LNR Lab - June

I am taking part in the LNR Lab, which is a mini-workshop of sorts. It is being run by Kristy from Life-n-Reflection. This lab is VIP only!

(Click HERE for more info.)

Our first experiment is creating calendars using the frames that she made. I've decided to focus on gemstones for my calendars. June's gemstone is pearl.




I've watermarked and resized my calendar, so I don't mind if you save it to your computer and use it as wallpaper for your pc. However, DO NOT repost it on your blog/flickr or claim it as your own work. And if you do decide you want to borrow it, please give me a shout out on your blog!

LNR Lab - May

I am taking part in the LNR Lab, which is a mini-workshop of sorts. It is being run by Kristy from Life-n-Reflection. This lab is VIP only!

(Click HERE for more info.)

Our first experiment is creating calendars using the frames that she made. I've decided to focus on gemstones for my calendars. May's gemstone is emerald.



I've watermarked and resized my calendar, so I don't mind if you save it to your computer and use it as wallpaper for your pc. However, DO NOT repost it on your blog/flickr or claim it as your own work. And if you do decide you want to borrow it, please give me a shout out on your blog!

LNR Lab - March & April

So, I recently found this blogger named Kristy. Her blog is called Life-n-Reflection. She has opened her LNR Lab for a bit of a mini-workshop. I'd give you the link, but it's VIP only!

(Click HERE for more info.)

Our first experiment is creating calendars using the frames that she made. I've decided to focus on gemstones for my calendars. March's gemstone is aquamarine and April's gemstone is diamond.




I've watermarked and resized my calendar, so I don't mind if you save it to your computer and use it as wallpaper for your pc. However, DO NOT repost it on your blog/flickr or claim it as your own work. And if you do decide you want to borrow it, please give me a shout out on your blog!

LNR Lab - February

So, I recently found this blogger named Kristy. Her blog is called Life-n-Reflection. She has opened her LNR Lab for a bit of a mini-workshop. I'd give you the link, but it's VIP only!

(Click HERE for more info.)

Our first experiment is creating calendars using the frames that she made. I've decided to focus on gemstones for my calendars. February's gemstone is amethyst.



I've watermarked and resized my calendar, so I don't mind if you save it to your computer and use it as wallpaper for your pc. However, DO NOT repost it on your blog/flickr or claim it as your own work. And if you do decide you want to borrow it, please give me a shout out on your blog!

LNR Lab - January

So, I recently found this blogger named Kristy. Her blog is called Life-n-Reflection. She has opened her LNR Lab for a bit of a mini-workshop. I'd give you the link, but it's VIP only!

(Click HERE for more info.)

Our first experiment is creating calendars using the frames that she made. I've decided to focus on gemstones for my calendars. January's gemstone is garnet.



I've watermarked and resized my calendar, so I don't mind if you save it to your computer and use it as wallpaper for your pc. However, DO NOT repost it on your blog/flickr or claim it as your own work. And if you do decide you want to borrow it, please give me a shout out on your blog!

Etsy... All the Cool Kids are Doing It

Back in August, I started tossing around the idea of possibly establishing myself as a photographer in business. I developed some vague long-term goals, I had a plan for how much I would charge, and I knew how many shoots I wanted to do per weekend. I even started putting together an small portfolio using photos of family and friends.

The idea has stayed somewhere in the middle of my mind (not my first priority, but something I still thought about daily) for the past 2 months. It had been working its way up on my to-do list as the holidays drew closer. Partially because I'd love some extra Christmas cash, but partially because I thought I could offer a better deal than the photo places in the mall.

Then, Rachel Durik posted an article on i heart faces about how hard it is to start a photography business. Her emphasis on the word 'business' stopped me dead in my tracks.

Who am I kidding?! I am not business-minded, not one smidge. I've never had a way with money or a hunger for enterprise. I'm lazy and content and, honestly, a little slow when it come to things like economics or statistics. (The only reason I passed my high school economics course was because every single test was open book.)

Well, there goes THAT idea.

Now what?

One of my steps to kick-start my photography business had been opening an Etsy shop. I was waiting to open a shop until I was closer to starting the business.

However, now that the business bubble has been burst, selling prints of my photos has become my new intent. I've had people offer to buy them before, and I'm pretty confident. I know I have a unique style of shooting and processing, and I know that my photos look good on a wall. (I know because I have them hanging all over the condo.)

Thus, I have now officially opened a shop on Etsy:

Artistically Amy
Providing unique prints for every room in your home!

