A virtual Christmas card from us!

I almost didn't do Christmas cards this year--I think I mentioned that in a previous post--but since we had some Pampers Gifts to Grow rewards which entitled us to 25 free holiday cards I ordered them and paid only for the shipping and stamps. This means that my usual huge list which is compiled of family members as well as people I haven't contacted since last year's Christmas card was cut down to a very limited number. So don't feel too bad if you didn't get one from us, it's not personal.

Without further ado, the 2012 Christmas card from our family to yours!



I photographed my nephew for his cards too and now that he is three he sat like an angel and smiled huge. His photo shoot was over in about ten minutes. Last year, when he was two and change, it was a huge struggle to get a few where he was looking at the camera at all. I keep this in mind when photographing Dylan this year because at two, I swear, getting him to look at the camera takes major trickery. This series of photos at the lake? Took us over an hour. I will be glad next year when he turns three and his sister is not yet quite old enough to be walking. Toddlers do not like to sit still.

Here are some more pictures from Dylan's Christmas card session at the lake. I didn't edit any of these so they are straight out of the camera and full of imperfections. Note: anything fleece is a dog hair magnet in our house and it drives me up a wall when I have to spend an extra ten minutes editing out dog hair.







For my own personal kicks, this what a photo looks like before and after editing. My camera is terrible with sharpness and saturation so I always spend forever making them pop and giving them definition in Photoshop.

Here's the before, straight out of the camera. And after a quick edit:




People always say that the camera takes great pictures but the proof is in the pudding Photoshopped edits. My camera is great at certain things but lacking in others and lucky for me I can usually fix them during post processing.

Anyway. What I really meant to say with this post is Merry Christmas. From us to you.