A Night with Hillsong United in Chicago, Illinois

I had a wonderful night very recently in Chicago with Hillsong United.

I had seen them in Korea a few years back so seeing them again was really a wonderful way to spend the evening in worship.  

Of course I had to bring my camera and get a few good shots.  :)

It was so awesome singing  "This I believe" with them.  

So many hands were lifted in worship.

One of my favorite songs of all is "Forever Reign" and I'm so glad they sang it!

Taya singing Touch the Sky...

I hope you've enjoyed going with me virtually.  It was a BLAST!   

And for good measure,  here's my favorite song!   

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This and That~ Photography Style

These are some shots that I took last year from various parts of Chicagoland.  

I had them in queue but never hit publish.

This was taken near Crawford Steel Company as mentioned in a previous post.    I simply love this image.

It reminds me of this song by Casting Crowns~  All You've Ever Wanted.  Isn't it true that we all have that inner desire to be loved and accepted by the One who  created us and loved us?  All He has ever wanted is our heart!  

The hubs and I stopped at Joong Bu Market in North Chicago last year and we couldn't help but get a bite to eat.  Makes me homesick for the Land of the Morning Calm where I called home for over 11 years.  

A precious friend gave us a gift card to a local Italian place in Dyer, Indiana so we had a date night.  This was on of the first images I converted to black and white using a photo shop class that I took.

This was taken at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle when I visited with my sister.  Those butterflies flying and flitting around are very difficult to capture!  

From our backyard here in Chicago Heights taken with my 105mm 2.8 macro.  Love the depth of field with this lens and it remains one of my favorite lenses of all time.  It's so versatile.  

A study in shadows with the incredible edible egg using the window coming in from my dining room window.

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Have a Lovely Day!!!

Crawford Steel Company~ Graffiti Wall in Brighton Park, Chicago Illinois

I love architecture.   And I love street art.  The colors,  the design, the creativity... it's mesmerizing!  And very photographable!

Last year, when the snow was still on the ground, we did a drive by (pun intended!) to Chicago at Crawford Steel Company. It's a dynamite area in Brighton Park where the Steel Mill allow prominent and upcoming graffitti artists to tag predeterined footage along the outside perimeter of their building. 

 The murals even extend to the overpasses of the freeway and it's awesome eye candy!

I'd love to go and visit on the day(s) that they are actually doing the painting and take pictures of the works in progress.

Hello future photo shoot! If you've enjoyed this post please leave a comment below. 
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The Country Cook

Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

How To add a Matte Finish in Levels and Curves

The foundation of a good photograph is getting it right in camera as well as a good clean edit.  After that foundation is layed then there is room for creative editing.  I must admit that I'm not a fan of matte edits but I thought to blog about it because it's just good info to know!

Open up you image in Photoshop.  

 Click on Levels

 Make sure your properties for curves is visible.

 Move the left hand side of the output slider from the left over to the right until you have the desired amount of matte in your image.  

 If you'd like to do the adjustment in Curves: 

Open up your document:

 

Add a Curves Adjustment Layer and bring up the right side of the curve up to add haze.

Depending on how much haze you want you can bring the slider up for more haze and down for less.

Save your PSD!  Voila!

The LONG Winter.

It's been a long winter here in Chicagoland and we are officially at the 3rd worst winter in history.  I think everyone is longing for spring thaw and warmer days!  

Getting out as frequently hasn't happened as much as I'd like it to and time has been spent mostly indoors finding ways to be creative with a daily shot or edit.   When you see things every day it's easy to not look at things with a creative eye so I've been trying to look at things a little differently to stir up my creative side.

We've had a bit of melting recently and have 6 foot icicles hanging off of the rain gutters.  The sun was shining through them one day from the front porch and I grabbed my camera. 

Someone was SO kind to give us a gift card for an Italian Restaurant over in Indiana recently so the hubs and I had an official date night.   

I've been taking an online course in photoshop and have been doing quite the bit of tweaking with contrast as you can see from the remainder of my images posted today in black and white.  

This one was taken in the corner of our living room where the light streams in wonderfully. 

This was from a trip to our local library, once again a study/edit in contrasts.  

And here's the before and after side by side.  

Those are some of the images I've taken recently!  

Hope you are staying warm in your part of the world 

Until next time!

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All Things Photography~!

I had a wonderful opportunity recently, and that was to meet up with other local photogs in the Northwest Indiana/South Chicagoland area.  We were supposed to have a bigger turnout but winter reared it's ugly head and kept some of us from getting out and driving.  We talked,  exchanged lenses,  took shots and shared lenses again.  (Can you tell I enjoyed the swapping lenses part?)  

I was great to meet other people who share the same passion and wouldn't roll their eyes at me when I obsessed or talked about all things photography.

Here's a shot using Katie's 35mm with Beth's sweet daughter.

This is the above image cropped. How I want one!  The sharpness is incredible.  

And here's one of Katie's sweet son:

We held our meeting at the Library in downtown Crown Point.  I could definitely move here!  

The library is across the street from the County Courthouse and is surrounded by antique shops, shopping and restaurants.  

I've been plugging along with my Nifty 50 and using it as much as possible 

since it's my least used lens in my bag.  Here's a recent selfie.  

And another recent one with some backlighting in my living room.  

Lastly, I've been partaking in a group and we were challenged to do a storyboard.  I did this one today of my husband hard at work.  (all with my 50mm)

We've got freezing weather in Chicagoland and a high today of 0 degrees.  It's frigid!  Stay safe and warm!  

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My Dining Room Table Centerpiece

Doing a Shot a Day is causing me to try and see things in a new light and I think I'll have to start trying to be creative.  It IS, after all, still January with many more days to come till the end of the year!  

Someone had given me the bottom milk glass plate and I absolutely love it.  The scalloped edges and vintage style match my kitchen so well.   Along the way I've been able to pick up some bowls at the the thrift store and even the cake stand below to go with it.  The cup is very delicate white china and the glass dome was also a thrift store find.  The bird nest was purchased from target for a few dollars last easter.  

All stacked up and layered~ I simply love it.  It's not what you'd normally find on a table and I love the fact that it's different. 

 And I like different! 

I shot this in manual mode at f3 1/250 ISO 1000.  The light coming in our dining room (and living room is absolutely wonderful diffused light and the way my 105mm captures light is just incredible.  It can  make even the most boring subject look a lot better!

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Have a Lovely Day!!!