I wanna win a LensBaby!!!

Jodi of MCP Actions has got a BIG contest going on and I really really wanna win this one. I'm tired of photoshoping this technique, man!!!! I want it out of camera!!! Hurry, you have until August 23rd!!!

Click below for details!!!!
Win a LensBaby!!

In the meantime, here is my photoshoped version of a "lensbaby"....not as good, but the real thing would seal the deal!!!!!

Here is pretty much SOOC. aperature between 5.5 - 8, iso 200-400 (I was changing the settings constantly while on the beach because we went from full sunlight to the open shades of the ocean caves...oooooo)


and here is adding the lens blur feature in photoshop (I sometimes also add a little bit of radial blur and motion blur depending on what it will look like )....along with some more blurring like gaussian blur...all utilizing as a mask over the background original. In this case I wanted to emphasize Meme and Maddie's hands....converted BW - in this case a straight desaturation, added LilyBlue's Sweet Water from her WaterPlay action set and then some lighting contrast adjustments, and some of Beth Armsheimer's textures {these are totally YUMMY!!!}..


now if I had a lensbaby, I would not have to go through all this work....and I would have tons of fun shooting!!!!

The Beach...

Our family hardly ever vacations but sometimes getting out of house is needed. However, traveling with a 4 and 2 year old has its obstacles, especially when dining out {shaking my head because I do not think we had one outing that went smoothly!!}. But the beach was marvelous, cool, and always fun. We ventured to our regular hangout at Pismo Beach...but also ventured Shell Beach and Avila Beach. Would I recommend the central CA coast? YES!! In addition to the beaches, there is the marvels of wine tasting. Our favorite in the Paso Robles region is Tablas Creek Winery.

Here are just a few of my favorites!!