I Heart Faces Photo Challenge | Anything But A Face!

Ian in the garden. Being a boy.

Stop by Iheartfaces to see more photos for this week's challenge!

Categories of Goodness All Around

Happy Valentine's Day

Good things all around today!

In the General Goodness category, I captured this photo over the weekend. In the parking lot of Home Depot. The light is getting better. LOVE when we begin to move closer to the colors and light of Spring.

In the anxiously been waiting to tell you category, you can now take The Very Basics with me, on demand, self paced! You'll find it in the beautiful new classroom at Get It Scrapped. 6 Lessons, three videos and a forum and gallery for you to interact with me! You get me at your own pace, when you need to ask questions! I'll be in the forum for questions and in the gallery for photo feedback. Class walks you through seeing light, understanding aperture and shutter speed, and basic features of your camera. It is a great way to prep for Your Life: Captured Through The Lens.

In life is filled with surprises category, I got a little mention in IHeartFace's Photo Challenge | Hearts! Made my day. Amazing talent over there. It also means i can now proudly display this fun little icon!

In the I'm honored you love them category, my ebook and tutorials are 30% off at DesignerDigitals through tomorrow.

Am I the only silly one with categories of goodness? Must admit, I categorize most things in my life!

Enjoy your day. May you find love through your lens today. 

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge | Hearts

Shea and I have a goofy tradition of grabbing a photo of the two of us together when we see our reflection. Last Valentine's Day we went on a little bike ride, photo outing and found this mirror in a window. I love how the fence blocking us from getting closer is also reflected in the shot!

Do you have any goofy photo traditions?

Pop on over to IHeartFaces to see some amazing heart images! And if you clicked over from IHF, thanks for stopping by!

I Heart Faces Photography Contest | Innocent Wonder

I heart iheartfaces.
Innocent Wonder is this week's themes. So many ways to interpret it. 

I journaled these words after taking this photo:

You weren't really looking at me. That was ok. You were deep in thought in the midst of a paleontologic dig. I'm certain you were narrating this event as you discovered bones from long ago, right in the middle of the garden path, somewhere between the leeks and the Walla Walla onions. 

You can see both larger here. 
I love how he finds wonder everywhere.

I Heart Faces Photography Contest - Paper

What is a mom to say? He likes to dress up and NOTHING is off limits! I was stumped by the I Heart Faces paper challenge this week until I found this. It's a great site to inspire and sharpen your creativity.

I Heart Faces Week 38 "Smirk" Photo Challenge

Ian is the king of the smirk! This is his pirate smirk, not to be confused with his silly smirk, his coy smirk,  his mean grimace or his smirk value pack!

This is my clear favorite for this week's challenge at I Heart Faces. Stop by if you can, so much amazing talent there!

I Heart Faces Week 25 "Celebrating Teens" Photo Challenge

She can't be a teen. I still see her as my two year old niece. She's grown up beautifully.

153mm | ISO 400 | f/2.8 | ss/1/400

You can see more great entries for this week's challenge at Iheartfaces.blogspot.com.

How I Picked My I Heart Faces Photo Walk Winner

Greeting 27 women I'd never met before and leading them through midtown Sacramento was easy. Selecting one winner from all of their photos was not easy.

I mixed a bit of attraction, gut feeling, and nitpicking together to find the one photo we would call the Sacramento winner.

I started by looking at all of the thumbnails, page by page.

I wanted to see what grabbed me. There were so many. I took an entire day to look through them. Made a few notes, slept on it and went back through the thumbnails again the next day. I found myself clicking on these each time.

photo by Rhonda Huvane

I loved the line Rhonda capture that draws your eye through the photo. 

photo by Robyn Tucker

Robyn captured a fun angle with some awesome flare.

photo by April Williams

April's strong center focus beautifully captured Marina's classic beauty.

photo by Tierra Lowry

I love the way Tierra used Marina's reflection to balance the photo.

photo by Sarah Kitchen

Sarah's photo just makes me smile. Such real emotion and movement and fun in one frame.

I wanted to choose something that screamed this is Marina and was technically sound. I had to stay true to my preferences as well -- not overly processed, real, with a bit of something to set it apart.

I clicked on each to see them as large as possible. That's when I got nitpicky. I looked for focus. I wanted sharpness. I needed it to be well exposed. I wanted a photo that in 20 years you'd still hang on the wall in your living room. I wanted body parts not chopped and framing to be just so.

My final decision came down to two feet. Two feet captured at an angle that scream personality. Two feet that capture a young woman's confidence in front of the camera. Two feet that are framed beautifully and give me a bit of room to play if I was to frame it. Just enough sass to say, this is Marina. I loved too, that it was completely different than most photos from the day. Cropped square. Framed nicely, as if a square crop is what Lisa had in mind the moment she clicked the shutter. Yes, it is processsed, but not overly. I'm a suck for a great black and white!

photo by Lisa Smiley

Thanks ladies for sharing your Saturday with me! You all took amazing photos and should be proud of your work.

I Heart Faces Week 24 "All About Babies" Photo Challenge

I have many baby photos. My best are of other people's babies. I had a nice camera when my son was born. I had a good lens. Am I revealing too much if I say just five years ago, I didn't know much about how to use it. I knew even less about how to pose a baby. All about babies was new for me. And frightening.


