What a genuinely sweet and sincere family I had the pleasure of shooting today.

They have spent hours upon hours working together at this orchard over the years.

What an apropos spot to get some portraits taken.

We were thrilled to see there were still some leaves hanging onto the branches this late in the fall.

Thanks for listening to my lame jokes this afternoon.  I promise to collect some new ones soon.

Enjoy your sneak peek!

After keeping my eye on the fickle weather today as it rained on and off with gusts of wind here and there, I wasn’t so sure this shoot was going to happen.

Luckily, we ventured out and managed to avoid getting wet.

These two were awesome!  I only had to mention McSteamy and gorgeous Miss S would swoon just a little.  And the mention of Mr. J’s fine punting skills elicited some great smiles.

Thanks for trekking through dirt and cornfields and sand with me this afternoon.

Enjoy your sneak peek!!!

Before:

My workflow in CS4:

1.  Duplicated the image

2.  Color corrected using curves

3.  Levels adjustment to add contrast

4.  Using the patch tool to remove spot on cheek

5. Bumped up the exposure using a curves layer

6. Bumped up saturation and masked back the face

7.  hi-passed the eyes

8. Added Blue Lily’s sweet water action masking back here and there for variety

9.  Brightened eyes with an inverted curves layer just on the eyes

10.  Rotated 90% and flipped vertically

11.  Cropped to 5×7

12.  Noiseware at 40%

13.  Sharpened for web

A great picture to begin with if just a little under exposed.

My edit:

And my black and white conversion with a touch of pink:

Head on over to iheartfaces to see more editing magic.

Happy Friday!

In between editing shoots, my Photoshop class assignments, and the crazy week of Halloween, I have not updated this blog with anything other than Photography stuff.

I’m actually in the process of developing a separate blog specifically for photography which I hope to be up and running by Thanksgiving.  I miss posting about my regular life and all the blase things that are going on.

Halloween was a success.  We have a ton of candy hanging around, and even more wrappers.  The candy fairy may have to pay us a visit soon.

Here are some pics of a dead ventriloquist, Charles Bronson, a true Jedi, and Ron Weasley…

Hope you had a fantastic Halloween!

It isn’t often that I get to work with a family that will willingly climb a tree to get a shot.  And it wasn’t even my idea!

Kudos to these guys.  Despite the chilly weather and early hour, we were able to get some fun pictures of them for the holidays.

Thanks for a fun morning and for introducing me to a new location.

Enjoy your sneak peek!

I had my first senior shoot this afternoon and, holy cow, was it ever fun!

Josh was so easy going and laid back.  He was a natural at posing and was “super” easy to shoot.

I think I could get used to seniors. 

Josh, enjoy your sneak peek.  I’ll have your gallery up and ready soon.

I love fix-it fridays because editing is one of my favorite parts of of photography.

And since I started Phaunt U last week, I’ve learned a few things I didn’t know before about Photoshop.  Fix-it Fridays gives me yet another photo to try out what I’ve learned.

Original:

My workflow:

1.  Duplicate image

2.  Curves adjustment and color balance to correct skin tones.

3.  Ran Secret’s basic colr

4.  Patch tool to get rid of bruises, paint, and under eye circles

5.  Bumped up the saturation

6.  High pass over eyes and lips at 50%

7.  Added Kaleidoscope’s flare texture hard light layer at 50%

8.  Added a flare brush.

9.  Noiseware to smooth skin

10.  Sharpened for web

My edit:

If the weather holds out I’m taking the kids to attempt our Christmas card pics.  Considering it snowed yesterday, that may or may not happen.  I’ve also got a senior and a family to shoot this weekend.  And let’s not forget Halloween!  Think good weather thoughts!!!

Happy Halloween!!!!

from my session last Saturday.

Isn’t he adorable?

Just in time for Halloween!

This was last year’s costume but it makes it’s appearance every so often throughout the year.

You can never get enough Darth, right?

Check out all the other festive photos over at iheartfaces.

Happy Monday!