Weddings
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Families & Kids
Posted on July 27, 2011
I love weddings. I love this job. The fact that I get to be hand picked by a couple, spend one of the most important days of their lives with them, capture the memories that they never want to forget AND I get paid for it, well, it’s truly a blessing. The reception is probably my favorite part of the entire day. I have SO much fun working my way around the floor and getting some of my favorite shots of the day. In particular, the first dance is my favorite moment. It’s pretty much the only 3-4 minutes out of the couple’s entire day that they have some semblance of privacy. They’re alone in their own world, and they are able to take a few moments to just breathe. It’s in those few moments that their smiles are the biggest, their tears may flow, and their love for each other shines the brightest. And I get to stand back and capture it all in my lens. Its so lovely.
It’s moments like those that I’m going to miss the most.
As I was driving home from a shoot the other day, I was stressing about what was next on my to do list. And what came next, and next and what I couldn’t get to for a while. Then it hit me. This…peace. I practically heard God say “That’s enough.” It was as if I had been playing tug of war with myself and I just…dropped the rope. And the biggest sense of relief came over me. Not something I could ignore.
For a few moments, I thought I was being told to stop completely. To be done with LilyBelle Photography. But, I realized that was creating a pang in my chest. I love what I do. I love the rewards and I love how it makes me feel. I don’t think I could just…stop. But I realized that I was being told to cut back. And the biggest stress for me is editing weddings. It takes up SO much of my time. I told a friend of mine earlier today, “I spend 75% of my day in front of this computer. And the other 25% is spent trying to get my kids settled with food/diapers/clothes/naps/whatever so that I CAN work.” Its true. I’ve been so completely stressed since the beginning of this year. This has been the most stressful year of my life. On top of that, I don’t do anything fun with my girls. The only time we go anywhere is if my husband is around and he pulls me away from the computer so we can have family time. Have I mentioned that I haven’t even taken their yearly pics yet this year? I’ve been so focused on work, I haven’t made much time for them. I’m missing precious time with these girls, and I’m never going to get that time back. I had to think about what was most important in life. In MY life.
So, as of now, I will not be booking any more weddings until my girls are in school full time. Obviously, those of you who are booked and those who are practically booked (Joy & Kimberly) are set in stone and I’m looking forward to these last weddings with an air of excitement and a lighter heart. I’m also going to be able to second for Jenni O’Connor from Lion’s Roar Media when she needs me to. So, if you’d like me to photograph your wedding, give her a call and book me as your second photographer!
Meanwhile, starting next year I’ll be taking more sessions and concentrating on my photography on a smaller scale. And yes, I’ll be back. Once these beautiful girls are both in school full time, I’ll be able to devote more time to my work and I’ll be eager to get back and work those dance floors the only way I know how… with my lens. 
Thank you all for your understanding!
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Posted on July 9, 2010
Hooray for Friday!
Every Friday I <3 Faces posts a picture for the public to have fun editing. I LOVE doing this! I haven’t done one of these in a while, but this one caught my eye. I love the color of her skirt, and the railroad tracks are always fun.
Here’s the original:
Heres my first edit in LR2:
I cropped the photo and used the Spice preset from Pretty Presets.
Passed it over to PS5. I used the Eye Doctor action on her eyes from MCP Actions, and the Al Grungy texture from Life.Camera.Actions. I masked out the texture on her entirely. Here’s the outcome of that:
Then finally, I passed it back to PS5, added a little Powder Your Nose action on her legs from MCP Actions and despecked her legs. Passed it back to LR2, added Black +4 over the whole image, and -2.80 Exposure on the back of her shirt. Then I did -40 clarity and +25 brightness on her legs to smooth them out a bit more. I also erased some fly aways and fixed the shadow under her nose because it was bugging me.
Anyway, here’s the final image with my edits:
Posted on June 3, 2010
I get giddy over small things. Daisies, Johnny Noddy (is my family the only one who named the light reflecting on the walls?), coffee breaks, cereal boxes in the fridge, things like that. So, when a package I was waiting for came in the mail today, I of course was jumping up and down. For real, my daughter was even telling me to simmer down.
Ok, so these really are a small thing. I usually provide event cards at every wedding I shoot. Photogs, If you aren’t familiar with them, you might want to start. They are one of the best ways to provide advertisement for your business. They also provide a significant increase in print orders. As soon as dinner starts at the reception, I walk around to each table, introduce myself to the guests, let them know how long I’ll be there, and pass out a card to each guest, letting them know when the pictures will be up online to view. Every single table I go to, I get a “Oh! How nice,” or “That’s so wonderful!” They LOVE the cards. If you have a list that guests have to fill out with their email address that you pick up at the end of each night, stop. Notice how they aren’t usually filled out by all the guests? And really, how fun is it entering all those email addresses? Plus, I have to tell you, I booked a bride the week before her wedding because of the event cards! She wasn’t satisfied with the service of her current photographer, and she was terrified that she wasn’t going to see her pictures for months. She noticed the cards on the tables, fell in love with them and I was lucky enough to sit next to her at the reception. We talked, I was free, and the next week, I photographed one of the prettiest beach weddings I’ve had and I had my very first trash the dress session!
