as promised...

and an experiment i like to call "fun with photoshop actions."

so i had all good intentions of taking tons of pretty landscape photos this week--and it didn't happen. it really truly has been one of those weeks where all of my best intentions just got pushed out of the way by the craziness that has been my life. tuesday was particularly bad, with spilled coffee on myself and my car seat, multiple incidents of cleaning up animal feces in the house, clients who canceled on me, clients who stood me up, and just plain not having enough hours in the day. there are some days where my schedule works well and i can transition easily from clients to dinner to other activities, and sometimes i'm running around like a nut. tuesday was one of those days, and it ended with me getting out a good cry (ever feel like that? you just need a good cry?) and finally catching up on some DVRed shows that have been sitting there for two weeks.

which is a long way of saying that today was the first day i could actually stop and snap pictures as i went from client to client. i'll get my other favorite spots tomorrow or next week :)

i also got some time to explore photoshop actions, a post-processing technique that i wanted to research. i found some great websites with free actions and downloaded them last night. i figured this project would be a great way to experiment with some of them. i also tried a few of them out on some of my past portrait shoots, and i'll go through and post those another time.

so, some of my favorite "country" spots that i pass on a weekly, if not daily, basis...

(this is an action called "vintage." i love it for this type of shot.)
same house, just a little closer in and with the "soft and faded" action.
this is the one where i saw a girl pulled over photographing last week. at just the right time, you can get some awesome shadows through the door in the middle. ("seventies" action)
and this one is actually just up the road from our neighborhood, but i love it. i've thought about knocking on the door of the house next to it and asking if i could use it for a photo shoot background sometime. is that crazy? ("heartland" action)

all of the actions i used are free from thepioneerwoman.com, one of the great blogs that i follow for photography tips. i also love mckmama's photography lessons
and this post by american mum (who also convinced me to buy the 50 mm lens with this post). i think in general, it's comforting to know that there are others women out there who are learning and happy to teach what they've learned and simply enjoy photography!

i'm also thrilled to share that we've got a buyer for my d40, so we've purchased a nikon d60 and it should be here tomorrow! woo hoo :) i'm hoping to use it some this weekend as i accompany our youth group girls on a young women's retreat. i'll also be shooting the girl scout's special guy dance on saturday night, one of my favorite shoots from last year. so it'll be another busy weekend, though i'll hopefully be able to relax some on sunday.

and... it's one week away until i get to see this fabulous couple again and meet their son. i can't even explain how excited i am :)

alright, that's all for now. need to fix dinner before it's time to meet emelie and get our supplies for the retreat! later, y'all.