Beautiful Zosia

Here is a sneak peak of portraits of Zosia - she is stunning. Come back soon for more !

Pure love

This Christmas time was so busy for us. Busy doing nothing, busy spending time with kids and family, busy eating, busy drinking. There was not much time for blogging.... but there was a time for taking pictures !
Today I will post some pictures of Nikki and Ian - pure love, stunning Nikki and handsome Ian make just perfect couple. They say there are so cute I should follow them one day with my camera as a privet paparazzi - you are just the best guys - and yeah one day we should do that !

Ian, Nikki and THE car.

This Christmas time was a very busy one ! Hanging out with family and 5 photo shoots with 5 couples. Today sneak peek from one of my favourites. Ian and Nikki. Full post comming next week.

Bonsall Elementary

What a show ! What an audience !... Elvis Presley would say "Thank You, You are very good audience "

James was performing at Bonsall Elementary school as Elvis. He was singing his best, he was dancing with his full power and he looked just perfect. This day was magic and special. In one point his sound system stopped and while he tried to go back to BLUE Suede Shoes the screen on his remote just said one word "dad" which was weird because it displays songs and never just one word, and there is no song called "dad". Weirdest yet was that it was his dead father's birthday that day! What a sign! John Kruk came to see King Kruk perform! Lets see some of my favourite pictures of the day.

James in action !

Just look at these kids faces !! They just loved him so much, they enjoyed Elvis and their smiles were worth every single note ! Beautiful experience !

The Biggest Fan of the day !!! The boy in yellow shirt, I wish I knew his name.

Christmas Tree !!

We got a Christmas Tree. What a joy !! Ohh I could go on and on about Christmas and about Christmas trees.When I was a little girl in Poland I used to go with my father to the woods and we would cut one. What I can remember is tons of snow and a fricking cold winter and us cutting down our Christmas tree. We would come back home with red cheeks, cold, but so happy about Christmas time. When I was kid Christmas for me was such a long time even though we put our tree up just before Christmas Eve...now we start the second week of December and this time of the year is like a minute...it is gone so quick.

My favorite part of it is to see this magic in my kids eyes, the magic I used to feel !

P

Marry Christmas and Happy New Year !!!

Saturday show at Bonsall Elementary - sneak peek

Full post coming this week !

Nut cracking and rainbow.

When I was a little girl Christmas Time was the best time in the year. I have so many THE BEST memories that I could write a book. It was calm, family time when we were enjoying doing just nothing and spending time with our family. How clear are my memories of cooking till late night with my mom, how intense are my memories of Christmas smells, how bright and cold was snow each day of our holiday.I try to make them alive again, I do it for my kids because having memories like I have is the best thing I kept from my childhood.
One of fun things we were doing was nut cracking. While my grandma was cooking in the kitchen me and my brother would stay with her and around big table for hours we talked, and we were nut cracking !
When I saw yesterday all kinds of nuts in Henry's I was blast ! Not mentioning we had 2 kinds of nuts when I was a girl and now I could made this time even better by getting so many different kinds of them. Made my kids sit around table and try each of them, talk and have fun for hours. I know they will always remember nuts as our small Christmas tradition...

...and today while it stoped raining for few minutes we spotted this beautiful, amazing RAINBOW just in fron of our house! It was the most beautiful one I have ever seen. So bright, full of colors and full shaped with 2 endings. Gorgeous !!

about me

I keep working on my website, changing a lot of things. Yesterday I asked my husband James to write 20 things about me. You can read them here or you can go and check out my website by clicking HERE. Thank you kochanie, you are the best !

PS. I keep trying to inspire James to write a book which I am pretty sure would be a bestseller !

WHAT JAMES THINKS ABOUT ME :

I knew I loved her from the first second.

Alex is beautiful and when she talks soft and quiet it is sexy.

She can always tell what colors look great together.

She was the first person to really inspire me to sing.

