Just because you can....

Just because you can…doesn’t mean you should.

This applies to a lot of different scenarios, like for instance still fitting into your high school jeans, texting & driving, and in some cases, I think it also applies to over-editing. It seems to be an epidemic!

In the past 10 years photography has changed drastically, and for the most part good things have come from those changes but when it comes to editing, I’m starting to ask the question “just because you can…does that mean you should?” As I see more and more work leaning toward the subjects almost looking “computer generated” I feel like we are beginning to cross the line and lose the “truth” of who our subjects are.

I’m not talking about touching up a few blemishes or taming down a few wild hairs or covering up the scratch on your toddler‘s nose….I’m talking smoothing skin down to a point where it’s almost cartoon looking, adding so much sparkle to the eyes that they no longer even look human, losing the “realness” of the person. Where do we stop? Where is the line?

This is a question I was just asking myself as I was trying out a new editing program on one of my daughter’s senior pictures. After processing the picture thru the program…I didn’t even feel like I was looking at my own kid anymore, what was left of her was just a computer generated image…..a flawless beautiful image. But here’s the thing, it wasn’t even “her” anymore. The point of photography is art, but it is also a way of capturing the images of the people who matter to us, to help us remember them as they truly were….and I think we might be losing something precious when we airbrush them to the point of not even looking “real“ anymore.

With that said, I will of course continue to tame those wild hairs & touch up that blemish, but when it comes to the sparkle in your eyes, I want that to be real & true….and I think it’s this “truth” that makes your pictures beautiful!

Blog Worthy News!

I know it's been 2 months since my last post, and it's not that I'm not busy doing stuff/sessions everyday...it's that I'm doing TOO MANY things to blog about. 

However, this past week deserves a Blog Post.

Rewind back a year or so from today, I was driving down 116 and happened to look out the window and saw an old cool looking brick building in the middle of Hanna City.  My first thought was "that would make such a cool studio".  Of course that was just in passing and I didn't think too much more about it until I was with my husband a few weeks later and we drove by again and I brought it up to him.  It had this row of windows at the top of it that would let lots of light in and looked like it had super tall ceilings.  The other thing we noticed at this time is that it looked vacant, however there was no "for sale/rent" sign in the window so there was no way of knowing what was going on w/it.

A few days later I decided to go into the store next door specifically to ask if they knew anything about the building.  The lady behind the counter says "yes, it's my daughter's and she's a photographer and they plan to fix it up to use for her busines."  End of story.....right???

Fast forward to last week...
My husband is driving thru town and notices there is a "for sale" sign in the window!  He calls me and I call the #, we set up a time to see it at the end of the week.   And we both start praying...

My prayers went something like this....."Father, I don't really want to start another project...I am busy, I am tired from the last one, my family is tired, my husband is working 10 hr days...I don't know the future....but I know YOU do, I know my company is Yours, our money is Yours, so whatever Your will is for us, I ask that you protect us from making a foolish decision."

I have never really had a lot of debt or overhead w/my company.  All of my equipment I was able to save up and pay cash for so this was a big step for me and I went to my Compass for direction....my Bible.  I'm reading thru the Old Testament and on Friday morning I was at the end of Proverbs...just happened to work out that way right???  So Proverbs 31 talks about a woman, who works hard, who invests wisely, a woman who basically "takes care of business".  So going to see the building that evening...even though it will need work, even though I'm tired & busy, I had a peace that it's OK for us to go thru w/this project.

Saturday we put in an offer, it was accepted less than an hour later, and we closed this morning. 
So here we go again w/being overwhelmed & under staffed:)  There's a verse that says His strength is made perfect in our weakness....so I'll be looking to His perfect strength to get us thru these next couple of months!

