Lisha and Jesse get Married! Part One - Details

Alisha and I have been friends since middle school. She was the goofy girl that made everyone laugh and everyone loved. And I do believe not much has changed in fifteen years! Lisha contacted me last November to take a few engagement photos where I had the pleasure to meet Jesse. Jesse was such an easy going guy and the two make the perfect pair. They tied the knot two weeks ago and I must say they were quite brave for hiring me, an amateur photographer. The day was bright, sunny and beautiful - also challenging to shoot it for the inexperienced. I did my best and am happy with the shots I captured. Congrats you two!

 

 

To Be Continued...

A Touch of Sun - photo challenge

Another photo challenge underway! I love playing along with weekly, monthly photo challenges! This one is from I Heart Faces and the theme is 'A Touch of Sun'...I see a trend going on and I LIKE it! For this photo challenge I am entering one from a session I had with my son. It was the first time I was able to explore my new lens, the 50 1.4 with a setting sun. I love the results.

Here are some more from our sunset session

Baby B - Seven Days Sweet

Although I am not a professional photographer, I often am asked by friends to photograph different parts of their lives. A few months ago my friend, whom I went to college with, asked if I could take some maternity photos for her. I was thrilled she asked me as I love nothing more than to take photos of beautiful growing bellies. Here is a photo from our session.

A few weeks later Baby B was born, perfect as can be! The little guy was awake for most of our session, and content too. Here are a few photos of the seven day old little man.

 

My Prince

I recently received an email from someone interested in some photos I took of my son wearing a fabric crown. She wanted me to post them on my blog so she could pin them onto her 'photo inspiration' board in pinterest. So, here I am posting them on my blog :)

Crown: Madtown Topper
Actions: Backlit Skin from My Four Hens Photography and Freebie actions from Oh So Posh Photography

3k giveaway WINNERS!

Thank you everyone who participated in our giveaway! We appreciate the time you spent following all the steps! And now on to annoucing the winners:

Madtown Topper:

Mermaid Set - #63 Luciana Viramontes

$30 Gift Card - #274 Amy Anderson

Karmen Lindner Photography

#267 Stephanie Stringer

AND

#46 Katie Schlender

Sew Whimsey

#177 Ashley Lissette

Backdrops and Floordrops by Imjen

#289 Angela Kristoff

Yummy Designs Studios

#237 Megan Steeger

Photographers Gathering Place

#55 Ayla Rios

The Album Cafe

#142 Dani Libby

Oh So Posh Photography Action Set

#231 Anne Nack

Rain Drops Props

#58 Courtney Rowley

Swanky Stitch Fan Page

#320 Stacy Lawlor

Shabby Lane Boutique

#336 Katlyn W.

Garden Chic

#264 Rebecca Witcher

Oopsy Daisies

#113 Kelly Cox

The Shoppe

#275 Courtney Kaloyanides

Business Basics

#92 Emily Maliszewski

Birdie Baby Boutique

#38 Theresa Greenwell

Patricia Rae Designs

#71 Jill Greve

Eleventh Avenue Tutu's

#93 Connie Dillon

Paola Jofre Photography Mentorship plus Actions

#147 Vanessa Greer

Shortcakes1031

#299 Nicole Sponeybarger

Nomies4monsters

#115 Michelle Renee

3 Little Birdies Boutique

#21 Michele Albers

Poplin

#331 Breanna Holland

Blue Daisy Digital

#137 Bonnye Sensenig

Olive and Eve

#270 Sarah Hadfield Sutfin

Forever Young

#13 Heather Lingerfelt

ILashDesigns

#306 Carmen Goodwin

Patty Cakes Boutique

Nonlocal #281 Arya Wiese

Local #15 Krista Walser

Oh So Cute Props

#202 Em Hubi

Three Bats Boutique

#324 Kristin Natzke

Laras Homesewn Goods

#177 Ashley Lissette

Splash of Color

#329 Sarah Leatherman

Smash and Chuck

#5 Amy Wentura

Winners you have 24 hours to contact me at madtowntopper@gmail.com

I will provide you with each vendors email address and it will be your responsibility to contact them with in 48 hours.

Thanks and congrats!

Backlight Baby

This months photo contest on Rock the Shot is backlighting!!! Notice the three exclamation points, who's exciting? Oh yes, I am! Why? Well because I recently took some belly photos for a friend and it just so happens that most of my shots were backlight. I love the challenge backlight photos present. They really test your skill levels while shooting and in post processing. The photo I'm choosing to share is a favorite of mine from the session that day. I used an Oh So Posh freebie action, as well as some hand editing. Enjoy!

Here are some more of my favorite backlit images



From that to THIS

I can't help but go through my "old" images and gasp and my edits. I have learned in these few short months that most of the time less is more. I tend to run into a lot of images where the eyes are over sharpened and the skin is too smooth. I like photos where babies resemble little like dolls and more like real sweet babies.



Anyway, I came across, this photo. A favorite of mine. From the hat that took me months to figure out how to make to the catch lights in Lias' slate colored eyes. Being a hobbyist photographer, I don't have the props, equipment and such like professionals. I do not have the need or the space in my tiny house. So, sometimes I have a vision in my head and I just have to improvise. My intentions were to use the cream colored blanket for a backdrop, draped over my couch, and just smooth/clone all the wrinkles during my post processing. Well, things didn't go as planned, as they rarely do and I was left to clean up the background in photoshop.

The first thing I did was select the color of the blanket and use a soft brush to paint the entire background. TIP: Zoom in closely!

Now that the background is uniform in color, I went on to soften the edges of my subject. I ran Whisper Softly from Paint the Moon Photography, twice, masking out everything except the areas touching the white background. The photo needed a boost in contrast, so I ran "Soriee Pop" and then "Get Rid of the Wonky colors" for a more even skin tones and to banish some of the grey in his skin. After getting the skin how I like it, I ran a few artistic actions at very low opacities (Flirt and Twitterpated).

To finish off, I ran a tiny bit of "Light Touch Skin Smoother" and a little "Spot on Sharpening" to make his eyes pop a bit. And lastly I used "Warm Me Up" and "Limelight".

All actions used were from Paint the Moon Photography