Chicago Part 1 | Rhode Island Family Photography

The beautiful Okema and her family were the first of my Chicago shoots this past weekend.  I have “known” Okema for three years now on a photography forum we are both on and I feel as though I have watched her gorgeous daughter grow up on there.  Well on Saturday I finally got to meet them in person for the first time!  We had a great session in Oak Park just down from the Frank Lloyd Wright historical district (many many houses I could live in there!!)  We started out at a small tucked-away park and when the mosquitoes got to be too much headed for a more urban look.  Not only did we have a fantastic time, I absolutely LOVE what we came away with 🙂  She has already seen these but for everyone else, enjoy!

A little Before & After | Rhode Island Photography

So I have been missing!  Actually, I’ve just been in Chicago for the past four days doing sessions.  Got home yesterday and pretty much collapsed.  SO tired.  But also getting up at 5 am will do that to you.  I have lots to share…lots.  And then along with four more sessions this week, there is a lot coming up.

I thought I would do a little B&A on here again since it was well received the last time I did it.  I am using one of the pictures from my last session in Chicago up at Northwestern University.  First, I loved this location because of the colors of the pond behind them.  The trees, the water, the sky, it was so gorgeous.  And dad’s red shirt really popped against the green.  I have photos from the opposite side of the bridge but that was sandbar and a greyish Lake Michigan.  This was gorgeous COLOR.  🙂  Part of it is about finding locations where the light is awesome and the colors are rich and using it to your advantage.

On the left is my SOOC (straight out of the camera) image.  You can see it was pretty decent to start with, just needed a little something to draw out the colors and brighten it a bit.   Not to fix it though, that is the key.  Never fix.  Just enhance. This was shot with my 24-70 at ISO 200, 1/320, f/2.8.  On the right is my fully edited version of it.  Really, there is a change but nothing too dramatic.

In my RAW window I upped the exposure by +15 and slide my recovery slider over to 20.  That was it.  Then I opened in photo shop.

In Photoshop, I first edited out the bug between their heads and cloned out the sign.  Then I ran my regular workflow action.  This consists of a levels layer, a basic boost action which has a screen layer and a slight saturation increase.  It also increases the contrast a smidge and burns the edges of the photo.  Each of those layers is then used at about 20-30% opacity, the burn layer at about 60%.  The last step is an unsharp mask at 75/2/4.  After that was flattened, I did a curves layer where I pulled up the middle of the curve very slightly and pulled the bottom left part of the curve down slightly.  Then changed the mode to luminosity (to avoid wonky skin tones that can occur with curves).  Then I used a sponge to bring a little more color into the trees and was done.  From start to finish less than two minutes.

Beautiful Belly | Rhode Island Maternity Photography

I am off to Chicago for a weekend of sessions but before I go, I wanted to get Amy’s official sneak peek up here  🙂  She and Joe were kind enough to meet me at pretty much the last minute for one of my mini “fresh bellies” sessions at Roger Williams Park.  She was SO cute and they were so much fun to work with!!  (And Joe I am still thinking about that tattoo and newborn shot!!!)  Enjoy guys, it was great meeting you!!  And I still say girl!

Mine On Monday – A Day (weekend) in the Life | Rhode Island Family Photography

A friend on one of the forums that I participate regularly in challenged all of us to document our lives for part of the weekend the weekend.  “Hmmmmm” I thought.  In the class that I teach moms and dads, I stress not missing the moments of life and that it’s all well and good to learn to get off of Auto but you should do whatever you need to to not miss things.  Yeah.  Meet the hypocrite.  I rarely just relax and take pictures of my family.  I always feel that everything has to be perfect.  I full edit each photo.  Even on my personal family blog, the photo doesn’t go up unless it’s edited.  I always shoot in full manual and won’t take a picture if I really hate the outfit they are wearing.  Documenting a day / weekend was much harder in real life than it sounded at first.

But I did it.

Nolan turns five next month.  (!!!!!)  And Layne will be two before I know it.  And I had to make myself realize that sometimes, it’s okay to just shoot.  For the photographers out there, I put my camera on Auto-ISO and Aperture priority and clicked away.  That is as close to auto as I could get.  Yes, I did edit them, but it was just a batch process on all of them at once with my basic workflow action with no tweaking of individual photos.  (Don’t get me wrong.  Some of the ones that I really love I pulled out and fully edited for myself.)  I love them.  I am not IN love with them, but I do love them.  The mommy in me loves them.  The photographer in me kind of cringes to be 100% honest because they are not my 100% best work.  But it’s real.  It’s life.  It’s my weekend.  It’s my family.

(And it should be noted that I did miss a shot – my husband heading out the door in scrubs when he got called in for a c-section conveniently before bedtime – but I did take a photo of his dreaded beeper and cell phone.  😉 )  Also missing is our game of bocce where Layne kept trying to bring back to us all of the balls we were throwing.   And BTW I have absolutely NO idea what Nolan was doing in the center photo of the first collage.  None.

Joined | Rhode Island Wedding Photography

I have always loved this quote and found it particularly appropriate for the wedding that I shot last weekend with Kristina (click HERE for her photos).  Monica and Todd first met when they were little and though Todd would move away, their families would remain connected and intertwined through friendship of older sisters.  And when Monica and Todd were reintroduced years later by those same sisters, the path that would eventually unite both families together forever began.  Through times of great joy and great sorrow, these two families have been joined.  And last Saturday, they became joined in a most official, delightful, beautiful and loving way.

It was a perfect, wonderful, amazing day.

There were laughs (lots), tears and a multitude of smiles.  And when the sun was setting over Boston and the light came streaming in through the windows of the roof deck at the Taj I believe a very special angel was looking down on these two and sending a whole bunch of love and blessings on their day and their new life together.

Monica and Todd I am so so happy for you two.  Enjoy each and every moment together.



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