Affordable, artistic photos printed in a variety of sizes. Get some for yourself, and for your friends.

All photos are unmatted, unless requested for an additional fee. Framing is not available at this time.

Order by December 15 to receive your prints by Christmas. Order 5+ prints and get free shipping!

Click on the banner to head on over to my shop.

december 2010 photo hunt themes

1. Holiday Lights
2. Holiday Spirit
3. A Holiday Treat
4. An Ornament
5. A Gift-Wrapped Package
6. A Window Display
7. A Winter/Holiday Icon
8. A Tree
9. A Tradition
10.Something that says Noel
11. Something Precious
12. Something Peaceful
13. Something Hot
14. Something Cold
15. Something Red
16. Something Green
17. Motion blur
18. Black & White Photo (with selective coloring)
19. Any photo using an Infrared Photography Technique (in-camera OR post-process)
20. A Macro Shot

click here to sign up!

november 2010 photo hunt

november 2010 photo hunt

1. Home Sweet Home
the front door to mine and Jon's condo


2. Thankful
for great friends and great music
especially together!


3. Family
my brothers


4. I Ate This - Thanksgiving edition
my mom's delish seafood stuffed shells


5. A Turkey


6. Something Handmade
I made this angel when I was about 10
yes, her wings are crooked.


7. Something Hot
170 degrees


8. Something cold
32 degrees


9. Something Orange


10. Anything Goes

Reflections 2010

Ashley Sisk (the photography goddess) is organizing Memories, Dreams, and Reflections 2010: Your Favorite Moments from 2010. Here is Ashley's explanation:

2010 is quickly coming to an end, so I thought we could celebrate the new year by remembering and reflecting on days past...and dreaming of of the future through photography. With that said, Shannie sent me a list of prompts a few weeks ago that you may have seen floating around Facebook. I have modified that list and posted below. I hope you will be inspired to take a walk down memory lane with us and share your favorites moments from 2010. Feel free to write as much or as little about each photo.

And here is the list:

1. Me! - picture of yourself (you don't have to show your face). What are you most proud of accomplishing in 2010?
2. I Love You - picture of your husband, boyfriend, children, pets, etc.
3. Still Laughing... - a moment you're still laughing about now...tell us a story.
4. Winter Wonderland - a picture that reflects Winter.
5. Birthday - share a birthday picture (your own or someone you love).
6. Friends - a picture with friends (this could be your friends or your children with their friends).
7. I Was Inspired... - could be a picture of your inspiration (person or thing), or inspired by...
8. Spring Fever - a picture that reflects Spring.
9. Travel or Vacation - a picture taken on vacation or on a recent travel experience, OR of a place you'd like to travel.
10. Summer Days - a picture that reflects Summer.
11. A Day In My Life - a picture of a typical day in your life.
12. All Smiles - a picture that makes you smile or of smiling faces.
13. Autumn Harvest - a picture that reflects Autumn/Fall.
14. Family - a picture of your family or a picture that represents family for you.
15. Celebrate! - a picture that reflects a celebration.
16. Let's Do It Again... - a picture of something you'd like to do again soon.
17. I Miss You - a picture of someone or something you really miss.
18. Beautiful - a picture of someone or something you find beautiful.
19. Dress Up - this might be a picture from Halloween or not...but someone who is all dressed up!
20. Macro - share your favorite macro image.
21. Holidays - a picture from the Holiday of your choice.
22. My Favorite - share your favorite picture or memory from 2010.
23. Don't Ever Change - something you love about yourself, someone, or something that you never want to change.
24. Just Because...So There! - share any picture(s) that you really want to share, but doesn't fit in any other category.
25. Hopes and Dreams - share what you hope to come or dream for 2011. Feel free to share an image of your choice.


I am super-excited about this! I shoot/process/edit so many photos that don't get uploaded to my blog. This is a good chance to show some of them off and get some feedback.


Click the button to go to Ashley's blog and sign up.

Hugs from Henry

For all my photographer friends:

Faith from Simplicity is spearheading this project called
Hugs From Henry - Love Lucas.



This project is being organized to raise money for a little boy named Lucas who has Down's. He needs physical therapy in order to learn how to walk, and to develop his motor skills.

I know all about family struggles with disabled children, and I know how costly therapy can be. My own younger brother received speech, oral motor, physical, occupational, and vision therapy as a child, and he is still entitled to these services.

Those services have pretty hefty price tags, and not everything is covered by insurance (even though it should be, but let's not go there).

