4-Month-Old Baby Girl

Here are the rest of the pictures from Karlee’s 4-month-old shoot. Her parents purchased our Growing Baby Package which includes a newborn shoot and a second shoot at 4-ish months old when the baby can hold her head up and sit with assistance. That way, the baby positioning doesn’t look awkward.

This shoot was done in two sittings because Karlee was a little fussy. We got a few of these (and all the previously posted Christmas pictures) in the first sitting and the rest in the second. What a perk! You don’t get that kind of service anywhere else ;) But we were more than happy to accommodate because 1-Karlee’s cute; and 2-That’s just how we roll.

If you count her Christmas portraits, this girl had a total of 4 outfit changes. She’s got style!

And now, a few of the faves.

A Merry Christmas Giveaway

Obviously, photography is very important to me and Rob. We love capturing our family’s love and smiles. We enoy doing this for other people as well.

We realize that getting family portraits taken can be a difficult matter of time and money. So for RJ Snow Photography’s Christmas Giveaway, we’re offering the following:

• FREE 1 hour photoshoot for a family, individual, a group of friends; anything goes. Whatever we can fit into that timeframe.
• FREE retouching of your favorite images.
• FREE (web-sized) copies of your favorite images.
• Prints at a special reduced rate.

Stipulations:

• We’d like to offer this to someone who really needs it so we’re limiting it to people who have not had professional portraits taken in the last 5 years.
• We reserve the right to do all printing. We want to ensure that you get wonderful prints and that is the best way for us to ensure high quality.
• The photoshoot will need to take place in January or February of 2010.

Just send us an email at rjsnow@rjsnowphotography.com and let us know you’d like to be entered in our giveaway. The deadline to enter is January 3rd.

Karlee’s 1st Christmas

We did a 4-month-old baby shoot and since it’s Christmas, we made sure to get some cute 1st Christmas shots. Isn’t she a doll?

The rest of her non-Christmas pictures will be posted next week.

A Bride

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of shooting in-studio bridals for Heidi. She is so beautiful!

Heidi lives in St. George but was up for the weekend. She had a jam-packed schedule but we were able to do a quick session for her. And it was easy, because as I said before, she is beautiful.

I adore her red shoes. I think every girl needs a pair in her wardrobe!

I believe the details of a wedding are SO important. I get them as sharp as possible. As a bride, you spend so much effort getting every little thing perfect. It’s a pet peeve of mine when you can’t see the details of a dress or the ring in the pictures. Those little things are easy to forget, but are so beautiful and such an important part of the day.

Heidi’s mom ordered framed prints of the two images below. The square image was printed on canvas and both were assembled using a red mat or trim. Unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures of the finished products :( but they were stunning.

We wish Heidi and her new husband a hugely happy life together. Congratulations!

Tip-or-Tech Tuesday - Installing and Managing Presets in LR

Rob here with a quick tip about installing and managing Develop Presets in Lightroom.  First, you need to get a preset which are available from many sources including your friends.  For our example we’ll get one from Matt’s Lightroom Killer Tips. 

Matt includes a description of the preset and some instruction for installing it.  In this case we’ll be downloading a zip file that we’ll need to extract.  You can right click and choose to extract (or some of you may have your own way of unzipping a file).

Then let’s head into Lightroom and the develop module.  Right click anywhere in the preset panel and choose import, browse to the preset file you downloaded and click OK.  Done. 

If you have your presets in folders you can drag them from folder to folder inside Lightroom to organize them.  You can also manage your presets in windows explorer if you want to.  To access the correct folder choose the following path from the edit menu.  Edit –> Preferences –> Click on the Presets Tab –> Under Location choose Show Lightroom Presets Folder –> Explorer will open –> Open the Lightroom folder –> Open the Develop Presets folder.  From here you can manage to your hearts content.  :) 

I prefer to manage my presets in explorer so now I’ll just copy the new preset into my color folder (mostly quirky color presets are in here).  :) 

Hope you find this helpful.  Have a great day!

A Snowy Backyard

Just a couple of pictures from our snowy backyard. Courtesy of Julie.

Happy Winter!

   

 

Tip-or-Tech Tuesday – Photoshop Disasters

Just Photoshop it. We hear this phrase all the time. We’re often surprised that people are so aware of the possibilities.

Every single photographer retouches, edits, Photoshops, corrects, whatever. But I’m not talking about subtle enhancement in this post such as stray hairs in a formal bridal portrait, zits on a high school senior, etc. I’m talking about full-blown manipulation.

Here’s a video showing a process that a fashion photographer may go through to get a portrait ready for a fashion campaign. Obviously, models are beautiful even without Photoshopping them, but even they are not “perfect.”

 

Now on to the fun part…making fun of Photoshop disasters.

Notice the wrist action. Thanks to Gap.

 

Love the hip-to-arm ratio. Thanks, Ralph Lauren.

 

Cute guy, but he’s even cuter with a gigantic head. Thank you, GQ.

 

Sheesh. That’s quite the talent to be able to lift your head that far! Thanks goes to L’Oreal. 

It is surprising how often I walk by a magazine cover or movie poster with disastrous editing. So, so, so sad...and frightening.

But we do have a confession. We’ve actually had our own Photoshop blunder that wasn’t caught until many prints were made, including a few 11x14s given as gifts. Luckily it was a picture of our own family. Yes, our bro-in-law ended up with 3 ears. T’was unfortunate. He looked like a character from Star Trek. But then, he loves Star Trek, so I guess it wasn’t that big of a deal. Hahaha. We’re extra careful now.

Library of Philadelphia

 

Taken with the Nikon D40 in natural light at 1/10s, f/1.8, and ISO 800; edited in Lightroom 2.

This image was taken in natural light in the Free Library of Philadelphia.  This bibliography of nation’s documentary history is stored in a long hallway and strongly drew my attention.  Light was trickling through the opposite window.  Hope you enjoy this image.

Black Rock Band Photos

Here are (finally) the last pictures from the shoot out at Black Rock.

I just adore the sunlight in this picture.

Tip or Tech – Statement? Story?

Rob here for this week’s tip or technique post on making a statement or telling a story.  Why do we take photos and make images?  We often climb up our soap box and monologue about personal expression and capturing moments.  Too often I find myself just taking a picture hoping I find something cool in the image after the fact.   Alas, this does not always work out for me and I end up rejecting a lot of images that are just plain flat or boring. 

This is equally important for more artsy work and portraits.  In the self-portrait below my natural skepticism is quite obvious.

In this one my dislike for lazy smokers is played out in the juxtaposition.  The next continues the theme of careless disregard for nature and cleanliness. 

Whether making a statement, telling a story, capturing a moment, or expressing personality I want to make my images count!  Let’s not succumb to discouragement or fall into a slump (although this certainly does happen) and just keep pushing forward.  Photography is fun after all!  :)