365 Viewpoints - Cheryle Kupsch Photography - Fotograf Ludwigshafen Speyer

New posts on my new blog

2010-09-01T21:52:00.002+02:00

Anyone who wants to continue following me, please note that my blog has moved to this address: http://cherylekupschphotography.de/blog/

New blog posts are up on my new blog! :)

My Blog is moving....

2010-08-29T17:31:00.000+02:00

I'm in the process of moving my blog to a new address: http://cherylekupschphotography.de/blog/ to go with my new website.

Since I'm busy with setting up my new website and blog, I haven't been taking much pictures lately but hopefully the sites will soon stop dominating my time so I can get back to what I love doing!

This will will most likely be my last post on this blog, so if you're looking for me, just click on the link above!!

The Mirror

2010-08-28T10:46:00.000+02:00

THE MIRROR

The good you find in others, is in you too.

The faults you find in others, are your faults as well.

After all, to recognize something you must know it.

The possibilities you see in others, are possible for you as well.

The beauty you see around you, is your beauty.

The world around you is a reflection, a mirror showing you the person you are.

To change your world, you must change yourself.

To blame and complain will only make matters worse.

Whatever you care about, is your responsibility.

What you see in others, shows you yourself.

See the best in others,and you will be your best.

Give to others, and you give to yourself.

Appreciate beauty, and you will be beautiful.

Admire creativity, and you will be creative.

Love, and you will be loved.

Seek to understand, and you will be understood.

Listen, and your voice will be heard.

Teach, and you will learn.

Show your best face to the mirror,

and you'll be happy with the face looking back at you.

~~ Author Unknown ~~

new website!

2010-08-26T20:35:00.000+02:00

I've been slacking a bit this week on taking pictures. There's a good reason for it! I've been putting together a new website. There's still work to be done on it, but here it is live:
http://www.cherylekupschphotography.de/

And I've also edited a few nature pictures from our trip last week to the Mecklenburg Lake District, here is a little slide show of them:

Sunflare!

2010-08-24T23:26:00.000+02:00

After reading this post: http://www.facebook.com/notes/mcp-actions/sun-flare-how-to-achieve-this-special-light/412300856105 I was really inspired to try some of the tips for capturing a great sun flare. Walking through the forest gave me the perfect opportunity to test it out.

This picture was taken with my tamron 28-75mm lens, ISO 200, f/14, SS 160.

i heart faces "Beach Fun!" photo challenge

2010-08-23T20:34:00.001+02:00

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4074/4920337787_7c739587b9_b.jpg

This is a good friend of mine. We've been doing a 4 seasons photo shoot series and this was one of the pictures taken a couple of weeks ago for "summer". We had so much fun at the beach while doing this shoot! When I read what this week's theme was at iheartfaces, I instantly thought of this picture and knew this was the one I wanted to enter.

To see more "Beach Fun" pictures, be sure to head on over to iheartfaces:

http://www.iheartfaces.com/

4 Generations!

2010-08-22T22:13:00.001+02:00

Mirko's Opa just celebrated his 79th birthday. While we were there, we decided to take a 4 generation picture of his Opa, his father, of Mirko, and of Niklas.

Dragonfly

2010-08-21T17:51:00.000+02:00

We're on our way home from holidays right now and I'll probably be posting a lot of pictures from this week away in the beautiful forests and lakes area where we where outside of Berlin. For now, I posted a picture of a dragon fly that I was so happy to capture. They flew and darted by so fast and I was determined to capture one in mid flight. I did get a couple of pictures I'm happy with and this one is one of my favorites.

Holiday Break

2010-08-13T21:31:00.000+02:00

Just in case you're wondering, I'll be taking a 10 day break from my blog. ;-)
Hope you're all enjoying your summer!

EDIT Thursday

2010-08-12T20:38:00.000+02:00

Following my SOOC Wednesday, I'll be doing an EDIT Thursday. I may edit one of my own pictures or somebody elses picture. Today it will be somebody elses. A number of other ladies in a forum I'm on are doing the SOOC Wednesday and this straight out of camera picture was taken by one of these ladies of her son:

He's adorable and I just love his freckles!

I started off with doing a clean edit on the picture adjusting the white balance and running AMPs "clean it up" and "Daydream" actions, tweaking until I liked it:

Since I am lucky enough to be one of AMPs testers of a new set of texture actions that she's creating, I decided to work these actions for my edit. I am constantly amazed at Amy's talents in her photography as well as her photoshop actions and lightroom presets!! Here are my edits:

SOOC Wednesday

2010-08-11T23:48:00.000+02:00

This is the first post of a new tradition, "SOOC Wednesday". Every Wednesday I'll be posting pictures that have not been edited other than re-sized for internet. They are "Straight Out Of Camera" pictures. Since I've been trying to get practice in with my speedlight, my SOOC pictures today have all been taken using my speedlight. I had my tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens on. Camera settings were: f/2.8, SS 1/60(first two pictures) SS 1/100 (third picture) and SS 1/160 (fourth picture), ISO 200. The speedlight was set on TTL/BL at -0.3 exposure.

4 Seasons Photo Shoot - "Summer" Sneak Preview

2010-08-10T23:00:00.003+02:00

My friend and I have started a 4 seasons photo shoot series. We've done winter and spring and tonight we did some summer shots. Here is a tiny sneak preview of "summer":

i heart faces "Surprise!" photo challenge

2010-08-09T23:51:00.000+02:00

To see more "surprise" entries, go to iheartfaces: http://www.iheartfaces.com/

a few minutes each day....

2010-08-09T20:59:00.000+02:00

“The best inheritance a parent can give to his children is a few minutes of their time each day.”

~M. Grundler~

flowers flowers flowers

2010-08-08T22:55:00.000+02:00

Earth laughs in flowers.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dress Up!!

2010-08-07T18:52:00.001+02:00

Yesterday, I did a little photo shoot with Niklas. I hmmd and hawwwd about whether I should do it or not but in the end it was so much fun and I'm glad we did it. Whether or not he will appreciate this photo shoot when I show the pictures at his wedding is another question. But last night we had lots of fun and giggles together!

Just a little note: Niklas is wearing a dress that I received as a child from my Grandma.

Fix-It Friday #65 at i heart faces

2010-08-06T19:27:00.000+02:00

Fix-It Friday time at iheartfaces!!

