One thing I’ve really loved about this whole photo a day thing, is that I’ve been really taking some cool pictures everyday.  I mean I love to take pictures, and easily took 100 pics a month before, but lots of times it was all in like 3 or 4 sittings, and not necessarily with the same focus or creativity as I have now.  Now, I see something that inspires me or moves me, and I pick up the camera and I try to get the best picture I can of one particular thing. I take my shots more consciously so that I end up with exactly what I want.  I’ve been having fun looking at it artistically and also sentimentally – who says the two can’t mix?

Anyways, today I wanted to capture a picture of Gareth because I was just so struck by how grown up he was looking.  We got out the camera, and I’m just so proud of the pictures I got.

You can see the one I finally chose for 365 HERE, because I think it represented him getting older so perfectly.  But I got another shot I just absolutely fell in love with, so I decided I’d share it here:

Is he just absolutely wonderful or what?

Also, in this whole pursuit of the perfect picture I’ve been trying to learn new tricks, and finding new ways to play in Photoshop.  So just yesterday I found a to these Totally Rad Actions.  And um WOW, I looove them!  Well I’m sure I WOULD love them if I had several extra hundred dollars laying around!  But they do offer a small sample for free, and let me tell you, I am hooked!  I used a few of them for the above photo, but I messed with the layers quite a bit so I don’t even remember exactly which ones I used, but it was the perfect combo in my humble opinion, because I think he looks so stunning!

Just for fun I thought I’d show you some more examples of the actions at work.  All of these are just with a click of a button…. I just LOVE these, I very well may be saving my pennies for the full set, and that says a LOT because I’m very very frugal when it comes to these things!

Hehehe, isn’t my son a cutie!?   Anyways, I’m probably the last person on the face of the planet who hasn’t heard of these actions but just incase you haven’t I thought you might want to check them out too!  All you need is Photoshop (I think cs2 or higher? check for sure on the site) and you can play too!