Fix it Friday: INNOCENCE

BEFORE: AFTER:

here is my fix-it-friday entry for this week. I am actually quite proud of it. I like it a lot. :)

Let's see, first i did some touch ups and fixed the bruises on the girls legs. Of course little kids alwyas bumping into things. Next I used the perfect portrait [those who know me know its my favorite] from CoffeeShop. This allowed me to soften teh skin adn brighten the eyes and clothes. After I did this I took out the background and added in a shaded layer of pink to black. I think Put a textured flower layer over it and lowered the opacity so you could see the shaded layer below it. Then added the INNOCENCE text to it and voila. the final product.

getting quite good at these.

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Photo of the Week: Grandma Stacey & Tyson

a picture I caught while doing a mini photoshoot with Tyson of him and his grandma Stacey. I didnt really have many pictures of them together so glad this one came out so nicely. I was shooting Tyson and Grandma was walking up behind me and as soon as he saw her his eyes lit up and he went for the hug. This picture is just beautiful. Time to make a scrapbook page with it now. :)

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First [kinda] real shoot [with people]

So a friend of a friend is starting this online clothing boutique called House of Plum Red. She had a photoshoot last weekend for her website so she can get started and get the site up and running. Well she needed assistance with the photography and I, very willing and anxious to learn more, of course volunteered. I warned her though that I am far from professional and I know not much more then shutter speed and aperture. She was still willing to have me help. So nice! Well days before the shoot the photographer cancelled and i was SUPER worried that I was going to be the only one but then as God has been helping her, she got a new photographer. ::whew:: because we know id dint want to responsible for messing anything up. So once again I was assisting. yay.

Well when I arrived I really wasn't too sure exactly what I would be doing. Thinking to myself "what did I get myself into, I really know nothing about photography just yet, i only take pictures of plants...". Well most importantly I knew nothing about lighting, esp indoors. my class had just begun that process and then it was over. poor me. i get inside and see the inside of the house setup to shoot with all the professional lighting set up and the nice camera and stuff and then i really felt out of place. well immediately i was welcomed and introduced to the real photographer, Andrew Lee, who was VERY nice and assured that I could learn some from him. He started asking me questions and i had NO IDEA what he saying at certain times yet just as eager to continue learning. I was to at the least take some "behind the scenes" pics of all the girls and stuff. This made me breathe a little easier as I knew my pictures weren't going to be near as good as the real photographers considering I then noticed how lighting is such a big deal esp when shooting fashion and indoors.

I started taking pictures of the girls getting their hair/makeup done and the clothes and preparation. I wanted so badly to be able to shoot the actual girls so while they were shooting for Andrew I stood afar and shot them myself. Hoping that with some good editing, my work could still be seen. I got a few good shots but quickly saw myself how lighting makes all the difference in the world. GOOD thing i wasn't the only photographer there. The only thing I noticed I needed more help with as far as being the "behind the scenes" photographer was that I need to be more assertive and confident. I was kinda shy being that I had never shot people before [besides my son] and I although I got some great shots I'm sure I could have gotten more if I would have spoken up a little more and talked to the models more about taking pictures for me. I could have even grabbed them aside to do a mini photoshoot with me. Andrew assured me that this part was indeed the hardest obstacle when shooting people for a first and you need to realize that they are people and you just have to tell them what you're here to do. Maybe next time I can do that.

I learned a lot from being at the photoshoot. Everything was so professional. There were people doing hair and makeup. A stylist to help put together outfits, runners to help on the side with little things, and wonderful models to work with. I was glad it was someone I sorta knew and I definitely felt more at ease. In t he end Andrew asked me for my contact info and said that he would contact me if I were ever interested in assisting him in the future which of course would be ideal for me. I'm determined to l earn more before then though. Maybe get some better equipment to help me out. I quickly realized how serious I need to take this work if I really want to do something with it on the side, if not full time. I need to put my heart and soul into it and dedication. I was only doing this on the SIDE SIDE SIDE, so far meaning that "when I had time" but i realized I have potential to really be good and make some decent money, I just have to learn all I can and invest in some better equipment. Seeing how professional Andrew was made me strive to be as good.

Hope you enjoy some of my work. I didn't share too many of the behind the scenes pics I took. These are the mostly shots I caught from afar. Thank god for zoom lens right.... and photoshop. The quality of mine weren't nearly as good ad Andrew's but photoshop gave them a little justice.

Hope you enjoy and keep a look out for HOUSE OF PLUM RED opening sometime mid November 2009. The clothing is awesome.

I'm suppose to be helping again this Sunday but depending on my daycare schedule it might not happen. Wish me luck. I'd love to shoot with these ladies again.

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Photo Challenge: Halloween Dress-up

So this week over at I♥faces the challenge is Halloween dress up. Ever since I got my son's costume I have been dressing him up in it all the time just because I think its so cute. One of my favorite parts is how his curly little hair sticks out.

I love that I get to share this picture with everyone. Hope you like my little "King of the Jungle" as much as I do!




Click on the button above to check out all the amazing entries for this week's challenge.

