Fall Senior Sessions

Ah, to be young and a high school senior again. The world ahead of you, your troubles behind you, and a year of celebration to enjoy.

For all those seniors (and friends/parents of seniors) I'm running senior sessions this September. My dates right now are the 18 and 24 in the evening. I may look into adding a date if there is sufficient demand, so contact me if you are interested in a date outside these two.

September 18 I'll be doing an urban setting, September 24 I'll be doing a rural session, so chose your venue and your date and contact me before your preference is taken!

Below are all the details on this deal as well as a few teasers from Emily's senior session. You can like photobymemories on Facebook- you can comment on a post by Photobymemories, OR you can use the contact name on the right to submit your name. Done? Done.

A Gift from Me to Who?

Hi all! There are a lot of fun, good things going around the world wide web right now. From the ALS icebucket challenge to the #sharegoodness hashtag.

I am so blessed to get to take photos. I love working with people and capturing them. However, I've been thinking about all the amazing people in my community who for whatever reason are unable to have family portraits done. I'd love to give away a free portrait session and mini-print package to a deserving family who would cherish the pictures.

Only problem is, people aren't usually terribly open with their need and/or desire for free portraits. So, I'm hoping to ask family members and good friends of these individuals to speak up for them. I'm looking for all y'all to help me find an amazing family who really deserves some beautiful portraits and prints. I'm looking to make a difference for someone, and I need my readers to help me do it!

Here's the deal- if you know of a family or individual who would really appreciate this gift, fill out the contact me box to the right. Make sure to include the reason you are nominating the individual. I'll close nominations Friday night and will pick someone on Saturday. Then we'll privately work to set something up. Depending on the situation I'm willing to feature or not feature them on this blog (if they want to remain private, great, if they would like me to post to build awareness for some condition or ask for community support for something, I'm happy to do that too).

Bottom line is, photography is a gift that I cherish and I would love to find someone to pay that gift forward to.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Newmyers in a Storm

Here in the beautiful mountain valley I call home we've been having the most beautiful weather. Storm clouds have been thundering around the sky bringing wind, rain, and impressive lightning. Storm photography is amazing- just search for it to find some beautiful images. I had the privilege of photographing this very cute family as one such storm was brewing and before the wind blew us away we captured some great images. Enjoy!

A Boy Named Sven

This beautiful couple is preparing to welcome a baby boy to their family. They jokingly tell people who ask that his name is Sven. These photos were so fun to take. The clouds kept me on my feet- sometimes making for beautiful lighting, sometimes making me shake my fist. Enjoy!

The More the Merrier

Pictures of large groups can be difficult, particularly when children are involved (or uncooperative adults). Large groups can also be a lot of fun to photograph. Being part of a large family or group of friends is just fun. Here are a few pointers to get great large group photos, including some secrets of merging parts of photos in Photoshop.

During the Shoot

1. Do keep things laid back and fun, the more uptight you are, the less likely you are to get smiles
2. Do let children be children. It's completely acceptable for young children to be looking away, lost in thought, laughing, or being silly in photographs. They're just children after all, it looks quiet natural for them to be behaving that way. 
3. Don't let adults look like children. It's not ok if you can't get a single picture of the adults looking at the camera, smiling. (Alright, it may turn out ok, but honestly adults.....you have DECADES of practice at this, it shouldn't be that difficult)
4. Do take a lot of pictures, on a tripod, in the exact same pose. The more people you work with the more likely you'll have to do some post-processing work swapping out faces. I've found that it helps relieve stress when you are less concerned with getting "the perfect shot" and more concerned with capturing workable shots and keeping things low-key. 
5. Don't forget to check the live view! Look at the pictures as you take them. Thanks to digital photography, we don't have to get it perfect the first time, but if you don't check how pictures are turning out, there isn't much that post-processing can do for you. If someone's face is hidden behind something, it's hidden. You'll need to fix that during the shoot.

Post-Processing

1. Do start by getting all the participants looking their best. If you need to open up someone's eyes or replace someone's face all together, merge photos first before you do any other adjusting. Keep in mind lighting differences between shots as you are merging photos and compensate as necessary. 
2. Don't forget to zoom in. Photo merging can be tricky. Your best bet to ensure it looks perfect is to zoom in (I like to set my zoom to be 2 times the size of the largest expected print). 
3. Do save Photoshop documents as you go. Rename documents at important breaking points. For example, I always save a copy of my work after I have all my photo-merge layers in Photoshop looking the way I want. This way I can actually merge or flatten all of the photo-merge layers for additional post-processing work. It gets less confusing this way. 
4. Do try different settings for brightness, contrast, saturation, ambient light, etc. I like to create three different edited images on important large family photos as a starting point, then I usually end up finalizing a fourth image that builds off my favorite things about the other edits. 
5. Don't go overboard. Their are stylistic ways to over-expose, over-saturate, under-saturate, etc. photos. When working with big groups, I don't find these artsy styles really work well. There is just too much going on already for me. 

Carlisle Family Photo Shoot

Most people may know that photographers like to shoot just before sunset or just after sunrise. Lighting is less-harsh during this time frame so it makes a photographers job easy.

When shooting during mid-day (as we did with this photo-shoot) it can be great to shoot in the shade of a beautiful building. Lighting still turns out fabulous and the venue can help make the pictures beautiful.

These fun family photos were taken last week and demonstrate the beautiful lighting that can be achieved in the shade.

Little Boy Blue

This little boy was such a hoot to photograph. He is super into balls, sports, cars, he's a boy!

I loved capturing his AMAZING blue eyes. I am so jealous of his long lashes- they are gorgeous!

Enjoy a few highlights from this little boy session.

Hugs,

Wedding Teasers

Hello world!

Summer is such a beautiful time for outdoor weddings- lush greenery, guaranteed good weather, summer breezes blowing. It's just grand.

Enjoy a few wedding teasers from this beautiful outdoor venue.

Concept Couple Pages

OK digiworld:

How do you incorporate a winter-wedding theme with photos taken in the summer?

Ever seen a movie called frozen? :)

Check out these fun concept couple pages!

Back To School Session Sale

Hi all!

I know all the mamma's out their are looking to get their wee ones back to school. To help in your back-to-school preparation, I'm offering back-to-school mini-sessions!

These prices are AMAZING (if I do say so myself)! $30 gets you two portrait poses and the following prints (in addition to digital files):

• 4 wallets OR 2 4x6 prints
• 2 5x7 prints
• 1 8x10 print

Additional prints and sizes are available on request for an additional charge. 

As if that wasn't enough, I'm offering a sibling discount!! (WHAT?!)

Buy 1 session, and you'll get a sibling session 50% off OR you can buy 2 sessions and I'll just give you the third one free!

Am I crazy? Quiet possibly.....I'm just excited about back to school! I'm only doing two short mini-sessions (one in the morning, one in the evening) so contact me ASAP; these might just go fast.