five fact friday {round rock high school photographer}

#1

We are going on a night time zip line tour tonight!  Yay We went with this company one other time before, actually, on their opening day last year – July 23rd, for our anniversary, it was so much fun!  But, I am looking forward to it being a little different with the darkness, and honestly, not as hot! haha  I’m excited, and I’ve got my glow bracelets ready to go!  If you are in the area, and have not checked out this zipline company – I highly recommend them! http://www.ziplaketravis.com/  The crew was awesome, and obviously they are the best, because we are so excited to already be going again!  Zip on ….

#2

I put a note on fb letting other photographers know that I will be adding a question and answer to every FFF, and said feel free to ask me anything!  And you listened, so you all rock!  I am going to choose one or two every week, so don’t be afraid to ask whenever – just email me with the subject “FFF – Q&A” please, and thanks!!  I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!  This week I chose one from Tabitha, she asked how I created a certain photo, so I’ll spill, here it goes – this is the photo she asked about,

So, first off, you should know, this is a composite! haha  I am pretty good, but like I could ever get a 4yr old, 2yr old, and 4 month old to lay perfectly still and perfectly lined up for this, haha. I have actually done this shot 3 times, the first one about 3 years ago, and then another client saw and asked for it, then another after that, so this was my third time doing it, and I knew I had tried the hard way too many times! lol  So, here is how I do it now, hope it helps you!  I set up right in front of a window, with my back against it, so the light was falling right in front of me, and I placed a little toddler chair on the ground in the best light, sideways from me, and hung my black blanket over it, with the extra fabric folded over to the top side.  Then I took one kid at a time, and placed them on their back on the ground in front of me, so their feet were propped up onto the seat of the chair, knees bent, feet facing right toward me, like in the photo.  Then I had mom help keep them still and covered everything I could with my black blanket, and snapped some shots.  Onto the next kid, same thing, and with the baby I had to have mom hold her on her back level with the chair, feet straight out.  With each kid switch I had to make sure my camera was in the same spot too, if you have a tripod I would recommend it!  And you have to make sure your feet are lining up to the same location each time too, so you keep the proportions correct. That is a big thing, don’t forget that part, haha.  I took several shots with each kiddo, then in photoshop I picked the best ones to create my composite.  On two of the kids their best two feet were some different shots too, so this one above is actually 5 photos combined.  I edited each one separately, just enough for the crop, the wb, and to make the bg black black black.  I used the burn tool to help with sections where light had gotten on the blanket as well.  Then in photoshop I created a straight line guide, and lined up the feet using that, then made my few small edits to that flattened finished photo, a little curves, and sharpen That definitely seems like a lot, but mommas love this shot!  They ask for it, and they print it big So I hope that way helps some of you!  I’d love to hear from you if you try it out And feel free to shoot me an email with any questions for next week!

#3

I FINALLY got in the other chair for my office!  That only took 4.5 months - ridiculous, Pier 1.  Oh well, what ya gonna do?!  I am thrilled with it, and my office is almost ready to show off – yep, show off, cause I am totally pleased with it Instagram sneak peek?  Sure!

 

#4

I won $100 Simply Cash last week, thank you very much.  I pretty much exclusively use ProDPI now (LOVE) but I’ll take it! haha  I wanted to try something new, so I ordered one of their metal slim-line prints.  I think since I stopped using them (Simply Color Lab), their turn around has definitely improved, so that was a big plus! I thought it was a good deal too, for under $50 I got an 11×14 metal print with a stand, delivered. Not bad And, I actually love it!  The color is great, maybe if I was being super picky, a tad cold, but honestly I don’t know if that is because it’s printed on a sheet of metal, or because my monitor is calibrated to ProDPI.  I think it’s a great addition to my office, and I am very pleased with it!  It shows I can print pretty much anything, offer tons of options, and I have to give kuddos to our pro print labs – even though the big box stores come out with everything, at least we pretty much always get a head start Way to stay ahead of the game!  Anyway, here’s an instagram snap of it, and more on that issue in fact 5, ugh

Sorry that’s the best I can do right now for showing that thing off

#5

All my gear is gone – yep, all of it – so sooo sad It will be back, so I should be happy about that at least, right?!  It’s so weird, in 7 years I have never been without pro gear!  I went to just snap some pics the other day, and I totally couldn’t.  Why?  Cause my gear is on it’s own little selfish journey to the Canon repair center, all the way in CA, boooo!  I needed the camera cleaned, but more importantly with some lens line up changes I was having major focus issues, so it’s all off to be calibrated and fixed, and I miss it so much already – things just aren’t the same around here, haha.  I will have a full report when it all gets back, but wish me luck … please

HAPPY FRIDAY!