Today's photo is of Andrea Riley’s cute little boy. Here is the original:

and this is my edit:

What I did:
I opened the picture up in Lightroom 3 and did minor white balance and exposure adjustments then went into CS5 photoshop with it.

I have found that AMP has a fantastic action for pictures that have shadows like this one. It's called Daydream and it's one of her freebies. It can be found here: http://amymcmasterphotography.com/category/amp-actions-lightroom-presets/freebies/photoshop/ I started off by running this action and then I even duplicated that action layer so that I had it twice. I masked out the eyes on both action layers, leaving a little bit on the eye on the right side of the picture that was in the shadows. I also turned off the haze layer in one of the action layers. Then flattened the image and ran AMPs clean it up action, tweaking the layers until I was happy and flattening it again. I also cloned out the very tiny bit hanging out of his nose and blurred the background a tiny bit. Did a slight sharpen on only his eyelashes, flattened and added a tiny frame.

To see what others have done with this picture, be sure to head on over to iheartfaces!

365 Project - Day 365!!!!!

2010-08-05T19:39:00.000+02:00

WOW! today is Day 365 of my 365 Project! I have really loved doing this blog and have learned so much!! This blog will remain in place and I will continue to try to post something daily on it. I won't be calling it a 365 project anymore or labeling my posts as "Day xx" anymore but it will still revolve around photography and editing and hopefully I can pass on some tips, great deals and inspiration for whoever follows it!

For my "Day 365" picture, I am going to post a couple of pictures taken from a photo shoot I did yesterday with Mirko and Niklas. I choose them to be the subject of the last day of this project because they have really given me extraordinary support and inspiration throughout the last year.

Mirko is so encouraging in his enthusiasm for my work and sacrifices so much of his time to help me along whether we are off trying to catch a sunset somewhere or do some night photography or be my assistant at a shoot or figure out my finances and translate my English into German and put up with me telling him he didn't translate it the way I wanted but I can't tell him what the right words are because my brain is a mash of English/German words and nothing is coming out right... you get my drift. He is there, he loves me, he is my biggest fan and my constant encourager and helper to keep on going in this direction.

And Niklas has been the one member of our family who can't run away when Mommy comes with the camera (well he can, but not fast enough!!) He has been asked, begged, and bribed to be photographed and posed whether he is sleeping, crying, happy, mad, playing, running, eating, using the potty, bathing whatever... My handsome little model!

Thank you Mirko and thank you Niklas!!
And thank you to the countless others who have let me photograph them, have supported me, followed me, "liked" me on Facebook, given me CC, tips, advice, actions, links and have listened when I was frustrated. I look forward to continuing on with my photography and am so excited to see where this path leads me!!

365 Project - Day 364

2010-08-04T17:57:00.000+02:00

Today a few photo props that I had ordered were delivered. I had to laugh when Niklas crawled into the bucket and started using the old phone. This was just a quick snap shot but also a hint of what is coming for tomorrow! :)

365 Project - Day 363

2010-08-03T21:48:00.002+02:00

Today my son came home after spending 4 weeks in Canada.

Do you think he would let me take a picture of him?

Yes, he did let me and I do have permission from him to post two pictures.

He has promised me that tomorrow I can also do a picture with his face in it!

And of course, Niklas loved the idea of doing these type of pictures and had to join in!

365 Project - Day 362

2010-08-02T23:17:00.003+02:00

who says boys can't play with doll buggies? Niklas loves his. He'll push his dolls around or he'll fill it up with cars and tractors and push them around and sometimes, he likes crawling in there and lets one of us push him around!

365 Project - Day 361

2010-08-01T23:21:00.000+02:00

Summer has come back again! It was quite warm so we got on our bikes and headed to the lake for a quick dip before bedtime. Well, Mirko and Niklas were in the water for a quick dip. I was in only up to my knees since I had my camera along.

365 Project - Day 360

2010-07-31T23:25:00.000+02:00

I see on my title that I have written Day 360. I know that I started this 365 blog on August 1st, 2009 so somewhere along the way, I seem to have lost 5 days. Oh well, it doesn't matter since I do plan on continuing on with it. I'm just not sure whether I should title this post Day 360 or Day 365!? I think I will just leave it as it is and maybe take the time within the next 5 days to do a bit of review over the last 365 days!

For today, I have a picture taken at sunset of the Ludwigshafen Rathaus (city council). We were in Ludwigshafen today for the street theater festival and really enjoyed seeing and being a part of what was going on. I have to admit, I did not take my camera out during the festival as planned. I enjoyed just being part of the crowd, a mommy who's child was doing "one two three" and then jumping like crazy. I needed both hands free to have fun with him today! But on the way back to the car, as the sun was setting, I could not resist taking my camera out as I saw the city council building reflecting clouds and buildings, a bridge and a whole lot of other beautiful things back for us all to see. I had to take a picture!

Newborn Posing Guide Giveaway!!

2010-07-30T22:05:00.000+02:00

This one is for all my photography friends. You don't want to miss out on the chance to win this!! Inspire Me Baby is offering a Newborn Posing Guide by Jacqueline!

For details, just follow the link: http://inspiremebaby.com/2010/07/27/giveaway-newborn-posing-guide-by-jacqueline-ends-81/

Fix-It Friday #64 at i heart faces

2010-07-30T17:45:00.000+02:00

Fix-It Friday time at iheartfaces!!

Today's picture is of a beautiful young lady contributed by Michelle Johnson’. This picture actually looks so great to me just how it is! Here is the original:

I started off with a clean edit:

and then a couple of fun edits:

For the clean edit, I brought the picture into photoshop and ran AMPs "clean it up" action on it (tweaked) then to soften her skin a tiny bit, I duplicated the layer and did quite a high gaussian blur on it which I reduced to 20% opacity and made it into a hidden mask, only revealing her skin. Merged the layers and did an unsharp mask (amount 20; radius 60; threshold 0) at a reduced opacity.

For the fun edits, I started off with the original in Lightroom 3 and used a preset from AMPs Just Beachy LR Presets called "ice cream cone" (tweaked) . From there I went into photoshop and ran MZ's XP soft action on it and tweaked it to get two different results.

To see what others have done with this picture, be sure to head on over to iheartfaces!

