If we live good lives, the times are also good. As we are, such are the times. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo
This week at I Heart Faces the theme is Beef! Yum, I love beef!
A little while ago, I did some experimenting to try and recreate a black beans and rice dish. This is the closest I came to it and I had to get a picture!
*Edited to add… Due to popular demand 
here is the recipe!
Black Beans and Rice
3 tablespoons olive oil
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 to 1 1/2 pounds stew meat or any cut of beef you like, cubed
2 teaspoons oregano, divided
2 teaspoons ground cumin, divided
2 (16 ounce) cans black beans, undrained
Salt & pepper
Pinch chili powder
Juice of 1 lime
3 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups white rice
Chopped green onion
In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium heat and add garlic. Saute for 1 minute. Increase heat to medium high. Add beef and stir until cooked. Season with salt and pepper. Decrease heat to medium, add 1 teaspoon oregano and 1 teaspoon cumin. Simmer for 1 minute.
Add black beans, remaining spices, and lime juice. Blend and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. While beans are simmering, bring broth to boil in a pan. Add rice. Decrease heat to simmer, cover, and cook 20 minutes until rice is fluffy.
Serve the beef and black beans over rice. Garnish with green onion. Enjoy!
Check out all the yummy beef dishes at I Heart Faces and enter for your chance to win a $250 gift certificate for Nolan Ryan’s beef!
Today is the last day to enter our Love Your Shot! | Link-Up! We have nearly 150 entries already! Thank you all for excitement and enthusiasm. It’s been a pleasure to see all of your favorite faces!
If you haven’t had a chance to enter, you’re not too late! You have until 11:59 pm tonight to get your links in. 
Check out the fun interview we had with Angie and Amy of I Heart Faces. They are such fun girls and it was a blast getting to know them a little better. They are our guest judges this week and their winner will receive a $100 gift card to Florabella Actions and Textures!
Here’s one of my favorite faces… my sweet little Autumn. She always has something going on in her head. When she gets this look… watch out! She’s got trouble brewing!
I took this picture in the morning before school. We were in full shade in front of our house with the sun rising behind Autumn. The sky behind me, and in front of her, was bright and lit the houses across the street from us. This gave her some really nice catchlights. If you’re shooting in full shade, try to position your subject to the very edge of the shade. This will allow you to get some of the bright light beyond it and create bright catchlights in the eyes.
Click here to enter your favorite face(s) photo!
Canon Rebel XSi | 50mm lens | f/1.4 | 1/800 sec. | ISO-100
It’s time for Fix-It Friday at I Heart Faces!
This is such a cute picture of Keli’s little girl! I love the angle and the direction of light. I really wanted to lighten and brighten this one and draw the focus right to that sweet little face! My edit was pretty simple, not too many steps.
1. First, I added a Levels Adjustment Layer and brought the two outside sliders in towards the middle a tiny bit. This took the digital haze off and gave a little boost in contrast.
2. Next, I added a Curves Adjustment Layer. I clicked in the middle of the graph and pulled up and to the left a little. This lightened the photo.
3. Now, I wanted it to be brighter so I added a black and white Gradient Map Adjustment Layer. I set the blending mode to Screen and the Opacity to 50%. This really gave a nice brightening effect!
4. I wanted to add in a little warmth to the photo so I ran my Warming Action from Love that Shot (it’s coming very soon!).
5. Next I ran my Darkening Action from Love that Shot (also coming soon!) and brushed around the edges of the photo. This brings the eye straight to the subject.
6. Finally I sharpened the photo using the High Pass Filter.
And that’s it! Here’s the before and after:
To see more great edits of this photo, visit I Heart Faces!
And don’t forget to enter our Love Your Shot! | Link-Up at Love that Shot! Angie and Amy of I Heart Faces are our special guests and there is a fabulous prize from Florabella! The link-up is open until Wednesday, October 6th.
Misti and I have an exciting surprise planned for the Love Your Shot! | Link-Up on Thursday, September 30th at Love that Shot. There’s going to be a theme, a couple of guest photographer judges (you may know them pretty well), and a fabulous prize for the winner! You’re definitely not going to want to miss this one…
Tell all your friends to join us on Thursday for the Love Your Shot! | Link-Up…because hey, what’s a party without the guests, right! Oh, and if you’re not quite sure how the link-ups work, click here for the FAQ page, or click here for the Link-Up archives. We can’t wait to see “your favorite faces”, so get out there and start shooting!
