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Before and After Photos—of Photos

August 27, 2013 by Amy 6 Comments

I love looking at before and after photos. Design blogs are full of them. I actually follow one blog Better After that is an aggregate of everyone else’s before and after photos of room designs. You can lose some major time browsing that site!

I don’t do a ton of redesign around here of anything except one thing–photos.

I try to add in at least one photo with each post and as the years have gone by, I’ve slowly learned some techniques. While I’m not nearly a pro I do find the before and after photos fascinating.

While taking ShootFlyShoot’s Photography 101 class seemed to be the key to understanding how to shoot in manual mode, Photography 102 seemed to really be the key to understanding editing. (Don’t worry, this isn’t a sponsored post, although it does include affiliate links).

While I could never do that class justice, I will say learning to shoot in raw and then edit it in Photoshop has made the biggest difference.

I thought I’d show you some before and after photos—of photos—so you could see what a difference editing makes. I also want you to see some “behind the scenes” of some of the pictures around here.

So, for example, here is a before and after of one of my WIWW photos.

Since taking 102, I’ve started taking most of my WIWW posts on a tripod with a timer on manual mode and with RAW output. You can see, I usually get a wide shot so I don’t miss myself.

After I crop it, I usually have to adjust three settings. I ensure the exposure looks right. Then, I make sure the white balance is correct. And finally, kick up the black to make sure the shadows look good. I still don’t have an eagle eye for all this yet but just learning what I even need to look for has been invaluable.

Here’s one more where I think the before is nice, but the after really pops.

Here’s the same thing I did to a photo of Emma recently:

I love how her skin looks creamy white and her freckles and hair pop out. It almost looks like someone cleaned the photo.

Here’s one of a watermelon we did for the girls’ end of school party:

You can see the color just pops. I feel like I could reach through and pick up one of those Swedish fish!

Here’s another of me and the girls at the river:

It almost doesn’t look like it’s the same day! I was able to crop out the boat where Scott was sitting and really concentrate on the people. The trees and bushes in the background look so much brighter and healthier!

I’m also able to adjust the color to take out the awful yellowing I get in my house from the lighting:

In this one, the difference is subtle. The white board looks whiter and the wall color looks true to it’s actual color.

And finally, here’s a really funny one where cropping made all the difference:

Hm, can you imagine that Scott’s the photographer?!? And no, I had no idea Tucker was doing that! I think you can see a little bit of confused look on my face about why Scott was laughing!

Well, I hope you see the real point—the photos really go through a transformation from straight out of the camera.

And really, there are so many more bloggers and photographers that are sooo much better than I am at editing. Maybe one day I’ll learn to make some real “enhancements” if yaknowwhatImean.

I hope as you read your favorite blogs you keep that in mind. Things aren’t always picture perfect as they might be presented.

But, I know as a blogger, I want you to enjoy the time you take to read and part of that is it being aesthetically pleasing. Just as I try to fix my grammar mistakes, I try to fix my photography mistakes as well.

Also, I hope you’re inspired to take both Photography 101 and 102. It’s all online, all recorded and all accessible for the rest of your life. And I’m telling you—easy as pie to understand.

I really regret all the years I spent on automatic with a flash when the kids were little. I had my nice DSLR and didn’t use even a fraction of its power!

ShootFlyShoot also just launched a new class called Room Makeover where Layla teaches you how to do those virtual room designs in Photoshop. I’m so excited to take it soon! Again, not sponsored here—I’m just really excited about it!

Let me know if you’ve taken them, or any others and what you thought! Do you have another resource to improve your photography skills? Share them in the comments!

On Community

August 26, 2013 by Amy 4 Comments

The last few weeks, months even, have held a lot of talk about community. It’s certainly a buzz word around Christian circles. More specifically, a lot is being talked about community around the table. Shauna Niequiest certainly opened the door wide with her book Bread & Wine. Anyone who has read can tell you it strikes a cord in you. You know there is community when people sit around a table eat together.

During our small group this week, we talked about the difference between the American church and the church at large. We are lucky enough to have a missionary in our group who is able to compare and contrast the church at large and insists that the American church culture is a very small subculture of the Christian church.

