I don’t make myself available for very many family sessions each year. Not because I don’t enjoy them, but because I need time to spend with my OWN family! When I DO take them though, I enjoy showing family relationships instead of just faces and real life backdrops instead of plain studio backgrounds. I try to explain this to everyone who inquires, but I think it’s probably easier to just SHOW it.
Wedding and Engagement
Best of 2012 – Details
Details, details, details. So tiny, yet such a BIG DEAL. Leah Hoskins, infant photographer extraordinaire, is my second shooter and as it turns out babies aren’t the only tiny thing she’s phenomenal at photographing! I’m guessing at least half of the detail shots shown here are hers. It would take too long to identify which ones so I hope you’ll simply enjoy our simpatico.
Best of 2012 – Locations
I think one of the reasons 2012 has been such an exciting year is because of all the very cool places I’ve had the opportunity to photograph. Some of them have been very far away and some not so far at all, but I’ve found myself consistently in awe of my surroundings. It’s challenging and humbling to attempt to bottle amazing scenery in a container the size of a photograph. I don’t think I did a single one of them justice. I guess I’ll just have to go back and try again *wink wink*
Best of 2012 – Skies
My very first photographic passion was capturing sunsets. Incorporating brilliant skies into my images is still the most spine tingling, high-fiving, satisfying feeling EVA!! I just can’t get enough of it. There are lots of other images that would qualify for this category but I narrowed it down to images that stand out primarily for that reason and don’t fall into other categories. You’ll see a lot more cool skies in the category Silhouettes and Reflections.
Best of 2012 – Laughter
We won’t leave you wallowing in yesterday’s tears. Here are some pictures to cheer you up! There’s nothing like a good belly laugh and you better check your pulse if you don’t at LEAST crack a smile while looking at these pictures!
“You don’t have…
“You don’t have to be better than everyone else; you just have to be better than yesterday.” Jerry Ghionis.
Best of 2012 – Tearjerkers
I thought that categorizing my favorite pictures would be a great way to recap 2012! For a moment I considered running a contest in each of these categories as well but once I started looking at the pictures I realized I love each of them too much to let one take more credit than the rest. They’re ALL my favorites! And there were so many more that I just couldn’t fit in! It was a REALLY. GREAT. YEAR. I consider myself ridiculously privileged that people feel comfortable enough in front of my camera to feel deeply. It’s not easy to let go and live in the moment. These images are my celebration of those who can. I adore them.
Why I shoot in RAW
We’re going to start things off with a before and after shot because I feel like this is the type of post I’ve seriously neglected in the past. And I think this is a parlor trick that will interest both photographers and innocent bystanders alike.
Last month I was in Hawaii for Jon and Katye’s wedding (I’ll be blogging a lot more about that later) and of course, everywhere we went, the scenery was incredible! When you’re photographing a destination wedding, that location tends to become the “theme” and it’s important to include that in as many of the pictures as possible. You want to bring home that feeling of awe and excitement with you to relive over and over. So for this picture, I found it absolutely necessary to include the ocean and the palm trees in the picture. It just wasn’t going to be an epic moment without it! But if you’re a photographer, you know the lighting nightmare I have here. They’re in half shade while the palm trees and ocean were in full blazing sun. The camera can’t get a good exposure on both…you’re going to lose one or the other. And since they were at the edge of a balcony three stories up, there was no way to get a flash out in front of them. And I CERTAINLY wasn’t going to use on-camera flash (don’t get me STARTED, don’t EVEN get me STARTED!! haha). Some might wonder if I could have bounced some flash off of the balcony above but it didn’t stick out far enough to light all the girls and I didn’t want to curtail the moment by directing them to easily lit locations. Also, the direction of the light would have still given it an unnatural look and I loved how the natural light was looking.
So what did I do? I went halvsies. I under exposed the girls a little and over exposed the sky, the palm trees, and the ocean. And it looks AWFUL, doesn’t it? This is an example of one of the FEW pictures I’m totally embarrassed to show people on the back of my camera. I mean, EVERY picture gets some special treatment in Lightroom and some sharpening in Photoshop, but usually the effect is still completely recognizable so I show many of them to my clients as I go. But this is one I would hide because I don’t have time to explain my vision for the end result and how much different it will look…and why!
Believe it or not, this is the same picture and all I did was use Lightroom to increase the exposure on one half of the image and decrease the exposure on the other half using the brush tool. If I had shot in jpg, there would be no pulling those clouds and blue sky back out of this picture. But in RAW, there’s so much more information still there. It’s really incredible. Shooting in RAW isn’t something you should use as a failsafe to catch you if you screw up the exposure…it’s a means of expanding the latitude of your pictures.
Now, does this mean that the next time you try taking that picture of your niece in the shade of a tree and the background is white that all you need to do is turn your camera to RAW and you can come home and make it better? NO. That will look horrific and fake….don’t do it. The background and the subject should be lit SIMILARLY, not entirely different. Please use this trick responsibly! 🙂
I hope this has been enlightening (pun intended). Enjoy discovering RAW!
