I am addicted to post processing

I have had this sudden addiction to post processing photos! I have been using www.picnik.com but I do own 2 versions of Photoshop Elements that I am slowly learning to use...but for now picnik is serving my purposes!


In honor of my beloved Pittsburgh Penguins I edited this for the team!!! Bring us home a win tommorrow!!!!

My Pittsburgh Penguins autograph commercial

This is a collage of my fav penguins autographs! There is Jordan Staal #11 and Sidney Crosby #87 and of course my future MVP favorite, Evgeni "geno" Malkin #71! I had them sign a photo album that was made for me by my BFF's mom who is so crafty!!!!!!

Well I am off to go watch some more nhl hockey action!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms!!!!

The Best Friends A Girl Could Ever Have!

This is Ben! He is my best male friend! We are both die hard Pittsburgh Penguins fans, who can complete each other's thoughts about the game! One of a few good things to come from my employment at Wal*Mart!




This is Ben's kid sister Kelley who is like the sister that I never had but always wanted! My world would be so dull without her in my life...she can make me smile when I just dont want too!!! Another good thing to come outta my Wal*Mart experience. Oh wow...I almost forgot to introduce you to my not so lil friend L...this was taken when L was a new born...she is gonna be 2 this yr..:(




This is just a cool photo of my new irish friend...never did get his name but he insisted that I take this photo and to be quite honest, I am super happy how it turned out!!!


I wanna take a second to thank Caitlin@ www.Caitlindomanico.com for introducing me to photobucket! I really appreciate it Caitlin!!!!!

More of my recent work

Thank you, blogspot for making me have to post more of my work in another post!!!
This is the Honus Wagner Statue outside of PNC PARK. I have been trying my hand not only at bokeh but at HDR too.

I have taken the Definition of HDR or High Dynamic Range imaging again from my go to website, http://www.wikipedia.com/.

high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows

This is my 2nd attempt at HDR using Heinz Field!

I am doing my best to learn new techniques and methods of post processing and when the weather in Western, Pa is finally nice for more than 3 days, I will be able to better practice everything I am learning.


On a side note: I have decided to enroll in the New York Institute of Photography to learn more about lighting and studio work, because I was asked by a dear dear friend to go into business with her. Wish me well!!!!!!

Well its NHL playoff season, so I am gonna scoot and listen to some hockey games online...but be on the look out for more posts from my summer!

Sorry for the Lag in My Posts

I am sorry for the major lag in my blog posts! I have had a lot going on in my personal life so my photography has been placed on the back burner for a period of time, but I AM BACK!!!!!!

I have started to photograph my oldest nephew's t-ball team but I was asked to not post any of him because of internet pervs so I found this photo of his team mate who you arent really able to see his face completely!!!! Dang pervs are ruining my blog...grrrrr!!!!

I have been trying to learn the art of Bokeh, I have taken this definition off of wikipedia

Bokeh (derived from Japanese, a noun boke 暈け, meaning "blur" or "haze") is a photographic term referring to the appearance of point of light sources in an out-of-focus area of an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field.[1] Different lens bokeh produces different aesthetic qualities in out-of-focus backgrounds, which are often used to reduce distractions and emphasize the primary subject.

This was my 1st attempt at this and I am pleased but not 100 percent happy with the result. I am a big fan of shadows so that part at least made me VERY VERY happy! I will continue to research and learn to master it come hell or high water!

I have started to have this addiction to photographing sunsets! These waere taken in my hometown as I was a passenger in a car.....was very amazed at how steady I was able to hold the camera for these shots.

Well it looks as if blogspot isnt going to allow me to place any more of my photos on this post so I will end this post and start another post because I have a few more photos that I am very excited to share with every one!!!!

Post II to follow!

"It's A Great Day For Hockey"

As any one who knows me can tell you, I am the most die hard Pittsburgh Penguins fan around! I can tell you things that happened from eons ago and who played where and what positions and what not.....well the next few entries will be of some my best Pittsburgh Penguins photos. Enjoy!!!

The photo above is of the ever so hard to photograph, Mr. Jordan Staal! He had just turned around as I was trying to hurry and snap this shot for a friend! His nickname is "staalzie"
This photo is of the ever so loveable and sometimes annoying mascot, Iceburgh! He/She really posed nicely for this one! I am still not sure if I like this in black and white or not but decided to do the mirrored frame this way!!!!
This is the ever so talented, Evgeni Malkin. He defected from Russia to play for the Penguins, which has caused him to have some enemies within the NHL. He is currently learning to speak English, and is doing very well if I may say so myself. He currently leads the NHL is scoring, closely followed by fellow team mate, Sid Crosby and fellow Russian, Alexander Ovechkin!

Well I just watch one heck of a game, won in over time by Mr. Malkin so I am gonna call it a night and end this entry!!! Look for more photos to come!!!!!

