We are two sisters who love cooking, DIYing, entertaining, traveling, a good glass of wine (or two or three), photography, and pretty much anything where we can use our creativity. Our main mission is to keep an online journal in hopes of inspiring ourselves daily. If we happen to inspire others along the way, it would be an added bonus.
I am a 25 year old recent newlywed to my husband, Brian. I live in the suburbs of Chicago in a 25 year old condo. Yes, my house and I are the same age (my house being the one needing redecorating and updating). I love trying out new recipes, DIYing works of art to decorate my home, working on my photography skills, and above all making time for my family and friends (particularly my big sister Cortney). During the week you can find me wearing kaki’s and cardigans, as I am a second grade teacher. My goal is to use the creativity I use in my classroom on a daily basis in other realms of my life.
I am a 29 year old Chi-Town city gal living in a cozy condo with my boyfriend, Jeff. Monday through Friday I go by Miss Schmitt, as my main gig is working as a speech-language pathologist at a school in the burbs. Beyond my day job, I adore decorating, finding treasures at flea markets, seeking new adventures in the city, laughing, indulging in anything sweet, and spending time with friends and family (especially my lovely sis, Kali). Read along as I share my hopes, dreams, and outcomes (the good and the bad!).Brian surprised me with a DSLR camera (Cannon Rebel T2i) as my wedding gift this past July. Since then, I’ve been researching like crazy trying to learn as much as I can to create great looking photos. I’ve recently looked into new equipment for my camera. A new lens (I’m forcing myself to start out cheap until I learn more), flash, and an adorable camera bag ruled my christmas list, along with photoshop CS5 Extended. Lucky for me, I am a teacher, therefore I purchased CS5 with an 80% discount. I was ecstatic! I downloaded it right away and couldn’t wait to get started on making some amazing photos. Well, it ended up taking me 20 minutes just to figure out how to open an image. I thought photoshop was going to be something I’d be able to play around with and pick up on “as I go.” No, Ma’am! I have lit.er.ally no idea what I’m doing. But just tonight, I was browsing photography on pinterest and came across this, 45 Amazing and Free Photoshop Actions from Vandelay Design. I downloaded about 5 of these and they’ve given me a starting point with editing my photos. Here’s what I came up with…
Two years ago this week, Brian surprised me with an engagement ring and a trip to Napa. So I felt the need to edit some of my Napa photos.
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My goal was to make this barn look old and antique-y. I wanted the photo to look like is was taken in the early 1900′s. My next plan is to learn how to add textures to photos so this would look wrinkled and aged.
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For this one, I just wanted a very sharp B&W shot.
These Napa photos were taken with my old 8 megapixel camera. This proves just how amazing Photoshop is!
Then I went into editing photos from our most recent trip, Kauai and Maui Hawaii. These photos were taken with my Cannon Rebel. However, seeing as the camera was a wedding gift and this trip was our honeymoon, I had owned the camera for one day before we left for this trip. Therefore, most of these photos were taken in automatic mode.
This first photo is one of my favorites from our trip. We were cruising around Maui and pulled over to look at some views. Brian took this shot just by holding the camera out in front of us. I thought the colors in the original were beautiful. I never thought this picture could improve. But, photoshop proved me wrong. I used the high definition photoshop action for this one and the helicopter shot. I miss being tan…
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In Kauai we hiked along the Na’Pali coast. This picture is from that hike.
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So, those of you out there with photoshop, enjoy these free actions. If you’re a photoshop expert, puuuuuhlease share your secrets! Leave a comment or email me at justkalirae@gmail.com.
I JUST got the same camera and I am also trying to learn the “ins and outs” of Photoshop. I didn’t expect it to be so tricky! Good luck to you! Your photos look great!
Good luck to you, too! I’ll keep you updated with other things I come across.
Julie, I love your 30 day photo challenge! I’ll have to get on that soon. I also love your resolution list. I need to start thinking of some for myself. Thanks for the inspiration!