Order event cards. Collages.net provides them at a low cost and they have a simple drag and drop template. It takes me 5 minutes to order event cards for a wedding. The guests love them, the bride and groom love them, and you’ll love them! I promise!
Now, on to the source of my giddiness:
MAGNETS!! Oh joy, oh rapture! I was just saying last year how wonderful it would be if Collages.net made magnet event cards. Voila! I can see this being a wonderful thing. I know people lose the cards. I’ve had people call me and say “I don’t remember where that cute little card is, what’s the password?” I also believe people will find the magnets a little more valuable and use them as another favor or reminder from the wedding. On top of that, how often do you throw out magnets? My business name and website will be on their fridge for a long time. Every time they grab the milk, they’ll think of me. Ok, they’ll think of the lovely couple in the picture on their fridge, but still. When they think of photography, that magnet will be the first thing they think about. I hope.
So, photogs, I can’t stress it enough, event cards! Get ‘em!
Posted on May 27, 2010
I hear this a lot. To be honest, it breaks my heart. I feel like I NEED more pictures of me, there are hardly enough out there! Not because I’m hott and everyone needs to see. (That’s a given. 
) But because I want my kids to remember what I look like when I’m gone. I want them to pick up a picture of me and have fond memories. For me, capturing time in my lens is my job. I physically ache if I don’t have my camera to document something poignant in my life. I want more pictures of my kids, my husband, of my surroundings, and yes, even myself. Because it documents this little blip in time that is MY life. And I want my kids to be able to pass that on to their kids, and their kids, and so on.
So when I read this amazing post by Deb Schwedhelm, I wanted to scream “YES!” at my computer. Please, if you do anything today, read that post. It might just change how you view yourself in pictures.
Posted on May 25, 2010
I’ve been a Photoshop user since Photoshop 6 back in 2000. I’m a self taught PS user, as I am with most things, and it took me 10 years to learn what I know in Photoshop. (Don’t ask me about masks. I have no clue- I know, I know, they’re amazing. I haven’t figured them out yet. Give me a few more years.) So, when I went to a seminar “Captivated by the Light” with Ed Pierce back in (I think) 2008, I was blown away when he showed a bit of what Adobe Lightroom could do. It was as if it was built for me. Usually, when I would edit a wedding with Photoshop, it would take me days upon days upon days. Lets say I shot about 1000 pictures. I’d save all the original files onto a disc, and then make a copy of them all into a new folder on my hard drive. I’d open PS, and pull up 100 pictures at a time- PS would bog down if I loaded more. That would take about a half hour for them to be loaded up into Photoshop. Then I’d go through each picture one at a time, edit each one individually, crop, color correct, spot correct, etc. Then I’d save a copy of the new file, close it and move on to the next. If I didn’t want the picture, it just didn’t turn out right, or it was a double, whatever, I’d fill it black and save it. That way, when I went through the folder later, I could pick out each black filled picture and delete it from the folder. I had a few actions I used, but batches annoyed me, so I didn’t use them much. It would take me sometimes 3 hours to go through 100 pictures. Pretty much take up most, if not my whole day.
Then, Ed Pierce introduced me to Lightroom and it was love at first sight. Ok, maybe not love. I loved the idea of it. But, the idea of getting to know a new system, figuring out how it ticks, the ebb and flow of happiness and heartache, it was a bit daunting to me. After all, I’d had an 8 year love affair with Photoshop, and it was a good relationship. It made me happy. I had no idea there was a better fish in the sea. So I picked up Lightroom at the store and we went on a date. And that was it. We’ve been together ever since. I still see Photoshop quite often, and it works well with Lightroom actually. So, it’s not out of the picture by any means. But as far as my main workflow is concerned, Lightroom is the only one for me. (Ok, I’m done. You thought I was going to talk about threesomes, didn’t you?)
For the next few weeks (I haven’t decided how many, don’t pressure me.) I’m going to be giving some tips on how Lightroom has saved my workflow. Today, I’m just going to give a quick overview of the things I’ll be talking about and then I’ll actually go into depth on specific tips and tricks I use in the coming weeks. I’ve mentioned Lightroom to a bunch of other photographers and most have not even tried it. It’s daunting learning a new system when you’re so set in your current workflow system. But, trust me photogs, you’ll fall in love too.
Currently, my workflow goes like this:
1. Plug & Play (About 20 minutes. Yes. 20 minutes. Biggest time saver, ever.)
- Plug in my CF card
- Import all of my pics from a shoot (1000+ for weddings) into LR
- Save a copy of each pic onto the HD
- Label each picture with copyright metadata
- Create a collection for that shoot
3. Cull Images (Half hour to an hour)
- Go through each pic and label with a black or white flags (or no flag)
- Filter black flags and delete from collection
- White flags are to be edited for blog first
4. Edit for Blog (10-20 minutes maybe)
- Filter white flagged images
- Edit in LR
- Send to PS for any detail work (if needed)
- Edit in PS (if needed) and send back to LR
- Export to that shoot’s blog folder
After that, I’ll post sneak peeks and save the rest of my white flags for the final blog post. Then get back to LR.
