Impressions Salon...

I had the pleasure of taking head shots for the lovely ladies at Impressions Salon in Camp Hill. These are the first four ladies that i worked with, and all were fabulous. Here is just a little sneak peek at what we ended up with.

Shereen


Rachel


Sherri


And my beautiful sister Meggy!

Meg and the Boys...

I took my sister Meg and her three boys out for a mini photo session the other day. It was a lot of fun, and I was once again pleasantly surprised with the results. I must admit I am dumbfounded how pros find so many ways to pose people. I felt like I was reaching a little bit for nice poses with my sister. Here are the results of the day, and if you stick around till the end I am going to share a little photoshop magic I had to pull to get a picture of two of my nephew's together looking normal.

The whole family together




The matriarch Meg






The eldest nephew Noah


Conner, the middle nephew


And the baby Kolby


And here is a little piece of photoshop magic that I am pretty proud of. My sister wanted a picture of the older boys to give to their Dad for Father's Day, and to say they weren't cooperating would be an understatement. Every photo I got with them smiling and looking at the camera had Conner doing something funny with his arms...


OR everyone where they weren't doing something weird with their hands had weird facial expressions....


So I just combined the two and got a half decent photo of the two of them...

Portraits

A couple weeks ago I got the rare opportunity to take actual portraits. Normally my photography involves crouching in uncomfortable positions in front of flowers trying really hard not to breath. Or chasing my nephews and niece down and attempting to wring one decent smile out of them. But in one weekend I got to do not one but two actual portrait sessions.

The first was with one of my closest friends, Laura. She is not only a fantastic friend, she is also gorgeous and an amateur model. It was great practice getting to work with someone who knew how to move her face and body to get the best angles. I learned a lot just from watching her work.

And what I learned that day I put to use the next when I did my sister's engagement photos. I could not be happier for my big Sis Jess and her new fiance Joe. They are adorable together, and I literally can not wait until their wedding. It was fun trying to capture their affection for each other and true happiness on film (or SD card).

First up: Laura

This is my favorite from the whole session. You can really see her eyes, and I love her wrist tattoo, which is either her mother or father's name in Russian
(I can't read Russian so I am not sure which).






I love the smirk on her face in this one. I was so happy because this was the only photo I gave her any facial direction on, I just said "can you smirk?" and she nailed exactly what I was looking for. It was actually quite impressive to watch her work.
Plus, how awesome is this dress?




Next Up: Jess and Joe

How cute are they?




This was one of my favorites from their session. My sis just looks so at peace and happy.
It makes me feel all glow-y.




This one was taken in the restaurant that Jess and Joe first met. I wish I had moved to my right a few steps so I could have gotten more of Joe's face in the photo.


I think this is a good example of a photo that is technically imperfect, but emotionally awesome. It is blurred because my shutter speed wasn't high enough, and it is way over exposed. But look how happy they are, I can't help but love it just for the expressions on their faces.


I also played around with making Storyboards in PSE this week.
I love these shots, I told them to dance and Jess started yelling "no, no" while Joe grabbed her and started dancing. And if you look very closely in the photo on the left you can see Joe about to step on Jess's toes. Whoopsie!

First Hershey Gardens trip of the season

I am lucky enough to live about ten minutes away from the Hershey Gardens, something I plan on taking full advantage of this summer. I was trying to convince myself this morning to go to the gym, but I just wasn't feeling it today. So instead I decided to go walk around the Gardens and take some pictures. It ends up being a pretty good workout because you are constantly getting up and down from the ground to get the best angles on a flower.

I was very happy with my results today. My photos are getting better and better straight out of my camera, before any editing. So I thought it would be fun if today I posted my favorite SOOC (straight out of camera) photos, and tomorrow I will post a few that I have edited along with the originals just to show the difference a little editing can make.

Here are my favorites from today:

I was literally laying on the ground for this one. Unfortunately the grass was a little wet, but it was worth it.
I love tulips that look like the color is painted on with a brush.


A flower after it has lost all its petals.


I think this guy looks like Audrey 2 from Little Shop of Horrors.




For this one I was standing on a boulder behind and above the tree
(not sure if I was allowed to be there or not).


Bleeding Hearts, the flower of my people.


A pansy from the side.


No idea what this flower is,
but this was the 4th shot of the day and one of my favorites.

IVF Meds

Art project with my syringes and meds from IVF #1

Trout Fishing

April 2nd was opening day for trout season in the midstate. I went out to take some pictures. I really wish I had some waders so I could get into the river to get some better angles.

Playing around with my new Neutral Density Filter and some long exposure shots. This is the only one that really turned out.

Can't have a post about trout fishing without showing some trout!

Birds and Cupcakes

I managed to find some time to make cupcakes last week and set up a mini-photo shoot to show them off.

I also ventured out Saturday morning to go to the Middle Creek Wildlife Preserve to check out the thousands of Geese and Swans that gather there every year on their way back to Canada for the summer.