When I took our puppy, Ruby, out this morning to potty, I saw that this snow wasn’t going to last long.  It was so soft & fluffy, and stuck beautifully to the trees around our house.  I went back inside & snapped the photo above of a little tree.  There wasn’t anything spectacular about it.  I think shooting in snow is a little difficult.  It’s hard to make white things stand out when there’s nothing but white behind them.  So, I opened this photo in Lightroom & decided to try some of the free presets I downloaded on it.  This preset is called “Cold Desire.”

And that brings me to the Photos I’ve been looking at:  Presets Heaven.  Pierre created the site Presets Heaven and it holds nothing but FREE presets for Adobe Lightroom.  They are awesome!  There are soooooooo many to choose from.  I loved how this one made my one little snow covered tree stand out from everything else behind it.  What a huge difference!  Here’s how the photo looked SOOC (straight out of the camera):

Now I realize I just blogged earlier about NOT fixing things in Photoshop, and I don’t feel this photo needed any “fixing.”  I just wanted to play around with it & see what I could transform it in to.  I had fun!

Happy snow day….again!

Here’s a tease from Mark & Lindsey’s engagement.  I also wanted to share with you and ask you what you think of this “effect” I put on their photo?  I’m trying a retro/vintage look….kind of like old Polaroids.  It’s fun to experiment.  Let me know your opinions, and any ideas as well.  I’d love to hear them!

*make sure you click on the photo for a larger view

The left is the one with the “retro” effect, the right is the original.

So I’ve been totally inspired by all these great Christmas cards that people with mad Photoshop skills are creating (especially Amy Wenzel’s Swiss Miss Design Haus)…and I decided to try my hand at an original, funky, fun, Christmas card. It features Mike & Rachel and some not-so-traditional Christmas colors. BUT, there are snowflakes! Enjoy!

This next one is another vertical card, but 4×5.5 inches, featuring Bella. The color scheme shows various shades of red and gray.

The third card you see is a 4×5.5 inch horizontal card, featuring the Foley family. It’s much simpler, but I love the rich red & gold.