He described how community is much different in other parts of the world. Members stay and talk with each other after services. It’s not a race for home or the buffet. Visitors are often invited to meals at homes. Meals are shared throughout the week. His wife told us at one time, at least one meal was shared per day with another family.

When they asked if we often ate with our friends, or even acquaintances, I had to say no. Sure, we have people over sometimes but it’s certainly not regular and it’s always planned in advance. We’re all so busy. There’s no concept of meeting someone new at church and saying, “Come to my house for dinner today.” And that’s sad to me because it sounds just like something Jesus would do.

Two of our friends that moved this year to Charleston invited us down this past weekend. When we arrived, they had a meal waiting for us. They joyfully dragged us around Saturday to antique shops and the farmer’s market and art galleries and peanut shops and the beach and back to their house for another meal. We woke up Sunday and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast before we left.

My heart left full, thinking about this idea of community and sharing the table. I was challenged to stay later and invite in and buy extra. I’m already a believer but when someone sacrifices and shares their table there is something that rings true in my spirit.

Jesus talks about his kingdom being like a marriage feast. He offers an invitation. Some will make excuses and not come but others will accept. And so I realize that when friends invite us in and offer a meal, it is nothing less than them being Jesus to us.

When we say yes and indeed sacrifice our own time, money and efforts to sit and commune, we are a picture of the sinner saying yes to Jesus again. Certainly I don’t mean this literally but just like a baptism moves me to tears every time, this sitting down to a meal with friends nearly breaks me as well. It moves me because it reminds me of Jesus.

Yesterday after church I didn’t run for the car. I introduced myself to the couple in front of us and invited them to our small group. It just happened that they lived a few miles from us. I introduced myself to our new pastors. I stayed and made small talk with a new friend. My heart was again full when I left.

May I challenge us all to buy into the hype and intentionally chase this community? Because this thing called community—it is nothing less than an invitation from Jesus to know him more. For others to know him through you.

A Few Things You Should Know About Me

August 23, 2013 by Amy 20 Comments

Come October, I’ll be headed back to the Allume conference. This year, I’m excited to travel with my friend Becky!

Allume is being held in Greenville, SC which apparently is super busy the weekend of the conference so all the rooms got booked. Several attendees had to pair up in rooms. Becky and I got paired with a pair of ladies we don’t know but I’m excited to meet. It’ll be like summer camp!

Today we’re all sharing a few things our roommates should know—but I hope everyone can learn something new today.

Mary, me, Amanda at Allume 2012

First, y’all should know we’re partying in my home state! I live less than 2 hours away, just south of Charlotte, NC. But my home is in South Carolina. I know, it’s a little confusing. I never know whether to say I’m from Charlotte since that’s what everyone would know but it’s not even in the same state I actually live in. Anywhoo, I’m super proud to live here. Greenville is one of our lovely cities and I think everyone will fall in love!

This is my second year at Allume. Last year was both wonderful and overwhelming. I roomed with Mary, Amanda and Mandy. Mary and Mandy won’t be there this year since Mary is pregnant and Mandy just had a baby. Amanda is speaking this year!

I’m an introvert. That means a lot of things. Here’s a list of 23. That might mean you’ll come in the room during the day and find me crying. While I LOVE conferences, I get overwhelmed. It’s ok. I just need a minute to get it out and then I’ll be fine.

On the flip side, I do well in small groups so I might be a chatter box in the room. Especially at night. I love late night girl talks and if I know me and Becky like I think I do, it will be tough to get me to be quiet before sleeping.

However, I’m on East Coast time and I’m usually zonked by 10pm. You probably won’t find me out late at the parties and even if I’m talking, I’ll like the lights out earlier than later.

I love chocolate and coffee. If you can’t find me, look near the dessert tables first.

But I am gluten-free, so I can’t eat most of the goodies. I’ll be scouring for M&Ms.

When I travel, I’m a neat-freak so you won’t find my stuff scattered over the room. But, it won’t bother me if yours is. I have two kids and messes don’t scare me.

