Rainy Days.

Today it rained steadily all day. When I was little I always thought of rain as a special gift from Heaven, one sent by God to clean up the world. If it only it were so. If only rain could wash away all injustices, all evils and all wrongs. It can't. But you know what it can do? Rain makes the good stronger. It makes the beauty glow brighter. That's why I like rain. Once the clouds have passed and the pavements dried, everything seems a little fresher, crisper...smiles seem wider, the sun shines brighter and the grass looks greener. Here's to rain. ;) You gotta love it.

I might not be able to post tomorrow. I might but in case I don't, here's the warning. Probably joined by shouts of delight from readers everywhere! LOL, just kidding. I loooove that people enjoy visiting here and like what I write and photograph. Without you I wouldn't be able to keep going! I swear. Special thanks to Ellen, Amy 3 Peas, Robyn, Mindy, Amy C and Stacey who respond to every post I make. Thanks for not letting me go commentless! Anyway, tonight we're going to my grandfather's in the countryside and we're going to the beach tomorrow *yay!* and seeing my 1-year-old cousin and stuff. Should be fun. School's over now for 2 weeks, happy but sad but sad but happy.....I have a lot of schoolwork to do for my GCSEs (exams) but it should be a nice break too. I'll miss English lessons and German most.

**Press the little red cross at the top of the page just about NOW (!) if you're a insanely great photographer who gets amazing SOOC shots (straight out of the camera), if you're not interested in post-processing or if you are a Photoshop whiz who has her method all figured out.**

I've been asked about my post-processing. So...

...every shot varies but I do have basic method I follow with most shots.

1) I shoot in RAW. Not RAW+ jpeg or anything, just RAW. To be truthful, I've never even tried JPEG and have no desire to. I love RAW - they shouldn't put JPEG on cameras in my opinion!

2) I process my RAW shots using RawShooter Essentials. It's free and you'll find it available for download via Google.

3) I generally put the saturation at +50 or above and do the same with Shadow Contrast and Detail Extraction.

4) I then open up the 8-bit Tiffs in Elements, it works in Photoshop too though, and use Levels and Filter>Sharpen to finish off.

That's it! Easy, simple and quick but it produces pretty good results. I hope that helps! See you soon, looooove Lulu. =)

PS : All the photos here were taken in the rain, at 1.8, shutters from 1/160-1/1250 and ISO 200-400. :)