Meet Melissa! Is she not the most BEAUTIFUL girl ever!!! I was so thrilled to have a session with her! To bad we scheduled on the hottest day of the year! We were dripping after the first 5 minutes~! But she was such a great sport! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this session! So glad this was the session that got me started again!!! Thanks Melissa for driving, enduring the heat, and being barefoot in an alley!
This has got to be one of the most fun post I have ever written… Thanks to my friend Angela at AMR Photography Studio for her help.
I had just recently asked about ideas for a guest blog I have been asked to write for. Someone had asked about finding “your style”. I thought this would be a great topic to discuss on my blog.
Okay when we start finding our love for photography, most likely we are no stranger to local photographers work that we love. Well, I was just like that. I found a few photographers that I loved and followed them. I learned from them. I soaked it all in. BUT… I was not going to be defined by their work… we all have different personalities and just because I loved the work from a photographer that had soft muted images, didn’t mean that’s what I saw in an image. It also didn’t mean what she was doing was wrong and what I wanted to do what right, or that what she did was right and what I did was wrong… we all have our own unique style that represents US.
This image was one that Angela took, the first was her edit, the second is my edit. Both beautiful in their own unique way. It starts out with a beautiful image. The rest is what you make of it. There is no right or wrong way, as long as it is YOUR way. Do not conform yourself to what others are doing… you’d only be cheating yourself. We can all do what we see someone else doing. But can we represent what our heart sees? That is when you find your true artist inside you. If you are struggling finding “you” in your images, stop and ask yourself “What represents me.”
My biggest accomplishment to date was hearing for the first time “You can line up 100 images and I can know which ones you took” I wanted a definable style. So when I heard that it made my heart happy. I finally felt like…I found myself. I have since been to a few workshops, and I’d like to think my images have improved over time, but have not changed who they are. I did not go to the workshop to become THAT photographer, I went to LEARN from her, yet remain who I AM.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a new photographer is do 973 different edits. How will anyone define your work if it is ever changing? I am not saying only do color, or only black and white. But your color images should all be very similar, and your b&w images should all have the same tones. I can not express how important it is to have ONE style. Look at all the greatest of the great photographers… one day you are not going to see a color pop image, then from the same session, a muted soft image, then maybe a sepia, and two different black and whites… no. They are consistent. ALL THE TIME.
Why? Because your personality is consistent… okay so NOT what my husband would say about me… but really.
I don’t think you even have to know my friend Angela to see her personality shine through her images. She is softer spoken, sweet, thoughtful, and a lover of all thing ART. You can see her soul in her eyes. She is a wife, mother, musician, and photographer. Her images say that. The musician in her is where the soothing comes from….
For those of you who know me know that I am not soft spoken, I am an open book, I hold nothing back, I am creative. I love art, but in a very different way. I am a wife, mother, painter, and photographer. I am pretty sure my images speak that to a certain degree. The painter in me is where my love for color comes out…
I used her image here to demonstrate how it was her camera, her brain, her heart, but my edit made it more “definably mine”. I think it is so important as an artist to give your work ALL of you. I want people to know me before they “know” me.
Had you seen only the second image here, and had seen it on Angela’s blog, you’d have no second thought this was her image. When you go visit her blog, you will feel the peace, the serenity, the warmth that only Angela can give. It is HER. But that image is mine. I took it. When you see my edit, I think you can say it belongs to me. just from what I made it after the session was done. It turned into MY WORK.
We laugh at how weird it is that our Straight out of camera (SOOC) images look so much alike! It is just our “ART” that stands us apart. Both the images above and below work for both editing styles.
Obviously, Angela loves vintage shoots, she has an eye for style and brings that into her work… so to see her edit on one of my images is fun. Because the session didn’t have the vision from start to finish.
The image above is AMAZING. But it is not really something I’d do. I love it… I just don’t feel like I can pull it off. So it is important to know what “feels right” for your work! Look at the image below, It is my image, my color and textures… her edit just makes it look like it is missing something… not WRONG, but once again, once you know WHO YOU ARE and where your STYLE fits in, you know what will work during the session.
I like bold. I like textures and colors in an entirely different way. But it is me. This shows you how important that vision for the complete product it. I know when shooting how things will edit out. I know to over expose just a tad for my post processing style. I know what to suggest my clients to wear, and what time of day to shoot. This is what separates each of us and defines us. So dig deep… figure out what your soul says about you… and make your work tell that story. From start to finish… have it speak for you.
