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Welcome To My Blog! Welcome! My name is Angela and I love all things photography. I like to tell stories with my photos-I kind of feel like a writer, with a camera as a pen. I try to keep it real so the memories I capture will always be fresh. This here is my bloggity, where I share photos from sessions and weddings, and also sometimes ramble about photo geekery and creative shizz. ;) I hope you will visit often and that something I write or share will help inspire you or just make you smile. I wish you all la dolce vita!

I {Heart} Faces-FIF|Redmond, WA Photographer

Posted on January 15, 2011

I decided to try my hand at “Fix It Friday” for I Heart Faces, so here are my “fixes.” This is a lovely photo to begin with, so it’s easy to make it shine. What a fabulous face, I {heart} her freckles SO much! I hope she loves them too and always remembers how beautiful she is as she grows up!

Originial-SOOC shot from IHF 

Edit #1: I used LR3 to edit. I have a B&W preset I made for myself a while ago that I applied first. Then, brushed the eyes with (again) an “eye enhance” brush I made up, I then decided to use it on her entire face, since I wanted to make sure you could still see those fabulous freckles-it does a little bit of clarity, and a tiny bit of lightening too. Sharpened for web, cropped square and that’s it!

Edit #2: Again, I used my own preset I call, “soft & warm fade,” then brushed her eyes and a little underneath her eyes (since it brought out a touch of darkness there), her lips and added a very tiny vignette.

Voila!! Then again, when you have a stellar photo to work with from the beginning, it’s not too hard to make it look great.

Tags: Fix It Friday, I Heart Faces, post processing, pp, Tutorial

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Project 52-Favorite Things|Redmond, WA Photographer

Posted on January 14, 2011

 

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

Tags: flower shop, flowers, my favorite things, project 52, tulips, unique

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Smile! Happy Birthday I {Heart} Faces!!|Redmond, WA Portrait Photographer

Posted on January 11, 2011

 

If you are interested in photography and would like a great place to find tutorials, inspiration and lots of other like-minded peeps, you should definitely check out:

 

It’s a great community, full of wonderful people and fabulous photographs to peruse. Happy 2^nd Birthday to them!!

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Being Creative|Redmond, WA Portrait & Fine Art Photographer

Posted on January 11, 2011

What does being creative mean to you? Probably not the same thing it means to me, or anyone else for that matter. And, that’s exactly the point of being creative.  I used to think I wasn’t creative at all. Really, it wasn’t until I started taking pictures, a lot of picutres, that it struck me: I AM creative. I just had to figure out what I was good at and had the desire to learn.

There have been times I’ve struggled with the desire to be creative vs. my creative abilities. But, recently I’ve begun to realize that we all “create” differently. And, that’s the way it should be. We all have different things floating around in our mysterious brains. Ideas, projects, thoughts, worries, hopes and fears, which all contribute to the way we see the world and create within it.

I used to wish I could paint. Truthfully, I still kind of do. I admire the patience and skill it takes to create a beautiful and thought provoking painting and it’s probably one of the biggest reasons Matt and I have spent countless hours in museums across the world. I have several blank canvases in my office (contributing to the mess in there), along with a few different kinds of paints, brushes and even an easel. But, I just can’t focus enough to find my creativeness in that realm, at least not yet.

Anyhoo, the point of this post is just to say that we aren’t all Martha Stewart and we all have different skills, abilities and creative tendencies, but to not let them hold us back from a passion or a desire to be good at something. I whole-heartedly believe that there are those who are inherently good at some things, but I also believe that if you desire to be good at something and put the work in to improve yourself, that anyone can become proficient with pen and ink, brush and paint, camera and film, paper and glue or digital image and Photoshop.

Perhaps one day I’ll show my photographs alongside my paintings…or not. It all depends on my desire to pursue that goal, I guess. For now I am satisfied with my creative photographic side and plan to keep working on improving, rather than moving on to a new creative pursuit.

What will you create today…this week, month or year? I’d love to see what your creative and/or hard-working, practiced side produces!

 

Tags: being creative, painting, Photography

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Think Inside the Box

Posted on January 9, 2011

 

I get a lot of questions about how I improved my photography skills so quickly and a lot of the time I’ve answered, “Oh, I don’t know,” or “I’ve spent a LOT of time on everything related to photography in the past year.” Well, duh. Of course I have, but I’m betting those who have asked me that question were looking for something a little more concrete and helpful. Heh.

