My first maternity shoot!

So as I said in my last post, today was my first maternity shoot! I have been so excited about it that it was not until this morning when I realized, "Holy crap! This has got to be one of the hardest shoots to start with." As I was doing research this week, I noticed there was not a whole lot out there for maternity shoots. I found a few unique poses, but nothing like you find for portraits. So, with my limited equipment and a few borrowed things from my Nana, I traveled 2 hours to do the shoot in their home. I got to use my 5-in-1 reflector and I was amazed at what a difference it made!

Anyway, it's getting late but I wanted to post a few pics tonight.

OSU Spring Game

Today was OSU's spring game. It was a BEAUTIFUL day for it... sunny, 82-85 and lots of wind to help keep it bearable!! I brought along my powershot because the shoe tends to be picky with professional cameras and I was not sure how lenient they would be at a spring game. But the S3is has an amazing zoom and I knew with the sunny clear sky it should do pretty well and it did. It was a little tough though, because all of the wind made the super closeups a little more difficult to hold.

Here are a few pictures that I got today:

My website

Tonight I have been working on my shutterfly website a little. I decided to make pages that relate to each type of photography that I do (Children, Couples, Portraits, etc). It's a relatively temporary website until I purchase a domain name and a website that customers can actually order from. But shutterfly is working for now to at least show some of my work. =)

I have a maternity photo shoot on Sunday! I am very excited about this! I am a little nervous, but I am so excited about the opportunity and I am really looking forward to getting together with this friend from college whom I have not seen in a couple years now! If she lets me, I will try to post at least one picture from the shoot. =)

And I am still hoping to share my exciting news soon!! I am suppose to have a meeting this week to discuss some things relating to the news and hopefully I will hear what I need so that I can share with you. =)

Why I shoot in RAW

A few months ago I started shooting in RAW and the largest quality after reading how much easier it is to correct white balance. Yes, I am also aware that having a white balance card will help you achieve the right color the first time... but I do not have one yet so I am finding RAW to be incredibly helpful! Here are a couple of examples of pictures I took yesterday. I had the exposure too dark from forgetting to change the settings and there is a very warm glow. As sunny as it was, I prefer the white blooms with the brillant blue background. Because I shot in RAW, I used the eyedropper to find a white area that corrected the color. I adjusted the exposure and moved the contrast ever so slighty. (Btw, these pictures have been resized for this blog so this is not the original quality).

New Header!

Today was the first sunny, warm day in a long long time! I decided to take some pictures of white blossoms on a nearby tree. After playing around with one of the images in APE7, I added a watercolor filter and really liked the result. I have been wanting to add a white image to my header picture but did not really have anything. When I finished this image I thought I'd try it out! Originally I kind of wanted something to go along the bottom, but instead, I stuck the picture in the corner. I smudged the colors and then cloned (with some transparency) the background green over the image to make it blend into the background. I am pretty pleased with it so far. Any comments or suggestions are definitely welcome!

First Photography Lesson

So... I had my first photography lesson tonight! I have been reading a lot about photography but this lesson really clarified and explained many of the questions that I was not getting from the books that I was reading (...it probably did not help I did not have "intro to photography" books... I dove right into the little more advanced ones). Anyhow, I have some "assignments" to do until the next one and I will post those as I do them!

Additionally, I have some exciting news to share but I do not want to post until it is official, so there's a teaser. ;) But this news is really what this blog is all about... hopefully you will find out soon!

A Happy Easter!

What could be more exciting then visiting family and old friends? Taking pictures of the kids hunting Easter eggs!! Here a few pictures I captured yesterday...

Shooting around Columbus

Yesterday a very good friend of mine drove me around Columbus to show me some interesting photo opportunities. As we were driving from one location to the next, we drove past this very old log cabin with vultures resting on the roof. I did some treatments to it in photoshop to enhance the eeriness of the picture.