Little Nature Boy (and an edit)

I'm going to give you a little insight on my boy.

We have a huge back yard. Seriously, it's huge. Think about the biggest back yard you've ever seen, and then double that size. I'm not even kidding here. Cohen loves to be out there. We've got tons and tons of clean, safe, grassy yard, but do you think that's where he wants to be?

Nope.

He'd rather play in the woods. Next to the old shed that houses who knows how many demonic critters. And the kid is persistent, too. I can spend all day moving him to the grass, but he always makes it right back to the forbidden area.

This week, in a moment of frustrated weakness, I gave in; let the kid play in the dangerous woods with the rusty nails.

I jest about the nails. That is ... until he finds some and pitches a holy fit when I take them away. Then, I may cave. Who knows. I'm a terrific mother, I swear.

Anyway, my kid, with acres of plush grass on which to romp and play, choses this. A pinecone. That's what makes him happy.

That's my nature boy for you.

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On a completely different note, I'm linking up for my first ever Edit Me challenge.

I'm terrified to participate because, y'all, I'm just a mom with a camera, fumbling into some good pictures every once in a while. But I'd like to improve my editing skills, so I'm putting on my big girl panties and playing with the pros.

So here's my entry (and, ohmygoodness, is that baby not the cutest thing you've ever seen? Swoon.):

Here's what I did: I cropped the photo to get a tight shot of the cuteness. I increased the exposure by 50% and increased the clarity just a tad so I could see more of that oh-so-precious baby fuzz. Then, I turned the picture into B&W and played with the levels until I found something I liked. I know, so technical.

Here's a before and after comparison:



Soooo ... what do you think?