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Fix-It-Friday: Puddy

So today was Fix-It-Friday over at I ♥ Faces. I haven't remembered or had time to do any of these lately but today I had the chance. To tell you the truth I cant remember much of exactly what I did but I can try to explain.

BEFORE:




AFTER:


So the first thing I did was lighten the whole photo. This allowed me to get rid of the shadow [or lighten it] that was over his face. Of course we want to see his beautiful face. I then Just used the COLOR POP action from MulletGod on his sweatshirt and on the puddy to make them stand out some. Next I used Selective Color to make the puddy more green and glowing. Then I simply added a texture on the background. ALL DONE!

How easy was that. The main thing was to just get the shadow off of his face. Once that was done the picture was alreayd ten times better.


Go and visit: http://www.iheartfaces.com/ to look at the other entries for Fix-It-Friday

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Photo of the Week: Jessica & Nyana

I took this pic once again on my first day using my camera when we went to Santa Cruz for the day. Love that a lot of my pictures come from that day and I didnt even know how to use my camera. lol

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Landecker Isurance

So this is the flyer I made for my friend's company. This is two different samples, fronts and backs. I'm proud of it because i was learning how to use brushes and made the grass, sky, and clouds all by myself. [aren't you proud] haha. Havent talked to her much about it since i sent it to her so not sure if they ended up using it or not but if u see it around...know i made it :)

If you need a flyer, magazine ad, business card... let me know....i'll see what I can do. ;)

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Before & After: McKenzie

My friend Natasha saw this blog and wanted me to do some touch-ups for her of pictures of her daughter McKenzie. I love that she trusts my work. She onyl wanted some simple things like hte lighting, softened skin, bright eyes, etc. Easy basic stuff. For now, since I havent had much time to work on photoshop I granted her with her wishes and did the easy stuff. When I get more time hopefully I can play around with them and see If I can make something cool for her.
for now here are the before and afters

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Photos of the Week: Boardwalk Exit & The Moon

so this week I have two photos of the week because last week we didn't have one.

This first picture is from when I was in Santa Cruz. I was leaving the Boardwalk and was just taking random shots with my camera because I was convinced my camera was taking the perfect shots not me. Of course it was on automatic. I took this shot just to show to my friend right after that you can just point at anything and it will come out good. I didnt edit this picture too much. Just brought out the colors a tad.

This next picture is the picture i promised a few weeks ago when I showed the picture of the sunset. It is a picture I took of the moon with my super zoom lens. I had tried this feat before but the issue was I was always trying to take the picture at night at there wasnt too much detail to the moon. This time on the 4th of July the full moon was out well before it got dark outside so this time I had plenty of light. This is what I got SOOC no editing.




Personally this shot just amazes me. How often do you get to look at an image of the moon like this. THAT YOU SHOT YOURSELF with a regular old camera and not a telescope.

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Footprints in the Sand

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.

Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.

Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.

This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat,

I could see only one set of footprints,

so I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord,that if I followed you, you would walk with me always.

But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand.

Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”

The Lord replied,

“The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”

-Mary Stevenson, 1936

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Photo Shoot: Lake Shrine

So after my first photography class I wanted to go somewhere beautiful to practice working my camera on manual. I had no idea where to go and my friend Jessica recommended Lake Shrine. It was one of the most beautiful places I had been. You can a little more about my experience HERE on my other blog about my son.

The one thing I always like taking pictures of is flowers. As soon as I walked in a saw a bunch. I think I ended up taking some awesome flower pictures. Here are a few to share:

I just love the beauty and the colors. There were so many pretty flowers at Lake Shrine. Especially roses. There were also a bunch of bees so since I had my super zoom lens I thought it be cool to try to get a close up picture with the bee...

after standing there trying not to get Tyson or I stung, here is what I got:



I actually got a couple with bees but this one looks the best. I just absolutely love the color of this flower and how brightly my camera caught it. Proud to say noone of these pictures have any photo editing. They are SOOC (straight out of Camera). Yay. I did play around with this picture though and wanted to see how a texture would work with it. Here is the final product:



I took a texture from already uploaded on photoshop and created a mask to let only the flower be seen through. I think it looks pretty cool. Like the background is cardstock.

Here are some other pictures I captured that aren't flower/plant related:



okay maybe one is plant related... forgot I had this one.







now below are perfect examples of how Shutter Speed works. I took a picture of this waterfall twice (about 2 seconds apart). The first one is at a faster shutter speed which is why you can see the detail of the "moving" water a little more clearly. If the shutter speed was even faster it would be even more clear.



This next one i changed the shutter speed to slower time and the water looks blurred. But also is a pretty cool effect. Dreamy in a sense. This is when it is up to the photographers creativity to show what he wants expressed. In both pics the exposure is good because I changed the aperture to match.



here is a picture that is a tad underexposed. You can see how light it is



I saw this girl there with a high tech camera taking some pictures as well and she spent quite some time trying to take a picture of this spiderweb. SOOO i figured I'd try as well. This is what I got



I think it looks pretty darn good. Thanks random girl.

Well thats all I have time to share right now. Hope u liked. I do! :) If you have a chance and want a peaceful quiet environment I deffinately reccomend Lake Shrine. It's off of Sunset and Palisades in Malibu. Check it out.

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