Know what you want.
Learn how to get there.
Make yourself DEFINABLE.
**Sometimes you need an outsider to say “hey, to me, you are….” Many of you have asked about my mentoring sessions… if you’d like my help, click on the MENTORING tab in the menu bar or e-mail me. I’d love to help you find your way on this amazing journey!
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So why so quiet around here? Well I have “taken off” for just a little while to do a few personal projects that I want to get done… Like what? Well, first and foremost…we are MOVING!
Yes. This house that we built, with all of our hearts is SOLD.
It is not that we don’t LOVE the house or the town it sits in, but things in our lives have changes since building and it is time we move closer to the town I work in so we have a little more family time and we can accomplish things we never knew we were supposed to. I have said many times, photography “found me” and it has become more than I could have ever dreamed. I want to follow where it is taking me and graciously enough, my husband is 100% supportive of this time for me. So, if it means moving from the tiny little town that we have come to love as “home” then, that is what we must do. We have made some amazing memories, and friends here. I am so grateful for the years spent here, but we are also every excited for what the future holds…
Another HUGE project I am working on… I have been asked to join an amazing team of photographers to teach a few online classes… more info will be released soon, but I want to give this my all!!! I have also been asked to be a guest writer for another blog that I admire and am so honored that they contacted me!
I also would like to say Thank you for all the e-mails that I get from people all over asking about my workflow, editing, and business. Once again, I’d never in a million years dream anyone would ask me for any advise… I am still trying to find my own way on this path, but because you have, I have began offering “mentoring” for those interested. Just click on the “MENTORING” tab on my menu bar for info.
AND….because of that, I’d like to offer a FREE “critique me” 4 week course worth $495 to the person who can get me the most fans on FB. I want to get people aware of me so when I am released on that site to teach… you will all want to join the forum so we can hang out in the “virtual classroom” together!!! So. here is the low down… get me fans. Tell people whatever you want… but let them know I will soon be offering online classes at CRAZY discounted rates on a HUGE blog that we all know and LOVE… tba.
They do NOT have to comment on FB, just fan me, then come and leave a comment here and tell me who sent them… I will tally mark your name and count them up on Friday June 3rd and announce the winner that following Monday! There are no limits to who can win so have fun and hopefully I will get to see you on SKYPE soon!!!!
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Okay, so I am really getting yelled at by a few friends that my blog needs to have a memorial service. I know. I know. I have taken very few sessions, I am focusing on so many things right now that I wanted to take off from shooting for a little while to get my thoughts together! I recently did a very LARGE pre-school… not many of you know but I do have a sister company Simply SMP for things such as preschools etc… This time of year I am very busy with that, and really can not post b/c the actual child is not my client and I don’t have direct permission. BUT here is a little sneak peek of one I did for the babies…
It was my rendition of “Mila’s Daydreams”. I love it!
I have also done some Pre-prom pictures… I LOVE pre-prom events…
AND we have been baseballing it up! With 3 boys we are at the ball park all week, and my oldest son just played a tournament over mother’s day weekend in Taylor, TX where we met up with my husbands cousin and her precious little girl, Stella!
Also…I was just recently featured on TML-focus go check it out and leave me some comment love
I promise…I will get this blog back to life…
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I know I have neglected my poor blog! I have been so busy. This Sunday, I am hosting my very first Photoshop 101 Class. I am also getting a schedule for the Camera 101 classes for this summer, those will be announced soon! And…I am now offering online mentoring classes! Go to the mentoring tab on the menu bar and check it out!
Also, be watching out, I am being featured on a few Amazing blogs coming soon…and was recently featured HERE and asked to be a returning contributer for Inside the Locker, a blog just for senior photographers!
And DRUM ROLL please…. Coming soon… My first workshop with my sweet friend Angela at AMR Photography Studio in Dallas!
This workshop is going to be AMAZING! The location, venue, models, make-up artist, the DETAILS are going to be amazing! SO much information to share! We are so excited…thinking it will be early fall…so if you are interested let us know!
