Family Laughter

It's 11:33 pm and 11 adults are currently playing Balderdash and laughing to beat the band. I love my family. Once 9 pm hits the drinks, food, and games come out and by the end of the night we have so many good one liners we could write a book. I love sitting back, listening to everyone and what crazy movie plots or acronyms they come up with.

Every year, on my father's side, we pool our Christmas money and rent a beach house for a weekend in exchange for Christmas gifts for individual people. So it's it's my two uncles and their wives and kids. In all there is 14 of us, 4 of those being kids. It's an absolutely blast getting to spend quality time with them instead of trying to buy gifts. 

Earlier today we took family photos and then set up a black background. I'm the official family photographer which can be nice and not so much at times. I love taking photos for everyone, but sometimes the editing afterwards can be overwhelming, but in the end it's so worth it... Many of my best portfolio pieces have come from family vacations. My favorite thing is to take candids of everybody and capture the funny moments. Here are some of the photos from today. I have such a beautiful family!

Hey eyes are stunning. No editing!

So enthralled with the card tricks.

Baby Bears

They are SO beautiful, it's a bit ridiculous.

The Crazy Cousins.

My man.

The parents.

The newest addition!

Enjoy!

Sunsets and texture.

Just a little fun for my photography class-

I Love Sunsets

Learning Curves and Growing

I've definitely grown quite a bit as a photographer in the past 2 years. My work took a huge jump in the summer of 2010 when I started using my camera thoroughly and not just relying on the "auto" setting. It's amazing how much your work will improve when you devote the time to learning the equipment and lighting and post processing (editing).

By no means am I done learning, I still have plenty to dominate in the lighting area and post processing and playing the right angles. I'm still trying to find my voice as a custom photographer and what unique properties I bring to the table. I'm still learning how to run a business and realized how much it takes to actually start one.

I've been doing photography since... the 7th grade? Which puts me around 7 years give or take a bit. Now that I'm dedicating more time to, I'm finally seeing my work evolve towards professional status. And I'm not saying that I'm a pro now, but I can finally see myself as a pro some day in the future. I've always had a lot of doubt in my abilities because I'm surrounded by some phenomenally talented photographers... but I'm gaining a new perspective as I find my style and niche in the photography world.

It's hard because I keep finding myself saying, if only I had a few more lenses, a better camera, lighting equipment, props and accessories for the little ones, great weather all time.... THEN I'll have better quality photographs. If only I could spend 3,000 to get going and get a base built. But God has challenged me to work with what I have, so during the meantime, I'm working with what I have. I don't have a lot of cute headbands or baskets/hangers to put infants in... and the weather in the NW is anything but cooperative most of the time- but I can still give you great photographs that capture the special and intimate moments. So as my business picks up I can turn around and invest directly back into my company and eventually get those key things that truly add to photographs, but until then, I'll work with what I have.

I stumbled across a site that sells "actions" for photoshop. Actions are basically a series of editing tools all bundled into one so that you can edit quickly and consistently.  Now I've been debating if this is considered cheating in the post processing world because on the surface it looks like I've just bought my editing tools and after one click I'm done... but it's not that simple. Those actions give me a starting point and I can tweak and change them as much as I want and to what I want in a photo. I would love to hear your thoughts on this- especially other photographers. For right now, I'm content with using them because it is a time saver and it's opened up a lot of editing doors since I've never taken a photoshop class. And since I'm doing a lot of editing after each action I don't feel so guilty. These photos are definitely a reflection of what I would like my work to resemble. I love the vintage feel with striking colors and unique views. These few are quite bold and I'm looking for a more natural feel, but this is just me experimenting with my new "toys."


So there's a post for ya, a little longer than I expected. Tonight has been very contemplative and challenging. Here's the results from my new actions-

Enjoy!

Baby Stella

Stella was brought into the world on 11/21 of 2010 weighing in at a grand total of 5lbs. 12 oz. She was little and during our first shoot she decided to stay awake. And she repeated the pattern yesterday with waking up after the first click of the camera. Non the less, she is an absolutely cutie who smiled for the first 10 minutes and was quite cooperative! Maybe at some point we'll catch her sleeping... 

Enjoy!