I Heart Faces: Heart Challenge

I rarely enter contests or challenges. Maybe it's the noncompetitive nature in me. Or maybe it's because I don't feel confident in my work. Whatever the reason, I am expanding myself today. Moving outside of my comfort zone and adding this photo to the hundreds over at I Heart Faces.

This week's theme is HEARTS. And one of the requirements is to include the human face in the photo.

I love this photo- for a few reasons.

One. I am actually taking an SLR class from Faith at Simplicity right now to become more confident in my manual modes. This morning I was attempting different aperture priority settings to curve my depth of field. {Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter: 1/125 ISO: 1000} Not sure why the ISO was set so high, but it seemed to work. One homework assignment down using natural light in my home on an overcast day.

Two. It was definitely not what I had in my mind. I had purchased some heart shaped silly bands as a prop and totally hated the result. None of them turned out as I envisioned in my head.

Then Pokey held up her thumb, which by the way, she painted all by herself last night. And voila! Love the result. And love that it represents something about her.

Three. After hemming and hawing over the perfect valentine cards this year I realized that- DUH! This would work perfectly. My search is finally over. I will print them up and what a fun, personalized card for her little friends.

But FYI: I was so tempted to do the matchbook valentines over at eighteen 25. If you are a little last minute and still haven't found the perfect cards, here's the link for the valentine card download.

I'm also participating in Willette's Joy of Love class and desperately trying to keep up. This will definitely work for one of the prompts, but I may or may not share the other 27 days. Don't hold your breath.