For the Grads

I met up with William, Jocelyn, their Mom, and Kim for some Senior pictures. Jocelyn and Kim will be graduating from East Carolina University this semester and William is a high school senior. Both are huge accomplishments, so congrats to you guys! These guys were super cool and just a joy to work with. So, I have lots to edit, but I thought I would give them a sneak peak:

In Progress

I took the lomo diana along to Jack and Rachael’s wedding. I have really enjoyed working with alternative ways of capturing aspects of a wedding day. It is funny that I am using the word “alternative” and a film camera within a few sentences as if film photography is becoming an “alternative process.” I think that is the way many people view film photography these days. I truly enjoy working with film. In my wedding packages I include an “art print.” Basically, it is a way for me to offer my clients something unique from their wedding day. Although most of my wedding and portrait work is digital, I do use film here and there. Of course, the question is always asked, why shoot film, when you can see digital images instantly? It is a tough question. It seems like a no brainer for that type of work. My answer is usually because I simply love the process and love the results. In the last year of my graduate studies at ECU my love for the process of photography came out visibly in my thesis work. I used both film/traditional and digital processes together to arrive at my finished works. It seems crazy. When making my art work, I often start out with film, then scan it, then manipulate it, then I sometimes even end up back in the darkroom. With these pieces people will sometimes ask me how I did it and I will take them through the process step by step, until I start to see their eyes glaze over from boredom, then I make it short. Seems silly, but it works for me and works for my end results. There’s no magic buttons, just work with what I know and learned and experiment along the way in hopes of finding something new.  I’m a process person I guess..whatever it takes to get the visual communication there. Anywho, here is one of those examples of combining processes…I exposed the image using a lomo diana with neopan 400, then scanned it and manipulated it further. 

Will Work for Candy

These are my buddies, Bree and Ty. As the title implies, Bree will do some modeling for candy, hence the sucker in one of the pics. So, I have made quite a few posts about these kiddos. But just in case you don’t know, Bree and Ty are my niece and nephew. Bree is quite outgoing and full of character, much like her mom. She loves to talk to people and loves to entertain. She especially loves to entertain Ty Ty the little guy. He thinks she is quite funny. Ty just loves to hang out. He is such a good, easy going fella. They came up for a quick visit a few weeks ago so I could do some 3 months pics for Ty and get some Spring time shots while we were at it. So, here are a few, okay more than a few, I think I had a hard time deciding because they are just so cute…you know, an aunt’s gotta brag.

Ty is fascinated by his hands, so I wanted to make an image that featured his little hand gestures. 

Oh, my what a cute outfit. Okay, okay, I bought it for him for Christmas. He wasn’t even born yet, but I couldn’t resist. He is outgrowing it, so it’s time to go shopping again!

I’m not trying to do a Jill Greenberg or anything, but I kinda like this one. I know he has a little cry face, but I like it when you can capture real emotion.

 

: Jason + Tiffany :

Last weekend, I met up with Jason and Tiffany for an engagement session. The weather was beautiful and I am so happy that we are finally getting some warm weather. 

I have been doing something “Save the Date-ish” for every couple for a while now, so I had a great time getting carried away with this one. It was fun!

Playing around with color a bit, any thoughts??

Okay, so we were about to end our session and we were walking back to the car. I turned around and saw how pretty the sky was and asked them if they minded if I take just a few more. If my husband read this right now, he would laugh, because really when I say a few more it ends up being like 30 or 50 more. Well, I really liked the colors when we were there, but got to editing and I really liked the strong contrast, gritty feeling of the black and white, so I am including one in color and one in bw….any thoughts about which one is stronger??

Fun Stuff with the Move Tool

This little tip is may be very helpful for those of you who do things like design albums or customized greeting cards, etc. Have you ever needed to center something exactly in the center of a page or template? I have. Back in the day, I used to use guides to help me, but then I had a little light bulb, one of those moments that makes you feel a little silly for not seeing it before, but also very thankful that you found that it was there. Okay, so for example, let’s say I have just added this border to this picture below and I want to center it exactly, so that when I print it, it will be nice and balanced on each side. Notice it is a bit off from where I was working with it on the page. It is not centered at all:

So, here is a quick and easy way to center within a Photoshop document:

Step 1: Go the the menu and choose Select>All or you can press command -A(ctrl for pc guys). This defines the area you want to center within. You should see marching ants around your image.

Step Two: Click on the image or text layer you want to center. If you have multiple layers that you need to center then select them all. You can select a layer just by clicking on it.

