Photoshop Work

Hey everyone!
It's been awhile.  I am sorry I haven't posted in SOOOOOO long.  Life has been quite the roller coaster ride since august which most of you have probably heard.  But life has been calming down a little bit lately and I was reminded by a dear friend to begin posting again.  This picture is actually an experiment I conducted in photoshop.  I was trying to test my abilities in photoshop and ended up producing this pic.  The guy in the picture is actually my brother.  I took that picture in our backyard before he left for prom last year.  But you may be saying, 'umm, does your background have railroad tracks through it?', and the answer would be no.  haha! That is where the photoshop magic comes in.  I put that picture as a background and then cut my brother out of the other picture and placed him over the background.  All I had to do was adjust the colors and touch up a little and bam!  a pretty awesome picture.  Hope you all enjoy!

Lindsay W

Finally Posting....

Wow it has been awhile...I almost forgot how to post. ;)
I am so sorry for not keeping up with the 63 Day Project.  I have been so busy lately....

Here are two pictures that I took out of my lightroom library that I hope you enjoy.  The first one is of a cup of water being thrown into the air.  I have been experimenting with different water effects and I thought that one turned out pretty cool.

The next one is of the top of a wedding cake.  The flowers were flowing off the top tier of the taking shouting 'TAKE MY PICTURE!'  so I could not resist taking a few shots.
Hope you all like them. :)

Lindsay W

Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Keeping Up with Blogging is alot Harder than I thought it Would Be..

I am so sorry everyone for not keeping up with the '63 Day Project".  I have been so busy since I have started drivers ed.  I promise more pictures are coming...


Lindsay W

For Whatever Days I Missed..

These pictures I took yesterday at the Relay For Life for St. Josephs Hospital with my dad.  My favorite one is the shot of the little boy.  He was 4 years old and has been battling cancer for a long time but he still fights it.  Very inspiring to see so many people get together and have so much motivation to find a cure for this horrible disease that effects so many people.

Lindsay W

Survivor
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Balloons
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Candle Bags
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Hey Guys! Late posting...

Hello everyone,
I am so sorry I have not been keeping up with posting a picture a day.  I have been very busy working this week and havent had time to download my memory cards onto my computers.   I can say that plenty of pictures will be coming very soon!  Just hold tight and I will post very soon. :) Thanks for your patience.

Lindsay W

Day 34

I took this picture at my brothers college last saturday.  I just love the way you can see the droplets of water in the air from the fountain.

Lindsay W

Fountain
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 33

Isn't it hard to believe the new school year starts in about 30 days for most of us?  The summer went by so fast I wish I had a little more time to enjoy it.
Today I spent a few hours looking for some more football pictures.  Specifically a shot of one of my friends on the team.  After looking through about 10 memory cards, a couple harddrives, and computers I came up empty handed of the shot I wanted.  Sorry Nick!  : /  I promise I will take tons of shots in this coming season.
To keep the theme of football, below are a few shots from the football season of 2010.
Lindsay W

Kicker
Copyright 2011

Tackle
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Tackle 2
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Finally...Day 30, 31, ......and 32

Hello everyone,
Sorry it has taken me so long to post again.  I just got back from a small trip down to Chicago, and along the way as a treat for my brothers we went to Lego Discovery Center in Schaumburg.  That was definitely and interesting experience.  The legos were really really cool but once the crowds came with all the little kids screaming and yelling for a new box of legos it got a little ridiculous...and actually kind of scary.  But we made it out alive!!!!  I actually got a few good shots.  These pictures are definitely not the best pictures I have ever taken, but I still think they are pretty cool.

These first 3 pictures are of the 'mini Chicago'.  The lights in this section of the building were total blue the whole time, making it really hard to get a shot without it all being blue even on the tungsten white balance setting.  I had to fiddle with these pictures quite a bit to take the blue look off of them without effecting the other colors.  The first two shots are night scenes, and the last is a day scene of Navy Pier.

Mini Chicago
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Mini Chicago
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Mini Chicago
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Ok, these next three pictures I absolutely LOVE!  The first one was really hard to resist taking a picture of.  I mean seriously, it's a pirate trapped in a mermaid body!  His face says it all. 

The second picture is of one of the hallways in the Discovery Center.  Yeah, a hallway sounds pretty boring, but this one is really awesome.  

 The last picture is of me and my buddy, Darth Vader.  Also in this picture is my lightsaber that I photoshopped in.  I forgot it at home when we left..  I call it the 'Lightsaber of a Million Souls'.  Haha! :D  To me, the effects I put on this picture remind me of an old Star Wars poster.

As a shoutout to my friend, Talon, my lightsaber is soooo much better than your so called 'Ax of a Thousand Truths??'.  My lightsaber would take down your ax any day.  

