2008:

Geez. Was looking through my pictures from the weekend and just couldn’t believe how old the kids are looking. And me. I know I see them everyday but – Wow! – when you see it in a picture its totally different.

Okay, so Friday afternoon I see X reading Deathly Hallows and encourage her to keep reading so that we can watch Part 1 of the movies on Mother’s Day. Later on that evening, an idea strikes me and before I can stop the words they are out of mouth and dangling before her eyes. I said, “I’ll let you drink a cup of coffee tonight if you stay up and read Deathly Hallows.”

She was on that deal without thinking twice.

She poured her own cup, added Fat Free French Vanilla creamer, then proceeded to tell me she was going to drink it just like me.

I wasn’t really sure how I drink the coffee in a way that she could mimic, but alas, if anyone would catch it – it would be her.

Can I just tell you that she drained this cup. Not a drop left.

And then she read….and read, till it was almost midnight!

Now the funny part of the story is that at 7am she came into my room, holding her stomach, and said, “Mom – my stomach hurts really bad and I can’t stop going #2″

Ry and I looked at one another and laughed, then explained that it was probably the caffeine.  She took a Tums and went back to bed and felt fine when she got up around 9am.

After Team Newcom (the 4 of us) all worked together (as a team) to clean the house she went back to reading.

She’d stop me and say, “Ahhh – Ron left them!” or “The sword of Griffendor just appeared!” as she read and got excited as the plot thickened.

When the neighbors came over to see if she wanted to play she said no, that she was reading.

Seriously.

What joy it was to see her sit and read all morning.

She didn’t stop until 1pm when she absolutely had to get  a shower so we could go to a Birthday party at 2pm.

Fast forward to Sunday morning, she was up and showered before I even got out of bed and she read up until we had to go to church. And she brought her book with her to church.

And then she read it at Fralo’s while we waited on our pizza.

And then for 2.5 more hours when we got home from lunch, again turning away her friends who wanted to play.

Until finally, at 5:20pm she finished Chapter 23, the chapter that ends the first movie. We made popcorn and got comfy for the next 2.5 hours, watching Deathly Hallows Part I. She absolutely loved the movie and now cannot wait to watch Part II…..which ultimately means more reading!

I’m so very proud that she’s reading (and understanding) this book all on her own. I’d often wondered if the day would ever come.

But, Oh, what a weekend. Drinking coffee and reading Harry Potter incessantly…..it’s a little mini-me. My cup runeth over.

Second: Adobe LIGHTROOM is my best friend. We spend a lot of time together.

Lightroom is where I upload all of my RAW images to. Yes – I shoot all my pictures in RAW mode. I started a few years ago and have never turned back. Actually I did turn back once and it threw me all off and in frustration I vowed to never do that again.

I’ll pause here and say that I like RAW images because I can manipulate so much in Lightroom and Photoshop. Basically they are not compressed (hence their huge size) so you can warp, modify, saturate, filter, and sharpen till you are blue in the face and then compress to jpeg when you have the picture the way you like it. I need this ability because I don’t get the lighting right the first time around. I’m not afraid to admit it. I’m getting better but I’m no expert on lighting.

Now, in Lightroom, I use Totally Rad Actions designed specifically for Lightroom. I LOVE them – couldn’t live without them as a photographer. The are so fast (compared to Photoshop Actions) and really easy to use.

If I’m doing everyday pictures of my family my editing process stops at this point in Lightroom. I export the pictures I’m blogging strait to my blog pictures folder and burn to full size jpegs all the other “keepers” that I want.

If I’m doing a photo shoot of someone else, however, my process continues in Photoshop. I’m using Photoshop CS2. The product is so expensive that I don’t even allow myself to think of an upgrade. So I’m happy to have CS2.

In Photoshop I also have a set of actions from Totally Rad Actions. I love these too but just not as much as the Lightroom actions. These take a while to run (maybe that’s because I’m using CS2?) and had a bit of a learning curve to them that frustrated me at first. The benefit is that they have a lot more depth and manipulatability.

Here are some examples from some of the Senior Pictures I did with Josiah a few weeks back.

I included my completely unedited version to show the major differences.

LR2 TRA is Totally Rad Actions for Lightroom 2. PS TRA is the Totally Rad Actions for Photoshop.

This last picture, especially was saved by taking in RAW and editing with Actions. My out of camera pic had decent composition but entirely way too much shadowing on his face.

Here are a few of the other shots that I took of Josiah edited through both Lightroom and Photoshop. The pictures I posted last week were Lightroom edited only.

I’m not sure if this helps anyone, hopefully it does.

Questions? Ask away….

One day X told me that her teacher said to the class, “don’t bother me during announcements because that is when I’m praying for each one of you!” or something to that effect. I though that was simply incredible!

From where I stand her prayers (and my own) are being answered because X has been (girl)drama free nearly all year and her grades are doing much better (most clothing is still prohibited though).

With Teacher Appreciation coming up, X wanted to do something unique and cool for her teacher. I suggested a canvas so she asked her teach what her favorite Scripture verse was: Psalms 3:5-6.

With a little acrylic pain, foam stamps, and a Sharpie Paint pen we worked our magic in no time.

This is X the morning she was going to give her canvas to her teacher. She looks young here, I think its because she just woke up and showered.

I’m telling you these canvases are the easiest thing to do  – and perfect to give as gifts.

You may remember Josiah from this past summer. We “hired” him to help remodel/rebuild our house.  He did the crazy things that Ryan didn’t want to do – such as vacuum the raccoon poo out of the attic.

He’s a pretty amazing kid.

“Kid” – he’s 18. I think that means I’m officially old because I see 18 year olds as “kids”.

He has a hook up with some land that George Straight owns here in town because he works at the golf range that George’s son owns. This land has some of the oldest (abandoned) homes in the area. I’ve actually eyed these old homes quite a bit during wildflower season, knowing how cool they would look in a photo shoot.

The down side was the distance we needed to walk to get there. The weeds were high and scratchy, the ground muddy. I tried not to complain too much.

I got some payback by having Josiah pose in the grass for some “wacky” photos (as my Philippines friends say).

Josiah is quite a talented film maker.  Because he knows “camera talk” he kept asking questions then asking to see the shot I just took. After every pose. I finally joked about never volunteering myself to take photos of a videographer again because they’re all up in my business. It got better after that.

This old house had a toilet inside.

Josiah was crazy enough to sit down on it.

There are no other words that could be said here.

He’s also a big fan of Christian “metal”. I’m not even sure thats what it’s called but from what I understand it’s like Pantera born again and singing about Jesus. He had to get some pictures with his favorite band shirts on.

As you can see, the shirts bring out the best in him.

That one just make me laugh.

That one too.

This one is my Napoleon Dynamite pose. Just call him Uncle Rico.

After 90 minutes of shooting, I was getting sunburned and exhausted. I had tons of fun with Josiah. He did any crazy thing I asked (like skipping through this field) which kept me laughing constantly. He was the ultimate cooperative subject (as we photographers call them).

So…need a video? You can find Josiah’s film making business here.