Step Three: Select the move tool from your tool palette or just press the V key. Next, notice below the menu there are many options for this tool in the tool options bar. Click on the one for “Align Vertical Centers” and then click on the one that is for “Align Horizontal Centers”, as shown here indicated by the red arrows:

Now your image layer(s), or text layer(s) should be centered in your page., much like this:

New Option on Proof Site!!

Just wanted to share a new option for clients on the proof site. It’s the Custom Designed Proof Box with 4×6 images. These come standard in the wedding packages, but I wanted them to be made available to all clients for any type of photo session. The advantage of this option is the price!! You get over 50% off the proof box and prints. For example, the actual value for 150 4×6 prints plus a custom designed proof box would be $645, but by ordering these products together you can get it for $300!!! You pick out which images you want. You can choose anywhere from 100-400 images (sold in 50 image increments, 100, 150, 200, etc.) This is great for parents who want to order a lot of small prints from a session or even for couples who just want more prints!! I LOVE these boxes!! Check out the Products page for more images of them!

Tuesday Tips to Fun Stuff

Okay, so I have been a total slacker on the Tuesday Tip thing. I guess the 9 classes and the second job have been getting to me a bit. So, how about this. I am going to change “Tuesday Tips” to “Fun Stuff.” Who said I HAVE to do it on Tuesday anyway, what if I feel like sharing something on Monday? Anyway, so I am will be sharing some fun stuff in the future, concerning the best boom stand ever and some fun helpful stuff with the move tool in Photoshop. Anywho, I do have something fun to share today and that is the homemade snoot. A snoot is something use on a light source (hot-shoe flash, strobe unit, etc) that really directs the light to a narrower beam than a flash unit without a modifier. There are a lot of modifiers you can make using simple things you find at home or a local supermarket…and they are el cheapo. So, the following items are what you need to make a homemade snoot: black felt (I like the sturdy kind…you can get it from Wal-Mart, Michael’s, any craft store), velcro, scissors, and about 5-10 minutes. I have a snoot for my Canon 580 and my Vivitar 285. All you have to do is wrap the felt around the head of the flash unit making sure about 1″-2″ overlaps, then cut off the excess. Take a strip of velcro and adhere it to one end of the felt. Then flip it over and adhere the opposite velcro piece (that will attach to the other velcro) to the other end of the felt. If you find the snoot is slipping off, you can use a hair rubber band to hold it tight. The pictures probably make a lot more sense:

I just use the test fire button to figure out where to place the flash or to see which part of my subject to illuminate. I use this snoot in the last wedding I did to get this shot:

New Products Page

Just wanted to let you guys know I added a Products page to display some of the products I offer. I plan on posting more images in the future, but this will get me started. Click on the Products link above in the menu to view them!

Congrats to Jack & Rachael

Jack and Rachael are married, yeh!! It was quite a beautiful wedding. I usually take some “environment” pictures like the first two just to document the place or the season of the wedding. Thanks to Heather Sullivan for being my second shooter, as usual, she did an awesome job. The first image of the blue house is Believer’s Home Fellowship in Tabor City, NC where Rachael’s Dad pastors. I couldn’t decide between which one to post, the church or the pink blossoms, so I just posted both:

The day started at my parent’s house in Whiteville, where my Mom was helping put these boxes together for Donna and Rachael. She was sticking her yummy goodness inside. She makes these unbelievable chocolate truffles. So, if you ever need some yummy goodness for a party or event you should really check her out!

The flower girl and ring bearer were soooo cute!! 

Okay, so the image above and the image below are quite similar just different lighting techniques, the one above is natural light, and the one below, is well, you can see lit from within. I really don’t know what I think about the one below. Haven’t come to a conclusion, any thoughts?

Alright, the image below will show up in a future post I am going to do on “The Best Boom Stand Ever.” Heather, if you are reading this right now, you are probably laughing. I made a home made snoot for this shot and had a really great boom stand for the shot….details to come!

This is my self-portrait, my document that I was there. I don’t get out of behind the camera much to get my own picture taken, and really still didn’t get out from behind the camera for this one….”is for fun!”

Okay, so don’t try this at home. I couldn’t resist . I waited for a red light and Heather gave me a camera. Didn’t have too much time too compose. Don’t worry I didn’t look through the viewfinder, I kept my eye on the road. And Heather, who was in the passenger seat took some great shots too. 

Love doing the ring shots…