All you kid-chasing, time-deprived, super moms out there, we see your hard work and we appreciate you! Here’s $50 to spend on yourself*. Just use the discount code MOMSDAY at checkout in our store.

As for us, we’ll be paying homage to one of our very favorite moms, Chenin Boutwell.

* Redeemable on any Totally Rad! product valued at $99 or more.

Discount is valid through May 16, 2012.

Image Copyright Tara Whitney

Importing and exporting recipes is a snap with RadLab! Check out the tutorials below to be a photo editing iron chef!

Importing Recipes

Exporting Recipes

Be sure to share your RadLab creations with the RadNation, and pick up a free recipe pack on our Facebook page!

Our totally bitchin’ Facebook community page just got a HUGE facelift. If you give our page a like, you now have exclusive access to a 15% discount code, a very special recipe pack, a set of free actions, and discounts to some of our favorite vendors!

On top of all the amazing, free content you get for liking us, you can also join in on the conversation happening now with other fans of Rad! Our Facebook page’s community is a great place to learn about Rad news and special discounts, read great tutorials, learn photo editing recipes, and get inspired by other photographers.

One last thing!

That recipe pack for RadLab we mentioned… It is totally free, and specially designed by the delightful Chenin Boutwell.

AMPED is a brand new set of Lightroom Presets that are just the right add-on to turn your photos up to full blast!

Find just the right balance for your images with 3 levels to choose from, light, medium or strong.

AMPED rocks on its own, and is also the perfect complement to our Original Lightroom Presets!

get the word out!

If you’re already rocking AMPED be sure to share your amazing images with us on Facebook and Twitter!

Worried about losing the functionality of your Totally Rad! Lightroom presets if you upgrade to Lightroom 4? Well, fear not citizen! As of 3/7/2012, an updated LR4 version of our presets has been available from your completed orders.

If you need to update to the LR4 version of the presets, simply re-download and reinstall them from your account where we’ve made both the LR2/3 and LR4 versions available to both previous and new customers.

Because of a number of changes in the LR4 Develop Module, we weren’t able to make the versions carbon copies of each other. The sunny side is that although the LR4-updated presets are slightly different from their predecessors, the changes tend to make the results actually look much better than the older versions. You can see a full list of all the changes here.

Check it out! A brand new preset mix!

If you have made the jump to Adobe’s latest version of Lightroom be sure to checkout AMPED, our new preset pack exclusively designed to take advantage of Lightroom 4’s new features. It unleashes 20 new ways to rock LR for only $49.

First Place

Our first place prize goes to Sara Walk for her gorgeous Black and White conversion! She is the proud new owner of an Apple® iPad.

Second Place

The super talented Sophie Delaveau is taking home an Ona® Union Street Camera and Laptop bag for her amazing second place image.

Third Place

Larissa Manibog wins a $149 gift card to the Totally Rad! Store, and some amazing TR! swag!!!

Introducing the Free Winner’s Circle Recipe Pack!!!!

A huge thank you to everyone who submitted recipes, voted, and helped spread the word about the recipe contest! We had so many amazing images submitted, and had an amazing time seeing all of the great work the RadNation has been creating using RadLab.

Please be sure to download and enjoy the Winner’s Circle Recipe Pack. It is a snazzy, free recipe pack made up of the recipes from our nine finalists.

Oh yes! We’ve fallen in love with the latest micro-blogging /social media trend! Our Pinterest account is still just a baby, but we plan on adding tons of content in the coming weeks. Including recipes, amazing images we’ve found from people using Totally Rad! products, inspiring articles, and a board chronicling our adventures using iPhone images.

We’re even going as civilians! Rather than get a booth and spend the entire time working, we’ve decided to hang out and party with all the amazing photographers that are even now converging on Las Vegas, NV. Our very own Doug Boutwell (that handsome devil in all the tutorial videos) will be giving a demo at the ProDPI booth on Monday at 11 a.m. Be sure to stop by to meet the man behind the curtain, learn more about our products, and score a discount code!

Stage one of our recipe contest ends Monday at midnight PST. Be sure to get your submissions in before then for a chance to win some amazing prizes including an iPad, a Union Street Laptop and Camera Bag from Ona, or a $149 gift certificate to the Totally Rad! store and some awesome TR! swag. Check out one of our favorite entries below!

Image and recipe by Cory Ann Ellis.

Questions, Comments, Quemments?

If you have any questions or comments, send us a message either on Facebook or on Twitter!

You’re a photo editing rock star, a Photoshop master, your bag of photographer tricks knows no bounds, and now is the time to share your prowess. We’re having a recipe contest, and not only will you get to show off your amazing images, but you can also come away with some rad prizes.

How To Play

1. Work your photo editing magic with RadLab (and RadLab alone). No RadLab? No problem. You can try it free for 30 Days!
2. Submit your little slice of Photoshop glory through our BRAND NEW recipe submission page before February 20th.
3. After the 20th vote for your favorite recipes when we release the best submissions into a no holds barred cage match. The three recipes with the most votes will be declared our champions on February 27th.