Pirate Mermaid
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Lava Hallway
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Me and Darth Vader!
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Enjoy!

Lindsay W

Day 30

Alright, for Day 30 I wanted to do something really special......so I decided to give you guys some really fresh stuff.  So instead of posting a picture today, I am going to take lots of pictures tomorrow and Sunday and post as many of the good ones as I can.

I hope you guys don't mind waiting!!!

Lindsay W

Day 29

Hey it is almost Day 30!!!  Almost half way through the project.

I am short on time tonight, so this picture I took a few days ago and then adjusted the contrast and saturation.

Enjoy!

Lindsay W

Flowers
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 28

This is a picture from Little India.  A lady from our church was drawing portraits of all of the children.

Lindsay W

Portraits
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 27

Well, now that the NFL Lockout is over we can all enjoy football again.  I decided to pull out a high school football photo so we can all get excited for football season once again!

Lindsay W

Football
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 26

Still in the wedding mood, so here are two more wedding pictures.  One is from the wedding on friday, and the other is from a wedding I shot in December.

Lindsay W

Flowers
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Wedding
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 25

It's Day 25!! Even though today was also Day 23 and Day 24.....  For these pictures, one of the bridesmaids left their bouquet behind in the gazebo so I took a few shots of it and edited them yesterday.  The third picture is of the bride.  She was standing in the gazebo and looking dramatically off into the distance.  For this shot, I pushed the contrast and saturation way up, and the brightness a little farther up as well.
Well arn't you guys lucky!! You get three pictures in one day!!
Lindsay W

Flowers
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Flowers 2
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Bride
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 24

Alright, yesterday was Day 24, but I am posting it today anyway.
This picture the bride and groom placed their hands on the brides bouquet.  I cropped this picture a little bit, and then I adjusted the contrast and saturation as well as take a mark of gum or wax off of the grooms tuxedo.
Hope you enjoy it!!

Lindsay W

Rings
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 23

Alright, this picture was taken at a wedding on Friday.  My cousin was the bride and asked me to take a couple candid photos.  I will post a few photos from the portraits, receptions, and odds and ends.  This picture I took when the hired photographer went to go switch film.  (really?? This guy made me mad because he was using film at my cousins wedding!! really?? Each roll has 24 shots, do you really think you are going to capture every moment that the bride wants when you are switching film every two minutes!!  He even made them kiss again after saying 'I do' because he had to switch film and he missed it!  So I wanted to out do this guy and shoot lots of pictures he was missing.  I have nothing against film, just don't use it at a wedding unless you are the worlds fastest film changer. )  For this one, I just turned black and white and then kept the brides shoe pink.
Hope you enjoy and sorry for the late post.

Lindsay W

Wedding Party Shoes
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 22

This picture is by FAR my favorite picture I have posted.  I love Starbucks Coffee....ok, I am a little obsessed with it.  For this picture, I had just finished my Peppermint Mocha and had set the cup down on a table at my dads' office.  Behind the table was a white background so I decided to grab my camera and give the Starbucks Cup the photo shoot it deserved!

Lindsay W

Starbucks!!!
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 21

Hello,
This picture I took in color and was really cool just as it was; but I wanted to see what it was like in black and white.  I just changed to black and white and then adjusted the contrast and WHA LA!! a pretty awesome picture.  haha Tell me what you think and comment below.

Lindsay W

Flowers
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 20

It's day 20!!!!!! This is exciting!!
So for this special occasion, I decided to whip up a special picture for you guys.  This picture is of a lighthouse on Lake Michigan.  Maybe this picture could cool some of us off since we have that 100 degree weather now; it's ridiculous!
All I really did to this picture was to change it black and white, and to change the contrast a tweek.
Hope you all like it and are staying cool!

Lindsay W

Lighthouse
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhasuer

Day 19

Tchao everyone,

Alright this picture was taken just a few days ago.  I am pretty sure these are daisies.....someone tell me if they are not.  :)  So for this shot, I have been experimenting with different angles and I thought straight on to the side would be a cool effect.  This shot actually turned out pretty cool.  I love how the background is blurred just enough and the contrast makes the flowers pop.  I added a vignette for a little added effect.
Stay tuned for day 20!

Lindsay W

Daisies
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 17 & 18

Hello everyone!
Here is the picture that I promised I would post today.  This one was taken in Little India.  Due to some of the beliefs of the people in that community, I can not post pictures of them.  So I took pictures of just anything that popped out to me.  Then I saw this road sign and thought it looked kind of cool so I experimented and took a few pictures.  The second picture I took today.  My brothers were taking apart and DVD player and I thought the pieces looked really cool.

City Lights
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Circut Board
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 17....maybe

Hey Everyone!

