Photographing eyes. . .

I am an EXTREMELY amateur photographer. My brain sees the picture I want to take, but my camera skills don't always allow me to translate that image to pixels.

When I view portrait photography I looooove the pictures that make the eyes really stand out.

Unfortunately, these pictures often involve doe eyed, blue eyed kids. . .

My babies have beautiful brown eyes. I think hat makes is hard to get those dramatic pictures.

I like a challenge! I am on a mission!

I feel like I achieved reflectivity and some clarity on these two pictures, but they are far from perfect.

I had to lighten them up during processing and that faded some of the detail. I had my f stop all the way down to 1.8, but I always forget to adjust the shutter speed!
 Shutter speed is my nemesis. . . .curse you thumb toggle!!!

Any suggestions are welcome. I am gonna keep practicing!

Summer evening. . .

Went for a walk with my fellas around the pond a few nights ago.




I then had to run back into the house for my camera!!!

This was the amazing sunset over our pond through my camera lens.

Not to be out done, Farm Boy took his own version from a different spot. Perty!

Next thing we knew the kidos busted out the Barbie Jeep

And went for a cruise. .

Happy trails, Lil Pardners. . .

Photo editing. . .

Here is the picture of my daughter's delight with just a basic fix of sharpening and black and white. I edited it quickly so I could get it up on the blog. In retrospect I thought it needed more work. . .

I am still fairly new at the photo editing game. Farm Boy has a natural ability to make the adjustments on the camera and then with the editing software. I am slowly (ever so slowly) learning . . .

I have gotten to a point recently where I can get the camera to do what I want it do do without much hassle, and am now trying to focus more on fine tuning on the editing side. We are currently using Picasa for this task. It is free and it is simple. Someday I wouldn't mind trying my hand at the PhotoShop Elements, but that is not in the budget right now seeing as how Farm Boy just bought a tractor. . .

Anyway, here is my second attempt at this picture of my girl. If any of my photo savvy friends has any advice, please, feel free to comment! I am always up for some constructive ideas!!!