365 Project - Day 358

2010-07-29T19:30:00.001+02:00

Another rainy day today so more pictures taken practicing using my speed light. I really like the attachment I'm using on it right now. It looks like a big white ball attached to the speed light (kind of like a big light bulb) and it gives a really nice diffused lighting. In the last picture, you can see it clearly in Niklas's eyes.

Just so you can see what I mean, this was the attachment set that I bought for my speed light and the big white ball in the middle is what I'm talking about:

365 Project - Day 357

2010-07-28T18:23:00.000+02:00

I am always so impressed how easy it is now that I have my speedlight to take indoor pictures. I love the lightscoop too but the speedlight gives even more possibilities of having great light in all situations!

Today I just snapped a quick picture of Niklas sitting on the rocking chair giving me his cheeky little grin:

straight out of camera (sooc):

and because I can't resist giving pictures I post here on the blog at least a bit of an edit, here's an edited version:

365 Project - Day 356

2010-07-27T22:17:00.000+02:00

Today I got my tripod out and took some pictures of a pretty flowering vine we got some friends last month when they came for a visit. It was getting dark outside so I had to use quite a slow shutter speed, that's why I got the tripod out.

i heart faces "Purple Photo" photo challenge

2010-07-26T11:50:00.000+02:00

This is my entry for the photo challenge this week at iheartfaces!

This weeks theme is "purple" so the color purple needs to be in the picture as well as a face of course! I love this picture of my daughter. It was taken while I was testing out different attachments on my speedlight a few weeks ago.

To see more entries to the theme "purple" head on over to http://www.iheartfaces.com/!

365 Project - Day 354

2010-07-25T22:20:00.001+02:00

I had to get off my bike today and take a few pictures of the "weeds" growing beside the road.

retro version:

Fix-It Friday #63 at i heart faces

2010-07-23T18:19:00.002+02:00

Time for fix-it Friday at i heart faces!! And we got such a cute picture to work with today.

Here is the original:

These girls are so sweet and I would love to know what she is pointing at and they are both so interested in.

Since I don't know, I did try to fantasize what it might be in my edit:

I've always found the sky fascinating. Watching clouds, the sun, birds flying, stars, the moon... so, I decided to bring a bit of sky into the picture for my edit!

What I did:
I opened the picture up in Lightroom 3 and recovered the blown parts as best as I could. I also used a preset from AMP from her Shabby Chic LR presets callled "Retro Classic":
Then I opened it up in CS5 photoshop and cropped in a bit and brought in a couple of different sky textures I had. Then I ran two different actions on it (Paint the Moon's "marshmallow" and AMP's "rainbow smile") tweaking and fiddling until I was happy with it.

365 Project - Day 352

2010-07-22T13:54:00.000+02:00

365 Project - Day 351 Planet Photography

2010-07-21T21:40:00.000+02:00

I've been having too much fun experimenting with making more planets!! I promise there won't be planets on my blog post for tomorrow, but today I want to share a few more:

Niklas attacking his duplo men

some flowers on my balcony

Heidelberg

365 Project - Day 350 Planet Photography

2010-07-20T22:33:00.000+02:00

I have been experimenting with a new editing technique to make "Planet Photographs". It's a lot of fun!!

Here's one I did from a panorama picture I took in New York City in February:

This was from a 360° picture I took last night from the middle of the Old Bridge in Heidelberg:

and this is from a panorama picture I put together from a number of pictures of Brianna and Niklas taken today:

and if anyone is interested in trying this out, I followed a great tutorial found here: http://www.dirkpaessler.com/blog/index.php/photographers-tools/2006/09/06/tutorial-create-your-own-planets/

365 Project - Day 349

2010-07-19T23:47:00.000+02:00

Mirko and I don't get out for "dates" that often anymore, but tonight we had a babysitter and went out for supper in Mannheim and then drove to Heidelberg to watch the sun set over the Neckar. It was a beautiful warm evening and the sunset was perfect!

And a special "Happy Birthday" today to both my mom and my father-in-law. Both live too far away for us to spend time with them personally today. Missing family birthdays seem to make me feel extra homesick.

365 Project - Day 348

2010-07-18T23:04:00.000+02:00

365 Project - Day 346 Mannheim Water Tower | Mannheim Wasserturm

2010-07-16T10:26:00.000+02:00

Yesterday evening, we took a quick drive to Mannheim so that I could try out a night time shot of the water tower in Mannheim. We had to wait until 11 pm before it got completely dark so this was about the only angle/view of the tower that I photographed as Niklas needed to get home and go to bed! It was a beautiful summer evening and I would have loved to experiment more with night time photography so I definitely plan on doing this again sometime either with a babysitter for Niklas so I can stay out later or waiting until it starts to get dark a bit sooner!

Here's a bit of information I collected online on the Mannheim Water Tower:

"Mannheim's famous landmark stands on the highest point of Friedrichsplatz square. With its magnificent fountains, this square is considered one of Europe's finest Art Nouveau architectural ensembles. In the summer, the area around the water tower is a popular meeting point for people of all ages. It's also a great place to stroll, relax, enjoy festivals, unwind and escape the stresses of everyday city life. In the winter a Christmas market surrounds the tower."
http://www.live-like-a-german.com/destination.php?destination_id=140

"Mannheim is an attractive city called Quadratstadt (Squared Town), with the downtown laid out (unusual for an European city) as a checkerboard of 144 blocks. Each block is identified by a number and letter to designate an exact location.
In Friedrichplatz, the unusual Wasserturm (Water Tower) was constructed between 1886 and 1889 when the city decided to expand its municipal water supplies. The Wasserturm contains nearly a million gallons of water. Nearby there are ornamental fountains, and a conference and convention center."
http://www.travel-tidbits.com/tidbits/005869.shtml

"This water tower, the town's landmark, is completed in 1889. The height is 60 m / 197 ft, the diameter 19 m / 62 ft and the tank comprise 2000 m3. Until 2000 he did his job very well. On the top you can see the goddess Amphitrite, wife of Poseidon. The Austrian Engineer Oskar Smreker (1854 - 1935) planned and built this water tower."
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMDNC

365 Project - Day 345

2010-07-15T18:05:00.000+02:00

Due to a photo challenge I'm involved in, I did some experimenting last night with light in darkness. I was using shutter speeds between 5 and 30 seconds and experimenting with moving as well as stationary light. Here are some of the fun shots I got. Tonight I plan on experimenting some more in the city (if the weather permits!)

