Crush on I Heart Faces | Beautiful B&W

The gals at I Heart Faces have changed things up a bit. They are now hosting monthly photography challenges with cash and prize giveaways!! If you have a beautiful BW image with a face, enter it into this month's challenge.
I entered this one of our Ruby.  She is so delicate, so gentle--an old soul. For me, her childlike sparkle and intriguing mind come through in this shot.I often leave for the day before the babies are awake in the morning. Seeing Ruby's gaze each morning puts a smile on my face as I shut the door and take on the world.

Visit i heart faces to enjoy all the entries.

Crush on I Heart Faces | On Your Feet

Wow--that was a long time away from I Heart Faces to tackle the super busy family portrait season. I've started to kick my own feet up a little as we settle into the Christmas spirit with friends and our family. Here's an "On Your Feet" shot for this week's challenge-- Mama had the baby's foot photo from our newborn session made into a tattoo on her own foot. Here's the tootsies one year later...

i heart faces

Thanks for poppin' in. We'd love for you to stick around here--follow the blog or come hang with us on Facebook. 

Crush on Slice of Life {i heart faces}

slice of life.
our marz in her box clubhouse. dreaming of being a princess. our little kingdom. my royalty. 

i heart faces

slice of life

crush on hearts

the heart photo challenge

What a topsy-turvy way to come about a photo challenge. If the process were mapped it would look something like this:

So there you have it--the January/February 2011 challenge is about the heart. Anything to do with the heart--the organ, courage, love,  that which makes your heart beat each day. Photograph what your heart desires and find your way to our Facebook wall to publish it.

how to participate

1) upload your heart inspired photo to our facebook page

2) include this link in the status of your photo upload

 http://skyesnyder.blogspot.com/2011/01/crush-on-hearts.html

3) return here and let us know you entered in the comments below

4) encourage your pals and family to participate 

5) please, only one entry per person

6) deadline to enter is jan 31st. winner will be announced feb 14th.

with love - skye {xo}

Crush on Beginnings

With 2011 fast approaching, I thought it fitting to consider a photo challenge to kick start the new photographic year. Many people, pros and hobbyists, have undertaken the Project 365- a photo a day. After 365 days of observing your world like a photographer, it starts to look different.  There are many of these 365 days of___________.  Jotting down something for which you are grateful, eating a salad every day, spending $1 less than the previous day, etc and my MUST-DO List, dare I say, resolutions have started to flood in.
1) After photographing and/or editing for 365 days x undisclosed # years = stagnant or stale
    After photographing and/or editing for 365 days x undisclosed # years =  reinvent, reinvent, reinvent.
I'm shooting for the latter.
2) After viewing the i heart faces, self-portrait challenge, I realized that I have never done this. I always thought a self-portrait was one that the artist composed of him/herself. In the challenge, it appeared there were photos taken of a photographer by someone else. Do you think this is a self-portrait? #2 on the MUST DO: A true and intentional self-portrait. They are difficult. Focusing, composition, spontaneity, the self-reflection,  and the message. Tough.

* going to take one that doesn't have a black box in my face.

* way too grundgy. definitely doesn't say anything about who i really am. this is what i look like though.

3) Film my children more. play with moving pictures more. compile a short film. for me.

4) Become a better cook. I love food photography and the artistry of cooking but I'm really no good at cooking. Our families have furnished us with all types of culinary tools. So many, a special cupboard in the garage has been given to them. Watch out basil! I intend to use you up in 2011.

5) Hopefully, that cooking will lead to lots of food photo opportunities which leads to me photographing a food spread for my beloved, Sunset Magazine.

The list is much, much longer. It has to be in order to fulfill MUST DO #1. Reinvent. #1 is being tackled early and has been underway for the last 6 months. The reveal will happen soon.

Finally - Which would you like to see turn into a 2011 Photography Contest? Children? Food? Daily Life? Goals?

Crush on Fix-It-Fridays

The snowfall has canceled many a plan today which gives me the perfect excuse to play around with an i heart faces Fix It Friday photo. Every friday, a contributing photographer's image is posted and the rest of us get to play with it in our digital darkrooms. This is my first attempt at at Fix-It Friday image. You can show off your before and afters, learn from others, and provide step-by-step instruction to help teach and inspire other photogs.
Here is the original shot by Michelle Johnson...

here is my color attempt...

Michelle's OOC (Out Of Camera) shot looked a little blue (cyan) to me...added a little yellow using the color balance tool in Photoshop CS4.  Seeing them together, perhaps mine is too yellow now? I blurred out the background using the Gaussian blur tool. Darkened the image overall using Levels. And went back into areas on the face that were bright and darkened them a little more.  

and my black and white edit...

When I work with black and white---I return to my film darkroom roots using the channel mixer tool. Play with removing red, blue, green tones and having fun.  I LOVE a very contrasty black and white shot.  Once I have the general contrast down, I use the burn and dodge method to fine tune it. This image has a filter of almost vanished sepia on it.  I also cloned out the branch that ran through the center of the image--a little distracting. 

