a. I’m fixing a photo over here today for I Heart Faces. If you’re looking to work on your editing skills or get ideas on how to repair digital photos that need a little tweaking, then Fix-It Friday is a great place to start!

b. I need some ideas for tutorials to post on I Heart Faces. I know I still need to write up the “create and save a brush in Photoshop” post to complete my easy Photoshop brush watermark series, but is there anything else I do that you want to know about?

c. It’s Fence Friday!

I know I’ve posted about this before … but it bears repeating. It’s something I can definitely hear again and again.

Do you find yourself sometimes getting blah about taking pictures? Find yourself a group on Flickr or a Creativity Bootcamp or a weekly You Capture or all of the above!

I recently hit a slump. A big one. I pretty much just quit taking pictures for a while. A lot of it had to do with morning sickness early in pregnancy … I got out of the habit of taking my camera on walks or in my car or just around the house. But there are always creative outlets out there waiting to help get you back in the game.

And don’t forget to jump in front of the camera every once in a while!!

And to be honest with you, sometimes when I’m creatively dried up (it happens!) then I just go to Flickr and browse. I often find a photo (or two or forty-eight) that inspires me.

d. I’ve got an idea for a weekly post that I think is going to be a lot of fun, but the only thing holding me back is some pesky CSS issues that I have to work through. That’s computer talk for “stupid coding crap.” And lately, my poor husband has been working day and night and early morning and all weekend. So if I can grab him for a few minutes to walk me through this CSS issue, I’ll start that up.

Okay, my coffee’s cold and Emma is jonesing to go for a walk around the neighborhood (i.e., to the playground). Have a great weekend!!

So have you heard about the I Heart Faces Photowalk Across America on Saturday, June 5, 2010?

Yes, that’s right. I am grabbing my camera and heading down to Columbia to lead one of the 20 photowalks around the country. And I am SO excited!!

Even if you’re not an I Heart Faces follower, you can still attend. Anyone can come (as long as you are 13 and older).

We’re going to meet at the Columbia Museum of Art on Main Street at 9:00am, walk down and around the State Building and then head over to the USC Horseshoe.

And then we’ll all grab some lunch so we can chat and get to know each other better.

Right now, we don’t have a lunch destination because I actually live in Greenville, and I’m not sure what’s in Columbia that’s good and quiet enough for us to be able to talk without yelling.

So if any of you live in Columbia or know of a good eating place that’s right around the Horseshoe, please let me know! I’ll do my best to do some online research or get down there over the next couple of weeks to pick a place if I don’t get any suggestions.

Also, I’ll be spending the night in Columbia that Friday night, so if you want to meet up for breakfast beforehand, please comment here or email me!

If you’re interested, please head on over to the registration page and sign up!

Cost: $5 per person
(plus the small fee that Eventbrite charges)
(Ages 13 and up only please)

Not only will you have the opportunity to ask me a million questions that I’ll probably have to Google on my Blackberry while we’re there, you’ll have the chance of winning some pretty great prizes!!

And if you are going, please comment here and also put this button on your blog so I can get to know you better before we get there.

<a href="http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com/p/i-heart-faces-photo-walk.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.kidnappedbysuburbia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/IHeartFacesPhotowalkJune5th.jpg" border="0" alt="photowalk"></a>

Visit I Heart Faces for registration links for the other photo walk cities: Austin, Texas; Bisbee, Arizona; Boise, Idaho; Chicago, Illinois; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Atlanta, Georgia; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas, Texas; Detroit, Michigan; Las Vegas, Nevada; Louisville, Kentucky; Chaska, Minnesota; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Orange County, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Sacramento, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; Seattle, Washington; and Washington, D.C.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past few years, it is that … yes … life is weird.

I never thought many of my dearest friends would be people I’ve never even met in real life. I never thought that I’d have online friends that I truly count as some of my best friends. I never thought that I’d be able to connect with so many amazing talented individuals in just a few clicks.

Flickr is one of those places that I adore for this very reason. I’ve met so many wonderful people through there, and many of them I consider to be the most talented photographers in the world. I am constantly finding inspiration from them – always learning something new – and virtually touring their houses and neighborhoods and lives with just a few mouse clicks. It’s amazing, really.

One of those people is Meredith Winn.