365 Project - Day 344

2010-07-14T18:47:00.002+02:00

365 Project - Day 342

2010-07-12T22:58:00.001+02:00

I love sunsets! And today we had a beautiful one! A storm is on it's way and hopefully it will bring some cooling air with it. Sunsets always seem to be especially beautiful before a storm!

365 Project - Day 341

2010-07-11T23:22:00.000+02:00

Niklas will pull the baked cheese off the taco chips but he LOOOOOVVVESSS his gaucamole!

365 Project - Day 339

2010-07-09T21:48:00.000+02:00

I had so much fun doing my first water drop pictures yesterday, I'm just going to post the slide show of the pictures I've uploaded to Flickr for today's post!

365 Project - Day 338

2010-07-08T23:15:00.001+02:00

After being inspired from some beautiful water drop pictures I saw today, I decided to also give it a try. I don't have a macro lens but my Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 seemed to be able to do the job fairly well too. These are just a few of the hundreds of water drop picture I took today!

Here is a great tutorial which I tried to follow, making modifications for the materials and equipment that I had: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwExpFDUC9Y&feature=youtube_gdataq

365 Project - Day 337

2010-07-07T23:34:00.000+02:00

These pictures were taken today before the Germany-Spain game today when everyone was full of good spirits and still had hopes and dreams of going on to win the Soccer World Championship.

365 Project - Day 334

2010-07-04T22:17:00.000+02:00

Our weather has been so hot and muggy lately. The only thing everyone feels like doing is sleeping. We try to keep Niklas awake or wake him up if he sleeps too long, but it is sometimes almost impossible! And I don't blame him, I think I'd like to just sleep this hot humid weather away too...

365 Project - Day 333 Beauty Makeover Photo Shoot

2010-07-03T21:29:00.004+02:00

Today was "Test Day" of an idea another mom and I have been playing with. She is almost finished her training as a professional make up artist and we thought it would be fun to team up and offer Beauty Makeover Photo Shoots. Since we're in the planning stage and wanted to see what was all involved for putting the details together, we decided the best way to go about it was just to do a test shoot on a few willing testers.

Here is just a sneak peak of some of the fun we had today:

Test Person number 1 Before:

and a couple pictures of Julia doing the makeover:

and two pictures (for now) of Test Person number 1 After:

That's all for today, but there will be lots more from this photo shoot to see in the near future in a flickr album here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantasiaphotos/sets/72157624414005644/with/4757797957/

Teenager Photo Shoot | Footshooting Jugendliche | Fotograf 67117 Limburgerhof, Ludwigshafen, Speyer

2010-07-02T21:11:00.000+02:00

Sundancer

Brianna and I had such a fun photo shoot last night. First of all the dancing in the sunset pictures. This was not easy for someone as shy as she is, but she did it! And I think she had fun doing it after she lost her self-consciousness. I am so proud of her!

And then to prepare for a photo shoot I have tomorrow, I asked her to be my model for me to test out some attachments I got for my new speedlight. Here is a little slide show of some of the pictures from both shoots:

I have no idea why the flickr slide show is showing every couple of pictures with faded colors! Here is the link to the flickr album where the colors seem to be normal: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantasiaphotos/sets/72157624401946990/with/4755676482/

365 Project - Day 331

2010-07-01T23:59:00.004+02:00

Yesterday you saw a bit of what was planned for a photo shoot I wanted to do with my daughter. We finally both found time today to test some of my ideas out. Here is a tiny sneak peak of a super fun photo shoot:

These type of sunset pictures really call out to me to be edited with my favorite action from AMP "Rainbow Smile" from her "A Little Sugar" collection.

365 Project - Day 330

2010-06-30T19:40:00.001+02:00

Today I wanted to do a bit of a practice photo shoot on Brianna and picked out a couple of props/costumes I had wanted her to try out for me. Guess who found them and decided to try them out? He's my little Dancing Queen! lol

365 Project - Day 329

2010-06-29T23:20:00.002+02:00

I’m a God fearin’ hard workin’ combine driver
Hoggin’ up the road on my p-p-p-plower
Chug a lug a lugin’ 5 miles an hour
On my International Harvester

~International Harvester by Craig Morgan~

(just click on this picture to see it larger)

*the storyboard template was made by Heidi (Louder than Words Photography). She isn't offering this exact template but she has another great one offered as a freebie on her blog today: http://blog.louderthanwordsphotography.com/2010/06/storyboard-freebie-akron-oh.html

365 Project - Day 328

2010-06-28T20:51:00.001+02:00

Niklas had his first tester afternoon at Kindergarten today. Usually he naps still in the afternoon so he missed his nap, had all the excitement of going to Kindergarten for the first time and to top it off, it is super hot and muggy here. He conked out in my arms a couple of hours ago and I could not resist taking some pictures of him. Sleeping children are the ultimate picture of innocence!

365 Project - Day 327

2010-06-27T19:33:00.001+02:00

My honey suckle is starting to bloom!!

It smells so beautiful on my balcony, especially since the jasmin is also still blooming!

Since we had company yesterday, I actually did not take any pictures. I took a lot today though so I'll include an extra one. As we were cleaning up in our yard today, my husband said to me, "you might want to go get your camera". This bug was sitting on the table watching us!

Bugs actually creep me out, but it fascinates me to take pictures of them. When this one suddenly flew at me though, I picked up my camera and ran away screaming!

Fix-It Friday #60 at i heart faces

2010-06-25T16:09:00.000+02:00

I love fix-it Friday at iheartfaces!! It's so much fun to experiment and get creative on someone else's pictures. It's teen week this week at iheartfaces so of course we got a picture to work with with a teen in it!

Here is the original, contributed by Susan Keller of her teenage son.:

I love sun flares so I for sure didn't want to try to loose any of it's beauty when editing, but I did want to try to make him stand out a bit more. I cropped in a bit and did a slight tilt on the picture (for some reason tilting it seemed teenagery to me, maybe because that's the viewpoint I seem my teenagers in since they don't seem to know how to sit normally!?). Since I am testing some new Lightroom Presets for AMP, I decided to open it up in Lightroom 3 first. I ran the preset "retro classic" from her soon to be released "Shabby Chic" collection then continued editing in CS5 photoshop. I ran "clean it up" from AMP's Squeaky Clean set but made it into a hidden mask and only masked him in. Then ran my all time favorite action from AMP, rainbow smile and tweaked it quite a bit. I was fairly happy with the picture but wanted to give it a bit more so I opened it up in Lightroom 3 again and ran the retro classic preset on the edited version I had so far. Then I added a rounded opaque thick edge from another set of presets that I am testing for AMP and had this:

I also wanted to test how it looked in BW so I ran AMPs Lightroom Cherry Cola preset (also found in the Shabby Chic collection) with a rounded opaque white edge preset and had this:

Be sure to check out the other fixes posted on iheartfaces:http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

365 Project - Day 325

2010-06-25T10:26:00.000+02:00

Sunrise Dewdrop

sometimes waking up early is just worth it!

