Engagement Shoot

So pursuing this whole photography thing has been a bit of a challenge.

Am I giving up?

Oh hell no.

Not in a million-bajillion years.

Yep I said it. Bajillion.

SO have I mentioned I have my first engagement shoot set up?

Yep :) Beyond elated.

But I'm nervous. They're this wonderful, amazing, adorable couple and I REFUSE to let them down.

I explained to the bride-to-be that I am just starting out and trying to get off my feet.

I am doing it for her for free and gave her the link to my wondrous blog to get an idea of the little bits of photography I've done so far. You have to start somewhere right?

We spoke about locations, the look she was going for, if there were any poses she liked or wished to incorporate, and when she'd like to do the shoot.

And now that we have everything set up, I'm getting excited and nervous.

I think oftentimes I doubt myself too much.

So I thought to myself, well hey why not get some practice.

Anddd last night I asked my best friend and her boyfriend to do a practice shoot with me, her excited reaction totally took me by surprise.

I finally feel at ease knowing I can get in some practice with them and knowing them will certainly help make everything a bit more seamless. So we are off to Newport for their shoot which I've been dying to go to.

For some reason it's been SO long since I've been even though it can't be more than a half hour 40 minutes away from where I live.

And even though my bride is looking for a completely different setting I've been dying to do a beach/dock shoot to get some shots similar to these:

(Found these gorgeous shots on Pinterest, done by Jenna Christine Photography)

I have A LOT of ideas and I'm beyond excited.

So be sure to keep a look out for those pictures coming somewhat soon thanks to my wonderful best friend Jen!!!

The Photoshop Difference

Alright. We need to have an honesty moment please.

The last 36 hours I have been TIRELESSLY searching the internet for tutorials and anything I could get my hands on in regard to how to understand Elements.

Because to me right now, it's the equivalent of reading chinese.

Forrealz.

SO. This smart mama came across the most wonderful website on the face of this earth. The CoffeeShop Blog is run by Rita, my savior.

She so easily explained how to set up actions (for the photoshop learning impaired and NON impaired), to my make life a hell of a lot easier. Her actions and presets are FREE and STUNNING.

So I did a bit of a test with a few old pictures and and a new one tell me if you like the photoshop difference.

This is the first original picture of Bug, pre edited (and a sneak peek of a bit more of the crochet giveaway I have coming up) :

This is edited with the program I was using:

Now WITH Photoshop:

There are things like definitely like about each picture but the depth of the picture from photoshop is what really draws me.

Now for an oldie.

Original:

My Old Editing Program:

Now Photoshop:

And in Black and White:

I LOVE using actions, they're so easy to use!

Does anyone have any favorite free actions websites or actions in general they love?!

Share away!

Beach Day Monday

Simple Saturday

Blegh.

What a terrible horrible awful day.

Oh my lanta.

I suppose a few pictures from this weekend might help

This Weekend Continued

Saturday Sunset

Shots From Yesterday

My best friend Lindsay, as I'm sure you've heard me mention her before...she's the one with the killer Bruschetta Pasta Salad Recipe, well she invited us yesterday to go play at her house for a bit. And Aunty Lindsay's house has the BEST in-ground pool. Except yesterday mother nature decided to laugh in our faces and provide us with one hell of a thunderstorm.

After a couple hours of waiting she must have felt our severe depression emanating from the house so she decided to throw us a break and give us a few hours of sun.

The pool was gorgeous and warm and just what we needed.

Aunty Lindsay's house ALSO has some seriously amazing french doors to the outside which shed some ridiculously awesome light...so naturally I had my camera one me to take a couple ton of pictures.

More to come :)

The Power of Editing

It's honestly amazing how much a little editing can change ANY picture.

So just as an example this is a picture I took long ago on a trip to Aruba (my most favoritest place in the whole universe, Disney World aside). Now this picture was not taken with my DSLR, it was taken with a little run of the mill digital camera about 7 years ago.

This was the picture I took:

I used to think this picture was unbelievable ....Now...7 years later take a little editing to it and Voila:

The colors are richer and far more vibrant.

Now this would be a standard edit for me. I like to make things look spectacular, but not so spectacular they look like they aren't believable or realistic.

Say for example this picture that boyfriend took on the way to work:

Now this picture as nice as it is needs some serious editing. First off, I couldn't stand the street lights and I wanted to boost that color, but this time I wanted to do so in an out-of-this-world fantastic way. Well THIS is the product I got from my cropping and editing:

Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am. Now is this picture realistic? Well maybe not...but look at those COLORS.

This is a picture I took last night of the sun setting because it was this gorgeous red color. Thank heavens for boyfriend because I'm not even sure I would have even noticed it. Here is the original:

This is after a little editing because I was 1. pissed off the picture didn't accurately display truly amazing the colors were and 2. because I edit almost every single picture even if it's just the tiniest bit.

Honestly I'm still not happy with the results but there is definitely a significant difference between the first and second picture.

Here is one of the recent pictures I took of bug Before:

And after:

I always love bringing extra attention to her eyes and smoothing out her skin just a bit and the editing program I use has a filter that has changed my life forever it just adds this dreamy, wonderfully tranquil, soft, perfect-for-babies look. Ugh.

SO that's just a little about what I do, share with me your favorite methods of editing :)