He was small and fragile. And mine. So, rather than sharing a perfect baby shot of perfect little toes with the perfect depth of field, I wanted to share my baby at three days old. Thankfully I used natural window light here and not the horrible flash. The baby jogger was for perspective. That was a good idea. He'd fill it now.


I think it is good to remind myself that we all started our photographic journey somewhere.

Stop by Iheartfaces to see the other great entries this week!

I Heart Faces Photo Walk Through Sacramento

Can you imagine leading 26 women with cameras through your neighborhood? It was fabulous. I was honored to have the opportunity to share my passion with them and hope we can all meet again!

With the help of our amazing model Marina, shutters were flying as they gave her direction, changed angles, tried things they hadn't before and practiced what they knew.

Guess who only took 120 photos? Yes, that would be me. I loved capturing everyone else in action...and talking. I loved the opportunity to meet so many people obsessed with interested in photography.

Then it was off to lunch together where my everyday model appeared, helping me appreciate Marina even more.

You can see the I Heart Faces Photo Walk Across America from Kathleen Summers',  Robyn Tucker's, Tawney Brennfleck, and Sarah Kitchen's perspective and even more in the Photo Walk Across America Flickr Group.

Want to see other towns' walks? Here is the Bisbee, Arizona recap, photos from Orange County, and a Dallas recap by my friend Sarah.

Thanks to my dear friend Jennifer, who helped me with the photo walk. She took the less pleasant jobs of waiting on the corner for any possible late comers and feeding meters without hesitation!

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If you walked with us and I've missed your blog post, post the link so I can include it! Photo Walkers, don't forget to share your images with the Flickr group, hi res, non watermarked please.

Send your best three photos to the IHeartFaces Community by June 11th so I can pick a winner! THAT will not be an easy selection!

And I'm curious...which spot on our photo walk was your favorite?

I Heart Faces Week 20 "Faces & Flowers" Photo Challenge

Each week IHeartFaces posts a new photo challenge. It is a great way to spice up your creativity and try something you haven't before. I'll be leading the Sacramento IHeartFaces photowalk on June 5th too!

I love looking through my old photos to see if I can find anything that meets the challenge.

My entry for this week is from Kylie's Senior Portrait Shoot. We climbed a few hills and trekked through green weedy fields at 7 o'clock in the morning to catch the morning's beautiful even light. She took direction so well and added her own ideas in. I must admit, I got teary more than once seeing her through my viewfinder, remembering her as the two year old, holding up a finger on each hand as she toddled around saying "two, two, two."

200mm | ISO 400 | f/5.6 | ss 1/640

I Heart Faces Week 11 - Bundled Up

The theme this week at Iheartfaces is Bundled Up.

Ahhh, this boy. He loves the snow. I, however, am thankful most of our days are filled with California sunshine. This photo was taken in a parking lot in Sequoia National Park. The lodge we were planning on staying in unexpectedly closed and after some parking lot sledding, we headed home again. He didn't even now what he was really missing!

I Heart Faces Week 9 - Hilarious Outtakes

It's out takes week at Iheartfaces! 

Please tell me it was just a scratch.

Giving a whole new meaning to eye contact.

I Heart Faces Week 8 - Hands

This week's contest at Iheartfaces is "hands."

This is the photo I wish I had of my own son. This photo is THE reason I want to help moms understand how to use their cameras. I missed this moment when Ian was tiny. I don't want anyone to miss their moment.

Fix It Friday #42

You know me, loving a challenge! I gave I Heart Faces' Fix It Friday a try this morning.

Here's my take.

My steps:

• Import into Lightroom
• Added Matt K's Nostalgic Preset 
• Adjust blacks a tiny bit
• Adjust vibrance
• Add a little brightness
• Import into Photoshop
• Added Lynn Greiveson's Photo Texture
• Saved

You can see the original photo and more edits at I Heart Faces.

Texture Photo Challenge

This week's I Heart Faces photo challenge is textures. I love to find texture to capture in my photos and only occasionally do I add texture. For the contest I found some texture and added a little. This photo hangs LARGE in my dining room. I can just get lost in those eyelashes and his gaze. His fingers, draw me in every time. I'd love to have it printed on canvas, to up that texture feeling.

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I used Lynn Grieveson's Photo Textures. After placing the texture, I used the Overlay blend mode at 60% opacity.

Thank you for stopping by!

I Heart Faces Week 3 "We Are Family" Photo Challenge

I'm not afraid to admit the order of things around here. We all know who is in charge.

Visit I Heart Faces to view more families more functional than my own!

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Taken with the self timer, camera on a tripod at the request of the master of the house!

Week 2: Photo Challenge - "Best Face Photo"

I am, of course, quite biased!

Week 1: An "I Heart Faces" Photo Challenge

I love the i heart faces photo challenges! Always great to challenge my creative limits! I had a lot of fun with this week's challenge celebrating their one year birthday!

And the fine print:

I am submitting this photo into the I Heart Faces logo photo contest. By entering, I am granting I Heart Faces LLC permission to consider my photo for use in the marketing and promotion of this website.