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Part 2. Madison wanted to achieve a very certain look with her pictures. The first session was in the field, at deep sunset. She had her hair and make-up done for that exact look. But then she wanted a different look, softer make-up and straight hair with an urban feel. So we broke it into two sessions and I can not honestly say which I am more in LOVE with!!! I had such a great time both days, and already loved this family when I did Madison’s brother, Chase’s seniors, BUT…now I love them even more. We laughed and had so much fun! Thank you Madison and Kim, you honestly have no idea how much I enjoy your company!!!
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I have been in such a rut here lately! I can not figure out what it is, but every since the Christmas break, I can’t seem to get it all together! I was on the way to Madison’s session almost in tears… I know, sounds silly but I can’t seem to snap out of this FUNK !! But as soon as I started shooting, the light, the clothes, the PURE BEAUTY… it all seemed to come back to me! I was saying photographer things like “oooh yessss, like that” and “yessss thaaaats beautiful” …you know all the creepy things that a photographer can say to weird out the client! I WAS BACK! haha I was the creepy weird photographer in lOVE with what I was seeing through the lens! yay me!!! I have to say this is one of my all time FAVEs~ Madison ROCKS in so many ways! LOVE HER!
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This has to be one of the coolest things I have done so far! I meet Veronika on line. She was coming to Texas only for a month and a half
to train with her horse Tina, and contacted me to do pictures, while she was down! We went back and forth via e-mail and decided to
meet Round Rock near the ranch she was staying at! We drove to the near by town of Taylor, and did an urban session then to the ranch to finish
up with Tina! Apparently they don’t do pictures in the Czech like they do here, so this was extra fun for her and we had a BLAST! Thanks
so much Veronika for choosing me to give you this experience! It was just as fun for me!!!!
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Breigh.Breigh.Breigh. where do I begin with the amazing young lady? She is the BEST! Our family LOVES her!
She loves my little paypay and paypay ADORES her! Breigh and I got a wild hair and drove soooo far to get super FUN pictures and it
was totally worth it! We talked and laughed the entire day, there is hardly a moment when you don’t see Breigh with her big beautiful
smile! We had a fun little dinner in the town we took the pics in before we loaded up to come home and we bathed in Germ-x wipes after
I stood on a dead decaying BAT filled with fire ants… needless to say, it was one of my favorite sessions to date! filled with FUN!
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I am a litlte behind on my blogging! And…it is the beginning of spring break, so it might be a bit before I am back at it!
Here is a little peek at one of the sessions I just got to do of Breigh’s seniors!
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The other day my husband and I started talking and the conversation lead to what I call my “picture wall” and the one image of all 4 of our children on walking and holding hands. He said to me, and remember this is coming form the mouth a one VERY CHEAP man who was not raised where pictures were important, “that picture is priceless to me, had you come home the day it was taken and told me you wanted to spend $500 on that print I would have had a hard time, but now, it is one of my most treasured images of my children. It is a time of their lives that as parents we were so busy parenting to to really grasp that age. It is a time we will never get back, I can stare at this picture for hours and take in the details of how Paysli’s shoes are on the wrong feet, how the boys hands were still “baby hands” how they had missing teeth, everything about it I love”… So that one conversation got me thinking.
The phone rang at 1am. I knew what the call was about, I already knew what I was about to be told, but it hearing it made it real. It was the phone call from a sibling, telling me my cancer stricken father had taken his last breath. I gently got out of bed, not to wake anyone, went to my office and dug out of the drawer the last picture we had taken together and just held it and sobbed. That was all I had left, the pictures we had taken. Still to this day, five years later, when we tell stories of my father to my children, we get out the pictures and re-live that moment in our lives that was taken away all to soon.
I was once (a looong time ago) 100lbs and got pregnant with TWINS! I have only one snapshot that I set my camera on the timer and took of myself. At the time I felt fat, and ugly. We look back and I am so disappointed with myself for not making it a priority to have maternity pictures taken, when would my body EVER look like that again. At the time I was more shamed but now, older, I am proud to show off what my tiny little frame held. I grew two VERY healthy full weight (5.1lb and 5.12lb) babies in my stomach! ROCK STAR! And still to this day think I should tattoo their names on each of the stretch marks I have on my stomach!
