Tyler + Jessy….engaged!

Hey there! Jessy and Tyler are engaged and are getting married next June. I met up with my fellow Barton Alumni at Barton College for an engagement session. Go Bulldogs! It brought back a lot of good memories being back on campus. We then headed downtown for a few more shots. Here are some of my favorites:

Time with Jacques.a.Poo

Jacques, our French Bulldog, is a great little model. Especially when you need to scout a location out or experiment with a new lens, as in this case. One of Jacques favorite things to do is run around like a crazy man outside and the other thing he loves to do is roll around in the grass. So, these images were made after he had just finished his crazy run around time (which is quite a site, I assure you…he just runs around in circles and I don’t really think he knows what he is doing). 

Dogs blink too:

Bree’s 3 Photo Shoot Preview:

When Shannon and I went to Whiteville for Bree’s birthday party I did Bree’s 3 year photo shoot, so I thought I would share a preview…there will be more to come:

Tuesday Tip: Questions

Today’s tip is about questions. If you photograph, whether you are a professional, hobbyist, or snapshooter (is snapshooter a word? I don’t think so) you inevitably have questions. Of course the internet provides a great way to get a lot of your questions answered. There are so many forums out there about photography and one that I like to visit when I have questions is photo.net I have found that I usually find the most answers from this forum. Believe it or not, I point out some tutorials on YouTube if my photo students are struggling with topics like shutter speed and aperture. I am hoping that these Tuesday Tips will help someone somewhere out there. If you have a question or an idea for a Tuesday Tip, send me an email, maybe it can be a Tuesday Tip topic?

Will and April

Hey Will, you made it on the blog! I met April and Will out in Lucama, NC for a photo session. They are just great people. Even though I had just met them, I felt like I had known them for a while, they were just that nice. So, we rode around April’s family farm and had some fun. Here are some of my favorites:

Even More from the Lomo Diana

Well, I needed an art break today. Sometimes you just need to make some art. So, I continued with my altered landscape/place series and started on another image. 

More from the Lomo Diana

I did a recent post showing some of the first images I have taken with the Lomo Diana. I had to put a color roll through as well just to see. I used some Fuji Provia slide film because I was curious to see what the color results would be. I have never really been a big traditional landscape image maker, although I love them. Somehow I always have a tendency to alter landscapes or take things out of nature and put them in a completely different context or environment.  So, true to form, I like the original image, but there is something in me that just wants to alter the landscape…trying to figure that out. I needed an art making break today (i have a long day at work today…registration time), so I experimented with this image a bit. It is the same subject matter as the previous bw image. I will have to live with it a bit until I make up my mind about it:

Nick & Kimberlea

Here they are….some (well, more than some) of my favorites from Nick and Kimberlea’s Wedding:

Happy Birthday Bree!!

Today is Bree’s (my niece) Birthday! She is 3! I can’t believe how big she is getting. She has a big birthday party this weekend….fun stuff. Uncle Shannon and Aunt Julie (or Juwie as Bree pronounces it) will be heading town to celebrate with her this weekend. And of course, we will have to do a third birthday photo shoot. Happy Birthday Bree!

Tuesday Tip: Contrast Boost Quickie

This will be a short and sweet one today. It is yet another way to boost contrast using Photoshop. I have an image of Kimberlea and Nick’s Wedding Cake. It has only been edited in Camera RAW. I still think it looks a bit dull and flat:

Before:

After the following steps:

 

Step 1: Open an image in Photoshop you think could benefit from a bit of contrast boost. Go the the layers palette and choose “Levels” from the layer adjustment menu (half-black, half-white circle) at the bottom of the layers palette. Without making any adjustments click “OK.”

Step 2: With the Levels adjustment layer selected change the blend mode to “Soft Light.” This should significantly change the contrast of your image. The next step will be based on your image. You may need to drop the opacity of the Levels adjustment layer to get the right amount of added contrast. For example, for this image, I needed to drop the opacity down to 50%. You can change the blend mode to Overlay for extreme contrast.