Luvtknpics photography

From a distance

2011-06-06T07:21:00.000-07:00

I have always loved this picture of my daughter at Laguna beach. The sea gulls were definitely wanting their picture taken because everytime i would try to get just her they would show up.

I have entered this photo in this weeks contest on Iheart faces.

First steps

2011-03-15T07:58:00.001-07:00

First steps a photo by luvtknpics on Flickr.

There are really no words that can fully describe how i felt watching her take her little steps!!! I yearn to be able to hold her, smell that sweet baby scent, see that sweet little dance she does when she hears music!! I thank God for the technology today to have been able to experience it with her even miles away.

Sweet Sophia

2011-02-21T05:15:00.001-08:00

Sweet Sophia
Originally uploaded by luvtknpics

Can you tell i'm missing my grandbaby! Visiting old pics, trying new things. This was process with florabella actions. A mix of pandora and gypsy with haze and center light added.

In daddy's arms

2011-02-16T04:40:00.001-08:00

In daddy's arms
Originally uploaded by luvtknpics

I have to keep going back and looking at pictures of them! I miss them so much!

Seeing Red

2011-02-14T04:44:00.000-08:00

Head on over to iheartfaces today to see all the great photos with red.

Knox's first valentines day! What a handsome little man he is!

Hearts, Hearts, Hearts!!

2011-02-07T04:26:00.000-08:00

They are showing up everywhere! We will surely be seeing alot of hearts this month being valentines and all. This little man has not only stolen the hearts of Dad and Mom but everyone else around him! Especially me since my grandbaby is in Japan it helps my heart to give him hugs and kisses. His smile will light up a room, but for this day he was making us work hard for a smile. I guess he is getting to that age where he want be so easily impressed with what we are trying to do!lol Except when his momo is around! Whom i might add was not allowed to come for this picture taking event because he only wants her!
Head on over to iheartfaces for this new contest and you will surely see lots of beautiful faces with hearts added!

Best Face Photo for January

2011-01-31T16:55:00.000-08:00

Iheartfaces is having a best face photo contest.
I love this photo of my daughter~cold outside and she really wanted me to come out and play with her. I was so busy sewing i couldn't go but had to grab my camera and snap a few pics. She has had a toothless grin for so long kinda sad to see those teeth coming in.

Ruthie Turns 7

2010-12-02T07:23:00.001-08:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

sisters dress

2010-11-13T08:12:00.001-08:00

sisters dress
Originally uploaded by luvtknpics

She has been begging to where her sisters dress since she saw it hanging in the closet. I made it for her sister 15 years ago

Its a very pink week!!

2010-10-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

We raised almost $5000 last week for breast cancer at our school!!!

Smushy Face

2010-03-29T06:35:00.001-07:00

I heart faces is having a dramatic BW competition

I always fuss at her to open her eyes more. Close them tight then open wide, I tell her! I loved the face she made! I opened the raw file in lightroom and used the black and white preset, the editied in elements where i added a beveled chrome from the actions palleted. Lowered the opacity then used the elliptical marquee tool to cut out the center .

Inspiring

2010-03-17T10:58:00.001-07:00

It was very hard for me to write how I think I inspire people. I love photography, have for as long as I can remember. Started in high school when my father bought me an Olympus film camera. I have always been avid about learning everything there is to know no matter what it is, the dish washer in my house, monogram machine, computer or camera. I have watched dvd’s, youtube videos, read books, tutorials, etc… Anything I can get my hands on to learn everything there is to know about digital. I even have and am watching the D700 video in hopes of upgrading from my D80 next year! Sometimes I w0nder if maybe I’m too old, things sometimes just don’t want to stick in the brain! I feel I need more hands on classes, to be challenged more.

My main goal is to be able to photograph events at our church. The D80 has limits on ISO settings so I’m never really happy with how the pictures come out. I love this one from our sign team signing to Ten Thousand Angels.

I have asked a few friends to write for me.

Claudia wrote:'

When I think of inspiration how can I not be inspired! Her mother died with leukemia when she was 32 years old.

At a time when she should start to be able to take it somewhat easy in this life, things change. Her children are older and almost out of school and she starts all over. An acquaintance, with a history of drug addiction, is pregnant and comes to her wanting to giver her child to Melissa to raise. She opens her heart and home to a new life. This child was born premature and addicted to methadone. Melissa had to deal with everything that goes along with that, which is alot. Then in the mix of that she is now taking care of her sister who has down syndrome. She is living in her home with them. Just dealing with all that goes with her sister, would be more than the normal person could handle.