 

The building has an interesting history...it was built in 1900 as the first bank in Hanna City.  There is even the original vault.  This vault is pretty much staying where it is (22 inch thick walls) so I'm thinking "dressing room"?

right now we're just going over ideas and checking stuff out, no real projected move in date but hopefully sometime in the beginning of 2013 we'll be moved in....hopefully:)

Senior Session Adventure!

Yesterday Jess and I hit the road for her official Senior session! Can't believe my baby girl is a SENIOR! Anyway, we headed toward the studio first to load up a couple of cool props to take w/us. Before we even made it to the studio I had to stop and take a few by the old stone school that I drive by everytime I'm heading to my studio and always think to myself "I'd love to take pics there". The morning sun was just peeking over the trees and made the shot so pretty!

Then while at the studio we saw these beautiful purple morning glories in full bloom by the wrought iron gate....

Then off to the Norris water filling station! I knew it would make for some awesome backdrops....

Next stop was Norris lake...

Then off to Canton, where we drove around looking for some cool old buildings. We were looking specifically for some graffitti, however they must keep a pretty close eye on their teens & spray paint cause we were not successful. We did find a beautiful old stone church that I absolutely LOVED and a really cool old brck wall...love, love, love!

We ended the session w/lunch at one of the local diners and grocery shopping (cause I can do that as long as the senior is my daughter right?). We had a blast and I must say this session had a whole different feel to it then when I did my older boy's senior sessions....let's just say it was more like pulling teeth:)

stuff that's been keeping me busy... lots of weddings....

lots of photo sessions....

I can't possibly post pics from every session from the last few weeks...just too many. The other thing we've been doing is lots of construction on our rental house. .

we're in the home stretch but it's been a long road. as soon as the interior is done (hopefully w/in a month or so) I'll upload before and after pics of the interior

Thinking outside of the box/case

I've had this dilema for the past couple of years. As my equipment collection grows, so does my need for a good way to carry it all. I started w/a simple canon carrying bag, then quickly outgrew that and went to a hard case w/padding and immediately realized it just didn't have all the compartments I needed when it came to card/battery/lense/flash storage. So then I bought a camera backpack which had all the little pockets and padding and that worked for a few years except for weddings when every good photographer knows to bring just about EVERYTHING they own....and that's NOT going to fit in the backpack so I end up carrying the backpack and also another smaller bag. I didn't really like having to remember which bag had what and when shooting a wedding you just don't have time to dig through 2 different bags for some fresh batteries. It was a problem............until today. TA DA! I was reading the sunday paper and of course looking thru my favorite add, yeah the Menards add, when I saw the solution to my problem. It's called a Massive Mouth Bag! Now technically this is a tool bag and it is black and yellow (the only color it came in) but look at how nice everything fits in it! I now have spots for each flash, battery chargers, batteries, and cameras/lenses all in ONE bag. The draw back...it's heavy, but I'm thinking the positives out weigh (no pun intended) the negatives:)

i missed it again!

My mare was due to have a baby so I've been watching her pretty closely. Last night I stood out in the pasture thinking, maybe tomorrow morning (she's had her last 3 in the morning). I woke up at 5 and grabbed a flashlight, walked out to the pasture and there he is, already dry. Apparently my mare is trying to tell me that she really doesn't need any help when it comes to having her babies. I'm thankful really, that she can deliver w/out any complications. Here are a few pics...

The little neighbor girl from next door had to come out and meet the little guy...she says she'll give me a thousand dollars if we let her keep that baby horse:)

On another note we've been working non stop remodeling a rental house so that's why my blog is being neglected... As long as I keep up w/clients & somewhat keep up on housework in between working on the rental I figure it's ok to let the blog slip. Besides...my business is on facebook now so maybe that makes up for it.

Am I the only one???

Sometimes I think I might be the only one who gets excited over wet spider webs but I just can't help it.

They're just cool! So when I was walking this misty morning that's the first thing I noticed...a whole bunch of spider webs coated in tiny little droplets of water. So of course I had to put my macro lens on and try out my new 7D camera. This is what I got..