

Anyway, here is this weeks entry for Sweet Shot Tuesday over at  My Life with 3 Boybarians. 

Last week I entered a shot of her brother, Jax.  This week, here is my favorite of Maelea.  My wife said she’s not smiling, well, that’s the look I was going for!  So, enjoy!

 

Enjoy life, snap some shots, and have fun…
That’s what I’m gonna do!

I Heart Faces ~ Smiles

I can’t believe where the time has gone!  I’m not talking about the lack of blog post, but the last 12 years. 

My son turns 12 next month, and it’s hard to believe that he’s not that cute little boy who hid lizards in his pockets. Or stuffed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches under his pillows (you never know when you’ll wake up hungry in the middle of the night).  Or was so excited just to see his Papa!  Where oh where did the time go?

Here’s my shot for I ♥ Faces  Smile Challenge this week.  Now this photo was taken several years ago before I got my big boy camera, but it’s still my favorite!

 

Head on over to I ♥ Faces, and check out the other entries in this weeks challenge!

Enjoy life, snap some shots, and have fun…
That’s what I’m gonna do!

Sweet Shot Tuesday ~ Jax

 

Jax: “Mr. Scott, why are you taking so many pics of me?”

Mr. Scott:  Well Jax, it’s because you are “One Sweet Shot!”

 

Thanks Darcy, for giving me just one more opportunity to share!

OK guys, head on over to Life with 3 Boybarians and check out all of the other entries in

“Sweet Shot Tuesday”!

 

I Heart Faces ~ Collage

Well we all know that I have several loves in my life.  First and foremost, I ♥ my God!  Then I ♥ my wife and son.  Next I ♥ what I’m doing in life.  Then finally, I ♥ Faces !  Not only faces in general, but Amy and Angie over at I ♥ Faces ! OK, enough of the ♥ fest!


This weeks challenge is collages.  Normally if you enter more than one pic, you are disqualified.  I learnt that one the hard way.  But this week is different.  I’ve already seen some interesting collages.  Mine is kind of boring compared to some of the ones I’ve seen, but I like.  More importantly, Jax’s mom loves it!


So, may I introduce you to Jax, a one of a kind, all around hard knock boy who loves life…and his car!




Enjoy life, snap some shots, and have fun…

That’s what I’m gonna do!

Jax and Maelea ~ Rock Stars!

Good Morning All!  Where did the weekend go?  If anyone finds it, please tell it to slow down!  Had a pretty productive weekend over here at Bald Is Beautiful.  Been so busy, I’ve not had time to write.  I guess that’s a good thing when you love what you are doing.

This weekend included a nice little session with a 2 year old and his big sister who is 10!  Let’s just say these kids are “Rock Stars”.  Both of them are so durn cute, I think I sprung my index finger snapping shots of them.  So, without further ado, my I present Jax and Maelea!

  

 

   

 

Enjoy life, snap some shots, and have fun…

That’s what I’m gonna do!

Sweet Shot Tuesday ~ A Wedding!

This weeks entry comes from my very first wedding shoot.  I’ll be the first to say that I’ve got a long way to go, but I don’t mind the journey!  As long as you guys don’t mind riding along with me…LOL!

I think my style of photography is the candid shot.  I’m not much on posing, although I’m learning everyday.  But to me, the unexpected capture is the best.  This is one of my favorite  photos from this last weekends wedding.  I’ll be sharing more later today, along with “all” that happened!

 

Enjoy life, snap some shots, and have fun…

That’s what I’m gonna do!

Sweet Shot Tuesday…On Thursday!

OK, I am really having a hard time with the fact that I missed Sweet Shot Tuesday!  Luckily for me, Darcy runs this posting all week.  When I went to  Life With 3 Boybarians today, I noticed that I still had 2 days and 12 hours to get my post up.  Whew!  At least I did not miss the deadline.  In fact, Darcy wrote another great post about slowing down, take a look, it’s like she looked in a mirror and saw me!

