The Rhea / Lane Families: Photo Edits

So sorry for not posting more but my computer died and I haven't had time to get to the Apple store to see if it's fixable or RIP for the old technology machine. I can load pictures from my phone but it takes longer so I'm awful about procrastinating! Luckily last night, I gave up on my chores, plopped in the bed at 8:30 and loaded a few posts on here before I zonked out!

Last week, an Instagram friend challenged me to post a black and white photo each day for a week. First things first- if we're IG friends, I shall NEVER call you out for a posting challenge. I know I could've ignored the challenge but she said something nice about my pics so I decided to try it. I joined in mainly because I typically post pictures with color, brighter color, with a dash of color on top. Think: obnoxious.

I love it when people post super faded, muted photos, but I can never go there with my pictures. It's just not me. So, I thought going monochrome for a week would be a big change up for me and an interesting project. Turns out I loved it. For 5 days I looked at everything around me to find the beauty in my everyday backdrop. Where was the light coming from? Would the object lose it's 'flavor' if you took the color away? I've been thinking a lot about getting stuck in ruts. I love our life but it is generally a carbon copy of each week over and over and over, which, trust me, after the last few years, is FINE BY ME. But for this week, I liked having something to day dream about... a distraction... a little atypical in the midst of our very typical life.

I thought I'd post a few of the pics and edits that I did and see how you feel.. Do you like the black and whites or do you sway towards color like me?

I didn't use this one because it felt too close to home for me. I wanted this picture all for myself. When you get sweet thing laughing just right, you can see her one tiny dimple that I love beyond words. I'm glad I have this shot. (and I love you to the moon, Lu Lu.)

We always have dinner with the Thomas' on Monday nights. A sweet friend needed a last minute babysitter so we had a tiny little addition to the normal crew. This little plum has two HUGE dimples and our three big kids were falling all over themselves to see them!

This is a midday bloody mary to celebrate the amazing Jill Thomas' birthday! (I LOVE YOU, Jill Thomas!) I much prefer the color version of this one... see below.

So much better, right?

These pictures look very similar but one made me laugh and I wanted to show you the edits process. Here's the original. London has circus eyes that are apparently looking at two different things! Lucky shot for me! She was so tickled at her different direction eyes, so I don't think she'll be mad at me for posting!

Here's a faded version of this picture that if I knew what I was doing, I would make cool pictures that look like this!

Here was my submission for the black and white challenge where I pulled all the color out then went back and put her original eye color back in. I kind of loved it so I took another picture where her eyes are normal and did this same process. I might print it for the house! She's so beautiful!