Can make me see things more clearly in a simpler way than I could
Fills me with hope and happiness.

Gave the world 3 amazing, beautiful children who though they get on
our nerves sometimes fill us with joy that is indescribable.

Somehow can take amazing pictures and turn the most everyday events or scenes into art.

Looks so unique and beautiful I see almost everyone who sees her look at her twice.

Can cook excellent Polish and Thai food.

Is very determined yet sometimes this can be seen as stubborn but most
of the time her stubbornness results in great things.

Gives great tarot readings.

Is very compassionate and psychic which sometimes is a little scary but made me very interested in her.

Can talk about the things she likes or hates for a very long time.

When she is happy the world is the greatest.

Alex is my true love.

Inspires me to be great.

She is very honest in her thoughts and doesn't tell lies to spare feelings,
but this makes for less misunderstanding with others.

Takes great care of our three children.

I love it !

I have been very busy working with my new toy - my lens. I just love it. Even though the focal length is not so perfect to walk around with my kids I STILL love it. Even though I got a lot of advice to get 85 f/1.8 I think I made a good decision because..... yeah... I LOVE IT !
So in order to not get too boring talking about it here is WHY I LOVE IT ;) three perfect portraits of my gorgeous kids.

Lilly

Maximillian

Marcin

Practice and Promotion

I have been UP and DOWN about my new lens. The first day I got it most of my pictures were a bit soft and I was expecting razor sharp images. It didn't happen, and it was so frustrating.
The second day was much better. I love how the lens feels in my hands but I don't feel very comfortable with the focal length - 85mm. I always have to be too far away or I am too close to capture what I have in mind. I guess it is a thing I will get used to. This was my experience with my family when I have to stay close to my kids. 50mm - focal length would be a perfect walk around lens.

Today we were in the beautiful Irvine SPECTRUM shopping center to do some Promo with KING KRUK so here are a few pictures from the day and a new experience with the 85L.

I got it !

I got it ! I am so so happy ! It has been about 2 weeks since I started researching a new lens. The time came. I sold my lenses and set my mind on a 85mm f/1.2 L. The lens came today and as much as my kids let me I had some fun with it. It is so exciting I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. Everything about it is new to me : aperature, that it is a prime lens, weight ( now it feels just right )

AF as they say is a little slow but I chose excellent image quality over speed. My new baby is home :)

! CANON LENSES FOR SALE !

If anybody is interested I am selling two of my CANON lenses.
They come with original boxes, lens' hoods and one of them has a canon case ( the L one ) Both of them come with two kinds of HOYA filters - UV and POLARIZING.

PLEASE E MAIL ME FOR DETAILS AT alex.kruk@live.com


CANON EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM
950$ ---- SOLD ----




CANON EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
450$ ---- SOLD ----

This is how I do it No.1

Inspired by other photographers I have decided to sometimes share how I edit my pictures,and what I know,to perhaps help others just a little bit. I have never taken any courses in how to do these things everything that I have learned has been by trial and error. I don't apply the same method every time as I like to approach each photo uniquely. It is more like when I feel the picture looks right then I stop processing. I don't have Photoshop, or Photoshop Light Room - I use Photoshop Elements. It was the best option I could afford. I am still learning.

This first picture is straight from the camera using my Canon 50 mm F/1.8

f/1.8 1/100sec ISO 100
No flash

I am still testing this lens ( it was 60$ ) I am pretty happy with what I get but the lens is very slow and it is focusing way too slow ! What I love is the aperture-1.8 !!!

BEFORE



The second picture is after processing and this is what I did
I pulled the picture to Photoshop Elements
1. I adjusted the sharpness amount 150% radius 4.0 %
2. I did saturation +5
3. I brushed the chin with brush tool, opacity 30% - there were some red spots

AFTER




Not much but small details make this picture perfect. I love it. I love it because of the colors, all blues and browns that go so well together and that cute face of my baby just made it !
Goodnight !