Prices for Sittings

***Click on image for viewing at full size.

Photographing in the Snow...

The snow... It is kind of a "Love-Hate" relationship. It always brings back the lovely day of photographing a wedding in a blizzard, 17 degrees, the bride wearing sandals, and the father saying, "Who chose this date"! The snow is also very beautiful, but when taking family photos the best advice I can tell you is purchase some hand warmers, give them to your customers, they are great in their back pockets for keeping buns warm and for younger kids in their pockets to keep their hands warm. Once they get cold, your pretty much done. They are also great for keeping noses from going red. Put some in your pockets to keep your hands from "stiffening" up (whether that is a real word or not...).

Ask the family to relax their shoulders. That is one thing that makes them look cold. Really sensitive eyes...some people eyes water (like mine) and they squint excessively. Have them shield their eyes and you may have to count for them so they can relax their eyes right when you are going to take them. That is the hardest thing for me to work with.

Make sure it is fresh, fallen snow. Nothing is worse than "old" blotchy snow. The best is the day after a good snow storm. The day is usually a little bit warmer. Ask the family to walk around the area that you are taking them in, so right in front of them isn't all trampled down with foot prints.

Oh, so bright sunny day...

I don't think I remember a more sunnier day and of course, I had issues with my flash and I forgot my reflector. I even had an assistant, Tracee, who is taking such wonderful photos herself, who could have held my reflector. What to do? Most of the photos were candid, shot from the hip, I am not kidding. (I was just checking my "not working" flash and shot without looking; this is the photo on the left), or take some looking at eachother and doing the spin thing. One bonus...a beautiful dark blue sky! I did use the "soft light" located in the layers palette for some contrast and some different angles to help with the composition. This couple was beautiful and many happy days for them to come.

Cool, Crisp, Beautiful....

I don't usually shoot into the sun, but on this particular photo I didn't have much of a choice. It didn't matter where I stood the sun was directly in my lens. I went ahead and shot using the sun and sun spots and the result was fabulous. I have to give the credit to the sun and the couple. It was a bit chilly, but well worth it.

Oh, my favoirite part! This photo really allows for some fun filters to use. I love using some higher contrast when the photo allows for it. Here we go... Once your photo is up, create a new layer; then go over to the layers palette on the right side. Under the layers tab there is a "thing" (lost for words right at the moment...) that says "normal", click on the arrows and a new menu will appear. Scroll half way down and you will see "soft light". You will then need to flatten the layer if you like what you see. Once in a while the skin will go quite red, so I will use the "hue and saturation" on red and take some of that out. I also used an action called "Swift Skin". I don't necessarily use it for skin. I love what it does to the whites in a photo. It has a real soft "airy" feel. Anyway, I used the "low" action on this photo. As I look at the info on the disk, I can't see a web site specifically for the "swift skin". His site, Jim Chamberlain is www.chamberlainphoto.com and maybe he has something on the website. It was a good class, just like any other class, I always come away with something useful.