So she has a 7 year old , a 39 year old sister with down syndrome, a 20 yr old daughter who has recently moved back home, a 25 yr old son that is in the Marines stationed in California with her first grandbaby!!, and a full time job! She finds the time to tend to everyone and give that special attention to all, with not alot of help. So inspiring to others, she definitely is. She makes others want to do more, and be a better person.

Chotsie wrote:

Melissa loves with all her heart.

She serves God in church and in her daily actions. She is a prayer warrior. Constantly thinking of and doing for others. Paying attention to other’s needs and desires and does special things for them that actually means something to them. Melissa lives her life in a caring and giving manner as to inspire others to do the same. She lives a life that praises God, that is inspiring!

I believe her photography journey is her outlet, the one thing she does for herself, but shares it with others. She takes photos of people as a way to brighten their day by sharing those photos with them.

Having the opportunity to attend Amy Wenzel’s workshop would definitely push my level of photography up to a whole new level!

Melissa

A Wife, Mother, Sister, Gama, Meme with a DSLR

Day 7

2010-03-07T17:48:00.001-08:00

Back Focusing

I just knew my 85mm 1.4 was back focusing, so I printed out a chart to do a test.

Dead on! No back focusing. So I guess I’m the problem!lol

Day 6

2010-03-07T17:43:00.001-08:00

What my camera cannot do!

*ISO anywhere over 600 is impossible

Here is Ruthie(smallest on on back row) at Cheer Camp at SJWelch in Lake Charles.

I had to go to 1000 ISO so the picture therefore is grainy!

Tulip tree DAY 5

2010-03-05T21:36:00.001-08:00

DAY 4

2010-03-04T21:27:00.001-08:00

We went out today to try and find bugs. Ruthie told me she was sure she wouldn’t find any!

We did find some white dried flowers on the weeds in the field.

Ruthie searched and searched for bugs…

The bug house even went for a swim!

But alas, we just had to return home with an empty bug house!

Day 3

2010-03-03T21:47:00.001-08:00

4pm sun was shining bright for us today. I just couldn’t pick just one picture today.

Maghin (DAY 3)

2010-03-02T17:55:00.001-08:00

Flash off camera about 6 feet away. It wasn’t pointed directly at her more over her bouncing

off the house which was at her back. It wasn’t totally dark outside but after several tries

standing in different directions and moving the flash i was happy with this one.

Monograming

2010-03-01T19:23:00.001-08:00

Day 2 Such a rainy and dreary day. Hard to decide on what to photograph today. I knew I had some monograming to do so I figured why not practice on my machine? I it white, sorta off white, but I knew it would be a good starting point for me. Set ISO to 400, metered off of my gray card to set wb then metered on gray card to zero. Still felt I was underexposing after several tries. I decided to set ev to -7 and was happier with the histogram after that. I tried different types of porcessing to see which I would be happy with. I think one was way too bright. Will take a look at them again to see if maybe I should have tried a different route.

harley

2010-03-01T05:01:00.001-08:00

harley
Originally uploaded by luvtknpics

Harley's picture made it to group 4 in pioneer womans contest!!!

DAY 1

2010-02-28T14:14:00.001-08:00

Decided to take the 365 challenge from http://tasramar.com/join-the-challenge/sign-up/. Since March 1st is Monday and they are kinda hectic I dediced to take my sister out today and practice. She held my grey card and would hold it up to her face for me. After setting the white balance I metered off the grey card then started taking pictures. We moved around alot because I wanted to see the affect the morning sun had in different areas of the yard. My aha moment was when I metered off of her face and remembered when I metered off the grey card she was 2 stops to the left. So many things to pay attention to.

I was also using my 85mm which I don't use very often because I have to move my feet instead of being able to just zoom in and out. I tend to miss focus alot also with it. I concentrated very hard in making sure I focused on her eyes. This photo was behind a little shed that I nearly burned down this summer, burning the field!lol The sun was behind her up high but had trees blocking most of the bright light. I have lots more to go thru from today and will post later.

2010-02-16T13:29:00.001-08:00

Love Is

Spending the day with momo and papa

and being kissed on the cheek by both at the same time!

Loved having my Valentine with me also!

Valentines

2010-02-07T15:02:00.000-08:00

A Day of Valentine Pictures

I had this idea in my head of what I wanted to do. Doesn’t always

work out the way I want it though!lol My daughter usually wants

to do her own thing and I really had to coax her into doing what I

wanted.

