Ramble Road {ramblings}

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 23:20:00 +0000

Gosh, I know it's been a while since I've last posted. August was a busy, busy time for me. In celebration of my dad's 75th birthday, we had a family reunion at Marco Island. All the little cousins were reunited and boy, did they all have a blast!

Tuesday hook-ups...Those eyes...

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 03:27:00 +0000

Everybody always wants to know who Aubrey gets her eyes from. She definitely does not have the typical Asian almond eyes. Well...if you met any member of my side of the family, then you would know right away where she gets them from. All the women on my mom's side of the family have these huge round eyes. My grandmother, my aunts and all the girl cousins have them. Having said that, I got the short end of the stick. Out of all the women, I ended up having the smallest eyes...go figure! This is probably why everyone always questions who Aubrey gets her eyes from...

This week, I Heart Faces' photo challenge is "Beautiful Eyes". Along with this photo challenge, I will be linking up with my usual Tuesday crowd...The Paper Mama's Tuesday Touch-ups, Leigh vs. Laundry's The Happiness Project, and My 3 Boybarians' Sweet Shot Tuesday.

SOOC

THE RECIPE:

1. Adjusted the levels and curves.

2. Brighten her eyes with MCP's The Eye Doctor.

3. Ran PTM's Whisper Softly action.

4. Ran PTM's Hush Softness action.

5. Sharpen and Save.

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 01:04:00 +0000

Splish-Splash...We're having a blast!

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 01:22:00 +0000

Wordless Wednesday...Oh...the Drama!

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 02:20:00 +0000

Drama, Drama, Drama...that's what living with a 2-year old is all about. I can't even believe that I was able to capture these photos. This is my little drama queen watching her all-time favorite show...Dora the Explorer. And this just happens to be her reaction to Swiper (the Fox) swiping Boot's toy.

Tuesday hook-ups...

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:13:00 +0000

UGH! I am the worst when it comes to lighting! I literally struggle with this. I have such a hard time finding the light, especially inside my house. You would think that with all the floor-to-ceiling windows that I have in my house that I would be able to easily take advantage of the light. I guess that I just really need to take a course on lighting but I just have no time for it right now. So for the moment, I will always be forever grateful for the magic of Photoshop. Not to mention, the many talented photographers who have offered their actions/textures to us.

As you can see, my lighting is super horrible in the SOOC shot...

...and this is how I edited the shot...

1. Reduced the noise.
2. Adjusted the levels.
3. Ran Coffeeshop's Curves action (80% opacity).
4. Ran MCP's Magic Skin action (30% opacity).
5. Ran PTM's Out of the Shadow action (35% opacity).
6. Ran PTM's Whimsy Colors action.
7. Applied Kim Klassen's Dreamy Texture (Soft light @ 100% opacity).
8. Flattened, Sharpened and Saved.

Wordless Wednesday...I did it!

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:40:00 +0000

Getting back to the daily grind...

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 05:44:00 +0000

Sorry, ya'll...for being M.I.A. for the last 2 weeks. We actually took a "real" vacation...meaning a vacation in which we don't go back to Washington, DC to visit the family. Well, ok...technically we did see family but it was more the Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. But it still counts as a "real" vacation because we weren't in DC...in fact, we were in Dallas, TX. Can I just say that I totally want to move there? You just get so much more for your money in Dallas. Not to mention, I would actually have family that lives near by AND my best friend just moved there from Greenwich, Connecticut. If only my husband can get a job there...sigh...

So since I've been back, it's been pretty hard to get back into my daily mode. I had so much fun on vacation that I actually got the post-vacation blues. Therefore this week, I'm going to kill several birds (photo challenges and memes) with one stone. For this week's edit, I took an older photo and processed it into a black and white.

SOOC

THE RECIPE:

1. Ran PTM's Sweet Ivy B&W.
2. Added Life 'n' Reflection's White Oak texture (soft light, 100% opacity).
3. Added S. Gardner's Landscape texture (soft light, 75% opacity).
4. Ran PTM's Warm Sweetness.
5. Flattened, Sharpened & Save.

Wordless Wednesday...According to my 7 year old...

