Rubber Duckie, You're the One

"...you make bathtime lots of fun.."





I finally have a couple of pics of that are for my family. We took pictures of Nolan's bathtime the other night. He is in love with this rubber duck that a friend gave me. I have more pictures to post, but these were the two that I loved the most.

I'll share more as I get time to post them. I'm making a 2006 slideshow, so look for that soon!

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

I was just notified that I have been listed as a professional photographer for the organization Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, which is an infant bereavement photography charity. I really struggled with the decision to apply for this organization - not because I didn't want to give my services, but because I wasn't sure that I'd be able to keep my emotions under control enough to actually photograph it. I certainly wasn't able to do it while I was pregnant (just the thought of running out of cream cheese for my morning bagel was enough to send me into tears) or right after Nolan was born. But, now that Nolan is almost 3 months old, my emotions are about as level as they are going to get (I won't use the word normal because I'm not sure I'll ever really be normal again after becoming a mom - I mean, how normal is it to practically wet my pants everytime I see a school bus to point out to my toddlers while I drive them to school because they get so happy when they see one:). So, I applied and was happy to hear that they accepted me. I'm dreading actually receiving a phone call requesting me to come to the hospital for this reason, but I feel that every parent should have beautiful photos of their children, regardless of how short of a time they spend on this earth.

Beauty

I wanted to share this with all my friends and clients that read my blog. I'm sure all of you have seen or heard about the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. I am a huge advocate of what Dove has done to try and change the mindset for what beauty is. So, in case you haven't seen this video, check it out. It is a mind-opener for those who are continually feeling down about their looks. As a mom who has a daughter, especially, I am painfully aware that our perception of beauty often gets confused with the mass amounts of media that are shoved in our faces everyday of beautiful people.

And here's the direct link to Dove's Campaign For Real Beauty if you want to check out the entire website.

Memories of Summer

I'm going through all of our families pictures for the year 2006 (there's over 3000 of them and the year's not over yet!) and I came across this one from the summertime. It's of my 3-year old, Emma, swinging in our backyard. For some reason, it just strikes a cord with me. It's just the way I want to remember my time with my children when I'm old and gray.

When Rams & Bears Mingle

My husband and I went to the Rams game Monday night. We didn't have great seats, but we were excited for a night away from the kids and to just hang out together. My wonderful MIL watched the kiddos (what a brave woman) and told us to have a good time.

Now, I'm from San Diego where the sports fans aren't nearly as dedicated as in the good ole' Midwest and ever since moving here I've been so proud to be in a place where the fans stay true to their teams through thick and thin. So, imagine my surprise when we get to our seats and we are surrounded by Bears fans! Of course, everyone was friendly. But I just couldn't believe that I was at a Rams game in St. Louis and there seemed to be more people from Chicago than from St. Louis.

So, it upset me even more when the Rams fulfilled their fans expectations and lost the game. Oh well, I guess we still got a night away from the kids.

Before & After

I get asked a lot of questions about what exactly I do to the images after a shoot. So, I thought I'd give a brief run down on the process and show everyone the before & after.

All the images that a client sees (whether for a wedding or portrait shoot) gets a basic exposure and color correction plus a toning (color or b&w, sometimes I do a cross-process or vintage, but I like to stick to the basics most of the time). For photos that I particularly like, I give them the full red-carpet treatment.

For this photo of my "spirited" toddler, Hurricane Clyde, I loved the expression on his face. He moves so fast, that most of the time I can't get a real good expression plus eye contact, so I really wanted to make this one look good. The crop isn't perfect, but I've stopped trying for perfect with my own kids.

The first image is straight out of the camera. His skin looks splotchy red, he has multiple marks on his face, as well as dirt around his chin, and his eyes just don't pop like I know they're capable of (such as when he's about to cause trouble:). So, I ran a basic levels, portraiture plug-in, cloned in some of the spots that were distracting (just to minimize), warmed it up a bit since the shade was causing a cold color cast, did a color dodge layer on the blues of the eyes to really make them illuminate, ran an action that popped the whites of the eyes and teeth and darken the eyelashes, and finished up with a simple curves adjustment. I could stop here, as I did, or I could add some more saturation and sharpen it to make it really crisp and colorful.

You can see what a dramatic difference it makes. Not all photos need this done to them, but any photo that gets enlarged to bigger than an 8x10 gets this treatment. And I think the results speak for themselves.

I'll try to post more of these as I find ones that are good examples. If anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to post them here are email me directly. I'm always happy to answer any questions that potential clients or other photographers may have.