Over at i♥faces this week, it's "over my head"! No, I don't mean that I don't understand it... That's the theme. I immediately thought of this photo. I'm not sure why, but I always tear up whenever I see it. It's from the closing ceremonies of last summer's Breast Cancer 3-day walk in St. Paul. That ceremony is so emotional and seeing all the survivors (including my mom) walk in this incredible event is amazing!

Be sure to join my Perceptive Perspective this week where the theme is "critters"!

Make sure to check out my Perceptive Perspective themes each week and join in the fun!

This is a perfect theme this week because I just took the girls up north over the weekend and we spent some time in the water. I took lots of photos of them having fun. Lexi (5) was a natural at the kayak. I only had to tell her a few times how to move the boat in different directions. Emma (7) loved the water slide and wanted me to take photo after photo. I got some of my friend and her son and even before and after shots of the rain. I can't wait to go up again!

Check out more "water" shots at I should be folding laundry.

This week's theme at i♥faces is "play". I had the privilege to "shoot" the Horn family a couple weeks ago. I thought they turned out so fun! They are one of the most "playful" families ever! (More "playful" photos of the Horns at 2babycakes)  

I love the photos of babies! The thing is, babies are such hard work! They take at least twice as long to do anything with. They need constant reposing, cleaning when they spit up, changing (both clothes and diapers), feeding, and don't forget the cranky times...

In the end, it's all worth it. There's always something great about them.

This shot was a little flat for my taste (has very little contrast).

BEFORE

So, using Photoshop CS3, I gave it a little more pop in "levels". I also fixed the colors in "selective colors" and cropped it in. I wish we had the little ones' feet in here. That would have been cute. I also touched up the splotchy skin by adding a gaussian blur in a duplicate layer, then masking that in. (I should have done this more, but I'm not really in the mood today - I think I'm too excited to go camping over the long weekend!)

AFTER

I still didn't like the diapers; they distract from the real subject. So I thought I'd crop some more andtake it to (almost) black and white, just for fun.

Then there's this one... I really don't know what I did for sure. I just played around with filters and opacity until I liked what I saw. That's usually what I do!

See more fixes of this photo at i♥faces.