Pulled out my old film camera and put my 50mm lens on it. She really

didn’t want to wear this dress but when I told her she could wear her

sister’s high heel shoes all was forgotten about the dress.

Hey mom! Say cheese!

Taking a shot at the cows in the field.

The look I was going for!

Harley just looks like

he is trying to tell me

something.

Could you please help

me outa here?

Her dad says she looks like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz here.

Didn’t occur to me until he said it.

Has anyone seen Dorothy? Hey I’m still here in the wagon!

Maghin has moved home

2010-01-31T14:20:00.000-08:00

After living on her own for 2 years she has moved home for a short period until her and her friend can find a new apartment. She loves to cook, so today we enjoyed a delicious meal made from the recipe in the Pioneer Womans Cookbook.
One of the things she got for her birthday and now has become addicted to reading!

Ruthie entertained Chad by reading to him while Maghin cooked.
I must say he did peel the potatoes first before playing!
Chad spent the night in our camper so he could be here today to go to church with us and enjoy Maghins cooking! After being together for so long I'm sure they are finding it hard to be apart.

We enjoyed chicken fried steak, creamy mashed potatoes, bisquits and field peas! yum yum.
I must say Maghin is a messy cook like me and there was dirty pots and flour everywhere! It didn't take long to clean up though!

yum sizzling in the pot...

more reading for Chad

gravy and mashed potatoes are done

I forgot we had macaroni also! The plate was overflowing!

Of course Ruthie got fussed at a zillion times. I finally asked Maghin if she realized how many times she had fussed at her! She thinks Ruthie is spoiled!lol She says they never sat at the table but had to go play until the adults ate!ha
I told her the only thing we did was get the fire extinguisher out to put the flames out that were coming out of her hair!
(moody, very moody) and spoiled I might add!

Since she cooked I cleaned up..but then when I cook I clean also!
Something wrong there!lol

Maghin sat down to enjoy reading Pioneer Womans blog! Laughing at all the stories she has written about charlie her basset hound.
It will be interesting to see whose nerves are stepped on the most! Ruthie will talk even when no one is around to listen! Now I will have Ruthie and Maghin trying to tell me something! I guess this would be a time to say "Pray chruch, Pray"!lol

May I introduce to you, Fancy

2010-01-18T19:26:00.000-08:00

Isn't she so pretty!

Fancy is a lovely little potbellied gold fish. Her friend Domino is a Koi. They swim together all day and love their new home. Momo and Papa love to sit at the bar and watch them swim.

My greatniece, she is so beautiful

2010-01-11T12:38:00.000-08:00

My sister wanted her picture taken for a constest a local store was having. She has a D40 and I think she takes great pictures but she is in envy of my 80-200mm lens so I told her I would come and take them. It was cold, wendy and we had to be quick cause the baby kept saying "nana I'm cold"!

In California for the week

2009-12-30T06:13:00.001-08:00

We have arrived and it was go great to see Trey.

Mushroom

2009-09-30T04:59:00.001-07:00

New kittens

2009-09-30T04:56:00.001-07:00

Originally uploaded by luvtknpics

We are now officially calling my daughters cat fertile myrtle! Can't seem to get her fixed because she goes from one liter to another!

On its way

2009-09-30T04:55:00.001-07:00

Originally uploaded by luvtknpics

This little bush was full of thes worms, wandering what they were looking for?

A new action

2009-09-30T04:46:00.000-07:00

Stacey Bishop over at twopeas shared an action of her workflow! I love it!

Blessings

2009-09-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

I found this beautiful page in my scrapbooking paper from Royanna at divine digital. I still love going back to old pictures I took and trying the new things I've learned.

2009-09-21T18:26:00.001-07:00

2009-09-21T18:24:00.000-07:00

Playing on the wood pile

2009-09-21T18:18:00.001-07:00

Decided to change my wb to kelvin and see what i could come up with. I was actually very pleased. When I go back and look at pictures I've done I see more and more things I should have changed or done differently. I like them at the time!
Trying to master skin tones has become a real challenge for me!

Making gifts for a baby shower

2009-09-12T11:16:00.001-07:00

This was a pattern of my moms. She used to make them as gifts and the pattern is so old I will definitely have to make another one. Hers is made from a paper bag and all the pin holes are making it fragile. I couldn't find any cloth diapers already folded so i purchased a pkg of flat ones and folded it to make a burp cloth. Then added the trim from the diaper bag to each end.