Speaking of my kids, I have two girls that are 8 and 10 so you might find me Facetiming them in the afternoons. I also like my husband pretty well. We just celebrated our 15th anniversary this month.

I rub my feet together before I go to sleep. Sorry if that’s weird.

I don’t care whether I shower in the morning or evening.

But I’ll need some breakfast before I can communicate well.

I do this What I Wore Wednesday post every week so I might ask you to take my picture.

I’m a social media addict so I’ll probably be Instagramming my food. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram so we can connect before the conference.

I love writing but my favorite thing about blogging is the connections with people. That means I’m super excited to meet everyone and I just know we’ll have a great time!

You can meet more attendees here!

Stitch Fix #7

August 22, 2013 by Amy 35 Comments

Wow, how did we get to fix #7? Yes, yes, by getting 6 other shipments, thank you. But seriously, it doesn’t seem like I’ve had that many.

If you’re not familiar with Stitch Fix, it’s a personal styling service. You pay a $20 styling fee for a stylist to choose 5 items for you. You get to keep whatever you want, deducting the $20 fee from your total or use a postage-paid return envelope to return the rest.

As soon as I went through the fix, I was pretty convinced I wasn’t going to keep anything. I even threw it out on the Facebook page to see if anyone even wanted to see the fix. With a resounding yes, I started trying them on. And really, it was better than I thought.

But then…

My friend Katrina suggested I use the opportunity to be super silly and ham it up. And there’s a sweater with a flamingo in this fix and I just really could not get it out of my head. Plus, I’m supposed to be having FUN.

So.

I’m sorry, lovely people at Stitch Fix and all the rest of the Internet, here is a silly photo shoot taken under the careful direction of my 8 and 10 year old girls. Katrina, I’m very sure this isn’t what you had in mind, but the kids thought it was grand.

This cardigan is actually doable. Just not sure about the color.

This is the one I’d consider keeping.

I don’t know, I just, yeah. I don’t like this pattern and whatever was going on at the neckline.

I realize it’s a thing to wear sweaters with animals on it, but I can not wear this sweater with a straight face after this. Also, I think I’m an Egyptian flamingo.

I could not even zip the back of this it was so small.

What say you, friends? You are still my friends, right? Can you see through all the silly to see if I am misjudging the fix or should I send it all back? I have $25 credit and all these are $50-60. I lose my styling fee if I send it back.

If you want to see the previous, very normal, fixes go here:

The Internet’s Best Blogging Couples

August 19, 2013 by Amy 26 Comments

Two of my favorite things in this world are couples in love and blogging. And when you put those two things together? Consider me charmed.

I read a lot of blogs but always have a special place for couples that blog together. A couple that blogs together, stays together? I don’t know about that, but I DO know they’re fun to read and I want to share with you in case you might be missing out on the bloggy love.

While nearly all bloggers write with the support of their spouses, I picked couples that consistently blog together. And so, in no particular order, the Internet’s Best Blogging Couples:

The Pioneer Woman

(photo courtesy of The Pioneer Woman)

Let’s start out easy here, shall we? The Pioneer Woman and Marlboro Man were my first blogging crush. In fact, I still remember my friend Carolyn sharing a link to the Black Heels to Tractor Wheels series she was writing so many years ago on her blog which is now captured in her book of the same name. I couldn’t get through their story fast enough—it totally tortured me to wait so long between installments.

While most people know Ree for her food, I would say their love story is actually what hooked a lot of people to her blog.

Four kids later, I love how she still talks about his chap-wearing backside and chiseled forearms.

The Lettered Cottage

(photo courtesy of The Lettered Cottage)

Kevin and Layla make up the cottage-y design blog The Lettered Cottage where they share their design escapades and life stories. You may know Kevin as the photographer of the site and also one of the guys behind ShootFlyShoot that I love so much. Layla is the ninja designer behind the site.

Kevin and Layla are ridiculously talented and adorable and way too cool for school. I have a total couple crush on the two of them.

Funny enough, Layla has helped Pioneer Woman with some design work in the past. Maybe all of us can triple date and hang at Ree’s ranch one weekend? Hello? Anyone?

