Labor Day Weekend

Found a visitor in my tomato garden
Beautiful day to be outside!
Packing for our campout...we discovered something interesting:
Mount Pleasant
Really didn't want to get rained on.
Luke and his dad
Cheeser!

Gorgeous skies!




Hiking through the aspen grove
The clouds were insane!!
If you look closely, you can see a bee that met his match in the stinging nettle


Look Ma, no hands...or feet!

Calling Brady to check the score of the BYU game
Another beautiful cloud!

Back to the campground, just in time for a fantastic sunset!
A little worn and torn, but happy nonetheless



Building the fire


Yep, we love our fires. We're kind of pyros, but it's fun :)
This one made me laughApparently we were sharing the campground with a demonic owl
He scared me half to death!! Had to run and get my glasses so I could see him!
Big fire!
Eatin' our tinfoil dinners
I was so proud of my GF/DF smores, I had to take a picture! I roasted it in the tinfoil since we didn't have marshmallows big enough to put on a stick.
Us
Telling ghost stories
Sunrise
Our beautiful car. Still in love :)
What are you doing taking my picture???
Not a morning person...


We came home from the camping trip, spent the day chilling and cleaning up, then we headed over to UVU for an amazing concert!
Waiting for the show to start
BLINK 182!!!
My man Mark Seriously, Luke still teases me about the moral delimma I had when I was 15. Blink and N Sync were both playing on the same night, and me and my friends had tix to see N Sync. My friend Audy and I were torn, b/c we loved Blink! I was so sad I missed my chance to see them :(10 year later....Wish granted!
It was just as good as I expected it to be!
And Tom was as much of a smartass as he was 10 years ago :)
The pics aren't great, but pretty good for a cell phone camera!
Travis' drum solo. They lifted him at least 50 feet in the air! It was incredible!

They played all our favorite songs

Such a great weekend!

Before and After

I've followed the blog "I Heart Faces" for awhile, but never participated in a challenge. This one caught my attention, as it is one that I've been noticing about myself lately.
The theme is "Before and After" and the focus is the difference in photographing/editing skills. Since I don't have all that much experience to draw from, I will post my favorite pics from the two weddings I have done in the last year.

BEFORE: The first set of pictures is from my sister-in-law's wedding. This was the most "professional" gig I'd ever done, and I was scared! The bride and groom are a cute couple, which definitely helped make the pics. This day was a turning point for me. It made my dream of being a "real" photographer a whole lot realer.

This pic is so cute! But the shadows on their faces! I wish I had known how to avoid that.
I love this pose. Since doing this shoot, I've developed my photoshop skills, and would love to edit this pic to make their eyes jump out. And make it less pasty. And if I could, give the groom back the top of his head :P
This one...one of my favorite pics. She was tossing her bouquet. It was dark, so of course, noob photographer that I was, I had my flash on. I wish I had known enough about the camera I was using (borrowed) to get rid of the flash.

AFTER: The challenge said to use photos that were taken in August...but as I haven't had time, nor a camera, I have not been doing much in the way of taking pictures. So, this is my most recent work. I LOVED working with these guys! They were so fun, and so cute together. Since this was a paying gig (for a friend's brother), I did a lot of reading up on photoshop editing. I think it helped. I think these pictures are more professional-looking.

Bride and her dad. I really love this pic. Maybe it's because I'm a daddy's girl myself. There was no way to get rid of the people in the background, so I just blurred them out.
I adore this picture! It reminds me of when I first fell in love with my husband. I think the angle is great, it's crisp, and I chose to do black and white b/c the groom was really nervous and had some red splotches on his face.
This is my absolute favorite picture! I love everything about it. Except that they're squinting. But I enhanced the eyes to help them stand out a bit more.

I'm posting these because I feel like I've improved my skills as a photographer and an editor. What do you think? Of course, I know I have a loooooong way to go still, and would love feedback, both on what I've improved on, and tips on how else I could improve.
Thanks for stopping by :)

PS: Not related...anyone know how to make the pictures posted on my blog bigger? I have it set to the highest size, and yet, they're still smaller than I'd like. Is this just a blogger.com thing, and I have to deal w/ it?