I'M ON TV!

Last week the local FOX channel did a story on me for their morning show called "Better Carolinas". It was so cool. They came to my house and did a taping on basically someone who has pursued their passion and made it into a career. The segment aired this morning at about 9:20. Here is the link to the website http://www.foxcarolina.com/better/index.html. The video for my segment will most likely show up tomorrow or later today. It will be on the far right of the screen for the most recent video. I'll try to provide a link to the video from my blog once it's on their website.

Thank you thank you to everyone who has supported and encouraged me through this process. I am so blessed. Love you all!

Olivia

Clemson Downhill Race

Many of you already know, but my husband has been racing mountain bikes for about 15 years. I love to watch him ride and enjoy the sport. It was one of the things that drew me to him. I knew he would always be active and it would keep us young. However, his racing is a little different. He wears a fullface helmet and padding and he races down hill over rocks, roots, berms, many jumps, and all kinds of obstacles. It's quit entertaining and dangerous. I like to call him my "adrenaline junkie".

If I'm not shooting a wedding or family on a Saturday, you can usually find me out shooting Matt on his bike. If you get interested, check out his race team's blog. It's http://www.seiracing.blogspot.com/. Oh, and here is the shot I got of him on Saturday. :)

The Francis Family

Today, I went to spend a little time with Beth, James, and cutie pie Carrington. Beth is actually my hair stylist so let me just take the opportunity to put in a plug for her. Brides, seriously she's great so if you need someone to do your hair for the big day, she is it. She works at Innovations Salon on Woodruff Rd.

Anywho, I love doing family sessions and this is actually a piece of my business that I'm trying to build. Here is a little taste of my favorites from the Francis session. I love the emotion and Carrington is at the perfect age for photos I must say. :) enjoy...

Kelly and Brian

Here are a few of my favorties from Kelly and Brian's wedding in January. This couple was so much fun. They had the true definition of a classic winter wedding. I loved it and you just can't beat the furman chapel. :)

funny

Ok, so I think I'm going to stick to the other side of the camera. I really needed a new shot for my biography page on my website so I set the camera up this afternoon and had my own little modeling session. It was really quit humorous. Out of 77 images this is the ONLY one that I liked of myself. I believe I am WAY better at photographing others rather than myself. I'm too critical of how I look in shots. I guess this is a pretty good exercise to help me identify with my brides and anyone else I'm shooting.

Lighting Session

To me, "lighting" is the one thing that really makes a great photographer. It is essential to the whole presentation and composition. Of course, being creative and actually coming up with the composition of a photograph is important, but if you have no control over lighting then what good does your creativity do? So I decided to take a trek to Columbia this past Saturday with my sister-in-law, Abby, and do a lighting session with Lucas Brown of www.kickstandstudio.com. These guys are AMAZING and I've actually known Lucas since the 6th grade. Anyway, check out their site! What I learned was invaluable and I know it will take me to another level and I can't wait for my next shoot. :) What I mainly wanted to accomplish was to have more control over lighting so that whatever I saw in my head could be done in the camera without the lighting in the setting itimidating me out of the shot I REALLY wanted. This also cuts down on editing time and work flow. How great is that?!

Below, are some of the shots I took during our session. I'll briefly walk you through the difference.

This shot was completely in a manual setting with no flash.



Here the shot is again, but with flash and correct exposure for the window in the backgroud, which added a unique challenge.



This shot was purely on a whim. It was in manual and no flash. I just loved the available light already there.


This shot of course had a flash and my goal was to wash out the backgroud to make Abby stand out more and give it an edgy spin. goal acheived. :)


This shot was def with a flash and my goal was to blacken the background with out darkening Abby.


Same goal here...


In this one I wanted the washed out background again and a soft shadow on Abby's face. This made her stand out and against the background with out the background overpowering her. The background also gives a nice contrast and composition element.


Here was my first shot of the day that finally came out the way I wanted. this shot was key for me in understanding. For any photographers who want to know...this was f11, shutter at 250, ISO at 100, and flash at 1/16 power (I believe). This was taken at mid day with full sun out and I really wanted a blue sky, but with Abby exposed properly.


This one was just fun. Lucas showed me a trick and gave me something I could put around the flash to put the light just around the subject. Cool huh? :)

Neal/Craine Wedding

Here are a few of my favorite shots from Joy and Chris's wedding from January. They were the cutest couple. I just loved their snowflake wedding cake. It was so fitting since it snowed on their wedding day!