Years later I was in a doctors office being told one of my boys had a bone disease, and the only way to “cure” it was to amputate his leg. The first thing I did when we got home, set an appt. for a second opinion, and the second call was to a photographer so we could have family pictures of all of us with shorts on and barefoot so one day we could show our son what his real leg looked like. He is in medical history books for being the ONLY recordable child to NOT lose his leg with this disease, which I 100% credit GOD our father for… but, pictures were important!
Like my husband said, the cost would have been hard to swallow for the prints, but years later, the images are priceless! We as Americans have gotten so used to spending money on ridiculous things! I know someone who spent $1,500.00 on a purse, but thinks money on pictures is silly. That is their own opinion, but I highly doubt that the purse will give her the same feeling an image of her precious children will years from now. Are your grand-babies going to gather in a room and ooh and ahh over a purse, or clothing, or red soled shoes, or are they going to laugh and reminisce over the images you had hanging on the wall of their mother in braces. Or the prom she went to with their father for the first time….
I am not saying this to get anyone to hire me. I just want to make you aware of how important images are and how one day they all become a treasure! So make sure when you hire a professional, they can give you what you want, something to cherish for years to come. If you do hire a professional, make sure to save up it is an investment, get the images you want and hang them proudly on your walls. If you chose to take the images yourself, take the time to learn your camera, and make sure to get it out and USE it! We all too often are filled with regret. Take it from me, we will never get these moments in time back.
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I just asked a few of the ladies that were in my class to tell me what they thought about it. If it helped them at all…and here are a few things they were saying, along with some if their before and after images.
*In my before pictures one was straight on in the light and the other was out of focus and had lots of noise. Your class taught me how to correct both. Learning how to use my focal points was huge! In my second picture I only thought that I had focused on the baby’s face, but really my auto focus was focused on her shirt. I also had my ISO set way too high so it caused my picture to be full of noise and when printed it was very blurry. I had no clue what ISO was before your class. Now, I know how to look for my light and where to set my focus and where to put my ISO!
Before your class I felt like I had the ideas of pictures in my head, but couldn’t get them to come to life through my camera. Thanks to your class, I am much more confident in my photography and actually have clients that love my work and want me to continue to come back and take their pictures!!
*I loved your class! I loved that it was laid back and I didn’t feel intimidated. I love that we got to use our cameras and try out different locations. I had just heard of using the meter adjustment in manual the week of your class so it was great to learn more about that and I think that has made a huge difference in my photography. Instead of changing everything if a picture was not exposed right, now I know what to change quickly to make it right and why I’m doing it. It’s also helped a lot for indoor shooting without flash.
Like I have said before, I am NOT a teacher. I just know how much I am a hands on learner. I have to see it, touch it, and go over it in my head time and time again before i really get it. So I thought I’d offer a quick, very simple class for what our camera manuals already tell us, but hearing and seeing it makes it sink in just a little easier. This is JUST a BEGINNER class! There is no secret to becoming a photographer…it is just here to help you take better images with whatever camera you have! It is a very down to earth explanation to why our cameras think they are smarter than us, how we can learn to control them!
I loved seeing the ladies in my class improve almost over night! Their images are worlds better, and their confidence in working their camera is so much higher! I am offering one more class (maybe for the year…not sure what this fall has in store for me so no promises) if you are interested don’t hesitate, the class booked full in one day last time!!!
Sunday March 27th. 2:30pm-6:30ish Conroe, TX
$250 class limited to 10 people ONLY…because it is a limited class there are NO REFUNDS!
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You all remember little Kinsey! She was one that I got to “watch grow”. I instantly fell in love with this little girl,
and her family and well… now they are friends FOR LIFE! Even though I did think I was going to have to ground
Kinsey at our last session… no matter what I did, she WOULD NOT look at me!!!
But this, our last session of the year, she was all smiles and totally made up for it!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY kinsey! we LOVE you!!!!
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Meet baby Gage… 3 days old. what a fun session! This sweet baby boy slept the entire time! We could do whatever
we wanted with him and he would just sleep! LOVE that! and talk about TINY! Thanks to my sweet friend
Lacy and her family for welcoming us into her home with all our STUFF and just letting us take over the living room!!!
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I have completely neglected my poor blog. It just seems like I have been non-stop since the Christmas season
and I still can’t seem to get it together! I met Kindra quickly one evening (2 days before Valentine’s to be exact) to get
a few shots for her children’s Valentines cards… They did so good, and we got them done in time to still hand out
treats to their class! shewww!
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