Sunny Spring Weekend in Chicagoland!

Another gorgeous weekend of kickin' ass and taking pictures! (See what I did there?) I had some fun with my camera, although I did notice that it is in serious need of a sensor cleaning. I think I might take it to Roberts when I'm home, since I trust them to do a good job.

I'm hoping for some sun next weekend to head into the city and do some portraits, or maybe hit the beach with my camera! I'm totally working out all my cabin fever with photography!

The clouds were pretty, and I like the idea of this picture, but I'm not sure how much I actually like the picture, if that makes sense. I just can't decide.

I finally got to take some pictures of cattails! I wasn't really happy with them in the camera, but with a little split toning, I was much happier with them. And I've been wanting to take pics of the cattails for so long that I was NOT going down without a fight!

And a black and white version. It was hard to get very close to them, because apparently cattails grow best in swampy puddles full of trash. :) But maybe next time I'll bust out the big lens and see what happens.

Flash came along for this picture adventure (as did Amy and Billy), and he was being very cute, and his muzzle is at maximum cuteness (which is to say, long enough that he looks scruffy and not too pointy/poodley, but not so long that he looks like a ragamuffin), so he got his own photoshoot.

This one, I included so you can see how he has Ewok lips.

Cute scruffy puppy in black and white! You can kind of see (especially if you're used to looking at him all the time) that he has grass and whatnot in his hair, which is because he scooted headfirst on his back down a hill. It was SO funny and cute, which is kind of Flash's M.O.

Happy doggie gazing into the distance! I'm telling you, Flash should be a doggie model. He's cuter than all the dogs on TV (although somewhat less well-behaved).

And this is the last one and my fave! Doesn't he just have the cutest little face you've ever seen?

And back to the cattails! You can totally see how I took a little photography detour and then got back to work. :) This was definitely my fave of the cattail pictures, and I finally felt like I got it exactly how I wanted it.

A black and white that I was actually really pleased with of a traffic light and its chipping paint.

I ended up LOVING this one, mostly because I took some (obvious) liberties with the color of the sky. I took a lot of pictures of flowers and flowering trees, and it's so fun because I really think flowers are one of the only things that like ... DEMAND to be photographed in direct sunlight. And I think that's appropriate!

More flowers! I obviously enjoy split tones, but I especially am enjoying it on flowers right now. It brings out their color.

These tulips were GORGEOUS.

And another shot!

And one last one with more red in the background, and I swear, no more pictures of this tulip! :)

One last flowery pic--I included this because I've recently caught on to the concept of layer masks and I used one here, since the background was like a weird gray color. So I put a blue layer on top and essentially erased all of it but the very edges, and I liked how the colors turned out. I get all excited about learning new things (and eventually figuring out how to use them right). :)

Yay for sunshine!