Miss L wanted me to take her photo with this tennis racket......quite the ham.

This little cutie is the baby sister of my nephew's preschool classmate, who I got to photograph at her sister's bday party at Chuck E Cheese......having 3 nephews made me go wild with the little girls...lol!!!!

This lil girl was too cute...the glasses and the amazing smile....couldn't resist this one since I was totally loving all the girls at the party...:D

My youngest nephew "E"! He loves to do funny things so I will bring out the camera and take his photo. My brother is tickling him so he would give me that big cheesy grin of his!!!!! The photo below this is his brother "B" who totally hates my camera and hides his faces but I was so lucky to grab this shot before he ruined it...lol!!!!!

"B" was in his Bob the Builder phase in this photo......but he goes thru new phases at least one time a week! It's Thomas the Train now...:D We got digital cable with all the children's programing so I am sure his phases are gonna change more reguarly!!!!!!! He just turned four yesterday and I am having a hard time with it! Times flies by so fast when they are little!!!! He's in preschool and loving all his friends and is learning to write his letters and talking up a storm...but there are times when I wish he was a little baby again....:(!!!!!

Children's photography is something that I really enjoy. Capturing their adorable expressions, their milestones in life on film is just something that I really enjoy and would love to do more professionally.

Somalian Refugees in Pittsburgh

I attended my 1st Pittsburgh Flickr walk and while we were walking we came across these Somalian children who were refugees. The first photo was a random shot because I wasn't sure if I should photograph them or not! As our walk was ending , the children were purchasing ice cream and approached our group so I couldn't help but take the next few!!!

This lil boy just melted my heart! He was so proud of his ice cream bar. I tried to get him to put it down away from his face but I am not sure he fully understood me or what I was doing with this big thing in front of my face.

This lil boy brought some big crocodile tears to my eyes. He wasn't able to have ice cream and I had asked for a group photo of all the children. Well he ran away all upset thinking i didn't want him because he didn't have ice cream, which shattered my heart into a bizillion pieces. I found him down the street a ways and I said to him..."Ice cream is something they got but every one has a smile, so let me see that smile" or something to that affect and this is the gorgeous image I got! *choking up again*

These lil beauties were the biggest hams, I have ever seen. They were all about the camera! They had some of the cutest scarves and lil dresses on. These lil ladies sit on my desk at work to make me realize how fortunate I am to have a job, a house and clothes on my back !!!! Ok, this is really choking me up so I better end here!!!! I hope you enjoy these amazing children as much as I did!!

I cant get enough of my images from Friday Nite!!!

This is a group shot of my new friends discussing their images amongst each other. They are Avery, Nina, Avery's mom Steph, Susan, Paige (only her leg), Julie and Mirielle(sorry if this is wrong)

This was the table full of images from our ladies night!!! I have suddenly fallen in love with black and white photos and this one just seemed too be the perfect black and white image!!!!!

More Images from the ladies photo exchange.

I truly "Love" all my new Flickr friends that I made on Friday!!!!! This was an awesome decoration in Paige's kitchen and I had to take a photo of it to express my feelings for this group of amazing ladies!!!!!

Paige's father brought us all home these cute Cars Pez dispensers. Lighning McQueen decided to hang out in Julie's pockets! I cross processed this using, http://www.picnik.com/! I highly recommend this program for editing photos!!!!!

The ladies are discussing the images they received and the images that they brought too share!!! I am so in love with the ones that I received!!!!!!

Pittsburgh Flickr Ladies Photo Exchange

On Friday night, I went to Paige's house for a ladies night photo exchange. We all belong to the Pittsburgh group on Flickr. Paige (shown above in the green) and stephanie came up with this lovely idea to get together and exchange some of our photos amongst each other. Every one brought 5 photos to exchange and their favorite snack food. Paige was sweet enough to offer her house for the event. I dont have friends to hang out with so I jumped at the chance to meet new friends and talk photography and ladies things. After getting lost for 45 mins, I finally arrived at Paige's house and was welcomed with open arms by every one, which I will admit I was so used to being excluded that I made myself sick all day over how Id be treated. WOW is all I can say!

These ladies were so wonderful and made every one feel like part of the group. We mingled and had some amazing snacks......I have to thank Julie (above in the white) for my new love of garlic hummus with Feta cheese..lol!!! We talked about everything from Top Chef and Hells Kitchen to Nina's life in Kiev, Ukraine and how she was "kicked out ". Then it was time for the photo fun to begin....Paige took every one's photos and laid them upside down on her furniture.....and let me tell you there were quite a few photos. Every one got amazing photos and Steph had all the photographer's sign their images, which I thought was a cool idea!!!!!!

These are just a sample of the many amazing images that were exchanged during the evening! The selective colored ones are the ones that I received but the two on the end of the couch are two of mine that someone received. I am still trying to find the perfect frames and the perfect spots on my walls for my images!!!!!!!