1.  Spring is almost here.  Can you feel it????  I can!  (So can my little girl – she loves her sunglasses!)  And I can see grass.  For the first time since about December I can see grass in our yard and all of the snow has finally melted away!  We were up to about three feet at one point so that is really quite the change.  AND did you know that the time change happens this weekend?  Yes, we lose one hour of sleep but that means we get more daylight.  No more coming home in the dark at 5:30.  Gone are those days and spring and summer are right around the corner.  It’s a great time all around!

2.  Along with Spring comes time for photos.  The trees are getting leaves back, flowers are starting to grow.  Yes, it is muddy.  No doubt about that.  But it is time to get back outside.  And I cannot wait.  I have a maternity session on the 26th of March and I am just hoping and praying she wants to go outside.  After a winter of newborns (which I do love very much) I cannot wait to be shooting out in the sun again.

3.  Speaking of newborns, I now have four or five newborns in May that are all due within about 12 days of each other.  That is going to be some crazy baby time in there.

4.  If you are free this Sunday, I am giving a beginners workshop on how to take better photos of your kids.  This workshop does NOT deal with shooting in manual or editing.  But I will be teaching about composition, lighting, etc.  Very basic overview things that will help you get some better pictures of your kids.  Again, as we start to go back outside.  (Yippee for outside one more time!)  The class will be held at Bellani Maternity on Route 2 in Warwick on Sunday from 1-3.  The cost is $45 and you can register by calling the store at 401-234-1279.  I am not sure when they are closing registration but it will be soon.

5.  I don’t think I put it out anywhere but I am proud to announce that I was recently accepted into the National Association of Professional Child Photographers  🙂  I believe at this time there is only one other photographer in Rhode Island that is a member.

6.  I am headed to Delaware in May!  At least I am 90% sure I am.  When the client officially fills out her paperwork and send the session fee then I will be 100% sure.  This is the second time someone has had me come from out of state for newborn photos so I am feeling super duper loved!!  (Again, about 90% super duper loved 😉 )  I am 90% sure I will be in the area the weekend of May 14/15, probably arriving on the 13th.  I might perhaps possibly have time for some other photos while I am there so if you are in that area and wanted to think about it, keep me in mind!

It’s question time!!  🙂

7.  You had an amazing image you posted a few weeks back of an amazing nursery with light flowing into a window, and it was magical! It is definitely one of my favorites of yours. Do you have a favorite image, or shoot?

Right now, that image is one of my absolute favorites ever!!  It was just the perfect combination of setting, light and baby.  As for shoots, that newborn shoot was one of my favorites.  I have a few favorite images and shoots though, all for different reasons.  The newborn shot of the daugher cradled in dad’s arm with the tattoos ranks right up there as does my family shot that I used in my Bigger is Better Version 2.0 post.  For shoots, I absolutely loved the shoot with my friend Dani and her family that I showed some images from HERE. Something about it  🙂

8.  When you have an image including the sun, how do you get it to look like a starburst instead of a huge blob of light? Is it a filter?

Usually just stopping down to a lower (higher?) aperture will produce more defined rays, ie going from f/2.8 to f/5.6 or f/11 or even higher.  That and if you can get the sun coming over the edge of something – a building, a tree, etc, it will help to separate the light into distinct rays or more of a starburst effect instead of the blob.  I will admit freely though, that I rarely get it on the first try!  I often have to change settings to get the exact look that I want!

9.  Hi Amy… just curious how you like (or not like) being a doctor’s wife?

Wow.  This is a tough one!!  Hmmm.  At different points I have liked it in different ways.  Medical school was pretty intense but fun.  Residency was really really tough with the hours and responsibilities, not made easier by having our first baby three months in!  Fellowship, even though it was a short stay, was easier.  Attending has it’s moments.  I knew what I was getting into when we started dating though.  Thankfully I realized that it would be a lot of nights where I wouldn’t see him, a lot of bedtimes that I do by myself, weeks where my kids don’t see him for three straight days.  Weekends where he spends more time at the hospital than he does at home.  But for us it is all worth it.  The job stability (knock on wood!) is there.  He loves what he does.  And it’s really nice if there are health concerns to have an “in”.  Plus you get treated really well when you are in labor if your husband is an OB!  LOL!!