The Prizes

• First Place: An Apple iPad
• Second Place: An Ona Union Street Camera and Laptop Bag
• Third Place: A $149 Gift Card to the Totally Rad! Store and a bundle of Totally Rad! Swag
• The Prize Just For Entering: The pride and glory that comes from competition!

This is a guest post by the talented Chenin Boutwell. You can see her delightful photography at cheninboutwell.com. Also, be sure to checkout Fudge Banana Swirl, a site that provides daily inspiration for hip parents looking to live a healthy, stylish and sane(!) life with children. PS- We held this post until the end of the month because of the belief that any goals set the first week of January are doomed to fail. You know we’re right. 

I’ll be honest, I have mixed feelings about January. On the one hand, the New Year is an opportunity to start fresh, set new goals and establish new habits. On the other hand, the New Year brings with it a lot of pressure to start fresh, set new goals and (you guessed it!) establish new habits. Add to that the sheer exhaustion that inevitably comes during the Holidays and January can be a real bummer.

So what’s a person to do when they are overcome with pressure to be awesome and all they want to do is be on the couch? I like to start off the year with writing down three simple goals; one goal pertaining to my work as an artist, one personal goal and one business goal. I love this approach, because it means I have three opportunities for success and because it also means that, if I fail in one area, I can make up for it in others.

Your personal goals can be related to health, fitness, family, self-improvement, finances, education or anything that is just for YOU. Personally, I try to resist the urge to focus on the outside and choose to set goals pertaining to what’s on the inside. For example, my 2012 personal goal is to take more time for myself (as opposed to “get a body like Giselle,” which is also a nice goal, but which probably won’t ever happen.)

In my opinion, business goals should be as specific as possible, so as to avoid the inevitable “make more money” resolution. A good example would be to make three new networking connections, or take a colleague to lunch once a month, or reduce overhead expenses by 20%. The purpose of a business goal doesn’t always have to be to make more money. For example, my 2012 business goal is to become more productive by outsourcing and establishing better work-habits, so that my business takes up less of my time.

For artists, I think that it’s particularly important to set goals, so as to not become too comfy in our work. Setting artistic goals can be tricky, though, since achievement is difficult to measure and is often open to interpretation. This is why it is especially important to be honest with ourselves when evaluating whether we are truly working towards our goal – we can’t look to our bank account or scale to tell us whether we’ve been successful in this area (sorry Giselle.) My 2012 artistic goal is to turn off the “auto-pilot” that occasionally sneaks in when you’ve been shooting weddings for nine years. Your goal might be to master the use of a particular kind of light, or to work on a personal photography project, or even something as simple as make a photo you’re proud of.

Regardless of your approach, taking the time to set a few simple and do-able goals at the start of each year provides a great time to reflect on past achievements and to dream about future ones.

The RadNation!

We asked our Facebook and Twitter community to share their goals for 2012. Enjoy a few of their answers below, and be sure to share some of your own in the comments. 

“My goal is my word of the year Focus. Learning to live my priorities & keeping my eye on the prize” -Cathie Heart

“I think right now my goal is to find who I really am and where I really want to be as a photographer.” -Shanon Daly

“To enjoy the little moments in my wild and crazy life!” -Photo Business Tools

“Spend less time hiding behind the camera/computer, and more time engaging clients face-to-face!” -Allegra Villella

“Believe in my ability. I’ve learned a lot in three years and I need to be proud of my work.” -Jared Carr

“To remember why I started my business in the first place and to stay true to that. It’s not just photographing as many weddings as I can or trying to make the largest profit possible. It’s about how I was so attracted to the idea of capturing love, documenting those fleeting moments of beauty that tells a part of someones story. When I first started all I wanted to do was make a honest living off of something I felt I could do well and with a passion. If I can start each day remembering that, it’ll be reflected in everything I do.” -Corinne Krogh

RadLab + Video = Magic

In the not too distant past, somewhere on planet earth, possibly in a wizard’s lair far beneath a castle, the good people at Faded + Blurred had a EUREKA moment. They discovered a simple method for using RadLab to edit video. Oh yes! You read that correctly. After watching the tutorial video below, you’ll have the knowhow to edit video with your favorite Photoshop plug-in.

Be sure to share any videos you’ve edited with RadLab with us on Facebook. Please keep ‘em PG-13 though, some things cannot be unseen.

Faded + Blurred RadLab Recipe Packs

The mad scientists over at Faded + Blurred have also pumped out FOUR free recipe packs for RadLab. You can download their rad recipe packs at the links below.

• F+B RadLab Recipe Pack, vol. 1
• F+B RadLab Recipe Pack, vol. 2
• F+B RadLab Recipe Pack, vol. 3
• F+B RadLab Recipe Pack, vol. 4