Just wanted to let you know that I did not forget to post a picture today...but I will be posting todays' picture tomorrow due to total exhaustion.  I spent the whole day helping the South Asian Friendship Center with their annual Block Party in Little India, Chicago Illinois.  The kids down there are absolute darlings but they can really wear you out.

I promise I will post a picture tomorrow and more about my experience in Little India.  :)

Lindsay W

Day 15 & 16

Hello everyone!  
      I have combined Day 15 and 16 because I took both of these pictures on the same day.   The first picture is of a tulip that I put just a little effect on with a vignette.
The second photo is of a lily, (I'm pretty sure that is what it is...I am not too good with flower names) that I actually put a wedding effect on.

Lindsay W

Tulip
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Lily
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 14

Day 14 is here!  Todays picture is a pretty old shot.  I took this picture in February at one of my High Schools' basketball games.  I took these pictures, loaded them onto my computer, and then never did anything with them!  So, I decided to post one and see what you guys think about it.  :)

Have a great Day!

Lindsay W

Basketball
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 13

Hello!
Well, today is Day 13.  It does not seem like it has been 13 days!!  This is lots of fun. :)
Alright, so this picture is a painting with light picture.  I would have liked it to turn out better, but with these kind of pictures you have one shot to do it right or lose it all.  So I decided to post this one because the drawing of the earth looks really cool.  Have you ever wanted to have the whole world at your fingertips??

Lindsay W

World
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 12

Hello Everyone!
Thank God it's Monday!  Time to go back to work and normal schedules!  How exciting does that sound?  :)  Well, other than the fact that it is Monday it is also Day 12 and time for another picture!
This picture was taken at my grandmas' house actually.  She had 4 clothes lines with hundreds of clothes pins lining the strings.  I thought that somehow I could create a cool picture out of it; then I saw a line of the pins lined up perfectly for a 'lead the eye' picture.  I took a few shots and then put them in Lightroom and adjusted exposure, contrast, and saturation.
Have a great Monday everyone!

Lindsay W

Clothes Pins
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 11

Hello Everybody!,

         Well, last night I went to this music festival called 'Lifest' and I am so tired.  I tried so hard to get pictures during my favorite bands' (Skillet) show but it was pretty much impossible with 20,000 fist pumping fans around you.  So I really tried guys but unfortunately I did not get any great shots.  Maybe next year I will get a photo pass and shoot right next to the stage.  ;)
Since I am still in the rocker mood, I figured I would post a concert photo.  This photo was taken at my second favorite bands' concert.  (Red)  For this concert, I got there earlier so I could be right next to the stage to get so great shots.  This particular picture was actually of the whole guitarist and the guitar but I decided to crop it down to just the guitar and put some effects on it.
Hope you all had a great weekend!!

Lindsay W

Red
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 10

Hello everyone!  Today is Day 10!  This picture was taken a few days ago and wasn't a bad picture unedited.  I just placed a slight sepia tone, then more contrast and a vignette.  I also made the red, orange and yellow colors most contrasty (not sure if thats a word..) and brighter.  I made the green more saturated so your eye would stay focused on the flower.

Lindsay W

Lily
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 9

Alright, this post is ON TIME!  As most of my blog readers know, I had been competing in Skills USA this year.  (posts about the trip below) Unfortunately, I did not place this year because I made a mistake but I still took 5th in state.  This picture was taken on the photo shoot at the competition.  I really like this picture because just looking at the hand of this guy just shouts 'hard work' and 'determination'.  I just edited the colors on this photo because this was taken with no flash or lighting.  All the light I had was the fluorescent lights of the workshop.
I hope you all like this shot.

Lindsay W

Hard Work
Copyright 2011

Day 7 & 8

This week has been so busy, once again I forgot to post one day.  Jeez, this is getting a little ridiculous.  I have now written 'POST PICTURE' in sharpie on my hand so I remember.  This picture I took about two days ago and decided to turn black and white and blow the sky to total exposure and brightness to make it white, and the flower to almost total black.
The next picture I took of myself the same day I took the flower picture.  I put a sepia kind of tone on it along with a little added softness and contrast, as well as a vignette.
Stay tuned for tomorrow!

Lindsay W

Flower
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Day 6

Hello!  Today is actually Day 6 and I am posting on time!  I know you may be getting bored but this is the last photo I will post of fireworks unless you ask for more!  I loved this picture so I edited the colors in lightroom just a touch so it was perfect for you all to see.  If anyone wants any tips on shooting fireworks, comment and I will contact you with a list of tips and techniques that I use to take shots like these.

Fireworks
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Lindsay W

Day 5

Once again I am late!  I must learn to plan these things out better.  This is just a picture I took of some more fireworks.  This is my first year shooting them and I love the results so I am going to post a few of them.  :) Hope you all had a great 4th of July!