365 Project - Day 324

2010-06-24T23:41:00.000+02:00

A few of the many faces of Niklas!

365 Project - Day 323

2010-06-23T22:34:00.000+02:00

Experimenting with texture today!

365 Project - Day 322

2010-06-23T22:32:00.001+02:00

Niklas stayed up very late last night and loved it!

365 Project - Day 321

2010-06-21T14:55:00.000+02:00

Today is officially "summer". It doesn't feel that way yet, Niklas and I still had jackets on for our walk this morning. But still, when I see this field of wheat ripening beside the road, it looks likes summer and gives me hope that we even get some days that feel like summer yet soon!

i heart faces "Celebrating Teens" photo challenge

2010-06-21T12:03:00.002+02:00

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4044/4714616740_93f2ff5361_o.jpg

This is my entry for the "Celebrating Teens" photo challenge this week at iheartfaces!

Joshua is 16, loves sports and this was one of the pictures I took of him during a photo shoot this winter. He amazed me at how high he could jump, especially considering that there was about a foot of snow underneath him for the take off!

Be sure to check out the other "Celebrating Teens" entries at iheartfaces: http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

365 Project - Day 320

2010-06-20T20:28:00.000+02:00

What Makes a Dad

God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle's flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so,

He called it ... Dad

- Author Unknown-

ps. you can download the template from mcp actions: http://www.mcpactions.com/blog/2008/05/31/free-10x20-dad-template-perfect-for-fathers-day-gifts/

Fix-It Friday #59 at i heart faces

2010-06-18T18:38:00.004+02:00

It's Friday and time for another "fix-it" at iheartfaces!

Here is the original picture, taken by Julie Rivera:

I seriously could not find much of anything to "fix" with this weeks picture and to top it off, she is just adorable! Here is what I came up with:

As usual, I opened the picture up in Camera Raw of CS5 Photoshop and did a really slight white balance adjustment and then brought it into photoshop. I ran AMPs "clean it up" action over it and "softly" from her "A Little Sugar" set. Then I choose a texture to play with because this picture was really calling out "texture" to me. I did a few different layers of the texture, masking out parts of her as I went along and changing the modes on the different layers. And in the end I brought a layer of just texture to the top, cut out the middle, leaving a frame. Did a drop shadow and a bevel and emboss on the frame. Then merged all the layers except the frame. I duplicated the merged layers layer and brought it to the top and made it into a hidden mask, revealing only parts of the picture (the top of her head, the bottom part of the blanket) to make it look as if she was crawling out of the frame.

A super cute and fun picture to play with!!
And if you want to see more "fixes" be sure to head on over to http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/!

365 Project - Day 318

2010-06-18T15:10:00.000+02:00

Today I was excited to get my new Nikon SB 900 Speedlight delivered! I'm really excited about learning how to work with it! Of course I could not wait to read anything but had to play a bit first. One of the things I tested was using it as a fill flash outside in sunlight.

The above picture is an edited version of my test shot. Here are the two straight out of camera pictures showing without the speedlight and with:

and I will include one more picture that I took just a few minutes ago. As I do this blog post, I am also keeping an eye on the TV. Germany is playing Serbia right now in the World Soccer Championship and it does not look very good for Germany. But they have one little fan here blowing away and making lots of noise on his vuvuzela!

Maternity Photo Shoot | Schwangerschaft Fotoshooting, 67117 Limburgerhof, Ludwigshafen, Speyer, Mannheim

2010-06-17T19:21:00.000+02:00

These pictures are a couple of months old already, but I thought I'd post them today since I have not shared them yet. These are from my first maternity shoot. We did the shoot on a Friday afternoon and Tuesday morning she had her baby! Luckily we got them done before he came!!

365 Project - Day 316

2010-06-16T20:13:00.001+02:00

I suddenly saw that it was getting dark outside and realized I had not taken any pictures today! I grabbed my camera and went out on the balcony and captured this little guy crawling on a weed:

and noticed that my chives that I have growing in a flower box are starting to bloom (again! I actually pick the blooms off so that the chives grow thicker and juicier instead of flowering):

And this is what I really like about doing a 365 Blog. I love taking pictures, but some days the "all day" stuff just takes over and I don't get around to picking my camera up. Thinking about my blog gives me that push to grab it and just take a few pictures. It only takes a few minutes and afterwards I am so glad that I did. I'm perfectly ok with missing a day or two if life gets so busy that it absolutely doesn't work, but I like knowing I have an "excuse" to take some time out of my busy day and relax a bit with my camera!

365 Project - Day 315

2010-06-15T16:44:00.000+02:00

First taste of watermelon this season.

I had to laugh as he decided whether he liked it or not.

In the end, the verdict was "like" for the watermelon and "yuck" for the seeds.

(love the little drop of watermelon juice hanging on his chin!)

365 Project - Day 314

2010-06-14T21:51:00.000+02:00

I got to do a photo shoot of this little sweetheart in March and

today I snuck a few pictures in again at play group.

Isn't she just adorable!?

365 Project - Day 312

2010-06-12T18:30:00.000+02:00

I'm always fascinated anew by the beauty of the "weeds" growing beside the fields!

365 Project - Day 311

2010-06-11T21:40:00.000+02:00

sun setting, seen through the wheat field

Fix-It Friday #58 at i heart faces

2010-06-11T18:50:00.001+02:00

It's Fix-It Friday at iheartfaces!!

The above picture, this week's photo, was submitted by Susan Keller from Short on Words.

I love this picture. I love the angle and the composition and the lighting with the sun flare coming from the back and the great background scenery with such a beautiful mom&son self-portrait! Great! I didn't want to change the feel of the picture by cropping or rotating so I decided just to play around with it and bring a bit more fun into it.