My big confession---I don't use layers. I don't know how. My Photoshop knowledge is pretty basic. I have been playing with some textures lately and stumbled on the overlay tool. More accurately, I stumbled around while following one of Jodi of MCP ACTIONS tutorials. She is amazing and if you are techtarded like me, you'll form a crush on her classes too.

Head on over to i heart faces and try your hand at this week's edit. 

Crush on i heart faces ::: Self-portrait :::

Good Morning.  i heart faces has me mulling over the idea of a self-portrait. It's this week's challenge. And a challenge it is! I used to take self-portraits when inspiration hit. Now, I photograph Ruby, my 6 year old muse. I struggled with this challenge and then remembered this self-portrait.

We had just returned from a boat ride to Land's End, the farthest tip south in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and one of my favorite spots on earth. We stopped for a sweet treat. This little metallic ball held its own sweets; sugars of all types. When I shoot, my focusing hand always looks like the queen drinking tea. My Ruby is primping and fixing her hat in the ball reflection. This portrait seemed fitting this week.

Thanks to all the other entries for sharing. I have added "Self-Portrait" to the MUST DO list.

Crush on Deb Schwedhelm

Crush on Deb Schwedhelm

Deb Schwedhelm, a photographer working in Tampa, Florida, has stolen my artistic heart, opened it up and filled it with soul-tingling images. I heart faces.com holds weekly photo challenges for all lovers of photography to share, inspire, and encourage one another. This past week, the challenge was Scenic Black and White.  The Guest Judge was Deb Schwedhelm. From over 400 images, she chose the top ten winning images. Her real-life approach to photography was clear in her selections. They are wrought with emotion and powerful storytelling qualities. These were the type of images that inspired me at eight years of age. They gave me the courage to ask for a camera and begin recording my world through a lens.

I am so grateful to have discovered Deb's photography through Angie and Amy of i heart faces. Please take a minute to get lost in the winners' images and visit Deb's site. Get a kleenex. You'll need them to get through her photo story with Max.

I am so thrilled and humbled to be a part of this week's Angie and Amy Picks.
thank you.

Crush on a Scenic Black and White

i heart faces challenge - scenic black and white with a face

You'll notice in the sidebar profile that I call myself an "urban portraitist". My favorite landscape to shoot in  is anything architectural. I love the lines and textures. Throw in some moody clouds and one gorgeous bride and groom =  blissfully floating photographer! This image happens to be one of my favorites in all my collections. Every time I see it, I sort of stumble in my own thoughts. I love it and hope you enjoy it too.

Crush on Orange (i heart faces)

The girls from i heart faces have returned from their Dallas Workshop (one to mark on my 2011 calendar!) and wouldn't miss another week for a challenge. Orange.  The  rules are simple; the photo must include a face and the color orange. Here is an "orange" shot of our little one in the garden. Proud of the bounty. We used these images for Bountiful Backyard, a non-profit who collects produce from neighborhood gardeners and distributes it to local food banks.

Crush on Orchards

This week we traveled to Apple Hill, California to celebrate our Ruby's 6th birthday. We were on a mission to thrill her with pony rides, hay and corn mazes, pumpkin patches, apple pie a la mode, apple donuts. It's Apple Hill and all that is apple reigns. 

After a day of crowds and crafts we stumbled into the last orchard for tasting and buying a sack of bounty to affirm our day in apple land. It was here where we picked some of our own and Ruby was delighted.
Apparently, this was all she had wanted to do...pick her own apple. Afterall, she was six now and six year olds can run, jump, and pluck an apple from the lowest of branches all by themselves.

I heart faces gave us a perfect photo challenge this week. I decided to share this self-portrait of all of us. We have about two photos a year where I am on the other side of the lens. This is one of them. I must enter it as I don't think the stars and challenges will align again.  This is my tribe in the orchard.
{HAPPY HARVESTING} Skye

Crush on Beef

I heart faces has teamed with Txbeef.org and are singing my kind of challenge---FOOD. And the food is beef!  Now, we've got a photog lickin' her lips and sitting at the table like Wile E. Coyote. Here's one of our Rubes enjoying a pint sized mini burger made just the right size for when your five. Mama ate her steak too fast to photograph it!

Crush on i heart faces

Summer is coming to a close. It's been filled with, starry nights, sunny days, beach waves, smores, bbqs, ice cream and sno cones. Most of all, lots of memories that not only I will remember of my family, but my children will remember as a "classic" childhood memory from their own lives.

One of my favorite blogs, i heart faces, runs a weekly themed photo challenge.  "Beach Fun" is the perfect  way to celebrate the closing of our summer and the good times we have had. I entered one of our little Marz, free-spirited, living the easy life of summer at the Santa Monica Pier Beach in California.

Check out this photo and the others celebrating Beach Fun at