Tried to do a facebook contest this morning. Found out from one of my vendors that it was illegal to do a share and win picture on facebook now. *SIGH* BUT I can do a contest from my blog and post it to facebook! SOOOOO. Check this picture out. Caption it. Our favorite captions will go in a drawing to win a FREE SESSION and a FREE 11x14 print. So sorry for the confusion. IF you shared the picture from this morning I have your name and you will go in the drawing. Caption this picture for extra entries! Also like my page and share for extra entries!

Kalie & Adam: No Bouquet, No Bridesmaids, No Worries...

        When Kalie asked me to photograph her wedding I was both honored and of course, if you know me, a little  anxious. Kalie doesn't do anything half way. She gravitates to the extraordinary and expects the same in others. She is fabulous and she does fabulous. And I knew her wedding day would be no less. So when she told me no bridesmaids or groomsmen, I thought okay. Simple. Um, no. Instead? Kids. Tons and tons of kids. 

         This is not all of them. We had a couple of emotional moments we had to shoot through. So, okay, got the kids handled. Yay! Now to keep the rain away. Well, okay, I couldn't do anything about that, totally up to God, so I'd let Him handle that.
        So since there were no bridesmaids except the beautiful honorary maid of honor, we had plenty of time for individual pictures of the bride and groom. The most important pictures, of them together, coming after the ceremony.

 It was amazing how relaxed both of them were the entire day. No bridezillas here. When its right, its simple. He loves her she loves him. Just that easy. No stress. No drama.

I was so happy to be a part of this perfect day. A more beautiful wedding couldn't have been prescribed for this couple who are both warm-hearted, kind and so fun to be with. They compliment one another so well and one day, a few years down the road, their children will observe a mommy and daddy who are the best of friends. Congratulations Adam and Kalie on the beginning of your beautiful lives together.

It's Been One Week

After this sentence I'm just going to completely ignore the fact that I haven't posted since May, and I'm going to need you to do that also. Thank you very much.
So, this week has been a little adventure. Finally nailed down my outside scene for Christmas mini sessions, got the first edition of Click magazine which I LOVE, got a price quote on a studio, was forced to order my first set of studio lighting (that little adventure will be documented in gruesome detail), met with the OWNER of A MAGAZINE who wants me, ME, me? to be a photographer for her publication, and quite possibly put a woman in pre-term labor. And the week is not quite over. Watch out.
    Lets begin with the good news. The mini sessions. I haven't gotten my inside scene figured out in my head yet. And we may not have one unless it rains. But the outside scene. (Read the following in the voice of Sophia from The Golden Girls) Picture it, Broxton, 2012. A clearing in a wooded area. An antique iron bed with dreamy white bedding. Giant snowflakes hanging overhead. Bedside table with milk and cookies. Cute little people dressed in their cute little pajamas for a Night Before Christmas theme. I am ready to do this NOW. So, if you're signed up for the mini sessions now you know you need pjs. I will be sending that email out soon.
    On to the next event. Last year I was honored to be asked to photograph Douglas First Baptist's Pirates, Princesses and Pancakes event. The told me I'd be doing the event with another photographer from a neighboring county. Uh-oh. Introvert alert. Would she be nice? Would she think I was a total nincompoop (I'm pretty sure that is spelled TOTALLY wrong), would she work well with others, namely red headed others named Amber? Pshh. What was I worried about? Turned out, I made a great friend out of that partnership and we were going to get to partner up again for the event this year, which begins tonight. I got an awful call from her on Wednesday to let me know her mom is having some serious health issues and she wouldn't be able to photograph the event with me. I'm not going to make her pain and anxiety over her mom about me, so I will talk about the horrible lights in another post. Just know I am a natural light photographer for a reason and me and these lights do NOT get along. Until they are set up then they make my pictures beautiful, but totally not worth the trouble.
     Looks like I'm going to have to keep them around though. Figuring out my next step on this journey of mine is causing some anxiety. To rent or not to rent? I priced a huge "storage" building that I could put in my backyard for a studio, but ugh I just don't know what to do?!? Pray, pray, pray. We'll see.
    And yes. A magazine owner called me. Little ol' me. (Well, not so much, physically, but you know what I mean.) Loves my pictures and wanted to meet with me about photographing for her magazine. What the WHAT?!? How am I supposed to process that one?! More details on this as it develops. (EEK!)
    I had a maternity shoot on Tuesday with a beautiful expecting mommy who's been on bed rest. I had her trekking through the woods. Bed rest. Laying in the grass. BED REST. Yeah. She had the baby Thursday morning. Oops. No worries everyone is fine and I will be sharing some newborn pictures very soon. :) Here's the beautiful mommy who didn't mind her doctor. ;)

Now, time to clean this filthy (yes) house and get ready to meet with a bride to discuss next weekend's wedding! Peace out. ;)
Amber