I opened the picture up in Camera Raw in photoshop CS5 and slid the recovery slider to 100% to recover as much of the blown areas on the side of mom's face as possible then went into photoshop with the picture.

I ran my very favorite starter action from AMP, clean it up, over the picture and tweaked the layers, trying to leave the background darker and lightening the front of them up. Afterwards I ran AMP's toothbrush action and just lightly painted his teeth a bit. Then I ran "oh snap" and masked it out and painted only them back in, leaving their skin out and flattened everything to end up with my "basic edit":

Then I ran AMPs hopscotch action over it (tweaked):

and using the basic edit again, ran one of my favorite actions from AMP, Rainbow Smile (tweaked):

and MomaZiggy's XP Colorful action over the basic edit:

I love being able to just play around and try and tweak different actions on a picture. Fix-It Fridays are great fun!! And if you want to check out more "fixes", be sure to head on over to iheartfaces: http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

365 Project - Day 310

2010-06-10T18:36:00.001+02:00

Isn't it amazing how many different little bugs there are? I have no idea what this one is, he had built a web inside the rose like a spider but would hop around like a little mini grasshopper and definitely did not like me approaching with my camera!

edited to add after receiving a tip from a lady from a forum I'm on and checking online, this seems to be a katydid nymph. Obviously the web was not built from it then! He may have just been checking out if there was a dinner to be had for free in the web! ;-)

365 Project - Day 309

2010-06-09T22:52:00.000+02:00

It was very hot and muggy here today.

Just going outside for a few minutes made Niklas so sweaty (and mommy too!)

365 Project - Day 308

2010-06-08T20:54:00.000+02:00

365 Project - Day 307

2010-06-07T23:35:00.000+02:00

I always find it amazing to find a surprise guest in a flower! I went up close to take a picture and saw this guy looking back at me, giving me his cheesiest smile!

365 project - day 306

2010-06-06T22:53:00.000+02:00

I love seeing the pure joy and delight in his face as he got to water the plants and anyone who came within range!

365 Project - Day 302

2010-06-02T20:18:00.001+02:00

It's a tea cup party!!!

Since I only have one large sized tea cup, this picture is actually a manipulation made up of 7 pictures:

I'll be taking a break from my 365 until Tuesday. See you again next week!

365 Project - Day 301

2010-06-01T21:35:00.000+02:00

When you go for a walk and see a single red poppy within a sea of white camomile, do you have to run home and get your camera?

...............................................................................................I do!

365 Project - Day 300

2010-05-31T21:53:00.001+02:00

Another picture of one of my favorite subjects! I had gone up the stairs and he was trying to figure out how he could follow me. It was a great way to get him to look at me while I took a picture!

365 Project - Day 299

2010-05-30T23:59:00.000+02:00

This is my sweet little kitten. Niklas has decided he is now a cat. He likes to eat and drink from a bowl on the floor. He sharpens his "claws" on the rug. He loves to be scratched behind his ears and will rub his cheek against my fingers.

I am amazed at how much he has studied our cat's behavior and can mimic it!!

365 Project - Day 298 Sneak Preview 15 Person Family Picture | Familien Fotoshooting 15 Personen, 67105 Schifferstadt

2010-05-29T23:59:00.000+02:00

Today I met up with a fantastic family for a photos hoot.

4 sisters, their husbands and their 7 children!!

I have never photographed a group this size so this was a great challenge for me! Lots of action and lots of laughing! And here is a sneak preview of today's fun:

i heart faces: Fix-It Friday #56

2010-05-28T16:05:00.002+02:00

It's fix-it Friday time again at iheartfaces!! And the picture this week is adorable as usual!
This week's photo was submitted by JaimeLee at Candidly Grateful. Here is what she wrote about her photo: "This is a photo of my twins at 6 weeks old. I love the photo because of their interaction and their faces, but I feel like it’s a little drab or flat. It needs some life."

Here is the original picture:

And here is my "fix":

As you can see, I had lots of fun playing with the pattern on the wall for my fix. I've had CS5 for a couple of weeks now and was looking for an opportunity to test out it's new Content Aware feature!!

To start off with, I opened the picture in ACR in CS5 and adjusted the exposure a bit. In CS5 I duplicated the layer and then used the quick selection tool and selected the pillow with babies and then went to edit->fill and selected "content aware" and it filled the babies and pillow in with the pattern (those babies looked like they had had an all body tatoo!) I decided 6 weeks was just too young for so much tatooing so I masked out the pattern on the babies. I set that layer on linear burn and did a green overlay on it.

Then I ran a few actions over it. All the actions I used are from Amy McMaster Photography: http://amymcmasterphotography.com/ I started with her "clean it up" action which I especially liked this time for the "yellow lifter" layer. The little guy was a bit more yellow than his sister, so I used the yellow lifter to take some of the yellow out of his face. (since the baby on the right doesn't have a headband on, I will call him a "he" and hope that I am right.... ) Then I ran "lost in translation" (tweaked), flattened the image and ran "mist" (tweaked) on top of that at 40% opacity. Flattened the picture and ran Amy's "soft vignette" action over it. And finally a framing action.

Since I still wanted to goof around with content aware, I selected, copied and pasted the pattern onto a new layer. Then selected the frame, but went onto the layer with just the pattern and again filled with content aware. Afterwards I reversed my selection and cut out the pattern from the middle of the picture and put the frame layer on linear dodge. And just to play around some more, I put a bevel&emboss on the layer and darkened the very outside edges slightly.

It may be too "patterny" but I kind of like the look and I sure had fun playing around with content aware while looking at these two sweeties!!

Be sure to check out more fixes at iheartfaces:http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

365 project - day 296

2010-05-27T19:54:00.000+02:00

Today I got a new photography prop in the mail, my jumbo tea cup!! Of course I had to test it out right aways. Even though Niklas is slightly too big for the cup, I still think he looks sweet in it!

the texture used to edit the background can be found here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/ohablizel/3173733169/in/set-72157603704553263/ And the whole picture has been edited with a fantastic new action from AMP: http://www.amymcmasterphotography.com/ that I'm testing for her.

365 project - day 295

2010-05-26T22:28:00.000+02:00

Niklas's tip of the day:

If you get tired from coloring and drawing,

playing with a Trabi and going "rmmmmmm rmmmmm" is very relaxing!

