I Heart Faces, Photo Challenge Week 13 - "Dramatic B&W"

I took this picture shortly after my D90 arrived, just playing with it to see what it could do. It was the later part of winter, and my hands were so dry that day! But, I took the picture anyway. I ended up liking it, so I thought I would use it for this week's photo challenge at I Heart Faces.

I don't know why, but this picture evokes a lot of emotion for me. I think it embodies a lot of life—my love for my husband, the ups and downs of the past 8-1/2 years of marriage, the fact that I'm a mom now, and so much more. When I took it, I was just sitting by our patio door, feeding my daughter lunch, and I liked the way the daylight was coming in. So, I snapped it. I'm glad I did—if for no one else's enjoyment but my own. This photo is almost like a journal entry to me. It reminds me of the day my husband proposed, of the day we shopped for wedding bands, the day we got married, the past few years with all their different emotions and changes, the day I first held my daughter, and so much more. 

I really like the full-color version, too:

Nature's Fireworks

Queen Anne's Lace

(Daucus carota)

I'm not a Photoshop expert, but I'm working at learning the in's and out's of the program a bit more. And, no, I don't intend to turn this into a PS tutorial blog. The original of this picture was taken on a hiking trip in our area. When I was playing with it in PS, I ran a couple of PW's actions, then added a sepia tone. Love it! I was surprised to see how much these steps made this flower look like fireworks against the night sky.








I shared this photo on:

My new artsy collage

My husband and I have been trying to figure out which of my artistic photos to display in these four black frames we have. I've traditionally taken seasonal pictures and put them in these frames, but we wanted to do something a little different with them. And we wanted to put them in our bedroom. I haven't really taken the time to try and figure out what I wanted to do with them, but my creative bug has been alive and well lately, and I just had to do something about it. So, I rifled through my pictures, and decided to go with a natural Michigan theme (we're from Michigan)—specifically "up North." But, I didn't want to use the full-color versions of these photos, so I sat down and spent a little QT in Photoshop.

After playing with them, I decided to use a sepia tone, which would work well with the black frames, off-white mattes, and the colors in our bedding. Only two of these pictures are ones that I've previously blogged about (I included links to the originals below the respective pics), and two of them are new to Grace Made Evident. So, here they are . . .

Pyramid Point view of Lake Michigan 

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Curling Birch bark in the woods of Northern Michigan

The Empire Bluffs Trail in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
View the original

Mouth of the Platte River, emptying into Lake Michigan
View the original

Those are the ones I decided to use. Two of them went into 11x14 frames, with an 8x10 matte. The other two went into 8x10 frames, with 5x7 mattes. I couldn't quite get a great picture of the end result, but here it is . . .

I have to say that I was impressed with my own picture hanging abilities. They're all really straight!







P.S.—These pictures ARE included in the giveaway. :o)