And what follows is a fun little photo assignment. Break out those cameras, get yourself, your honey, your kiddos, your grandkids, your neighbors, your pets in natural light and click away. Eyes and their variation of colors are such amazing photography subjects...
1 of 8--one of the greenies---
2 of 8--our blue/green hybrid--
3 of 8--true, deep, denim blue--
4 of 8--gray/blue with a hint of gold--
5 of 8--green, green, green--
6 of 8--they don't come any bluer--
7 of 8--another greenie--
8 of 8--the same blue as 3 of 8 and just as charming...
A few of you have asked how I get the soft black 'vingette' effect around my photos. There are numerous ways to pull it off, and I have done the 'old school' method of creating a filter out of black paper and hooding my lens with it--but that was back in the old days of my medium format chemical-film camera. Now I just click on www.picnik.com, where I opened an account through my Flickr account. (I've corrected the link.) Picnik is on online editing suite that moves quickly and takes you through a series of action options to enhance your photographs. There are many features that are free (although I did go on and get a year membership that gave me some further access to different features) and it's a really quick way to tweak my shots. Because it's hosted online, the editing speed seems faster to me than the various editing suites I have on my computer. I can still do much more specific things with my Gimp and Paint (yep, I'm super cheap and am willing to toggle between my share-ware and open source suites rather than bite the bullet and pay full-out for Photoshop...), so Picknik lets me quickly spruce things up in between refereeing sibling debates and laundry loads.
Now get to clicking some eyeballs of your own and be sure and show us the results!
What a fun assignment! And thanks for the tip on picknik - I've been bemoaning not having photoshop and will definitely check this out when I have some play time!
ReplyDeleteI agree. That's a great little project and should be very revealling. Those blue eyes were the bluest I've seen.
ReplyDeleteI am so jealous I have always wanted green eyes but have been cursed with brown.The pictures are very good.
ReplyDeleteThose are some beautiful eyes. My husband has green eyes and I have blue-green (though my husband has always said they are green). What a great assignment. I'll get to that later today when the sun comes out a little more.
ReplyDeleteHow Fun.. My hubby has blue eyes and I have brown. Our first two kiddos got the baby blues, but Nater takes after Mommy, with brown.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great assignment! Awesome pictures.
ReplyDeleteI checked out picnic, and I love it! It's very fast, especially compared to other photo editing sites. Thanks for the tip, I'll be using it from now on!
The EYES have it!!!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!!!
Love eyes and hands and bellies and feet and... bodies are amazing.
ReplyDeleteCool post!
LOVE THE WINDOWS TO THE SOUL PICS!
ReplyDeleteI am so going to do this with my family!
Thanks for the idea! What a great way to get an interesting picture, and for them to have when they are parents themselves!
Love it!
Those are gorgeous...Now, I am anxious to see if I can get some good shots like that. And thanks for the editing tip at the end.
ReplyDeleteWhat a variety of beautiful eyes you all have! Isn't if fun to see what genetic do?
ReplyDeleteOooo I can do this. I *should* have several already online. Now, if I have shots of each child, I don't know. But I know I was obsessed with my now 3 yr old's eyes and got LOTS of shots hehe
ReplyDeleteI'll see what I can get up over on my blog this afternoon.
I just might have to do this. All 5 of us have blue eyes...different variations, of course. But, my children have been blessed with amazing eyes. I think it would be so fun to capture that beauty. Thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful array oor efes! My daughter has eyes like your #8 and my sons look very similar to your #7. Wonderful idea for a post.
ReplyDeleteNice eye photos! I would probably have to pin my boys down to get these shots, but maybe I'll give it a try!
ReplyDeleteI love this post. What a great idea. (Just an interesting side, my husband's parents both have brown eyes. They have 8 children. 4 of the 8 have brown eyes. But the other four have very blue, green-blue, very green, gray. Genetics are funny.)
ReplyDeleteLOVE Picnik and LOVE this post.
ReplyDeleteWhat beautiful eyes all of your kids have.
I did a post like this many moons ago and tried searching for it, but for the life of me can't find it in my 900+ posts (LOL)
I have 4 with blue, blue, blue eyes and 5 with dark brown.
What a fun idea! I'll have to do that one of these days (and give you credit).
ReplyDeleteJim has light brown eye's with a hint of green and mine are blue. We got one with mine and one with his.
The funny thing is that the one with his has my hair color and the one with mine has his hair color. Genes!
thanks for the tip. hopefully, our new camera will arrive today. I am more than excited!
ReplyDeleteyour clan has the most beautiful eyes. Just so gorgeous! And I love that the twins are split (one green and on blue)
I think I'm going to float away now. THAT was marvelous. Oh my. I can't catch my breath. Seriously. I'm such a sucker for eyes.
