Family Adventure: Schmidts take over Wilmington!

I hope everyone is having an amazing weekend. 

I without a doubt am! Our Saturday was spent on a mission to have the best family day to date! Mission accomplished! We woke up early & headed out to The Airlie Gardens, located in Wilmington North Carolina. We have made a billion trips into Wilmington but always end up doing the same ol' things, never exploring the unknown. So that's what our yesterday was all about. The Airlie Gardens was one of the most beautiful, serene places I have ever been too & had a little bit of everything for all of us. Long walk, fresh air for Bennett, a ton of history for Jim, & breathtaking scenery for the photog (me) Sunflowers that towered over our heads, white swans swimming in the calm water, gigantic old Trees from the 1500's, Butterflies on almost every flower, the ocean, we watched the boats take to the sea from docks surrounded by blue shallow water,that was so clear,

you could see the oysters clustered on the bottom of the ocean floor, & the most beautiful ornate driftwood. We spent 2 hours just walking around the gardens.

I could go on and on...

Instead here are a few pictures of some pretty things & wittle Butterflies, which my hubs continued to chase calling  'little Butters'. hahaha

We followed up our Gardens adventure with a little One Tree Hill tour. For those of you who were/are fans of the show, you probably know that OTH was filmed in Wilmington, NC. I have driven this tour from house to house, Peytons, Lucas's, Brookes, Nathans.. etc.. before, but my husband was very excited being that he is a recent addict to the show! (Yes we are nerds x10.) 

Next stop on the family day, an old school toy store &  late lunch at The local Brewery, we always end up here because the food is amazing! & the locally brewed Scottish Ale is to die for, for those of you who are beer lovers! 

Lastly,we took a drive to the Battleship down on the River & took a stroll on the Riverwalk!

Came home tucked our boy into bed and snuggled up with some popcorn & a movie. 

I am always the one behind the lens so I asked Mister S to switch it up a bit to take a photo of me & my little B on our adventure! Although I had to arrange all the camera settings for him, he did pretty good. Maybe Photography will become a family business ;) 

Well that was our adventure for more pics & updates, check out my instagram!<<<< Link on blog to the right ! 

Off to set up the baby pool & head to a friends for the first day of the Football season!! Here we go!

Happy Sunday! 

Amanda

Clean vs. Matte

Now, unless you are a photog, interested in photog, or just love pretty pictures, some of my posts may begin to seem a bit dull, & or pointless.. I am going to begin incorporating my photog side more & more into my posting, this being because that is my ultimate goal, Photography. I am a photographer in training & the only way to get better is practice practice practice. Sometimes when I get my words/ photos out on this lovely blog of mine, it helps me to find some clarity on where I am, where I am going & where I would ultimately like to be.

So what may seem like gibberish to you could be some form of inspiration or an AH HA moment to me. Make sense? ;)

While I am not fully ready to launch my photography into a full blown business quite yet..  I am constantly trying to find myself in the big wide world of photography. 

Searching to find my specific style, so when someone sees my work they can pinpoint it to being just that,, my work & without seeing an artist name tag, they just know "hey, Amanda definitely took that photo!" That doesn't mean I won't switch it up once in a while or my 'style' won't change as I progress in my work.

This brings me to what I am tackling today,

Clean vs. Matte

The photo example below was taken on a rainy gloomy day, outside my house. By no means is this photo meant to be insanely interesting, no extreme editing or facial touch ups have been applied, & is rather just a quick snap shot of my hunnies in everyday life. 

 The first colored photo, pictured on the left was SOOC (Straight out of camera) photo, it has a Clean Crisp feel to it where the colored photo to the right, I applied a more Matte feel.

 The difference may be very subtle but applied to a shoot in it's entirety can give a completely new vibe.

This is the same for the B&W set of photographs below. 

Told you it was subtle.. 

Still I am torn.. I kind of love the endless possibilities with both..

While Matte seems to be the more popular edit between photographers at the moment , how can you go wrong with a crisp clean look? 

Gahhh what are your thoughts on clean vs. matte? 

I thought this post would help to give me some clarity, instead I am still in the air. I guess I shall just keep testing them both out on different photos until something clicks! ;) 

To be continued I suppose...