Meet Saidee ~ Class of 2012

Meet Saidee. Class of 2012. With her long red hair, bright blue eyes, she is so beautiful! I absolutely loved this session with her. She has such a fun style, dressing in vibrant colors which accented her hair and eyes, not to mention her personality. Such a fun and happy, laid back girl! Her colors and clothing choice she wore brought these pictures to life. And those orange, suede boots? Love!!

Along with her session she brought her old fashioned bike and we incorporated it into a few shots, which turned out to be my favorites. I feel adding props to a session oftentimes will tell a story, describe one's personality, and for Saidee her bike showcased how fun she is!

Thank you Saidee for this awesome high school senior session!!! I wish you the best with all of your future plans after graduation!

Out Of Camera & After Editing

My children are probably my favorite subjects to photograph outside of our flurry of pets around our home. But my daughter is probably my most photographed participant. She helped me prepare some images for my photography class I held last weekend. She patiently let me take numerous images of her, finding the best lighting and those catchlights, or reflections in her eyes. Which I love!

The image above is how it looked right out of my camera and on to my computer's monitor. Exposed nicely. Sharp. How I like it. I shoot in RAW format which basically means this image was completely untouched by the camera. When shooting in JPEG format, the camera will sharpen, add contrast, saturation, etc to an image which is perfect for everyday shooters who may or may not use any type of editing software post taking pictures.

But I do use an editing software. Hey, sometimes that is what I love most about taking pictures. Enhancing them to something even more!



I use an editing software called Lightroom which I have adjusted to and now love using. It has caused my editing workflow to speed up and cause my turn around time for editing sessions for clients so much faster. Which leaves me more time to take pictures of my kids!

In the picture above, I ran a preset which in seconds added saturation and vibrance with contrast and some added warmth. I sharpened the image and then I am done.

With this black and white version, I ran another preset to give this contrasty, warmer look. I truly love pictures in black and white. Maybe it is my love of Ansel Adams photographic style. Or how black and white adds a sort of a dramatic, emotional feel to an image. Either way, currently I am being drawn to editing more of my pictures to black and white.

Photography Class ~ A Recap

This past Saturday I held a beginner's photography class at my home. 8 wonderful ladies attended who wanted nothing more than to move out of Auto Mode on their cameras, get the most out of their cameras and create better images. I was really excited to hold this class and teach them about Aperture, ISO, Exposure, and so on. For four hours I saw lot's of lightbulbs go off above their heads as they learned something new and "got it"! So rewarding for me as a photographer to be able to share my tips, tricks and photo recipes with others so they can learn to take better pictures. I feel many of them left the class Saturday evening feeling so much more confident about using their camera and excited to try what they had learned! And that makes me pretty darn happy!

All of these pictures shown below were taken by my extremely talented big sister who has developed her skills as a photographer in leaps and bounds!  I am so proud of her and love how we are able to share this passion for photography together. You can view more of her awesome work over on her website here and her own blog here.

I had this awesomely, yummy cake made by Jennie's Cake Creations for my class. I sent her some ideas of what I wanted, mainly a vintage type camera cake. One of the images I sent her was how this cake turned out. I loved it! Not to mention it was very good to eat!! She is super talented and I highly recommend her for creating your cake for any occasion!

Inside my home we did some "classroom" time. We worked on how various settings on our cameras worked. How to clean our camera. I talked about prime lenses and zoom lenses. 

We moved on to how the Aperture ring in our lens brings more or less light into our cameras. How Shutter speed affects the speed of light entering our camera. What ISO is and how it works.

 

We then moved outdoors and used these cute runway models to practice what we had learned. And these cute models happen to be my niece and my daughter. I am so proud of both of them for being so patient to model!

 
I showed the class how to position your subject in sunlight. On Saturday it was a bit hazy so we didn't have real bright sun to contend with, but I kept my daughter at a 45 degree angle to the sun, turning her head a bit to ward off any shadows. We also moved the girls into some open shade and showed the class how this works well too.
 

In this picture I was demonstrating how to do some backlighting, or shooting my subject with the sun behind her. And there is my funny niece photo bombing the picture. She cracks me up!

Here I am taking a test shot and letting others know what my settings were for that particular picture.

 

This is my sweet daughter! I love this image!!

And my sweet niece who is so beautiful and will be 13 in just a few days!! 

I am so thankful to those who attended my class on Saturday. I would very much like to teach this class again. I loved having the opportunity to make this class happen!