House of Rose

(photo courtesy of House of Rose)

I’ve only recently started following House of Rose but I’ve quickly become a fan. House of Rose is a lifestyle blog of Mandy’s but her husband Jeff (who also runs his own site GoodFinancialCents.com) often posts as well. They run Dollars and Roses together where they talk about their blogging income from their individual sites (which is massive—go learn from them).

I love how much fun they are and since this is a professional gig for them, everything is top-notch quality.

If you know their history (must-read)—things weren’t always “coming up roses” for them and seeing how far they’ve come makes following them even better. And, if you haven’t checked out Jeff talking about what it’s like to be the husband of a blogger, you simply must.

Young House Love

(photo courtesy of Young House Love)

Sherry and John of Young House Love are serious DIYers. They even wrote a book about it!

They’re funny and talented and you can’t help but love these two as they transform their houses. Go see house tours of their 3 houses. Just recently, they brought their new back deck to life of their current house.

Bonus: they’re friends with Katie Bowers, who runs another of my favorite blogs, Bower Power.

The House of Smiths

(photo courtesy of The House of Smiths)

Shelley and Cason are a duo that run a DIY site—The House of Smiths. You may recognize her site from the insanely cute pantry she redid a few years ago.

The pantry is just the start of their awesome projects. Just last week, Cason jumped on the blog to talk about how to install a doggy door. And Shelley always has fantastic Favorite Things posts (she’s the one I found my awesome iPhone cord through).

Shelley is also a serious Instagrammer and I love the bits of life you get to share of the two of them and their 3 daughters. They are a seriously cute couple very much in love with an adorable family.

RefineUs

(photo courtesy of RefineUs)

Justin and Trisha Davis run their ministry site/blog RefineUs.org together. After a brutal season of infidelity and near-divorce, Justin and Trisha now help other married couples through their ministry Refine Us which includes a book, personal coaching, and weekend retreats.

It’s fantastic watching them work together knowing what they’ve overcome. Just recently, Justin turned 40 and Trisha shared a letter she wrote to him in 1994. Adorable!

I’m sure you can already see what lovely couples they all are and why I’m smitten with all of them. They work hard and laugh hard together and it’s a joy to watch. Be sure to follow through to their blogs to subscribe away. I just know you’ll enjoy them like I do.

Now, I just need to finally convince Scott to jump on this blogging bandwagon with me!

I know there must be a ton more blogging couples out there and I’d love to meet them. Who would you name the Internet’s Best Blogging Couple?

Don’t forget to share this with a friend that might enjoy some bloggy love!

Braces Day

August 16, 2013 by Amy Leave a Comment

Yesterday was a big day in the Bennett household. Emma got her braces!

I hope you can see how excited she is about them. Truth be told, I think she’s enjoying all the attention. She likes having All the Things to clean her teeth with. She even brushed her teeth this morning without me asking.

That *could* have something to do with the contract she signed that said if the orthodontist gave her a bad grade on her hygiene for 2 months, she’d have to pay $50 (of her own money) and go into a Oral Hygiene program. Either way, I’m into it.

I couldn’t help get a bit sentimental about the whole shebang.

Yesterday, as we drove as a family (plus a friend) to the office, I was bemoaning how it seemed like just yesterday I was teaching her how to walk and now she was getting braces and starting 5th grade. She promptly rolled her eyes and said Really? Even the tween annoyance was cute at the moment. Aw, see, she’s getting annoyed at me—just like a real tween.

As we were sitting at the foot of her chair watching small little pieces of metal getting glued onto her teeth, I couldn’t help but steal a glance at Scott. I was only 15 when we met, halfway through my own set of braces.

How was it we now had two daughters, one getting braces, the other snapping pictures of her on the iPad? Sure, she’s getting them a lot earlier than me, but still—it was a full-circle moment for me.

I suppose this is a sign of getting older—a bunch of sentiment brought on by a few tiny pieces of metal.

Linking up with LisaJoBaker.com

In Which She Forgot How to Have Fun

August 13, 2013 by Amy 8 Comments

Yesterday Annie posted about having fun. She says not only does she like having fun, she “spend(s) a portion of every day trying to think of ways to add fun to whatever activity” she’s doing.

