Clouds + Catty Escape

For some reason I recently felt compelled to attempt one of those 30-day photography challenges.    Day 3 was "Clouds," for which I lazily pointed my camera at the sun and snapped away. "Clouds" - check!  Not surprisingly, after day four I got bored and quit.

Cloud pictures are kind of hard to f*ck up.  See a cloud, snap a picture; it looks fabulous because clouds are awesome no matter the angle.  More exciting, is that the cat almost semi-successfully escaped our apartment.

I'm sure this little photo session started out with me talking to Pooper, "Is my little Poo Poo Bear having fun looking outside and smelling the fwesh air?" - or some other stupid baby talk along the same line...

I kind of forgot that he has a tendency to want to explore everything, and off he went!  He began walking along the outside edge of our sliding glass door.  This might not be a problem, except we are not on the ground floor, and thus have a glass sliding door that could lead to a nasty fall (if stupid bars weren't in front of the opening).  I was forced to toss my camera to the side and try and retrieve the clueless cat before he realized he couldn't get anywhere and would have to struggle to back up along the little edge to get back inside.

He is such a terrible beast (albeit now safe and sound), but at least I got a few useless cloud pictures.

Recapping The Big Day!

It has been exactly 2 months since our wedding, and I now have the precious disc of wedding day images in my possession! I wasn't exactly sure the format for which I would share the photos (one massive post, a million little posts, a bunch of posts in a row, a bunch of posts spread out over a few months, etc).  In the end I decided to follow in the style of WeddingBee, my wedding planning refuge for the 8 months leading up to my wedding.  I'm going to spend the next few days recapping in a few wedding posts (with each post highlighting a different aspect of The Day), and then be done with it!

Tomorrow I'll begin with our venue, and then move on from there:

-Getting Ready
-Bridal Party
-Ceremony
-Bride/Groom Portraits
-Reception


I think our amazing photographers need to be recognized for their achievement in this ordeal.  I have never thought myself a photogenic person.  I simply don't know how to pose/not look stupid for a picture, so our photographers seriously worked a miracle!   We hired [Once Like a Spark] to capture our wedding day photos, and I am so pleased with their work!  Here's a little preview so you understand the awesomeness to which I am referring.

With our wedding being in the city of Atlanta there was a sh*t ton quite a few photographers to choose from.  In then end I decided upon [Once Like a Spark] for a few reasons:

-I loved their shooting and editing style.  Less formal poses and more natural, photo journalistic style shots. 
-We get the rights to the photos and can do with them as we please.
-The price was the best that I could in Atlanta find for the quality/type of images being produced.

I would totally recommend them to anyone needing a photographer.  Also, they have photographers all over the US, so that's pretty convenient.


To recap the recap: I'll start wedding posts tomorrow, which will continue until the whole freaking day has been shared. Yaaayyy!! If you don't give a crap about strangers' weddings, check back in a week for new posts on custom leather luggage tags and key chains and evil catties.

HDR with Photoshop

After playing around in Photoshop today, I discovered the HDR Toning option!  I've always loved the appearance of HDR, but the few attempts that I made to try and create my own while I was taking a photography class in college were not successful. :(

Jump to a today: I figure out that Photoshop gives you the ability to quickly and easily give your photographs the HDR effect.  I tried it out on a few of my pictures from Peru.  So far, I've just been playing around with the different settings to try and make a somewhat interesting picture.  At some point I'd like to actually research the process more to know exactly what the crap I should be doing...

Anyway, here are the "before and afters"  

A Little NY Side Trip

Two weeks ago I attended a wedding in Western New York with my better half and some friends.  It was delightful! Before the wedding, however, we did a little exploring around the suburbs of Niagara Falls, and then visited Niagara Falls itself.

 I included this image because my left leg looks like the backward-legged aliens in the movie, The Arrival. 

I don't think my leg actually looks like that in real life (jeans malfunction?), but perhaps it does and just no one has had the heart to tell me...

Niagara Falls: Tourist Overload

Favorite Shops: Kip Holm Photography

During an aimless wandering through Etsy, I stumbled upon the shop of Kip Holm Photography.  I am an avid cat lover and the photos of the seller's Scottish Fold, Duncan, totally drew me in.  They are so unusual and playful, and at times, are quite humorous!  Below are a few of my favorite prints offered in the shop.

 Look at those eyes!

 Apparently this cat sat like this on a regular basis. I love the stare.

 Aww, sneaky little catty! He looks so cunning, like he's plotting some serious toilet paper roll destruction...

 I think I officially love this cat.