10.  Hi Amy, what do you lay babies on underneath the blanket you use as a backdrop? A bean bag? Pillow? Please help, I’ve been trying to figure that one out for a while now.

I have a large vinyl puck-style beanbag that goes under my blankets and then that is clamped to chairs behind the setup.  I purchased the beanbag from hayneedle (http://www.hayneedle.com).  For certain positions I will also use a rolled up blanket or boppy on top of the beanbag underneath the blankets.  Click HERE to see a pull back (with notes) that I did with an old beanbag last year.  My setup is the same now but much wider and flatter.

The whole snow days last week into the MLK holiday this week has totally thrown my sense of time off.  I thought today was Tuesday.  Turns out it’s not.  It’s Wednesday.  Yay for being one day closer to the weekend!!!  But EEK for having lost a day somewhere!   So today, my Ten on Tuesday on Wednesday!

1.  I am off for an adult vacation starting this weekend.  Can’t WAIT!  It’s only been six and a half years since we really did anything without the kids that wasn’t work related.  🙂  So so so looking forward to it.  I even rented a different camera body and fun wide angle lens to play with on the trip.  So look for some ocean / beach landscape stuff sometime in the next few weeks!

2.  Are you due in February or do you know someone who is?  I will be announcing a special for February newborns only tomorrow (Thursday) so check the blog and Facebook Business Page

3.  I keep getting people asking me about how do I get babies to sleep.  Let me tell you, I am soooo due a sleepy baby!!  My last three newborns have slept – but only after a few hours of being awake!  🙂  They were still awesome but I just feel that I am due a nice super sleepy the entire time newborn bundle of cuteness.  The upside of not sleeping babies?  Lots of snuggling on my part  😉

4.  How did you learn Photoshop? If you are “self taught”, are there any books or resources you really like?

Self taught.  🙂  Lots and lots of trial and error though, and taking time to learn what the different tools do.  I definitely went through an “actions are AWESOME” phase hahaha!  Then I backed off of that.  I still don’t know what everything does – I was on a board the other day where they were talking about a radial tool (I think?) and I had no clue what they were talking about!!  In terms of resources, I really highly recommend the Scott Kelby books.  He explains everything in very simple, easy terms.  I started with him when i started way back with PS Elements.  I also go the regular photoshop book when i moved to that but I haven’t tried any newer books.  You start learning what things are and what they do.

5.  What is your favorite book?

This is actually really REALLY tough for me!  I even gave myself an extra week to think about it.  It ends up being a tie, but only slightly because they are the same author.  I have to say one of the most powerful books I have ever read was A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.  Absolutely amazing.  So hard to read but so incredibly amazing.  I read the entire thing in one sitting – I couldn’t stop.  My other favorite, also by Hosseini, which was equally powerful was The Kite Runner.  Two just heart wrenching novels.  On a more lighthearted note, I adore the Harry Potter series.  😉

6. How do you prepare your images for Facebook?

Ahhh great question.  For a while I didn’t really do anything special.  And I still don’t have a “perfect” method because there is something in Facebook’s interface that messes up colors and sharpness.  All of my images from camera to the end are shot in sRGB (though technically because I am shooting in RAW there is no profile until it is brought onto the mac)  I know that the widest image it will display is 600px.  I use a free resize and sharpen action that I got years ago (I believe on ilovephotography.com).  I size it to 600px for horizontal and 428px for vertical.  Then once it is resized the action sharpens it for web with two different unsharp masks.  The last step that I so is Save for Web.  This helps to prepare it for the web.  Then I just add “fb” to the end of the filename so I know which version to upload!

7.  What is your favorite (and most used) lens for newborns? kids/families?

For newborns the 50mm 1.4g.  Definitely.  And for kids, my 70-200 vrII.

8.   Do you ever use off camera flash for newborns?

If a house is really really dark and i find myself having to crank up to ISO 3200 or something, I will throw a speedlight on and bounce the light behind me, preferably off a window.  But in general, no.  You will almost never see me use a flash, ever.  I find the light and make the shoot work there!!