5. Edit (Typically an hour for 200 photos. More if I’m super picky.)
- Go through each picture individually
- Fix white balance, color correct, contrast, saturation etc (if needed)
- Spot correct (If needed- I still love PS heal brush for this mostly, but LR is good for minor corrections)
- Apply a preset if needed
- Apply a color label if more editing is needed in PS
- Sync similar photos (This is my absolute favorite feature in LR. Hands down.)
6. Send to PS (Depends on the amount of editing needed- Typically it will take me an hour or two to get through all the PS labeled pics)
- Send blue labels to PS for sharpening (I still really love PS sharpening over LR)
- Send green labels to PS for minor fixes and spot healing
- Send red labels to PS for major editing
- Send yellow labels to PS for special actions and filters
7. Final run through (10 minutes)
- Run through each picture for quality control
- Fix any missed details
8. Export (20 minutes)
- Highlight all images and export high res copy to that shoot’s folder
- Highlight all images and export low res copy to that shoot’s folder
After that’s finished I backup the folder to disc. My extra HD and Carbonite backup each evening.
So, from start to finish, it will take me about 8-10 hours to edit an entire wedding with LR. I don’t do this all in one day, I’m still a stay at home mom after all. I typically work about 1-2 hours while a get a moment when the kids are asleep. Have I done it all in one day? I’m also a professional procrastinator, so yes. I have. But it is SO much faster with LR than with PS. There is no possible way I would ever be able to do a wedding in PS in one day. It would typically take me about 20 hours or more.
So, in the next few weeks, I’ll go into more depth about my workflow in LR. I’m still learning new things about LR everyday, so if you see something I might need to know, please feel free to share with me! I hope I can convince one or two of you out there to bring Lightroom into your life. There’s plenty of love to go around.
Posted on May 13, 2010
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and I thought I’d voice…er, write my opinion. There are a lot of trends going around in photography. Some trends are cliché, some are really good, and some are absolutely fantastic. What I’ve noticed as of late is photographers lashing out at each other about it. It’s not an all out war (yet), but I can’t get over the idea that we, as artists, should embrace creativity and experimentation, not hinder it.
I saw a great post on the MCP Actions blog about trends and fads and it got me thinking. Should I follow trends? Should I start my own? Or should I just stick to the basics: composition, lighting, balance etc? I think the answer lies within each of us as individuals. You may loathe trends. You might want to be as far from the line of lemmings as possible. You might want to start your own line. Or, if you’re like me, you delight in the trends and you happily trot on with the rest. I think the point is not to bash any one person for their opinion. It’s like telling someone who to fall in love with. You can’t. You can’t stop them from doing it, and you can’t tell them who to love. You can’t tell a photographer, or any artist for that matter, what they should and shouldn’t love about art. Not only that, but maybe my client loves the trend. Should I tell them I won’t create the image for them because I “just don’t wanna”?
The Maternal Lens has some great thought provoking questions of the day on their facebook page. There was one that caught my eye about a month ago: What is your favorite photography “trend” right now? Simple question. Most people started chiming in with their favorite trend of the week/month/year. However, the question sparked some debate on whether or not we should follow trends or not. By the time I saw it, the debate was already in full swing. I was actually upset to see photographers lashing out at those who like trends and poking at images that don’t follow the photography “rules” exactly. I, of course, had to voice my opinion in the matter.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not offended because I like the trends. I’m actually just disheartened that some photographers would tell other photographers, “You’re doing it wrong. MY way is the right way!” Are you kidding me? (Ok, simmer down, Christina.) It’s art. You can’t tell someone how to create! Why are there “rules” in art? Well, if you take a picture of a white daisy in the sunlight at 1/8 f2.8 ISO 3200, you will get a completely blank white image. So, obviously, there are guidelines that you should follow. But, in my opinion, to put yourself and your work in a box and follow these so called “rules” to an exact tee is BORING. Can you get amazing images this way? Of course! But they’re always perfect. So perfect they aren’t interesting sometimes. If that’s what you want though, go for it! If you want to experiment (this is art after all- get artsy!) and try different ways of composition, lighting, color, trends, go for it! Do NOT let anyone tell you how to be artistic. Look at Seurat! He started a trend in Pointillism with his painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Even Van Gogh got on the bandwagon with that trend. And do you think Picasso ever followed any rules? Talk about experimentation. Or, in the interest of photography, what about one of the most famous photographers of all time, Ansel Adams? The man was a master at darkroom manipulation! If I may be so bold, I’d like to believe he would have a copy of Photoshop and maybe some Totally Rad Actions at his disposal if he were alive today. Maybe just my wishful thinking there.
So, start your own trend, or follow the others! Do what you want! But please people, be nice. Don’t hate on other artists for not doing it your way. Admire them for their creativity and for their ability to experiment. Or look up to them for how their images come out perfect right in the camera, no Photoshop required. Above all, respect. I think there needs to be more respect among our peers in this industry. If you can’t respect, please do me a favor and stay in your perfect little box.
Thanks for the little rant.