So, Faith is forming a collaboration of photographers to volunteer to take photos of Lucas' sock monkey, Henry, as he travels around the world. Once all of the photos have been gathered, Faith will create a book of these photos, and all proceeds from book sales will then go to Lucas' family to help defray the cost of his physical therapy.

This whole story is very close to my heart, as are all those that involve children with special needs. I strongly encourage all of my photographer friends to go look at Faith's blog post about this project, and consider joining in.

Show Your Skills 11.15.10

This photo is copyrighted by Amanda Padgett.
All I did was edit it in pse8.

This is her SOOC shot:


This is my first edit with an action from AMP.
(lots of tweaking, as is my style)


This is my second edit using a texture from Shadowhouse Creations.

The Window to the Soul Photography Contest

a few weeks ago, i posted a photo of my best friend Caitlin on my main blog and entered it into a photography contest hosted by Allie and Amy. the contest was The Window to The Soul and the theme was Eyes....



i got 2nd place!!



i am going to be guest posting on Allie's blog (http://alliereid.blogspot.com/) soon, so stay tuned!

FreeUndelete

after my disaster last month involving deleted photos, I spent some time researching undelete programs.

there are several out there that can cost $10, $20 or $60, but there is no reason to pay for this type of program!

when you delete a file from an sd card, or even from a folder on your computer, it is not actually erased. it's moved aside to make room for new files. all you need is a command to bring that file back to its original spot in the folder or the sd card.

the free program that i downloaded is called FreeUndelete. it's free, and all it does is undelete your files. you simply click on the drive, select your files, and click the undelete button*. done! there is no spyware, no mailing list, no fee!

if you have ever had the unfortunate event of losing photos or documents due to accidentally deleting files, you should go download this program to prevent it from happening again.

*files cannot be undeleted after you format an sd card.

november 2010 photo hunt

rather than doing a full hunt with 20 themes in december, it was decided that we would all do a half hunt with 10 themes in november and another half hunt with 10 themes in december.

that makes it much easier to find all of the themes!

here are the theme for the november 2010 photo hunt:

1. Home Sweet Home

2. Thankful

3. Family

4. I Ate This- Thanksgiving Edition (if you don’t live in U.S then pick something you ate in November)

5. A Turkey

6. Something Hand-Made

7. Something Hot

8. Something Cold

9. Something Orange

10. Anything Goes (Any photo you take in November!)

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

tilt-shift photos

in learning how to do tilt-shift photos and experimenting with photoscape for the october 2010 photo hunt, i now have a little collection of tilt-shift photos.

here is one that kinda looks cool:



click here to see all of the october 2010 photo hunt entrants.

october 2010 photo hunt

october 2010 photo hunt challenge

1. in disguise


2. crisp


3. fall colors
every football fan has their own fall colors


4. jack-o-lantern


5. shot from the ground


6. landscape


7. fall tradition
tailgating!


8. books


9. dining


10. child


11. faces found in nature
sorta


12. tilt-shift
this was fun!


13. selective color


14. bokeh


15. my best photo from october 23


16. kitchen


17. something vintage


18. something creepy
*this is archived from 2007*


19. something golden


20. self-portrait



my photos have been picked as favorites for: crisp, bokeh, vintage, selective color, shot from the ground.

october update

there are 5 days left for this hunt, and i have no idea how much progress i've made. one of the themes is "best photo from october 23," so i took 200 photos that day. in transferring the photos from my memory card to my laptop, i accidentally deleted over 150 of them. so many of those shots had been taken specifically for photo hunt themes, and now i'm left with almost nothing. i am scared to look at the list again and see what i still need.

Spider Bow giveaway

I am having another giveaway
on my main blog, Artistically Amy.
It is for a spider bow
from the Avery Bowtique.
CLICK HERE
to read more details and enter!

Show Your Skills 10.17.10

This photo is copyrighted by Amanda Padgett.
All I did was edit it.
I used pse to add textures.

SOOC:


First edit using a bokeh texture from Shadowhouse Creations:


Second edit using a scratched texture from Shadowhouse Creations:

october 2010 themes

1. In Disguise
2. Crisp
3. Fall Colors
4. A Jack O’lantern
5. a Shot from the Ground
6. a Landscape
7. a Fall Tradition
8. Books
9. Dining
10. Child/Children
11. Faces formed in Nature (anything that looks like a face but isn’t)
12. Tilt-Shift Photography
13. B & W with selective coloring
14. Bokeh
15. Best Photo taken October 23rd
16. Something from the Kitchen
17. Something Vintage
18. Something Creepy
19. Something Golden
20. A Self-Portrait