Back to Sweet Shot Tuesday.  This pic is one I truly love.  I’ve had my camera for a little over a year now.  When I first got it, the most willing model I could find was Susy.  A cute little dachsie that would just love all over you when you went to see her.  So here I was, laying on the floor with my camera and Susy brings me her tennis ball.  She thought it was time to play, and all I wanted to do was snap some shots…silly girl! Every time I went for the shutter button, she would roll the ball over to me and lick my face.  After about an hour of the foolishness, she calmed down, rolled over and said, “Go for it buster!”

As I type this post, tears are flowing down my face.  Susy is no longer with us, she passed away shortly after this pic was taken.  But I have a folder full of photos from my willing little model!

 

 

Enjoy life, snap some shots, and have fun…

That’s what I’m gonna do!

Chocolate Covered Cherry Brownies

One of my favorite Christmas candies is Chocolate Covered Cherries. For years, I always bought a box of Queen Anne Cherries, man, that just made my Christmas. The trouble was, I could not stop at one!

The other day, I was craving those same cherries. Unfortunatly, I knew they would make me so sick! So, I did a little research, and came up with an appropriate alternative...

Chocolate Covered Cherry Brownies!

INGREDIENTS:
BROWNIES
2 cups Splenda sugar substitute
1 cup butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

CHERRY FILLING
1 oz Fat Free Cream Cheese
¼ cup Splenda sugar substitute
Sugar Free Cherry Preserves
Maraschino Cherries with stems

Mix Brownies ingredients together in one bowl.
Mix cream cheese, ¼ cup splenda, and 1 tablesoon of sugar free cherry preserves in another bowl.

Using a pastry bags, fill one with brownie mixture, the other with cherry filling mixture.

Squeeze a small amount of brownie mixture into the bottom of mini muffin tins. Once you have finished with 1/2 the brownie mixture, do the same with all the cream cheese mixture.

Place 1 cherry into the middle of each of the mini muffin containers, these will become your cherry center. At this point, cover all the cherries with the remaining brownie mix.

Place in a 350 degree oven and bake for 15-18 minutes, depending upon your oven. This makes 48 mini brownies.

Hope you enjoy!

Fix It Friday ~ My Favorite Day Of The Week

Well, here we go again, and I ♥ it!


Fridays are just so special in my book.  Not only does it signify the end of a long work week.  It also sets me up for another time of learning and doing.  I enjoy Fix It Fridays just for that reason.  Time to try out some new presets, or actions.  Time to try some new things.  More importantly, time to relax and enjoy what ever it is I’m doing!

 
And this week, I am trying something new.  One of my favorite contributers over at I ♥ Faces is Drew over at Happy Chaos!.  She is so good at web design and photo editing, and that has inspired me to look for new ways of doing things.  If you notice my header that rotates photos, it was Drew's header that got me moving in that direction.  Here recently, she started doing her before and after pics by using a concept called "mouse over".  Well, if you look at my before pic today, you only see one photo.  If you hover your cursor over the photo, you will then see the after.  Go aheas, I'll wait...  Well, what do ya think?  Pretty cool, huh?  I promise  Drew, I'm not a stalker!

Any who, back  to the edits.  This shot comes from Jessie who blogs at The Lucas Zoo. This photo is of her adorable daughter, Violet.  You need to check out Jessie’s blog, she’s just a mom who loves her kiddies.  Oh yeah, “Happy Belated Birthday” Jessie!

I really think this one is pretty good SOOC, but you know I had to play with it!

Here’s my work flow for this project:

• Import into Light room 2.
• Adjust exposure, black clipping and add a little vibrancy.

Export to Photo shop CS4 and ran the following Nichole V. actions:

• Selective skin softening
• Eye pop
• Color pop

If you have never seen some of these actions, you should give them a try.  They are reasonably priced, and take a lot of the guesswork out of editing.  Like I mentioned last week, actions are just a stepping stone to jump start my creativity.

After I finished with the Nichole V. actions, I used the following actions from my web saint Rita over at the CoffeeShop:

• Color Block It 

And there you go!  Jump on over to I ♥ Faces and check out the other entries in this weeks Fix It Friday!

Enjoy life, snap some shots, and have fun…

That’s what I’m gonna do!