A Fond Farewell…
It is with seriously mixed emotions that I formally close this chapter of my life. It has been such a whirlwind to this point that it feels kind of sudden. But with so much to look forward to and so many blessings to look back on, I can’t find any greater emotion than gratitude to express at this time. I feel so cliche saying the same types of things I hear so often from others in this business…things like, “I have the best, most beautiful clients in the world!” and “I couldn’t have done it without you!” But the truth is, I truly feel these things to my very core. As I think through each person I’ve met or each relationship that has grown through photography, I feel exceptionally blessed. I couldn’t feel more lucky if I had met a thousand Rock Stars! Each person I’ve photographed has inspired me so much! And trusted me so much. It’s not always easy to let go and see yourself through someone else’s eyes, and relax in the process. I feel as if each person who trusts me this much is giving me the greatest compliment I could ever recieve. So many of my clients are now friends…some of which I’m looking forward to spending more time with next year! I can’t recall EVER having a “bad” client…we’ve worked through some tough circumstances, but the people I’ve been blessed to meet have been INCREDIBLE. This year in particular my jaw has dropped and my heart has swelled because of my clients, students, and colleagues…some have sent me baby gifts, many have gone out of their way to accomodate my pregnancy and closing business, students have been VERY patient with me while I worked through excessive delays, and EVERYONE has made very sure that I know that my presence in the industry will be missed. I feel as if the love I have for all of you is returning to me tenfold. So thank you!!
I want to take a moment to thank a few people who I’ve never publicly acknowledged in one place before. As I think back to how my interest in photography started and developed, there are people along the way who have marked a distinct change in me. I almost used the analogy of rungs on a ladder, but I don’t want to give the impression that I stepped on them or left them behind as I went. 🙂 I feel more like they were each a helium balloon and as I met each one, my journey became lighter and easier.
My parents — for buying me my first camera and for keeping their promise to develop all the film I could buy, even when it went a bit farther than they expected!
Melita Quance — for being my willing subject so many times and for making me jealous by taking photography classes in high school! 🙂
Jennifer Feeney — for becoming my muse and inspiration in high school and for telling me for the first time that I remember, “You should do this professionally.”
Mom and Dad Sturm and Mrs. Ager — for taking my senior pictures and completely changing my perspective on photography.
Andy and Mickey Sommers — for loaning me my very first SLR and enthusiastically being some of the first people in my portfolio.
My church family at FBC– for being my first clients, my biggest fans, and my friends.
Erin Prichard — for being one of my first photography friends, for 2nd shooting, for equipment sharing, information sharing, and learning together.
Eileen Dimino — for being the first professional to tell me my work was really GOOD and giving me the confidence to forge ahead. And for introducing me to Josef Samuel.
Jasmine Star — for teaching about branding in a way that allowed me to move past the confusion and proceed with confidence.
Josef Samuel — for approaching me with the idea for The X/Stop Project, encouraging me to network more, and for providing a constant source of inspiration and friendly competition. 🙂
Jerry Ghionis — for truly transforming the way I see light and the world around me and for teaching me the true keys to success.
Pamela Speck — for being an oasis in a desert, a moment of clarity, and showing me that God is still working in my life.
Rebecca Lily — for being my friend the longest, and my fastest learning student EVER, and for being a focused and upbeat 2nd shooter this past year in spite of having so many more important things on her mind.
Jennifer Budzinski — for being an inspiration in business ownership and management, and for giving me a place to stretch my creativity and display it. For helping me LOOK like the artist I felt like.
Tim Cocanower — for being truly reliable in an age when reliability is hard to come by. For driving in Chicago. 🙂 For somehow always being one step ahead of me and never once complaining when things went wrong. (and thank you Stephanie for all the time you spent without him after work hours so he could help!!)
Bridget Dix — for being my right arm, and sometimes my left. For sharing my excitement, for being my favorite model, for saving me from myself sometimes, for putting up with my oddities. For synchronizing your vision with mine and loving it almost as much as I have. You are fantastic and I am going to miss you SO much.
My husband, James Nelson — for being my hottest model EVER, for always believing I could do anything I set my mind to, for sacrificing so much of yourself on behalf of my dreams, for working SO hard to support me in both my decision to start AND to stop shooting, for always being a reliable and patient father to our children even when you should have been too exhausted to do so, and for loving me in spite of all my craziness.
There are many others to thank, I could go on all day. It’s always scary to thank some specifically for fear that I’ve overlooked someone very important unintentionally. But I think it would be even worse if I let the fear keep me from thanking these people who have influenced me so much. It is because of the generosity of these people that I have been inspired to help others, so if you have been influenced or helped by me in any way, I hope you’ll thank these people as well.
Many have expressed concern at how permanent my decision sounds sometimes…am I coming back? When? I have to say, I honestly don’t know the answer to either of those. I DO know two things. 1) I need to feel complete freedom from timeframe and obligation. I need a break with no expectations so that I can sort some things out in God’s time, under no pressure. 2) If and when I do come back, I want to have the ability to move the business out of our home, for many reasons, one of which is that our family has filled it! There are many factors that will determine if and when this can happen. I have no idea what the personality of our third child will be, how our familiy dynamic will change, if home schooling will be the best option for my children long term. All of these factors can only be determined by time, so there is really no way I can predict a return date right now.
For those of you (some I have already spoken with) who are hoping and praying that I will return in time to shoot your 2012 wedding, I will decide sometime around June of 2011. Until then I will hold your date on my calendar, but I won’t sign any contracts as I take my comittment to your wedding VERY seriously. Those interested may continue to inquire about availability as long as you understand that nothing is set in stone or guaranteed without a signed contract and downpayment!
I wish you the very best year (or more!) in my absence…take care and God bless!
2009 — The Best of the Rest
The last of my Fav’s posts! These are the rest of my favorite images! I couldn’t decide why I love them. I just do. Some of them are combinations of many categories, some of them are in a category all of their own. And I’m sure as soon as I’m through posting all of these, I’ll find several more favorites that I overlooked or forgot about…such is life. I think having 435 favorite images is enough for now. 🙂 It’s definitely got me looking forward to 2010!!
If you’ve made it through all of these, THANK YOU! 🙂 Leave me a comment and say hello…I’d love to know you’ve been here.
Rawsii 