Lindsay W

Day 4

            Hello!  Well it is Day 4!!! (even though I posted Day 3 this morning...)  To make up for posting late this early in the project, I am posting two pictures on this post.  The first picture I took yesterday before I took the painting with light shots.  I have shot fireworks before, but I have yet to perfect the art of 'firework photography'.  I tried really hard to get the best shots I could and they turned out pretty amazing thank goodness!

Fireworks
Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

The second picture I took a couple hours before the fireworks.  My cousin and I were walking around the yard and decided to take some pictures, so I did a mini photoshoot in the gardens of her.  This picture stood out to me.  The light was perfect and just at the right angle.  For a little added light and highlight, I bounced the sunlight off of a white reflector.  

Copyright 2011 Lindsay Westhauser

Hope you all enjoy the pictures as much I like them.  Have a great Fourth of July everyone!!

Lindsay W

Day 3

I know, I know.  This is the third day of the project and I am already a day behind.  I will do a double post today to make up for yesterday.  Since the 4th of July is coming up on Monday, I figured you would all like a festive picture.  I took this picture yesterday with my brothers and cousins.  We had bought lots of sparklers and I decided to try my hand at painting with light.  The results were so cool!!! I hope you all like this one.  It was my brothers idea to write the word 'BOOM', so I will give him some of the credit.
Once again, I'm sorry for the late post!  I will post another picture at the end of the day today.

Lindsay W

BOOM
Lindsay Westhauser Copyright 2011

Day 2

Day 2 of the "63-Day Project" is here!  The picture for today is of my friend doing some sick rollerblading at our local skatepark.  It was actually an interesting but fun opportunity to try my hand at skate photography.  At first I thought, 'man, this is going to be hard.  He skates so fast and I don't have a flash!'.  Well, it turned out to be a lot easier than I expected.  For this shot, I set the shutter speed to 1/1000, aperture at f/ 4.0, and the ISO fairly low at 110.  I got about 80 good pictures out of 100 and still narrowing them down to the absolute best.

Hope you enjoy this photo and stick around for Day 3!

Lindsay W

Rollerblading
Lindsay Westhauser  Copyright 2011

The 63-Day Project

Today is the beginning of my new photography "project".  As there are only 63 days left in the summer, I decided to post a picture everyday until the start of school.  Who knows, maybe this will continue into the new school year, or maybe even farther than that.  I guess we shall see!  Every picture will be different and there will be no repeats.
This first picture was taken at Cave of the Mounds.  My brothers had bought bags of sand with rocks hidden in them, and had gone by this river to sift them out and I saw this fountain.  The first shot I took was  at a fast shutter speed and it looks like the camera stopped the water.  Yeah, I put that one to the side and slowed down the shutter speed and this was the result!
Hope you all enjoy the new project and feel free to comment or criticize.

Lindsay Westhauser

Fountain
Lindsay Westhauser Copyright 2011

Skills USA Day 2

hey!
sorry its taken me so long to post again! But Skills USA Day 2 was the photoshoot and editing.  The photoshoot......I kinda screwed up.  But I still got alot of points for my pictures.  Editing went fairly well.  The hardest thing to do was to colorize a black and white photo, but it went alot better than i thought it would. :) At the end of editing we had judging and interviews.  I totally aced the interview!!! :) haha So at the end of the night we had awards ceremonies..unfortunately I did not go home with a medal.  But overall in state, I took 5th place.  Just 5 points away from third place.  Oh well, now I know what I have to practice for next year and I will hopefully be more prepared! :) Thanks everyone for your support through the competition and my photography! :)

Lindsay

Skills USA Day 1

Yesterday was the first day of the Skills USA competition.  It went fairly well for the first day.  We drove up to Wisconsin Dells around 8 and got up to the conference about noon.  At 1:00 we had our opening ceremony, and then we were sent off to find our hotel and chill for a little while until our individual briefing started.  My briefing started at 5:00.  Me and the other photography students went down to the briefing and it was amazing to see all of the other kids who enjoyed the same things as we do.  After the teachers filled us in on what was going to be going on today, we all entered our pictures into one section of the competition.  All of the pictures were so amazing, it will be very hard for the judges to pick just 3! haha  I think I have a pretty good chance of placing, but I am just happy for the experience here.  Today we have to go out and take pictures around the hotel for our field assignment, and then we have to edit them and submit the best pictures.  After submitting, we have to take a test and then go to closing and award ceremonies.  I will let you all know how things go after the closing ceremony!  Wish me luck!!!!!!

-Lindsay <3

More Pictures!!!

Finally!!! Life is so busy lately I havent been able to update my blog! Well i can finally upload some more pictures!  These pictures are just some odds and end old cameras, lip gloss, and well...a surprise ant! Hope you enjoy them.

Ant

Old Camera

Old Camera

Lip Gloss

-Lindsay <3