So, for all you peeps who want a little more insight into my crazy ways of photography and life, I’ll tell you the top things I think have given me a little edge.

• Doing a 365 project-one photo (or more) a day for a year. Seriously, committing to practice every.single.day. works pretty well in helping you learn what is and isn’t working with your photos.
• Bringing my camera EVERYWHERE
  with me, and I do mean EVERYWHERE. Having a great case or bag, or at least some padding in your carrier of choice for your camera is helpful, just so you don’t whack it into stuff and end up with a broken one you can’t use.
• Getting off the “auto/green box” setting and onto the manual setting and shooting in RAW format. Then learning how the combination of ISO, aperture and shutter speed all work together. As well as learning about all the functions my camera had to offer that I wasn’t taking advantage of previously. I read the “Dummies” book for my camera along with the manual that came with it, with my camera in-hand so I could actually see what the books were referring to at the same time. And, shooting in RAW really gives you an edge when playing with editing after the shooting has ended.
• Thinking inside the box. And, for me, this is a really big one and when I started seeing the world differently on many levels, even those not related to photography. I’ve always thought of myself as a perceptive, attention-to-details kind of girl, but I feel that “seeing the photos” all around me, in my everyday life, has really upped my game in this department. Now I see photos everywhere, in even the most mundane of situations-at the grocery store, “Hey don’t those stacks of egg cartons make an interesting pattern…” at the park-”Look at the way those shadows are falling on the fence..” and even on the grayest of Northwest days, “Cool! Wouldn’t the texture, and the darks and lights of those rain clouds look cool in black and white…” I can’t help myself these days and I get really upset if I ever do happen to be without my camera and I miss “the perfect shot.”

   

As I stated above, I did do a lot of other things that helped me grow with my skills in the past year, but the 4 above items are really at the core of my learning and are fairly accessible to anyone with a camera (since even a lot of inexpensive point and shoot cameras will let you take control of some of the settings these days). As always, if you have any questions, let me know! Happy shooting!

 

 

Tags: hints, information, think inside the box, tips, tricks, Tutorial

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Before & After-A Little Tutorial|Redmond, WA Photographer

Posted on January 8, 2011

It’s been a long time since my last post and an even longer time since my last “Wicked Awesome Tutorial” post. I’m sorry I’ve left you all hanging for so long-life got busy, sicknesses, birthdays and holidays happened, but now I’m back and will hopefully be able to stick to a better schedule with my blogging! On to the good stuff!

This is a photo of Sam from exactly a year ago. I’ve loved this photo of him since I took it, but felt like it was missing that “something” to make it a really great photo. Now that I’ve learned some of these “tricks” I thought I might start sharing them with those of you who are interested in a “behind the scenes” look at the magic that is post-processing.

The top is way I posted it on FB originally-with no editing at all-SOOC (for those non-photo geeks among us, straight out of the camera ). The bottom is literally a 30 second “fix” in Adobe Lightroom 3. Now, I’m sure everyone has their own tastes in photos, so I don’t think I need to tell you exactly what to do with your own photos, but I will give you the low down on what I did with this one after I explain a few little things.

So, those of you who think that “editing” photos makes them somehow less “real” to the truth of the subject or something, I say “Slow down cowboys and cowgirls!!” I was once a non-believer like you. Until I read more and began to realize that there has always been and will always be manipulation of photographs and digital images. In the past it was done with lots of smelly chemicals in a dark room and now, it’s done on computers in Photoshop and the aptly named Lightroom. Now, I do not advocate completely losing the integrity of a photo by changing the fundamental make-up (especially in news and journalistic photography) of the image. But, making a few adjustments to say, make your subject stand out, take a dirt spot off your kid’s face or enhance the colors you see on your screen-why not?  

Especially since, as you may or may not know, your camera is deciding (almost) all of those things for you right now. Surprised? I was too. I didn’t realize,  at first, that my camera was doing it’s best to pick what it thought was 18% gray and go from there to make the colors “correct” in my photographs. I also didn’t know it was choosing how bright and how deep the blacks would be without my consent. I felt a little betrayed-so I decided to get even and do it MY way from now on! Ok, not really, it just sounded so dramatic and cool. Heh.