She’s a photographer, a writer, a momma, a creative soul. And I’m honored to call her my friend.

And as of yesterday, she’s an Etsy shop owner with a collection of her writings and photographs in this beautiful self-published book. And I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy!

Congratulations, Mere. You’ve always got a cheerleader right here.

Panic at the thought of doing a thing is a challenge to do it.  ~Henry S. Haskins

I’m going to lay it all out on the line today. Okay? Here goes.

I have put some serious thought into becoming a professional photographer. You know, go out and do the only thing I have loved consistently for more than 3 weeks (besides my family, of course).

That was the main reason Ken bought me a new camera for Christmas – the other small part of it was that he was probably tired of hearing me complain about my old camera. (So sorry, hon)

I feel like I’ve really grown as a photographer in the past couple of years, and I want to pursue it even further. It’s my passion. I could easily do it everyday.

And frankly, I think Emma is a little tired of me taking her picture all the stinkin’ time!

But if I sit long enough and think hard enough, my palms start sweating. My heart starts beating faster. I feel like I might puke. And then I decide to just forget it and wait until all the really good photographers have retired.

So when this quote came across my email box, it was like a sign. I have been praying about it, so maybe it’s my sign from God? Or maybe it’s just the quote that was randomly chosen to come into my inbox.

Either way, there it is in black and white.

Panic at the thought of doing a thing is a challenge to do it.  ~Henry S. Haskins

Am I going to really do this? Am I going to give myself the ultimate challenge and start asking people to let me take their pictures? Am I going to have to invest in the motherload of Secret deodorant?

I don’t know, yet.

I guess you were all probably thinking I’d say “heck yeah! let’s do this!” at the end of this post with a nice “yeee-ha!” for effect. But I’m still fighting back the quease. Hands are still sweating. A high-pitched sound is ringing in my ears.

Okay, I’m starting to think maybe this isn’t panic but something worse.

Anyway, I’m putting it out there. I know some of you are totally supportive. And I know some of you have told me that being a professional photographer would be the stupidest thing I could ever do.

And there’s a (huge) part of me that is wondering if I’m really good enough to put people’s memories in my hands. I don’t know that, either. I’d like to think that the people who have already asked me to take their photos aren’t just blowing sunshine.

I guess I’m trying to wrap this up with a nice pretty bow, but I don’t really know how to end it. My brain is still talking, because whenever I think about going pro, I get hit in the face with about 3,791 different thoughts. Maybe I’ll put them all down here someday. Or maybe I’ll just up and announce that I’m in business! Or maybe I’ll go lie down for a while and hope I’m not dying.

If I do, please serve brownies at my funeral.

Hello.

My name is Keli.

And I’m a texture-aholic.

I don’t use them on every single picture … but I use them a lot.

Sometimes, the texture isn’t totally obvious.

And sometimes, it is.

All I know is that I am LOVING the textures by Patti Brown / Kaleidoscope. I appreciate that she has very light, airy textures that are barely noticeable while also having strong textures that completely change an image.

Her Lite Flare set is completely out of this world! And I can’t stop using the various textures from her Gallery Set. Just gorgeous!!

I’ll be writing up a tutorial on how I use textures in the next couple of days.

I’m going to try to say this without sounding like I’m bragging, and I hope you’ll understand why I’m saying this when you reach the end of this blog post.

*deep breath*

I’ve had quite a few people approach me about becoming a professional photographer.

Did that sound totally braggy and pompous?

Honestly? It’s really weird to me, because I feel like I’m just now hitting a groove with my photography. I feel like I’m just now getting a good feel of composition and processing. I just recently started shooting in manual mode. I still shoot in aperture-priority mode a lot. I still come home and trash 90% of the photos I took on any given day.

The number one question I get is – what kind of camera do you use? And while this is a valid question, it doesn’t really explain the pictures that you see.

I’ve been using the same camera (or form of it) since 2005 … an Olympus Evolt. I started with the E-300 and recently upgraded to the E-520. It’s a great camera, and I know every little detail about it.

I also have 2 lenses besides the kit lens [14-45mm] :: a 50mm f/2.0 and a 40-150mm. The 50mm pretty much stays on my camera 24/7. I break out the 40-150mm when we’re traveling or visiting scenic places. And the kit lens still gets some action sometimes.

