Newborn Session with Olivia Imam

This gorgeous little girl is Olivia Imam. She is my son Emmett's best friend's little sister :) Olivia was so cooperative and is such a sweetheart. Her tiny little features are perfect! Here are a few of my favorite photos that we did in her home:

Custom Announcements

Here is my custom family photo card. I was hoping to make a Christmas card, but that got put off. I was hoping to make an Easter card, but that got put off. There was no special holiday, so it was to simply say "We love you" to all our family and friends. Rakell Lowe took the cute photos for us (visit her at http://photographsbyrakell.blogspot.com/). And my mom helped me make the suspenders and bow ties for my little men! I have to say that I loved sending it out at a time other than Christmas because it was unexpected! It didn't blend in with the millions of cards fluttering through the December mail.

 

This wedding invitation was printed in blue, but it is so easy to change colors that I thought I'd share the red one also. This is my gorgeous sister-in-law Ariel with her fiance Ty. Their photos were taken in Rupert, Idaho, by Cindy Lynn Photography. Visit her site at http://www.cindylynnphotography.com/. We are SO looking forward to our trip out to good, ol' Idaho to see Ariel git hitched!

I LOVE designing. It always brings a smile to my face to start with a blank screen and end with something I love. Please contact me with any questions, ideas, requests.

My Baby is One!

Happy Birthday, Damon! One year zoomed by, and I love him more than I can express. He has completely changed my life. Here are some of my favorites of his one-year photos we did:

The Fields Family

I have been talking with Chase about starting my photography/graphic design business for a little while now...but with three little boys, how could I find the time? The opportunity presented itself when the Fields were in desperate need of a photographer from a last minute cancellation. How could a sister say, no? I am so glad I ran to their aid. I LOVED doing the photo shoot, and I'm hooked. I also designed Chase's sister's wedding invitation last week from scratch - so stay tuned for more! Please contact me if you are interested. I also have a bachelor's degree in communications, which centers around writing and editing. I'd love to help in that department if you have a need.

Night and Lights

 1. Car lights: 11/10/2010; 10:52 PM; Rexburg; f/4; 10 sec; Sony A330; Tripod, Timer

 2.G: 11/10/2010; 10:08 PM; Rexburg; f/5; 5 sec; Sony A330; Tripod, Timer

3. Painting with my camera: 11/10/2010; 6:48 PM; Rexburg; f/14; 3.2 sec; Sony A330

My first time painting with light and capturing moving light was for this post. I really enjoyed it. My favorite was #3. We put our Christmas tree up that night, and I decided to see how the different colored lights would look. I started out taking the picture really close and stepped backwards quickly a few times before the 3.2 sec ran out. The effect was awesome. For #2 it took me a while to write anything that was legible. I used my husband's pen light. I tried different words and symbols and the G looked the best. For #1 I captured tail lights while breaks were on turning the corner. For all 3 pictures I did simple edits in camera raw.

Cutouts

 1.Deer: 9/29/2010; 7:08 PM; Bannack; f/5.6; 1/100; Sony A330

 2. This image was taken just outside of Bannack. We were headed home and 3 deer were near the road. I was sad because one jumped a fence and I barely missed capturing its jump. Anyway, to do my partial cutout I first selected the sky area and a little below it with my rectangular marquee tool. I hit shift ctrl N to put it on a new layer and then ctrl delete to fill it with white. Then I deselected the square and hid the layer. I went back to the image and quick selected the ground area and refined the edge. I feathered it and expanded it a bit. Then I hit ctrl J to put it on a new layer. I put that layer on top, I revealed the box, and I was done.

 3. Before I understood how to correctly do the partial cutout I simply quick selected the ground, chose inverse in the select drop down, and hit delete. Oh, and first I picked a pink color for the deleted section to be. I actually like this cut out better because it looks like the sky was a pretty pink. But, it was done differently.

 4.Sunflower: 9/17/2010; 7:26 PM; Rexburg; f/5.6; 1/80; Sony A330; Flash

5. Full cutout: I really liked the yellow of the sunflower contrasting with the black. I first toggled my colors so black would be the background when I hit delete. Then I quick selected the sunflower, refined the edge to add more feather, selected the inverse and hit delete. Done. The quick select tool worked great.

Large format print

 1. 18 by 24 final print: I really wanted a picture with my boys in it for my large print. I tried all semester to get something just right...but it is very hard to get a 2 year old to hold still and a 4 month old to smile in every picture. I ended up cheating a bit by taking elements from three different pictures and making them look like one. I'm pretty sure I used aperture priority for all three pictures. I first edited all of the images in raw. I adjusted the fill light, color balance, blacks, saturation, vibrance, and sharpened their eyes. I also tried to HDR the photos by the canal, but they ended up a little more pixely, so I smoothed the faces and clothes a bit with the paintbrush in photoshop. The background shot (of nature park) is flipped because I wanted to cover up a sun spot by placing the boys on top of it. Then I took Emmett's head from the picture he was smiling in, quick selected it, pulled it on top of his other head in the picture he wasn't smiling, and sized it correctly while holding shift. Next I color matched the three boys (now with Emmett's new head) to the photo of nature park. Then I quick selected the boys and the cement they were sitting on and pulled them on top of the photo of nature park. After I refined my edges with the paint brush (by painting with the black/white to get rid of extra edges that should have been left out), I was finally done. Then I made sure the size and resolution was correct (18 by 24 and 150 pixels). YAY! Below are the pictures I used to create the final image.

 2.Emmett Smiling: 11/3/2010; 9:16 AM; Rexburg; f/14; 1/60 sec; Sony A330

 3. Chase/Bridger smiling: 11/3/2010; 9:18 AM; Rexburg; f/14; 1/80; Sony A330

 4. Nature Park: 11/4/2010; 5:25 PM; Rexburg; f/18; 1/60; Sony A330

5. Flowers 12 by 36: 11/3/2010; 4:59 PM; Rexburg; f/13; 1/125; Sony A330
For both my pictures, when I printed the drafts they were much darker and bluer than on my screen. I realized that by switching them to print CMYK the change happened. I compared it on the screen to RGB and it looked a lot worse as CMYK. For the final large print I printed RGB and I was much happier. For this shot I actually got some flowers at Broulims. I love gerbera daisies and wanted some pretty ones (and of coures I couldn't find any outside in Rexburg right now). I took the photos outside with natural light on aperture priority mode, and I adjusted the settings a bit in camera raw (saturation, vibrance, clarity, fill light, blacks). But overall they were a pretty bright orange to begin with. Then I cropped them to the size I wanted and fixed the resolution. I think the resolution ended up being 107. The end.