Sooo, what this all boils down to is if you have your hot little hands on any kind of editing program, Photoshop, Lightroom, Gimp, Picasa or Piknic, you should be able to control those things pretty easily. These days, I use my own “Preset” I made in Lightroom on every single photo I take. Then tweak individual photos after running it. Basically, my “Preset” is mad e up of a series of adjustments I found myself doing on almost all of my photos upon upload. But, now I can just tell Lightroom to apply the preset and I don’t have to go tweak every individual photo every time I upload (because that takes a LOT of time!!)

Here’s a rundown of what I adjust on (almost) all of my photos in Lightroom before moving on to any other editing:

-First I check my highlights in the histogram and adjust (if needed-but I try to nail exposure so I don’t need to) by adjusting the exposure or using the recovery bar.

-I up the blacks in the photo by at least 2, but usually more like 4 or 6. I just feel like it gives a photo so much more depth.

-I up the clarity, vibrance and saturation, just a tad to bring out the colors the way I saw them when I shot, instead of the sometimes flat looking photo that is on my screen.

-Then I play with the “curve” a bit. I usually brighten up the lights and darken up the darks some and up the contrast, since again, all of these things tend to bring out more detail.

-Lastly, I sharpen the photo depending on what I’m using it for (computer, printing etc.) and sometimes add a tiny vignette if the photo “needs” it.

 

Now, these controls may have different names or ways to adjust them depending on what program you’re using, but if you play around a bit (and use the internet to search for help-I have found so many great tutorials that way!), you’ll probably figure out how to do these things relatively quickly. I realize this may be beyond what some of you want to or have time to do, but for those that want to add a little oomph to your favorite photos, try out some of the things I listed, or even just one and see for yourself the difference it can make.

As always, let me know if you have any questions I can answer for you!

 

Tags: Adobe, Before & After, editing, Gimp, kid, Lightroom, Photoshop, Picasa, Piknic, Tutorial, Wicked Awesome

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Sydney Turns 3!|Seattle Children’s Photographer

Posted on December 8, 2010

Saturday morning I got to photograph Sydney for her 3rd birthday! It was super special, since it was her actual birthday and the beautiful winter sun was out in it’s full glory. That is not to say it wasn’t bitter cold still though!! But, Sydney was a trooper and tried to keep the rest of us warm by making us run down the beach with her. I didn’t need a “real” workout that day, that’s for sure.

Despite the cold, it was a fun shoot and could not have been a prettier day with the bluest skies and water to make Sydney’s photos really pop! Sometimes I think the sky looks most blue when it is freezing and sunny. Just beautiful.

Happy happy 3rd birthday cute girl!

 

 

Tags: 3, beach, birthday, cold, Golden Gardens, Seattle, Sun, Toddler, Winter

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The Hoff Family|Seattle Family Photographer

Posted on December 1, 2010

This past Saturday I got to photograph my first out of town family-The Hoffs. They are a totally fun little family of 3. Their sweet girl is seriously one of THE happiest babies I have ever had the pleasure to meet. It was not at all hard to catch her smiling or laughing, even though it was freezing and windy at Gasworks Park that day.

I am so completely honored that they saw the photographs I took for their family-The Steeles-and wanted to spend a bit of their short Thanksgiving vacation with me to take their photos.

We met for brunch at Chandler’s beforehand and it was great getting to chat and have a wonderful meal before heading to the park for photos. I can’t imagine a better Saturday morning that involves working.

Thank you to both the Steeles and the Hoffs for letting me be your photographer! I’ve enjoyed every minute of hanging out and photographing you all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: Baby, brunch, cold, Families, family shoot, Gasworks Park, happy, Out of town, Seattle, Thanksgiving

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Small Business Saturday|Redmond Portrait Photographer

Posted on November 27, 2010

So, in a few short minutes the very first “Small Business Saturday” begins and since it’s my very first year in business as well, I figured a deal with free stuff was in order! Please see the info below and let me know if you have any questions!

 

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A Little Sunshine|Redmond Fine Art Photographer

Posted on November 25, 2010

 

 

Just a bit of sunshine to warm you up on this chilly Thanksgiving Eve…

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

 

 

 

Tags: Flare, Sun, sunshine, Thanksgiving

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