Pre-wedding Jitters

I have a secret to share. I get uber nervous before every single wedding. Like, have to sit in the car and take many deep breaths to get calmed down before I walk in, kind of nervous. Hope the bride of the wedding I'm shooting today doesn't decide to do a little web surfing before the ceremony. :)
Seriously, though, how many weddings do I have to shoot before the nerves stop? I know I'm still in the learning stages of my career and I try something new at each wedding I shoot. Whether it be reflectors, or a new lens or different props, I try to build myself with each wedding I shoot. For instance, my last wedding was the first one I shot completely in RAW. I'm typically a jpeg shooter. We'll get into that debate later, please.
I'm not ashamed that I get a case of anxiety before every one of my "big days". Many times I'm as nervous or more than the bride. But they never know it. (Well, I guess they do now.) Anyway, I think the nerves make me better. I think being nervous gives me my edge. Usually after the first twenty five shots or so I've settled into it anyway and I'm in the zone.
I guess its not just weddings that make me nervous. Its any shoot that's different from the last, which is pretty much every shoot. Ha! But weddings do make me more nervous than any other venue, because of course there's no going back and re-doing it. But somehow it all works out and I end up with shots like these that make me smile!

Learning to crochet.

             I'm going to learn to crochet while I'm on vacation. There are some of you reading this who know me, going "yeah, right." But I am! I'm going to learn and I'm going to crochet cute little baby blankets and hoodies and head bands and all kinds of stuff. Then I'm going to learn to sew and quilt. (Not all on vacation, silly, this stuff takes time!) When I was little my Nanny tried to teach me how to crochet. I could do the chain thing. But then I'd get bored with it, or she'd get busy and forget to teach me what came next. So today I bought the basics, found a teaching blog and I'm going to learn to crochet. Because I made my husband a promise that I am fearful I am not going to be able to keep.
             *Deep breath* I promised I wouldn't work on ANY pictures while we're on vacation. Yeah, I know, right? I'm like a crackhead who know's her supplier is about to skip town. Except I'm the one skipping town, and I'm taking the crack (read camera) with me. Holy crap, I'm not going to be able to keep this promise. You know what makes it worse. I'm shooting a wedding the day we leave. A wedding.  The day we leave. I'm leaving the wedding, picking up my kids and headed out on vacation. No sneak peaks? No chimping over images on the LCD? I can't adjust one curve or reduce one pixel of noise? For a week? So, now you know why I will succeed in learning to crochet. I'll have to or I'll lose my mind.
          I'm only kidding (well, mostly, okay not really). I know its going to be a great trip, filled with fun and adventure and food and laughs and lots more. And I'll have plenty to do to keep my mind off of presets and actions and crops and color temperature.
         That's the problem when you have a job that you are passionate about. It doesn't feel like a job. And really, if you want to know a secret; I can't believe people pay me to do something so fun and fulfilling. It almost seems unfair.
         So, I'll go have fun, snap some touristy photos and stay away from photoshop, lightroom, zoner, and picasa. (At least until the rest of the family is asleep, teehehehe......)

Kayla and Ryan

So my brother sent me a text and ordered me to stop bashing my skills on my blog. I didn't think I was bashing myself, but I'll try to comply. Today anyway. I will share what I've been working on between errands today. I photographed this sweet couple a few months back and got to do their engagement pictures on Saturday! It was one of those shoots where everything just goes right. We had a great time, dodged the rain and everything! I can hardly wait for their country themed wedding in September! Congratulations Kayla and Ryan!

I've Seen Better Days...

     Today was not a good day. It was filled with crazy WalMart ladies skipping in line, a teething 6 month old and a computer that decided it no longer wanted to work when I have three sessions to edit. Nope, today was not the best day. But I did get finished editing one session that has been nagging at me for a couple of weeks. I promised myself I would be honest on this blog about my struggles, my mistakes, my whole journey as a photographer. Many photographers are snobs. I don't want to be one. I want to be able to admit that I still have more to learn than I already know. I want to help others who have discovered their love for this addictive artform.
      So back to this session that I've been avoiding for 2 weeks now. It was a family session for my sister in law. In direct sunlight. In a field. On a bright, hot Sunday afternoon. And I had forgotten to reset my ISO and exposure compensation from a previous low light situation. I figured out that second one pretty quickly, but I didn't catch how noisy many of my pictures were until I got to work on them the next day. And on top of that, it seemed at least one or two of my subjects were squinting in EVERY SINGLE PICTURE. Where was  my head?!? I could use the excuse that we were rushed because the brother in law had to leave for church pretty quickly after I got there. But, I have no excuse. I've been doing this soley and seriously for a year now. Time to quit with the silly mistakes. So I've edited the pictures and I will post a few below. But, we are rescheduling the session at no cost to the family.
     See, I don't want to be a decent photographer, or a good photographer, who people use because the price is right. I want to be a great photographer. I want people to look at my photos and take a breath. I want to make people pause. The way I do when I see greatness. So, if by being honest and telling the world about my mistakes causes the loss of  a client or two, or makes those photogs who have "arrived" mock my learning process, then so be it. But, this is my journey and my passion and it can take me as long as it takes me. So, I'll continue to spend hours everyday reading articles on aperture and metering and noise reduction. And I'll continue to practice. And I'll continue to have fun. Because, isn' t that why we started taking pictures? Because of the beauty and the sheer joy of capturing a moment?

Yeah. Don't worry. Tomorrow's blog will be happier. I have engagement pictures that turned out fantastic! ;)