You all were so great at giving me your honest opinions on the last blog regarding the new photo editing technique I learned, so tonight I did a little playing.

Yes, guys, I know you reeeaally liked the pics of Amanda, but in playing around tonight, I found that this image really helped to illustrate the process, so here ya go. Again, this is a very small version, and the larger version can be found here. If you're up for taking a look, please let me know what process you like best for two different uses:

As a parent, which photo would you think best represents your child as she really appears?

If you were at the store buying baby food, which image of the baby's face would best sell you on a particular brand?

(and of course, please feel free to share any other thoughts you might have about the images)

To explain my process:
1 is my original image.
2 is the process I followed earlier today on the image of Amanda and Tony.
3 is a combo of 1 & 2.
4 is #3 with a selective soft focus applied.

Thanks so much (in advance) for all your helpful comments. This has been soooo educational for me! I really appreciate your help.

Welcome to the world, little Evan James. This is the third son for two of my best friends, Christi and Nathan, and the third to whose birth I was invited. I missed the first by 1/2 hour, but have been lucky enough to photograph the last 2. Evan was born this morning at 12:34 a.m., 9 lbs., 3 oz. and 21" long. For someone like me, who has no interest in having or plans to have kids, being able to witness these births has been really amazing. I owe my friends a lot for letting me in on such an incredibly emotional and moving experience.

Once my RSS feeds update, you should be able to also see a couple more images from my Shutterpoint feed.

I figured it was time for a more positive and upbeat blog. So, meet Savannah Victoria. She's just about 1 in all these photos and is the daughter of two of Jeremy's best friends. Talk about a cutie! Those who know me well know that I'm not much of a "kid" person, but Savannah has to be the happiest kid I've ever seen. Rarely did she cry or fuss, and she was very easy to make smile .. that big, beautiful smile you see in the top left up there. I don't know what Clayton and Ashley did to raise such an incredibly happy, content child, but my hat's off to them. All I know is, if they lived closer (they are in St. Kitts now), that child would be VERY spoiled by her "Aunt Kippy and Uncle DW" (their nickname for Jeremy). :)

In addition to seeing the eagle pictured in my previous blog, I was lucky enough to happen upon the scene of a tiny little calf that had just been born. I saw him struggling to take his first steps, search futilely for a teat, fall down several times and lean against mom for support, and get attacked by other cows. He was born in the pouring rain .. man, talk about a gutsy little guy. Gives me a greater appreciation for seeing the happy-go-lucky little calves jumping and running through the fields. This is one of the cutest things I've seen in a long time. Hope you enjoyed seeing it. :)