365 project - day 294

2010-05-25T21:31:00.000+02:00

I love how Niklas's eyes look like they carry sunshine in them!

365 project - day 293 - i heart faces "Yellow" Photo Challenge

2010-05-24T20:26:00.000+02:00

This week's photo challenge theme at iheartfaces is YELLOW. There should be something yellow in the picture and of course a face. This picture was taken this morning on our walk. It's a beautiful sunny day (the first one in a long long time!) and Niklas loves his walking bike with the bright yellow tire frames, handle bars, and his tiger duck that honks so people make way for him. He likes to bend low when he "rides" to keep the wind resistance down. ;-)

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4635369069_0ed21e32b3_o.jpg

Be sure to check out the other "yellow" entries at iheartfaces: http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

365 Project - Day 292

2010-05-23T13:33:00.000+02:00

"The man who does not give up can move mountains."
~Ernest Hello~

365 Project - Day 291

2010-05-22T13:52:00.000+02:00

16 years ago today, I was recovering from an emergency c-section after more than 48 hours of hard labor. I did not know that I was about to suffer a lung embolism and collapsed lung as a result of that c-section. I was unaware of how long the recovery time would be and how even a year later I would still have pain while breathing. I was only thankful for my healthy beautiful son and enjoying the first hours of getting to know him. I thank God everyday for him and the joy it brings me to be his mother. Despite the hard delivery, the lung embolism and the long recovery time, I wouldn't change a moment of having him in my life!

and guess what Joshua's very favorite cake is!

365 Project - Day 290

2010-05-21T18:53:00.000+02:00

After days and days of rain non-stop, it finally stopped! These are just a couple of fun shots taken quickly while lunch was cooking. Niklas and I had to get out for a bit and apparently Joshua did too and of course my camera was happy to shed the lightscoop and get out for some shots today as well!! I do carry a bruise now on my tummy after the basketball from the last picture slammed into it directly after taking the picture. Oh well, it was worth it and luckily it hit my tummy and not my camera!

i heart faces: Fix-It Friday #55

2010-05-21T12:19:00.003+02:00

Time for another "fix-it Friday" at iheartfaces!

This week's photo was submitted by Shelle from Mommy Can't Sing. She wrote: "This is a photo of my 16 months old baby girl. I am currently doing a 365 challenge where I take at least one photo per day. This was one of the photos. Unfortunately, before Daylight Savings a lot of time I was scrambling to take a photo before the light was gone. Well, in this photo it was beyond gone! But my baby was sitting there so sweetly that I couldn't resist taking her photo. The color is bad and the background is messy, but just love her face!"

Here is the original picture:

and here are my edits:

For this basic edit, I opened the original picture in CS5 ACR and using the dropper, I picked a neutral area of the picture to adjust the white balance. Then I upped the exposure and upped the luminance under noise reduction to get rid of the noise in the picture that came when the exposure was increased. Then I went into photoshop. When I work, I always duplicate the layer before applying any new edit so that I have the old version to fall back on in case I'm not happy with what my "experimenting" has created. And I experimented quite a bit on this picture so I will try to write what I did but I may have forgotten things.

The first thing I did was to do a highpass filter on overlay mode then make that layer a hidden mask and only brought in the edges of her eyes (the eyelashes), the irises and pupils at reduced opacity, and the mouth and nose area at even more reduced opacity. Then I reduced the opacity on the entire mask until I had it sharpened without looking over sharpened and merged the layers together. Then I ran AMPs "clean it up" action over the picture, tweaking and adjusting the layers until I was happy with it and flattened the image.

I lightly cloned in some of the darker shadows under her eyes did a gaussian blur on screen mode at 20% only on her skin and flattened the picture again. I have never done this before, but I noticed she had no catchlights in her eyes and they looked almost fake after they had been lightened with all the post processing done so far so I added catchlights by selecting a small area in each eye and filling it with white then erasing at 30% until I was happy with the way they looked. I also used the smoothing tool to blur them a bit.

Then I ran AMPs "softly" action from her little sugar collection over the picture and tweaked it a bit and saved it, producing the above edit.

For my next edit, I used the basic edit I had and ran Pioneer Woman's "soft and faded" action also tweaking the different layers and duplicating some of the layers.

And for my last edit, I ran AMPs sweetly BW action, again from her A Little Sugar Collection over the picture turning on the brown, cream and pink hazes (changing the modes to overlay and increasing the pink).

Just a little note, be sure to check out Amy McMaster Photography (AMP) http://amymcmasterphotography.com/ because she is in the process of releasing new actions, including "A Little Sugar Collection" which contains some of the actions I used on my edits today. If you hurry, you'll still have a chance at winning one or two of her action sets and as one of her testers, I can tell you, they are worth getting!!

And to see more "fix-it Friday" fixes, be sure to head on over to iheartfaces!!

http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

365 Project - Day 289

2010-05-20T12:49:00.001+02:00

Just doing some experimenting today with light/shadow extremes which I also emphasized in post processing.

365 Project - Day 288

2010-05-19T13:04:00.000+02:00

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.

~Maori proverb~

i heart faces "Faces & Flowers" Photo Challenge

2010-05-17T20:26:00.000+02:00

This is my entry for "Faces & Flowers" Photo Challenge this week at iheartfaces (http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/).

I was actually photographing the Japanese Cherry Blossoms blooming on the grounds of Schwetzingen Castle in Germany when I noticed that my two year old son had taken off and was hiding in a field of daffodils in full bloom beside the cherry orchard. Of course I could not resist getting down on my stomach and wiggling up to him through the flowers to snap some pictures of him!

Be sure to visit http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com to see more "Faces & Flowers" entries!

365 Project - Day 286

2010-05-17T18:32:00.000+02:00

Blessings streaming down on our little village!

365 Project - Day 285

2010-05-16T21:08:00.001+02:00

Just goofing around with my lightscoop today. I'm fascinated with eyes and love getting close ups focused on the eyes. The lightscoop makes such a great filler flash. It was afternoon and there was light coming in from the window but the lightscoop gave just enough extra light to fill his face in nicely and light his eyes up. I just did a really quick basic edit on this picture, basically just ran AMPs "clean it up" action over it and tweaked it a bit.