But it’s not JUST the camera that takes great pictures. Case in point? I will not start a photography business with it. There are so many things about it that just don’t compare to other cameras I’ve been eyeing. Anytime I go over 200 ISO, I have noise. That’s just not cool. The available lenses for the Olympus do not have the types of aperture I like to shoot (wide open, larger than 2.0) and the ones that I would need to start a professional photography business are very expensive.

But … an expensive camera doesn’t always mean great photos.

Honest confession, I rarely (if ever) post pictures straight out of the camera. There are some that I tweak just a little in brightness and contrast, but most of my images include cropping and then manipulation in either Lightroom or Photoshop Elements 5.0 or both.

So here to prove it, here are some of my recent shots … straight out of the camera and then edited.

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after

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after

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after

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after

Also? I take a gajillion pictures each time I hold my camera in my hands. I rarely (if ever!!) get it just right the first time.

So there are a whole lot of things that go into taking photographs. I know many people who can whip out an amazing photo straight out of the camera, and I wish I could get it just right. But for the 98% of the time that I don’t, I’m thankful for processing.

When Angie and Amy emailed me a few months back about writing a tutorial for I ♥ Faces, I was beyond excited. And totally honored. I mean, have you seen the talent that’s over there???

So that article turned into another one.

And another one.

And then they asked me if I would like to turn my “guest contributor” position into a full contributor position.

Quick! Someone pinch me!!

Their contributors are a group of unbelievably talented photographers whose work I have admired for quite some time. And now I’ve been plopped down in the middle of them.

A girl who has just recently started shooting in manual mode. A girl who gets really REALLY bad pictures sometimes because she is still learning how to shoot in manual mode. A girl who is constantly blown away by the talent surrounding her who still wonders if she’ll ever reach that point.

A wife who got a nice camera as a wedding present from her husband so she could take it on their honeymoon.

And in the past 2.5 years, a momma who just wanted to take better pictures of her daughter.

Thank you to Angie and Amy for giving me this opportunity! I am so excited about being a part of this amazing team!

xo

Congratulations to …

gkgirl says:

oh…how i love brandi carlisle…my favorite by her
was the first one i heard…
turpentine…
and i played it over and over
and over and over…
she has such a great voice!

I’m so happy it’s going to a big Brandi Carlile fan – you are going to love it!! It’s coming directly from the One2One Network, so I’ll email you in a bit with the details. :)

In other, really crazy the-internet-is-totally-broken news … I’ve had several photos hit the front page of Flickr explore lately! The first time it happened, I was so excited!! But now, I just think it might be broken.

Nah, a huge thanks to everyone who comments on my images. I’ve gotta be honest, it feels GOOD to have people like my photos … I won’t recite the whole Sally Field speech, but imagine that playing through my head over and over and over again.

And the leaf image was also chosen as the one word project for this month (illuminate) photo of the day at Shutter Sisters (LOVE them!!) and then a funny leaping picture for my friend Kristin was chosen as photo of the day at The Maternal Lens.

See? The internet is clearly broken!

So I’ll leave you with the cutest little itsy bitsy spider around!

If you’re not a regular Flickr user, this probably won’t mean anything to you. And in the grand scheme of things, it’s not that important.

But … here’s the deal …

Every day, 500 pictures are chosen as Flickr’s most “interesting” photos for that day. Now, these 500 photos are constantly rotating. So you might have a photo that’s #35 on the list and then not even on the list an hour later. It’s based on a number of things, but it’s pretty cool to have a picture included out of the 3 to 5 million pictures uploaded to Flickr every day.

And then, for whatever reason, random photos from the top 40 {I think} are chosen to be displayed on the front page of Explore.

That is a very very basic explanation, and I’m not even sure if 100% accurate, but there you go.

Allllll of that to say … one of my photos hit the front page on Friday. Yes, it’s the same picture that was just on the Maternal Lens blog, so I’m sorry that you have to keep seeing it over and over.

But I was pretty excited about it and thought I would share.

Thank you to The Maternal Lens for including one of my photos on their blog post about sunflare.

Funny thing is, I’ve struggled with sunflare ever since I started shooting it. It was such an out-of-my-box thing, and now I love it. But I still have a hard time getting it just right.

So it’s an honor to be included in that blog post.