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

...her little sister's obsession with Dora the Explorer has lead her to start dressing like Tico the Squirrel!

Wordless Wednesday...

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 02:05:00 +0000

Just trying to beat the heat!

Tuesday Hook-ups

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 03:50:00 +0000

After a busy weekend of birthday parties and Father's Day celebrations, I now have a camera full of photos. However, now comes the hard part...finding the time to sit down and go through them all. Not to mention, I'm currently hosting out-of-town relatives for the next 2 weeks. Yikes!

So for this week's photo touch-up, I literally took the first photo (from this past weekend) off of my camera . It's a picture of my daughter on the day of her birthday party looking all confused and dazed...and not really sure what all the hoopla was all about.

SOOC

RECIPE:

Adjusted levels, clean up her skin.
Ran PTM's Hushed Softness action.
Added Kim Klassen's Stained Linen texture (Soft light, 71% opacity).
Added Kim Klassen's Granny's Cupboard texture (Soft light, 55% opacity).
Sharpened & saved.

EDITED:

Wordless Wednesday...

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 04:41:00 +0000

Look Who's Two Today!

Tuesday Hook-ups

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 03:47:00 +0000

Hello my bloggy friends! I know it's been at least 2 weeks since my last post but life has been quite hectic at my house and I just could not find the time to sit down and blog. But I have managed to snap a couple of pictures here and there and I'm just now getting around to playing with them. So for this week's Tuesday Hook-ups, I'm just playing around with different textures. Usually, I'm not big on adding textures to my photos but I just felt like doing something different this week.

SOOC:

RECIPE:

Adjusted the Color with Curves.
Tweaked it with PW's Fresh Colors.
Added Kaleidoscope's Embellish texture (multiply, 62% opacity).
Added Kim Klassen's Warm Sun texture (multiply, 75% opacity).
Added PTM's Limelight (overlay, 21%).
Sharpened & Saved.

EDITED:

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Wed, 25 May 2011 02:27:00 +0000

Tuesday Hook-ups

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Tue, 24 May 2011 05:11:00 +0000

Happy Tuesday everyone! Besides hooking up with the usual ladies (Tuesday Touch-ups, The Happiness Project, and Sweet Shot Tuesday), I am going to link up with The Trendy Treehouse for their Shutter Love Tuesday (Crazy Faces). Since it's almost the end of the school year and everybody's got a lot on their plates at this time, I'm just going to make today's edit very simple and nothing fancy.

Here's the recipe:

1. Reduced the noise.
2. Ran CoffeeShop's S-Curve Pop.
3. Ran CoffeeShop's Boost.
4. Sharpened & Saved.

Wordless Wednesday...

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Wed, 18 May 2011 01:20:00 +0000

Keep your face towards the sunshine

and the shadows will fall behind you.

Wordless Wednesday...

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Wed, 11 May 2011 00:47:00 +0000

Over the weekend, my daughter found these eggs on the ground across from our garage door. They were just sitting in some shredded barks and the nearest tree being the magnolia tree above it. We looked in the tree and all the bushes around it and could not find a nest anywhere. So I'm thinking...could these be snake eggs? Because if they are...I'm getting the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it!

Tuesday Hook-ups...

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Tue, 10 May 2011 02:52:00 +0000

Happy Tuesday everyone! I still have the post-vacation blues so I'm pulling out a photo from my brother's wedding (2 weeks ago) so I can "relive" the fun times. This week I thought that I would try to edit my pictures without using too many actions. Key word...too! I've come to rely on these actions quite a bit so I thought that I would just limit the use of them this time around. There are some that I still find that I just cannot live without...but it makes me really appreciate all of the photographers out there who work their butts off creating these actions for us.

The Edit:

1. Adjusted skin tone (Enhance > Adjust color > Adjust color for Skin tone).
2. Adjusted the levels (Enhance > Adjust lighting > Levels).
3. Adjusted the curves (Enhance > Adjust color > Adjust color curves).
4. Ran MCP's Eye Doctor.
5. Sharpened, flattened, and saved.

Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Wed, 04 May 2011 01:18:00 +0000

Spring bouquet from my brother's wedding (last week).

Tuesday hook-ups...I'm back!

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Tue, 03 May 2011 13:18:00 +0000

Happy Tuesday, y'all! I've been gone for 10 days in No.VA./DC for my brother's wedding and for me, it seems as if time just flew by. That's how much fun I was having. I didn't even want to come back to Tampa. Of course with all the festivities surrounding the wedding, I was able to capture everything...except for the wedding itself. I know...imagine that! But I had no choice since I was one of the bridesmaids so I will have to rely on the professional photographers for my pictures. In the meantime, here's a photo of my daughter and my nieces who were inseparable. Too cute!

Tuesday hook-ups...

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 13:24:00 +0000

For the past week, I have been knocked off of my feet with bronchitis and pneumonia. Both of my daughters got it 2 weekends ago and managed to get over it rather quickly, but when they graciously gave it to me, it was 10 times worse then what they got. Sick of lying in bed all day, I managed to get on my computer long enough to do a quick touch-up. Not to mention, I'm heading up D.C. tomorrow for my brother's wedding so you may not hear from me for a week or so. Have a great Easter everyone!

SOOC

EDITED

SOOC

EDITED

I used the same edit on both photos:

1. Reduced the noise.

2. Adjusted the levels.

3. Ran CoffeeShop's S-Curved Pop action.

4. Ran MCP's Fusion action.

5. Flattened & saved.

Tuesday hook-ups...

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 06:41:00 +0000

It hadn't rained here for at least 2 months and finally last week we had our first huge thunderstorm. It was kind of surreal because we woke up to a sky filled with lightening and the thunderstorm brought along some hail and a tornado in certain areas. The weather was severe enough for the schools to have delayed openings. My daughter came home from school to tell us that instead of taking her test, the schools were practicing tornado safety drills with them. That's how different we are compared to the rest of the United States. We don't get off for snow days...we get off for hurricanes and tornadoes.

The good thing about the rain was that it ended our 2 months of drought and almost immediately, everything turned green. Well, I live on 21 acres of preservation so you can imagine how green it is around my house. Last week as I am driving out of my driveway, I noticed along my driveway, a bright patch of pink flowers sticking out among the bushes like a sore thumb. If you know me, then you would know that I do not plant any flowers. I do not have a green thumb...I kill everything that is plant-related. So imagine how elated I was to see "color" among all the greenery around my house. It may be wild flowers or even weeds but it doesn't matter, it's still "flower" to me.

First Edit:

1. Adjusted the levels.
2. Applied PTM's Whimsy Colors.
3. Sharpened, Flattened, & Saved.

Final Edit:

Took the First Edit....

1. Applied MCP's Fusion (Rustic action).
2. Added Life-n-Reflections' White Oak texture, hard light, 31%.
3. Sharpened, Flattened, & Saved.

Wordless Wednesday...bath time!

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 01:51:00 +0000

Tuesday hook-ups...

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 04:29:00 +0000

This past Sunday, we decided to go down to the beach and soak in some sun. It was 88 degrees, full on sunshine and a little bit breezy. The water was still a little cold but once you get over the initial shock, then you'll just get acclimated to it. It was a perfect opportunity to take along my camera to practice some beach photography. For me, I have yet to master this. Living in the sunshine state, my pictures are always blown out. Not only that, I can barely preview my pictures through the LCD screen because the sun is so strong. So I never know if any of my pictures are going to turn out right...until I get home.

The following photo is kind of random. It was actually a test shot and I was still messing around with my metering. However, I wanted to edit this because of the superb catch-lights in her eyes (SOOC). I LOVE catch-lights and I just wanted to see what I can do with it.

The Edit:

1. Removed the scar, sand, blemish, and hair from her face.
2. Removed reflected color cast from her pink hat.
3. Used MCP's Magic Skin and Eye Doctor.
4. Used MCP's Mini Fusion.
5. Ran PW's Sharpen This.
6. Flattened and Saved.

Wordless Wednesday...

noreply@blogger.com (Uyen) — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 01:52:00 +0000

SUNRISE

SUPER MOON