365 Project - Day 284

2010-05-15T20:14:00.000+02:00

It's cold and rainy here but the jasmin just keeps on blooming and blooming!

i heart faces: Fix-It Friday #54

2010-05-14T19:47:00.000+02:00

It's another Fix-It Friday at iheartfaces!!

This week's photo was submitted by Christina from 3 Sweet P's. She wrote: "This is a photo of my 2 year-old Parker. I am bothered by the harsh shadow on his face and the washed out colors of the photo. His eyes are a beautiful blue and you just can't see that. I would love to see what you guys can come up with!"

original picture:

I opened the picture up in Camera Raw in CS5. I adjusted the white balance slightly and added a bit of black then moved into photoshop. In photoshop I cloned the harsh shadow out of his face and the little red marks on the other side of his face. I did a slight crop and also ran a duplicate layer in multiply mode, masking in only his eyes and bright parts of his hair and then reducing the opacity until I was happy with it. Then I ran AMPs "clean it up" action over it and tweaked pretty well every layer until I was happy. I flattened the image then did a duplicate layer and ran a high pass filter over it, put it on overlay mode and masked in only certain areas of his face and eyes that I wanted to sharpen and highlight a bit.

And here is the basic edit I then had:

I then ran AMPs 1978 action (from her new action set being released soon!) over the edit:

and added a texture to this edit:

and finally ran AMPs BW Sunset over the picture

as well as her haze action where I could pick out which hazes and tints from the different layers I wanted to turn on:

Fix-It Fridays are always so much fun!!

Be sure to check out the other fixes at iheartfaces!

http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

365 Project - Day 281 Ascension Day in Germany

2010-05-13T17:40:00.002+02:00

Ascension Day is a public holiday in Germany to mark Jesus' ascension to heaven. It is the 40th day of Easter (or 39 days after Easter Sunday). It is also known as Father's Day or Men's Day in some areas of Germany.

What do people do?

Christians attend special church services on Ascension Day to celebrate Jesus' ascension into heaven. In some rural Catholic areas, a procession (Oeschprozession, Flurprozession) of religious banners is held in the fields around the villages. Four different Bible texts are read at four 'stations' during these processions.
The International Charlemagne Prize is presented in the city of Aachen on Ascension Day. It is presented to someone who made a valuable contribution to humanity and world peace, particularly in the field of western European understanding and community. It is named after Charlemagne (Charles the Great), who was the king of the Franks from 768 CE until 814 CE. Aachen was his capital city and he put a lot of effort to establish peace between warring tribes in and around his kingdom.
Ascension Day is also known as Father's Day (Vatertag) or Men's Day (Maennertag, Herrentag) in some parts of Germany. Groups of male friends or male relatives spend a day together. They often take part in an outdoor activity, such as a walk in the country or a horse-and-cart ride. Afterwards, they have a communal meal. (**I've only seen the guys pile a case or two or more of beer on a wagon and walk into the woods with this... when they come back, the wagon is empty ;-))

Public life

Ascension Day is a public holiday in all German states. Post offices, banks, stores and other businesses are closed. However, some tourist stores may be open and stores at railway stations, airports and along highways are usually open. There are some restrictions on selling alcohol, public performances and dancing. Public transport services may run as usual, a reduced service or no service depending on where one lives or wants to travel.

Background

Ascension Day is an important holiday for many Christians, especially Catholics. It has been a public holiday in the Federal Republic of Germany since 1936. It was a public holiday in the German Democratic Republic from 1950 until 1966 and in 1990, when Germany was united.

http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/germany/ascension

365 Project - Day 280 What is Lightscribe?

2010-05-12T18:43:00.000+02:00

I have to admit that I had never really heard of lightscribe before about a week ago.

As I get more and more prepared to enter the business side of photography, I was doing some thinking about how the CDs look that I hand out to my clients after a shoot. Let's face it, getting a CD hand written with a CD marker just doesn't look that professional (and not very pretty either!). My husband mentioned lightscribe to me awhile ago and it went in one ear and out the other... who knew what that was?? About a week ago as I was again complaining about how I hated the look of a handwritten CD for my pictures, he mentioned lightscribe again. I still didn't really understand what it was but I googled it and saw some of the pictures and it started to dawn on me, that this lightscribe was something pretty interesting!!

For those of you as clueless as I was, here is a link that might shed some insight: http://www.lightscribe.com/gettingstarted/index.aspx?id=95

I paid a visit to Amazon.de and decided to order an external DVD burner with lightscribe: http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B001ECT5K4/ref=oss_product. I also ordered the CDs I need in order to use lightscribe. Today was testing day! And I have to say that I am very impressed by the results:

i heart faces "Celebrating Mom" Photo Challenge

2010-05-11T20:01:00.002+02:00

The photo challenge this week at iheartfaces is "celebrating mom"!

A perfect theme for directly after Mother's Day.

Here is my entry:

I must admit, that I felt "celebrated" this Mother's Day! My youngest is fighting a cold and needed some extra cuddle time. I was cuddling with him on the couch when my three oldest ones decided they also should join in the cuddle time. My husband came and snapped a few pictures of the fun and goofing around and I had choosen a few of these snaps to put in a collage. Later that day, my kids came to me and said that they had something for me and handed me a little red paper heart with the words "wir sind dankbar für..." (german for, "we are thankful for..."). I was told to start hunting to find out what everyone was thankful for. It was so fun searching for these little paper hearts with everyone telling me how "cold" or "warm" I was to one! I decided for this weeks challenge, I wanted to share a bit of my celebration this year so I took a picture of the collage being displayed on my monitor together with the paper hearts from kids. The words on the hearts, are typed in text around the frame: "wir sind dankbar für..." (we are thankful for...), "für einem da sein" (being there for us), "deine Ünterstützung" (your support), "deine Liebe" (your love), "Sicherheit, die du schenkst" (the security you give), "Geborgenheit" (caring). I also included the rose in the picture that was handed out in church service that morning reminding us of the mothers in the Bible, who were no different than we mothers today.

To see more entries to this week's "Celebrating Mom" challenge,
be sure to drop by the iheartfaces site: http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

365 Project - Day 278

2010-05-10T18:38:00.001+02:00

a pretty little weed growing through the concrete beside our garden wall...

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it....
People think pleasing God is all God care about.

But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.

~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, 1982~

365 Project - Day 277

2010-05-09T19:47:00.000+02:00

Happy Mother's Day!

I am truly blessed!!!!