9.  Where do you find your inspiration for new ideas?? Do you ever get the photographers version of ‘writer’s block’?

All the time!!  I feel like I get suck in the rut of doing the same thing over and over.  Sometimes I just peruse Flickr.  Literally, I relax my eyes and scroll through images.  I don’t know if this will make sense, but things register without becoming permanently imprinted on my brain.  Like if I am doing a couple’s shoot, I will go to the blogs of some of my favorite people.  I will set back in my chair, relax and scroll down their blogs.  I don’t stop and read and I don’t really stop and focus on the images – I kind of let them wash over me…  Another new site that I am finding very useful is pinterest.com.  I see things that others “pin” and get ideas from that.  I flip through catalogs, store advertisements, etc.  Ideas come from all over!

10.  Do you have to jump up and down to get the kids to look at you?

HA!  Oh my goodness do I!!  I jump up and down.  I dance, I hop.  I sing songs.  I lay on the ground, I quack like a duck and moo like a cow.  I put things on my camera, my head, my nose.  You name it I’ve done it.  Even farting noises for the boys.  Anything to get their attention. 

1.  I am so glad to be home!!  I love traveling and I certainly love seeing old friends and making new ones (and holding new babies of dear old friends!!).  But man does it feel good to come home and sleep in my bed in my house and be surrounded by my family!!  I think they missed me too 😉 Next trip is in three weeks – I leave for Chicago on August 6th and can’t wait.  I have only been there once and I was six months pregnant.  I plan to have a little more fun this time – along with of course doing sessions for some fabulous families!

2.  I love the unpredictability of newborns.  The newborn that started my trip to Chicago in August made her debut three and a half weeks early, and the newborn I am waiting here right here in RI is going to be about a week late.  Go figure.  Thankfully it shouldn’t (I reallllllly hope) affect their sessions.  I will get an extra young one (four days) and an extra old one (four weeks).  That’s all…I hope.

3.  I will have in my hands later this morning the delicious 135 2.0 lens.  I decided to rent something a little different for two shoots that are scheduled this week with older kids (14-21).  I cannot WAIT to get my hands on it.  I know that I am going to fall madly in love with it simply because Nikon has discontinued it for the moment and there is no word on when they are going to be releasing  new version of it.  Sigh.  Here’s hoping it is as magical as everyone tells me it is.  I know that I am excited for it!

4.  For an availability update, I have July 31, August 1 and August 28 left for summer weekend sessions.  I do have some availability during weekdays but those, too are disappearing quickly 🙂

5.  One from a newborn session I haven’t shared here yet…  Sometimes they can look *so* wise for just a few weeks old.

6.  I have three new baskets that I found at my new love, Hobby Lobby.  Sadly, Hobby Lobby does not exist here in RI so I had to buy them in NC and ship them north via UPS.  But I will add it to my list of pro’s for moving to NC.  Do I think it will really happen?  Probably not.  But a girl can hope.  I the meantime I will enjoy my new baskets.  I love love love them.  I have a bad addiction to baskets.  And the ironic part is that I don’t even use them that often.  I just have grand plans to…and carry them around in the back of my Tucson “just in case”  Makes grocery shopping interesting when it comes time to put the bags in the car.

7.If you were one of the people who got in on my mini-maternity sessions I have not forgotten you, I promise.  You will be hearing from me soon, I just need to get through the thick of things here which I can see happening in the next week.  I see the light wayyyy down there at the end of the tunnel of editing but it is definitely closer than it was a few days ago.

8.  Another of gorgeous Charlotte from last week.  I did three sessions with her over three days and ONE TIME I had to shush and soothe her.  That was it.  One time.  She slept like an absolute log the entire time for each session. It was amazing.  More of her photos coming probably Thursday.  I am a *little* behind on the blogging.

9.  Have I mentioned that I have two weddings coming up in the next month with the fabulous Kristina Young of Kristina Young Photography?  I love shooting with her and I adore her as a person so I can’t wait!  Both of the weddings are in Boston – a rooftop deck and then a tent wedding.  Should be SO much fun.  Tiring, and a lot of work, but fun.

10.  Last for this week – I am starting to book fall dates already.  The cutoff for holiday sessions is going to be November 15 so please be aware of that when you are scheduling you session, especially considering that I will be taking few and far between Sunday sessions after August 1.  So I encourage you to book early 🙂