She then goes on describe people around her that are no fun…the ones looking for ways to have “quiet” or “peace” or the ones taking Zumba class way too seriously. <—all me

She asked at the end of the post for how others have fun.

Honest to goodness, I could not think of any way to have fun. If someone had come in the door right then and said go do whatever you want no matter how much it costs and have fun, I would have come up blank.

I find things enjoyable like reading but fun? I don’t finish my book at night and say, “Wow, that was so much fun!”

I thought about it all night.

I even talked to my girls about it. Lexi seemed very concerned. “Don’t you like having coffee?” Yes, I do like having coffee with my friends. I mentally made a note.

I realized I really have fun going to the local theme park but we don’t often go because Scott hates heat and crowds and Lexi hates going anywhere mostly. Concerned Lexi quickly said, “Well, I would go if you wanted to go!”

I had a ton of fun the past weekend. I realized I love flying. I love eating out.

I was starting to remember fun.

I’m a conference junkie and legitimately find them fun when I’m not totally overwhelmed by them.

I really miss going to country concerts—those were fun. Scott and I used to go to the local country bar 2-3 nights a week and would line dance and attend the concerts on Friday nights. We quit when we got married but those were good times when we called heating systems draper ut and we bonded fixing the fire place.

I love live-tweeting a TV show when everyone else is tweeting too but with DVR hardly anyone watches live TV anymore.

I love having silly girl time with my girls. When they’re on a roll, they crack me up.

Movies are great, especially in the theater.

And loud music. I really like loud music. When I was a teenager, I had huge speakers in my car and pumped out songs like Gangsta’s Paradise.

So, I don’t know. I think I’ve lost my mojo a little. How lame is it that I had to think so hard about having fun?

Goodbye, Summer 2013

August 12, 2013 by Amy 4 Comments

I don’t know if you might have noticed or not, but let me make it clear: this has been a hard summer. Summer is always hard for me because I’m never available as much as I want to be with the girls so there’s always this undercurrent of disappointment. Add in the unexpected water leak and a leadership position in our company’s internship program this year along with all the other stuff I’m usually juggling and my capacity was simply pegged.

The past few days though I’ve been able to gain some relief.

I’ve simply let go of getting everything back together from the water leak. The rooms are together and livable. I still have a bookcase to stain, decorations to make, and wall art to buy but I realized I was the only one feeling pressured to get it all done and NOW. I’ll work on it when I can and other than that, I’ve just had to let go of my own expectations (story of my life).

Last Thursday, we had our closing ceremonies to our internship program during a trip to Sioux Falls SD. I haven’t talked much about it but I’ll say that it stretched me more than anything I’ve done to date at work.

Even though it was challenging, seeing the difference of my intern between the start and finish was pretty astounding and it really did make the time worth it. I was like a proud momma watching him give his final presentation. Add in some great dinners and conversation (and a pedicure) with my coworkers, and our trip last week truly felt like a celebration and closure of the summer.

I followed up that trip with a 24 hour stop in Wisconsin see my friend (and Scott’s cousin) Carla. I mentioned it in Thursday’s anniversary post but she divorced this past year and we had spent countless hours together walking through that valley.

I hadn’t seen her in nearly two years so being with her was felt like a final closure to that time. In fact, she hasn’t seen any family or friends from home for almost two years so I know for her too it was relieving, to say the least.

I felt God’s grace all over our weekend. From a special bakery to a beautiful night of fireworks to a prayer sung by a 6 year old over homemade spaghetti to a little cheese house to a school house turned cafe to an empty table at a restaurant in the airport, God didn’t just pass by, he orchestrated every moment. Even the one where I had to hug the one that had hurt her and hurt us and silently say I forgive you. God’s grace multiplied.

We have just a week and a half before school starts so the start of this final full week of summer truly feels like a goodbye to Summer of 2013. Emma gets her braces at the end of this week so even that feels like a new start.

Sure, I will miss having the kids home and the warm weather and trips to the beach and ice cream runs and late-night movies but I’m ready to dust myself off, give our routines at home, school and work a new beginning.

How about you? How would you describe this summer for your family?