Hey, guess what?

I am actually writing a post. Not a Selfie Saturday post but a normal “here look at my photography” post!
My laptop has arrived, I have transferred everything onto it, I am in the midst of 2nd trimester energy spurt ( if you can call it that- I just feel more normal than before, that’s all) and I even took new photos (gasp!).

Last week some friends, Andrew and I went over another friend’s house. You’ve seen this place before on my pictures as my husband and I used to go there often before I got pregnant. This time the owner was out of town and told me that we could go spend some time at the pool and hang out if we wanted to. Of course, we’re not about to say “NO”, when we’re offered a free pass to a $13 million house in the best part of Naples. So I called a few friends I am seeing during the pregnancy and after a few scheduling conflicts we actually got together.

There was a lot of crepe cooking, some pool time, a few photograph and a lot of chill time and talk. I will post more photos this week but today I’d like to share the views we had during dusk, my favorite part of the day.

I absolutely love the feel of these photographs and the editing (I am not patting myself on the back lol, I am just saying that these particular look really does it for me).

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I have been busy busy busy! Lots of drama in the past two days with some of the friends. None concerning me, but still: single people can be funny I took the day off today to go boating, but that got cancelled for reasons I won’t disclose. So no pretty pictures of beaches or mansion or people boo

But I do have my good to wow edit:

I do all of my edits in Lightroom. I only use photoshop when I need to use layers or major skin smoothing. To be honest, I cannot imagine using such bulky uncomfortable program full time. Lightroom not only stores and catalogs your photos but it makes it so fast and easy to edit multiple photos at once. I think anyone who tries Lightroom just doesn’t go back. It’s definitely the software of choice for professional fashion photographers as evidenced by me many times.

Speaking of Lightroom, if you guys are interested, there’s a promotion going on, where you can save up to $100 on Lightroom. So feel free to use the link below, to get the discount or try out the software.

Also, if you happen to have a functional .edu account from when you were a student, these two links will give you a massive discount off of Adobe software.
Something like 80% OFF Photoshop’s normal price.

Also, if you are new to the whole world of editing, you can always start with Adobe Elements like most people do.
This link will give you $20 off.

HOPE THIS HELPS ALL OF YOU THAT ARE MISSING EDITING SOFTWARE

Now onto my edit.

All I did here was correct the exposure level, used my favorite fill light and recovery at the same time to lighten up and bring the details back. Plus some contrast, shadows and saturation on certain colors and voila. Very simple. Cropped some people out of course.

Also, as I was going through my old photos for a 5 year monthly Blurb Book, I found this picture. Aren’t we so young and cute. It was 7 years ago – we were still newlyweds – and now we’re finally trying for a baby. How crazy is life?

Before I go right into this week’s challenges, I’d like to share a piece of sunshine that is my backyard. It’s my happy place. It’s always blooming, regardless of what season it is. The colors of the hammocks bought in Key West make even the gloomiest day awesome! When I had to study for exams, I’d would come down there and spend hours reading the material and enjoying the birds chirping, the fire burning, and the smell of the fresh cut grass.

What is YOUR happy place?

This shot is for Mellow Yellow Monday

Also, this is my first time participating in Ashley’s and Jill’s challenge “GOOD TO WOW”

I wanted to pick something family oriented and recent. This photo is of an adorable couple who just had their second baby, Alex. They are some of the greatest people I know. We were relaxing at the beach and, of course, Anna wanted photos (who doesn’t?), I snapped a few as they were walking ( I was limited by my 50mm).

This is the shot I will be editing this week:

I will definitely miss them. This time I didn’t underestimate the hot Florida sun and kept reapplying sunblock.

Awesome boating time, awesome friends, skinny dipping, girls daring my hubby to putmy bikini on, him actually doing it and modelling it for us, laughing till we’re snorting, trespassing, hitting massive waves, making dinner and crepes, eating italian ice cream and passing out from sheer exhaustion- that’s what Florida weekends are all about.

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Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

I say today is an ORANGE day!
I was editing photos and couldn’t resist sharing these bright pieces of life!