Obsessed with Photo Editing

I stayed up way too late the other night playing with photos. Our guest bathroom needs some black and white prints for some frames I already have, so I went looking through pictures we've taken on trips to see if anything struck me.

First, I took these taken on our trip this past Spring and converted them to black and white using Picnik:

Eiffel Tower - even though I've seen photos of it so many times, coming up from the subway and seeing how large it is took my breath away


Arc de Triomphe

Notre Dame Cathedral

While pretty, they seemed a little generic. And then I played around in Picnik with this one taken from the top of Notre Dame and liked the mood:

Before

After

For the other one, J helped me decide to go with a photo I took from the Bridge of Sighs in Venice back in 2005. (Which I will always be fond of because someone found it on Flickr and short-listed it to be on an online travel guide...even though I don't think it was ultimately selected.) 

I was originally thinking of blowing it up along with some other photos from that trip and putting them in large frames in our living room, but we decided it was just too much with the other things we have going on in there, so it freed it up to complete the pair of black & white prints needed in the guest bathroom. I like that they're both taken from a vantage point of a well-known place, and that it's not immediately clear where the picture was taken.

Before

 The story that goes along with the Bridge of Sighs is that it was the last view of Venice a prisoner would see before being led through to the executioner (although not true by the timing of when the bridge was built)...but what a view to think of!

 After

I kind of love it in color more, so I continued to play around with some other effects on it. The cross process used below is my new favorite one to slap on every photo I upload just to see how it looks.

I haven't ordered any photos in a long time, so I ordered quite a few as long as I was paying for shipping.  The mats for the frames I'm going to use are a weird size (6x8), so I ordered from RitzPix since that was the only place I could find that offered 6x8s -- hopefully the quality is okay.  If I do end up doing some enlargements of the other photos I was thinking of, I will most likely go with Mpix and get their metallic finish. What's your favorite place to order photos from?

And since I'm loving that cross process effect, and because I found a coupon code for 2 free 8x10s, I ordered these that I took for the gallery wall in my office area:

At the Texas State Fair a few years ago after the TX-OU game...I think my friends may be riding the swings at that moment.

Point Dume in Malibu taken during a residency interview trip...J may have taken this but I think it was probably me. (We each like to think we're the best photographer.) This is also where this fave photo of us was taken by a kind stranger, which I also finally printed out!

What do you use to edit your photos? Maybe some day I'll be fancy and own Photoshop, but for now Picnik and I are BFFs.

Sum, Sum, Summertime!

As if I didn't want it to be summer already, the new lookbook from Ruche is certainly doing it!  I just cannot get over how beautiful the styling and photography is.

(If you're reading in a reader, you may have to click through to see it.)  Here are some of my abso favolutely favorite looks:

The Scrabble letters are too cute.

Sandals, get on my feet!

I love everything about this photo.
Note to self: Try out red lips.

If my wedding was a beach photo, this would be it.
(It had a lot of navy, with a few navy & white polka dot accents, and cheery yellow flowers)
I adore everything about this as well.

I (almost) wish my hair was long again so I could wear a braid like this.

Are you with me on summer? Have you made any new shopping discoveries lately?

Sharon Montrose on 20x200

I love Sharon Montrose's work. (You've got to check out her new-to-me Dog Photo Booth if you haven't seen it!)

Today, her Baby Giraffe No. 5 is on sale at 20x200.  They're almost sold out of the 8x10s, and I'm seriously considering springing for the 11x14 at $50. 

Have you ever purchased anything off of 20x200?

P.S. In other animal news, tonight is a Wüf Wedding at Lee Park here in Dallas. Your dog can be joined in holy muttrimony with another pup, complete with a reception and doggy and human wedding cakes.  (The canine bride and groom exchange biscuits as a sign of their affection.)  Totally crazy or makes-me-wish-my-dog-had-a-significant other? Maybe in the next year or so she'll find her soulmate, she's only 5-7 dog years right now.

Awesome Photography

How cool will it be when these little girls grow up and have such amazing photos to document their lives? Photos by jwlphotography found here.



I don't know how he gets these. Amazing!


Oh, and his wedding work's not too shabby either. (By the way, what is up with all the photography GENIUS out of California? Jasmine Star, Jose Villa, Sarah K. Chen, Jessica Claire...) I wish I lived there.