ReplyDeletegorgeous colors...
ReplyDeleteAnd what a fun idea!
wow, all of your children have absolutely stunning eyes!
ReplyDeleteThat is so cool! We are either brown or hazel here, so nothing neat in between.
ReplyDeletewow, what a fun project! I'm going to try it!
ReplyDeleteI've always considered my blog as a family journal, what a great way to capture the family then with the eyes. I'll have to do that, thanks for the idea. We're an all blue family, if anyone strayed I'm sure people would be asking questions. I love the variety of color in your monkeys.
ReplyDeleteI have thought about something like this for awhile, but never got around to posting anything! Hubby has blue eyes and I have greenish eyes, but all of our kids have very different colours! I will try to get to this very soon. thanks Octamom!
ReplyDeleteA friend told me about Picnik awhile back and I love it -- much easier than using GIMP (and, yes, I have that, too.) My son just got Photoshop for his college course, so I might use it sometime, but for ease of use, you can't go wrong with Picnik.
ReplyDeleteI am totally in love with picnik.com! I just found out about it last week from a fellow blogger, but go check out my blog! I made my header on picnik!!! and I posted a few other collages I have made this week. I am so addicted to that program! I am making collages for all of my friends!!!!
ReplyDeleteLove your blog!
~Abigail
Hey, that picknic link doesn't work. I have Photoshop but it's way too much for me to handle!
ReplyDeleteI love this post and would love to do my own but I realized two things:
1) My camera sucks
2) We have brown eyes and they don't photograph well.
Those are some amazing eyes. I knew they had incredible eyes, but sheesh. Those be crazy nice eyes. :) I love the sprinkle of freckles under some of them too!
ReplyDeleteGORGEOUS. You couldn't have painted them any more beautiful. God is THE master artist, is He not?
ReplyDeleteWhen my daughter was born she had gray eyes; I called them stormy weather eyes. :o) My youngest son was born with brown eyes, which is rare, and my oldest had the biggest bluest eyes I've ever seen... until today. :o)
Blessings, Carolynn
What beautiful eyes! I love eye photos. I love watching my boys eyes up really close, they aren't so keen on mummy looking in their eyes that intently though.
ReplyDeleteThings get even more interesting when you get inside the eye (although it's best in high contrast black and white then) Some people have a clutter of fireworks in their retina photos and others have what looks like a road map. It's amazing, it all looks like beautiful artworks. What a wonderful creator we have!
Awesome photos! I really appreciate you sharing some info. on editing. I am just starting out and can't afford Photoshop so it's nice to hear about other methods!
ReplyDeletethe eyes certainly DO have it! picnik is great! awesome photos
ReplyDeleteI'm going to take your advice and do some eye clicking!
ReplyDeleteI am missing my babies so much! I can't wait to do this when I get home. Thanks for the tips, because I was wondering.
ReplyDeleteMy post wouldn't be nearly as exciting. All my boys have the same shockingly bright blue eyes, and mine are hazel. ;)
ReplyDeleteHow fun. Love the photos of your kiddos eyes. Who would have ever thought you'd have so many different variations in color?
ReplyDeleteDenim!! That's it. I have been trying to define my baby daughter's striking eyes other than "WOW those are blue" and it is DENIM. Thank you! I can not think if a single more fitting description.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my favorite posts. I don't know, it's just that I love beautiful photos that show the eyes and I love the coloring of each person's eyes--some so similar, and yet totally unique. Like snowflakes. Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos as always and a great idea for an assignment. The focus on one aspect is sure a testament to our individuality! So good of your to share your "tricks"!
ReplyDeleteNo two eyes are the same. Great pic's. I clicked your link and it only took me to advertisement. :(
ReplyDeleteWow, beautiful eyes. I do think eyes tell so much!
ReplyDeleteIsn't there a saying that eyes are the windows to our souls? These are all beautiful ones staring back at me!
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Roban
They all seem so earnest, so sincere, so genuine...and obviously, so loved. :)
ReplyDeleteWe've got a she-twin with green (close to your 2's) and a he-twin with blue (like your 3's shade).
Happy Valentine's Day, Octa!
Their eyes are ALL beautiful!!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd I love picnik. For awhile I was using it for most pictures I would post but I don't have the time much anymore.
Their eyes are stunning . Thanks for the tips by the way. Your photography skillz rock!
ReplyDeleteWindows to the soul. And such beautiful ones. wow.
ReplyDeleteI did it. :) Told you it would take awhile! lol. Here it is... http://blog.tellingmom.com/?p=227
ReplyDelete