Hello Flowers

Hello Flowers, you make me happy.

~Mary Kate

Behind the Scenes

So it's been awhile since I shared before and after photos. Since I bought lightroom 3 last January, I've learned a lot in the editing field and so I decided to share three of my favorite edits with you all today. 

Here's the first one. You may remember this picture from this photoshoot. But here's the before and after. Just roll your mouse over the picture to see the before:


And here they are side by side:




Next is from the self portraits I did a few weeks ago. Once again, roll over the photo to see the before:




And side by side:


And the last one I'll share is a picture I took yesterday of Rosie. {Roll over to see before image}
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8005/7253813774_b4a5c44bc0_c.jpg





{And in case anyone was wondering, I used this amazingly, simplistic tutorial to enable the image roll-over effect. And I used this helpful tutorial to get the images side-by-side.}

~Mary Kate

P.S. I was so excited to share this post with you that I published this one today instead of the one I had already had ready :)

Let it Begin

Today was my last day of school.

That's right, as of now I can officially say I have finished three years of high school. That is crazy. Seriously. Next year I'll be going off to college, really? Where did the time go? Was it just me or did this year seem to go by particularly fast?

Anyway...
I have a ton of pictures to share but today I decided to finally upload some videos to vimeo, so I'm going to share those with you instead. Don't worry, they're all short. I promise :)

This first one is a lightning storm from the other night:



This one is from the end of Feburary. Remember when I posted about this place? Well I took the footage in this video while on that retreat. (Little disclaimer: I am a photographer, not videographer so my filming skills are not all that great. I'm sorry for the shakiness and sudden movement.)



And this one is from January:



Also, just wondering, but would you guys be interested in a vlog anytime soon? I've been debating about doing one for awhile. But if you want one, than I'll do it :)

~Mary Kate

The Girl in Red

I've been inspired lately to try my hand at self-portraits. Not that I haven't before, I have, but I've always failed and been disappointed with my results in the past. But this time I was determined to get some pictures that I actually liked.

These were my favorites (along with the ones in my new header).

~Mary Kate

Benny Boy

I played with Benny outside today. Just the two of us. We went out after dinner in the semi-dark and jumped on the trampoline. It was the first time I'd been on the trampoline in a long time.

After awhile we laid down and looked up at the sky. We played the "plane game" as we call it, who can spot the first plane, and then second and so on. As it was getting dark, stars were beginning to appear which led to some confusion in Benny's 4 year old brain (he was convinced that one star was a plane, despite the fact that it still hadn't moved after five minutes).

As we cuddled on the trampoline and watched for planes, Benny started asking questions about planes, airports and where each place was going. At one point he asked me which airport the planes were going to which I responded

"Benny, I don't know, there are a bazillion airports, it could be going nearby or all the way out to California."  This prompted Ben to ask me where airports are, which I responded by telling him that airports are pretty much everywhere. Benny laughed at me and the said in a do-I-really-have-to-explain-this-to-you tone of voice,

"Mary Kate, you silly, airports aren't everywhere! If they were, everything would be squished, our house would be squished under an airport." :)

That kid! He also told me to be quite and listen at one point because "The crickets are cricking!"

I haven't done something like that in a long time, but something else that Benny said made me realize that I need to make a much bigger effort to spend special quality time with my younger siblings. I get so busy in the school year with school, work, photography, the blogging world, and my own friends that I never seem to have enough time to play with them. But my time is running out. I only have one year left at home and I want to make it count.

~Mary Kate

(The pictures in the post are from last week, not today.)

At the Crack of Dawn

The alarm goes off and I groggily get up to turn it off. As I head upstairs I notice the beautiful light just begining to shine through the windows. I grab my camera, a jacket and flip flops and head outside. Why? Because I must make every attempt to capture the early morning beauty.

I don't get up at the crack of dawn every morning, and when I do, I don't usually go outside with my camera, but I just couldn't pass up a photo expedition last Saturday morning before going to take the SAT. And I must say, I am very happy with these pictures :)

~Mary Kate