I ♥ Faces - A Slice of Life

Here it is - a slice of Haitian life. I'll keep this short and simple: the river on Saturday morning. Laundry day, wash day, work day - just a piece of life in Pignon.

Fix it Friday #89

Fix it Friday strikes again:

Original (courtesy of Dana Suggs)

And mine:

Steps in GIMP

Auto white balance

Crop

Desaturate for luminosity

Brightness -20

Contrast +10

Unsharp mask 

Dodge tool on eyes

Colorize (Hue 141, Saturation 10)

i ♥ Faces: Anything but Faces

I heart faces this week is "Anything but Faces" - so here's my entry:

This is from one of the ISU games this fall. Fingers crossed for the POT! :)

For more heads, shoulders knees and toes click the camera

Fix it Friday #88

I'm realizing just how much I love directed design - here's a picture, edit it; here's the details of our event, make a  poster (gotta love having a fiancé on the CRU outreach team) etc. So with no further ado, here's fix it friday #88.

Original {Angie Arthur Photography}

And my edit in GIMP

Check out more edits

Fix it Friday #87

Wow - haven't done this in a while!
Anyway, here is our lovely original photo by Andrea Riley (thanks!)

And here's my final edit

The Julie Project

    

I never really know how to explain to non-visual people why I love photography so much. I'm a visual learner and along with that, a visual rememberer, a true believer that a picture is worth a thousand words. But what do you tell those people who see a picture and don't see the point? Well today, I found it. Kelly at Willette shared a link to another photog's site. Darcy Padilla is a documentary photographer whose feature work is called The Julie Project:

"For the last 18 years I [Darcy] have photographed 
Julie Baird’s complex story of multiple homes, 
AIDS, drug abuse, abusive relationships, poverty, 
births, deaths, loss and reunion. Following Julie 
from the back-streets of San Francisco 
to the backwoods of Alaska."

Go. Read Julie's story. Listen to her words. Understand that photography is not about taking a pretty picture. It is telling the story. It is preservation of a person, a life. The camera cannot lie. 

Julie's story is not pretty. It is gritty, dirty, painful and raw. But it is true. It is now. It is Julie. 

DISCLAIMER: 

This is a story of drugs, poverty, abuse and dying. The photos are brutally honest. There is nudity, there are images of birth, there is drug use, and there is death. 
Read at your own discretion.

I ♥ Faces: Red

This week's theme at iheartfaces is RED in honor of Go Red for Women.

Meet Krista. She's gorgeous. Inside and out. I worked with her at camp multiple summers and love her. Lots. :)

To see more oh so lovely red pictures, click the camera

I ♥ Faces: Innocent Wonder

Only one of the reasons I love him:

This is Mike and one of the girls from his church at a wedding this summer. I just LOVE the look on her face. She is just the sweetest - I met her that night and she told me she was sad I had to leave at the end of the night because I danced the YMCA with her :D THEN we went to church the next day and they brought their new puppy to show the other kids after the service - major cute overload!! 

For more examples of innocent wonder click the camera 

I ♥ Faces: Smiles!

Happy Birthday to iheartfaces!! And we get to celebrate with SMILES!! 

This is Janelle and Theresa, my two favorite-est non-biological little sisters :D

Click the camera for more :D SMILES :D

I ♥ Faces: Best Face of 2010

This week at iheartfaces is a special contest of our absolute best face photo of 2010. I think this one is my favorite because of the emotion it captures. You can only imagine what those beautiful young eyes have seen. It is from my day at a refugee camp in Haiti this March.

Click here to see other's favorite 2010 portraits - Mine is #655 to vote :D