Little Abbie is such a beauty and was the easiest newborn I have even shot! She slept like an angel. And her brother Caden is such a doll. A few….
Thanks for looking!
-be
Monthly Archives: August 2008
Their daddy is already getting the guns out. hahaha…
Happy Friday!
Thanks for looking!
be
…Okay quite a bit more than a couple, but this is it. More from the workshop….
I couldn’t decide…black and white…
or color….
Thanks for looking!
-be
was AMAZING, WONDERFUL, AWESOME, FUN, EDUCATIONAL, yadda yadda yadda. Seriously, the Secret Worksop was the best money I have spent on photography (besides my camera and lenses) since I started. I learned so much in just two days that I feel my head could explode. Cheryl Muhr is such an amazing and inspirational person. Not only do I feel I learned so much about photography from her, but also how to be happier in life PERIOD! My hubby and I left the kiddies with my wonderful parents and in-laws and we headed out!!! Here are some shots from Friday when Justin and I got to tour Seattle…
*THIS IS GOING TO BE A VEEERRRRYYYY LONG POST! Sorry, but I think you will enjoy! 
Friday was great! We went all over the city and saw some amazing things. Friday night we had the mixer where I met all the attendees and got to mingle. I didn’t stay long because I was WASTED from all the flying and walking around the city all day.
Saturday Justin and I walked to the studio where our workshop was being held. He dropped me off and headed to hit the town. I got inside and we got right down to work. After a long, but very productive day of information from Cheryl, we got to meet our special guest. *every workshop Cheryl has a special guest photographer come and spend the two days with us. We get to talk with this person and watch them shoot and watch them edit. Cheryl keeps this person a secret. I guess I missed where she announced who our guest would be. She was talking and said, “Where is Tara? Later we will get to talk with her and watch her shoot”. I FREAKED out inside….I turned to the girl next to me and said…is she talking about Tara Whitney??? And the girl got all giddy and said YES!!! Holy Crap… YES! You heard right Tara Whitney. She walked in the room and all of us girls were giddy and clapping. It was the BEST!!! Tara’s photography can be found HERE
I even got a shot with her because she is freaking AWESOME!!!! (We are totally blown in these because I forgot to change the settings for the light when I gave my camera to the girl who took the shot. Oh well, I tried to fix the best I could)
*sigh* the best time ever! Okay….
Each workshop Cheryl provides models to shoot. So, we got to follow Cheryl and Tara around for a while and watch them shoot. That was an awesome experience and opportunity. I learned TONS, to say the least. Then I broke off from the groups and just started grabbing models and did my thang. lol I am going to post every shot I edit, but don’t have them all done, so I will post what I have for now….WHICH IS TONS!!!
These cuties were SO fun! I wish I had more time with them. But only got a few of them.
I have some really funny ones of this little one. She had such a personality.
*like I said…more to come later!
Sunday was great! edit, edit, edit is all we did! Busy, but so awesome!
SO SO SO FUN! But, I was ready to come home and see my girls! I missed them SO much!!!!
Thanks for looking!
-be
This month I will have been taking pictures for a whole year!!! I can’t believe how fast it has gone! I feel I have learned SO much in this one year, but feel I still have TONS and TONS to learn!!! Let me take you on a little photography journey…. from the very beginning to now.
It all started really with the whole blog craze. I was blog hopping and ran across a friends sisters blog. Her pictures of her kids looked so professional. I emailed her to find out what camera she had and what lenses she used. She was so sweet and generous with her time and answered all my questions!!! She really is the one who got me started. THANKS MEGHAN!!! I owe you so much!!! Take a look here at her wonderful photography!
So I got the Canon Rebel Xti and the Canon 50mm 1.8 lens. She suggested right away that I learn in Manual (NO FLASH) so that’s what I did. It started off rocky, but it truly is the key to good photography! Here are the FIRST shots in manual….hmmmmm
*THIS IS EMBARASSING* – I’m sharing my girls since they have had the brunt of my learning experience!
…………yah! YIKES!!! Okay, so I had some focus and grain issues…and composition issues…and I didn’t clean the dried milk off their mouths before a picture!!! hahaha
I was frustrated, but I kept trying.
(not even gonna lie…I thought this picture was THE BOMB) :/ again horrible composition and MILK!!!!
and again..more focus issues
A month later, I started getting a *little* better with focus, but still really stunk at composition. Rule of thirds, wha????
I ALWAYS underexposed…(again, thought this picture ROCKED though)
Then came the crazy editing in Photoshop! I overdid everything and ruined a lot of pictures. I have since learned that photoshop should be used to enhance a picture not FIX it!!
Whoa! on the colors Becky! lol…I guess I thought grass was lime green back then and color on the clothes should hurt your eyes. hahaha
Oversaturation on the skin is NOT a good thing. Poor Sadie is ORANGE. (again, at the time, I thought this was one of my BEST pictures ever) And can we say CHILL on the eyes!?!? A little overdone is quite an understatement. hahaha
ummmmm, vignette much?? hahaha Still to this day I love vignette and the burn tool on the edges, but this is a little too much! And who is the scary man in the background? hahaha…At least my focus is a little better here.
Then we took a trip to Utah and I really feel like that was a turning point for me. I’m not sure if it was the change in senery or what, but I finally got some decent pictures!
Good focus on this picture, but my muddy black and white conversion was just not cutting it….
Soon after I had my Rebel, I upgraded to the Canon 40D. This helped TONS!
I learned that I need to look for the correct light. It will make all the difference in the eyes…
Bad lighting….
Good lighting…(a more recent one)
I could tell an improvement and started taking some actual decent pictures…
This actually is my favorite shot ever. I was going for a moody shot of Sadie. I actually set up and planned for the shot. And finally got a feel for how I like my black and whites. No more muddy conversions.
Took some classes at the college and learned to work with window light.
Got one of them together that I love….
I played with bouncing flash and also played with some fun conversions to help the mood of the shot.
I played even more with bouncing my flash….got some fun pictures out of it.
Then I upgraded one last time and bought my Canon 5D. This camera is amazing and has made such the difference. Learning how to use your cameras is KEY. You can have an amazing camera and still get snapshots. Learn your camera!!!
Having fun with editing and playing with textures…
Focusing on the details…I love her little eye lashes!
Learning to catch their relationship and personalities along the way….
Most importantly, I learned, that not everything needs to be perfect. Catching moments like this is what it’s all about!!!
If you have made it this far….THANKS! Hope you got a good laugh like I did!
I really appreciate all the love and support I have been given through this past year. I can’t wait to see what this next year will bring.
I’m off to Seattle this weekend for the Secret Workshop and I can’t wait to share the images I get from it!!!
Thanks for looking!!!
-be