"http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FEtMJidIvYs/SqvpWf_LWfI/AAAAAAAAANI/mQ1hYVadgfI/s1600/DSC_3869.jpg"

Trying my hand at cross processing

2009-08-21T18:44:00.001-07:00

I used Coffeeshop's cross processing action and a couple of textures.

Visiting Disney pictures

2009-08-21T03:55:00.001-07:00

Color in their home

2009-08-20T04:25:00.001-07:00

Look who is turning 6

2009-08-20T04:22:00.000-07:00

Can't believe it has been 6 years already since we were blessed to have you join our family! What a blessing you have been to everyone you meet.

2009-08-20T04:20:00.000-07:00

2009-08-20T04:16:00.000-07:00

2009-08-20T04:13:00.000-07:00

Having fun the Chotsie

2009-08-20T04:04:00.000-07:00

Ruthie loves her Aunt Chotsie! A little bit of clowning around. I took a Jessicasprague class and this is the collage I made from one of the classes.

JessicaSprague's editing class

2009-07-15T12:33:00.001-07:00

Want a chance to win a new lens

2009-07-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

Visit http://mcpactions.com/blog/2009/07/08/win-an-slr-lens-brand-new-tamron-lens-%E2%80%93-18-270mm-or-28-300mm/ and check it out!!

JessicaSprague's editing class

2009-07-06T13:16:00.000-07:00

Girly girls gettin dirty!

2009-06-29T17:21:00.001-07:00

2009-06-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

A farewell gathering

2009-06-24T19:22:00.000-07:00

Family and friends say farewell to Wynn going off to the Navel Academy! Good Luck!

2009-06-24T19:19:00.000-07:00

2009-06-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

Family pictures

2009-06-24T18:53:00.001-07:00

Going to Mamou for Baseball

2009-06-20T05:37:00.001-07:00

Hope to see another weekend championship!

80-200mm in action

2009-06-17T16:56:00.001-07:00

Visting pictures from last year:

2009-06-17T16:38:00.001-07:00

Black berries

2009-06-10T11:23:00.001-07:00

Using a clipping mask

2009-06-07T12:07:00.000-07:00

Rita at coffeeshophotography.com has a great tutorial on using clipping mask and an action for PSE users.

A week to some

2009-05-04T20:58:00.000-07:00

These weeds were on the levy we were walking on. Decided to try out my 80-200 and see how it would look.

Isn't it wonderful!!

My Review of Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF Zoom-Nikkor Lens with Bracket & Case - with 5 Year U.S.A. Warranty

2009-05-04T20:47:00.001-07:00

Adorama

Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF Zoom-Nikkor Lens with Bracket & Case - with 5 Year U.S.A. Warranty

I love this lens

luvtknpics Kinder, La 5/4/2009

Pros: Rugged, Consistent Output, Easily Interchangeable, Quick Focus, Durable

Best Uses: Sports/Action, General Use

Describe Yourself: Hobbyist/Enthusiast

I'm still working out the kinks...I purchased this mainly for baseball but have found I love it for all areas. Trying to get my settings right for sharp photos but I'm sure that will come with practice. The bokeh is wonderful at 2.8!
I'm currently using it with my D80

My nephew the catcher

: Using Product

A weed to some

: Using Product

()

MacDonalds 25th Big Bass Splash

2009-04-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

$37,ooo dollars was raised this weekend for the Ronald MacDonalds houses!!

Ruthie and Mel were so excited to see Ronald MacDonald show up! We weren't expecting to see him, so it was really a surprise!

Family of catipillars

2009-04-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

Being my eyesight the way it is, I was leaning close trying to figure out why my day lilies had a stem sticking out that had all these bumps on it! To my surprise it was a family of I guess catipillars!

Luv this smile

2009-04-13T05:16:00.000-07:00

Singing a song

2009-04-13T05:14:00.000-07:00

The shoes

2009-04-13T05:10:00.000-07:00

She fell in love with them the instant I showed them to her! Mod8 shoes, regularly 162 marked down to 62 then 40% off! We got them for a little over $30. She tried to hold her dress up so that everyone could see her shoes!

Easter dress

2009-04-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

I smocked this dress about a year ago and put the pieces aside and kept thinking I would get back to it...well a year went by with me looking at it! I decided friday night I would see if I could finish it. I was very pleased with how it came out that we ran to find shoes to match the next day.