Anyone can look like a professional!

Thank heavens for programs like photo shop and Kodak Galleries that make pictures like the following possible. I think I have mentioned before that I gave up on taking my children to be photographed at places like Sears, Walmart, and so on because I get sick of paying an arm and a leg for pictures that aren't necessarily my favorites. Where I can edit my pictures at home I can get comparable outcomes for a fraction of the price (like I just spent $7 to get all of my new pictures ordered).

I made John go with me yesterday morning to take some new pictures of the kids because he is better at getting good shots than I am and I am better at making them smile. So we ventured off to my parents neighbors (the Engstroms) yard to get some pictures. This yard was great for a photo shoot. There were benches, flowers, rocks, and lots of good places to have the kids pose. John took 83 pictures and we only got one decent shot of Owen and Ains together (where there heads were even looking in the same direction with out a crazy look on their faces) and a few cute individual shots.

While we started looking through the pictures I was worried we weren't going to get any pictures that would be good portraits because the lighting was bad and there faces looked dull. Luckily I discovered the lighting feature on our editing program. At the push of a button the kids faces were glowing like it was sunset, or all the colors were sharpened for a scenic shot. After some serious cropping and lighting adjustments I was pretty impressed with how cute the pictures turned out!