Moving
I’m a busy, busy woman over here …finishing up my Workshop Workbook upgrade for it’s big release, spring season for photo shoots, and the biggie …moving to a new house on the 1st. Phew!We are moving from Los Angeles County (about 35 miles outside of the city) to a small rural town in northern San Diego county and I’m so excited to have some peace and quiet (and a big big yard!). I will be doing photo shoots on our 6.5 acre property (with huge barn and lake) as well as I’m only two miles away from one of my favorite shooting locations. I swear I won’t mind not having a Starbucks .01 miles from me (right now I have one across the street) and will have to drive 15 minutes to Target. That’s about the same I had to drive back in Pittsburgh.
Plus, my family from back East will be in town for a visit and to see our new home. We’ll also be hosting them for Easter this year. Excited, but never made an Easter dinner before! Honey Baked Ham? { laughs } If you have any yummy side dish recipes, please share in the comments! Thank you!!
Random
I get asked all the time things like what camera I use (the D700), what inspires me (too numerous to list within the confining walls of parentheses), what platform do I edit my images with (Photoshop Cs4) … I believe soon I will create a F.A.Q. part for the blog to help answer some of your questions.
Today let me just gush on how much I love Cs4! About three months ago I upgraded from Cs2 and although there is always some sort of learning curve with new versions of Photoshop, I love it! Especially Bridge — Bridge is how I comb through my sessions and sort the good from the not-so-good.
Now, you can totally customize the look of Bridge – below is how I have mine set up. Nice and easy (IMO). Just simply drag things around (put your cursor on the lines you want to drag) to change the look of your Bridge.
My fave feature is the compare (where you can compare two images side by side, obviously) and then the magnifier tool (which I use all the time!). I don’t do any actual editing in Bridge, just a way to view. In the example below I used the features with web sized files, but you can only truly appreciate its ability will full sized files.
Used on an edited full sized image, you can use the magnify to see the sharp quality of the eyes
Each photographer has their own editing style and process with which they edit. Photoshop, CaptureOne and Lightroom seem to be the most popular. One day I would love to give Lightroom a whirl, but I’ve got too much on my plate at the moment to try something new. Especially since I’m quite happy with my editing process at this time (if it ain’t broke …). However, if you are looking to learn more about Photoshop, I cannot recommend enough anything by Scott Kelby or NAPP.
Ps. You can now find Work of Heart Photograhpy on Facebook!
Back East
These were taken on our trip back to Pennsylvania and Ohio to visit family this past fall. We were blessed to hit the peak of the leaves. Although this week the weather in California has been downright terrible (which is rare), I am glad I am not back east in the freezing temps and cold snow!
You would think with all the barns abound one could find one to rent for a wedding reception (there’s only one in the immediate area of Pittsburgh that I can find) — if anyone knows of any farm or rustic places available for rent, please let me know!
My son is pretty easy to photograph; I suspect only due to the fact that I don’t take him out to do “shoots” as much as I did years back. When I lived back east I took for granted how easy it was to find shooting locations. In many places you couldn’t throw a rock without it landing on a potential shoot spot. California makes you work a bit harder; though I will say this, in California I can do outdoor work all year long!
The first one is my absolute favorite. How can I possibly choose which ones to print and how large? Perhaps put a gallery wall together. The blue tractor was at the bed & breakfast we stayed at in NE Ohio — they also had a beaten up old ladder fire truck and a run down property next door too. Loved it!
