We had a busy summer this year, and although summer is technically over, we still have one big trip to round the year out. Our countdown to Spain, France and Italy has officially begun! We’re down to 2 weeks and 1 day before we embark on an international trip for 2 weeks. I will probably take 200 pictures a day while we’re there!

We started our summer in San Diego and La Jolla, it was actually the second time we went this year. We had gone earlier in the year to get away from cold Amarillo.



Then my husband and I went on a cruise to the Bahamas:


Then we went back to San Diego so we could go to Legoland with some friends:

(Yes, those are Legos)
Then we made a short trip down to Dallas for a Cowboys game and Rangers game, where my husband caught a foul ball for our son:

They had a great fireworks show:

And now we’re counting down the days until Spain!

Check out other great photos and stories at:

I just got a new macro lens, so I’m on a bit of an extreme close-up kick. Here’s one of my favorites from the weekend.

I just added a macro lens to my camera bag this week and I’m in love with it already. I’m so happy to be able to participate in Macro Monday! Here’s one of my favorite shots I’ve taken with it this weekend. I love the bokeh I’m getting with this lens. Can’t wait until the holidays.

Last year we went to New Orleans and visited Oak Alley in Vacherie, Louisiana.  Although these photos are not recent, Oak Alley is definitely “timeworn” and it’s still beautiful. The oak trees are over 300 years old. If ever get the chance to visit this house, you must do it.  It’s amazing. I love it and I wish I could live there.  But, I’m too afraid of hurricanes.

I love Fix It Friday because I’m addicted to Photoshop and photo editing. Today’s photo is:

Fix 1:

Cropped
PW Boost action
Quick edge burn to reduce some of the brightness from the sky and bring focus to the couple

Fix 2

Horizontal crop to get road in background and flipped
PW Boost action
Lovely and ethereal action
Quick Edge Burn

Fix 3

Horizontal crop to get road in background and flipped
PW Boost action
Lovely and ethereal action
Quick Edge Burn
Time Machine action (not sure where I got this set of actions, but there are some neat ones)

For my I Heart Faces submission this week, I decided to go back through the pictures I’ve took this summer and create a collage.  Each shot was from a different month, May through August (because summer does start down here in Texas in May even though it’s not officially summer until June.) It’s his many faces of the summer and happily, they are all sweet smiles from a sweet little boy.

Here are my favorite “Shots of the Summer.”

For photojournalism entries, visit I Heart Faces this week!

Today is Fix It Friday! I love this day on I Heart Faces. I didn’t have a ton of time today for my fixes, but I did get to try out Kristen Caldwell’s cloud trick. My first try isn’t quite as fabulous as her’s turn out, but it really brightened this photo.

Here’s the SOOC this week:

Here’s my fix with the clouds, a little cropping and rotation and PW’s Boost action:

Then a vintage one with a cool action I found:

We spent some time in San Diego this year and went over to Coronado Beach. The water was way too cold to swim, but we did play in the sand. I got a ton of cute photos on this trip, but this is the family favorite of them all:

I don’t know that my post this weekend is really “ethereal” but my mouse keeps wandering back to this photo. We went to the Texas Rangers baseball game Friday night and they have an exceptional fireworks show after the game. I was playing with my 70-300mm lens and even though they are extremely close up for fireworks shots, I think it gives them something special. I particularly love the colors on this one:

I think it falls under the “celestial” and “airy” definition of ethereal.

For more unique ethereal shots, visit The Sunday Creative.

This week’s photo challenge was “Got to Wear Shades”. When TJ was about a year old we found these cute little sunglasses at Wal-Mart. The thing is, he only keeps them on for like two seconds tops. However, when he’s in the backseat of the convertible he will wear then because it’s so windy.

Here’s my submission for this week. My husband said it reminded him of the music video from Huey Lewis & The News’ song “I Want a New Drug.”

Visit I Heart Faces for more fun “Got to Wear Shades” photos!