Vibe Sale Today

I got a Black Friday email from Vibe and thought I'd pass along the news...their entire shop is 50% off today. I use their Mixed Ride action set (for Elements 5...but it works fine in CS4 now too) quite a bit. I use the Gentle Boost action on nearly every single image I edit, and use the Botox Brush action on newborns.

Go to their site HERE, and happy shopping!

These are a few of my favorite (photography) things...

I've been compiling this list in my mind for a while now, and figure it'd be better to share them sooner than later!

1. MCP Actions Touch of Light/Touch of Darkness action (found free HERE, along with her other free actions). I've used this on almost all my photos lately. LOVE IT. I typically use it to softly lighten up a few areas of the face - especially around the eyes. Just follow her directions to use it. I use it at 20% on the brush, and sometimes change the opacity of the layer to 80%.

2. High Pass Filter. This is how I've sharpened my photos lately for print (for online viewing I do additional sharpening as detailed in my Help on Posting Images post HERE). I followed Stacey Bishop's tutorial HERE and it's very easy. I created an action that does a high pass filter and then changes the opacity to 50%, which is typically how I leave it.

3. Understanding Exposure, by Bryan Peterson. If I haven't mentioned this book before on my blog, I should have. This is my absolute favorite photography book and it's what catapulted me from shooting on the "P" setting to manual this summer. Yes, you read that right, I only started shooting manual this summer (ouch, it's painful to admit). This book made everything click for me. If you haven't read it, please oh please do. I rented the old film version from our library and it was phenomenal.

4. Shortcuts for zooming in/out. I can't remember where I read this (maybe Digital Photography School's blog?) but I use it all. the. time. Hold down Ctrl + Space bar as a shortcut to the zoom in tool, and Ctrl + Alt as a shortcut to the zoom out tool. This has saved me so much time and I don't know that I would ever have figured it out on my own. Also, if you double-click on the hand tool (looks like a white hand), your image will fill the screen (use this ALL THE TIME too!), and if you double-click on the zoom tool (looks like a magnifying glass), your image will go to 100%. These are such handy tricks I only recently learned about.

5. Highlight/Shadow Clipping Warning in Camera Raw.

Recently, I somehow accidentally turned on my Highlight/Shadow Clipping Warnings in Camera Raw. I LOVE THIS!! Here's a screen shot. Look in the upper right-hand corner where the histogram is. There's a triangle at the shadow end and another at the highlight end. Click on those so that the warnings are activated. Essentially, this means when your highlights are blown (or clipped on the histogram), they'll show up as red on your image, and when your shadows are blown (or clipped), they'll show up as blue. You can see in my image above that there's a bit of both in my image. I then move the exposure slider over until the red disappears (unless it's on a part of the image that I don't care about, like the background if my subject is backlit) and not further, since you want to push your histogram as far as possible without clipping. This has really helped me figure out how to better nail my exposure as I see I consistently over-expose a bit, even though to my eye it's not over-exposed (if that makes sense).

6. Learning to read my histogram. Along those same lines, these videos on learning to read your histogram to nail your exposure were helpful to me, posted on MCP Action's site and created by John Mireles:

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

Well, that's all for now! Hopefully this helps someone out there. Let me know if any of this doesn't make sense!

G Family | Philadelphia Child Photographer

Here is what will likely be my last outdoor session of the year, and likely until next Spring. These girls were adorable!! I loved their outfits and they were so sweet with each other. The first set of pictures speak to me about the bond they have with each other already. I was going for a classic look, but that embodied a bit of what childhood is about...out in a grassy field on a doll bed. Not sure why that touches me as what childhood is about, but it does. Hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

Meet Rachel (4) and Laila (almost 2)











Laila makes some great faces...had to include this one.


Showing me her "sunflower" (which is her favorite).





























I love all the images where Rachel is smiling at Laila.








Doesn't that big smile just make you want to smile?








What a beautiful family.




















Thanks so much for working hard alongside me to get these images! It was great to meet you and I'm glad we were able to pull this off last minute. :)

B Family | Philadelphia Child Photographer

Another (non) Mini Session from last weekend. I'm posting tons because I love them all. This family was a blast to work with and I have to admit I got extra excited when I saw the little guy's red hair. Meet Joe Joe (18 months) and his big brother Gideon (4 years) and their super fun parents.

So great to meet your cute family...I hope your drive home was less eventful than your drive to the session! :)

W Family | Philadelphia Family Photographer

I met this adorable family for an outdoor mini session last weekend. I learned that I really can't do outdoor mini sessions! I took a lot of pictures and edited far more than I was planning on because I simply couldn't just toss those priceless moments. Dylan (13 months) did his job and gave me a run for my money at times. He's so cute and all over the place and was in heaven outside running around.

He LOVED the trike I brought...and I think Santa was listening!















I love Dad's smile in this one...is it the picture of contentment or what?
































Thanks W Family...enjoy!

J Family | Philadelphia Family Photographer

Awww...love this family. They're some of our bestest friends ever and it's a tradition of ours to take each other's family pictures every year. Last fall I drove by this little park close to our home and knew I wanted to do pictures there this year. I love the wildness of the foliage and the diverse texture. So without further ado, the J family:

Carson thinks Tommy and Cameron are in our family. :)


Like it in b/w too.


3 1/2 years old!














I'll post some of what Clar got of our family sometime soon...

Outdoor Mini Sessions | Philadelphia Family Photographer

Since the weather warmed up a bit, and I had several families on a waiting list in case I had any more availability this fall, I decided to hold an afternoon of mini sessions THIS Saturday, November 7th. I only have ONE more spot available.

The details:

Saturday, November 7th 3:30pm
$75.00
20-25 min session
5-7 images on a disc
Merion Park (on Merion Rd. off of City Ave.)

If you're interested, email me ASAP!

Strasburg Railroad | Philadelphia Family Photographer

Yesterday we drove out to Lancaster with my dad, who was in town. We stopped by the Strasburg Railroad Station on our way home and I love these. A train pulled up a few minutes after we arrived...perfect timing.

It's so beautiful near Lancaster.

















(It was a windy day :)

C Family | Philadelphia Family Photographer

What a treat this session was! The C Family moved from Philly to Vermont a few months ago, but came down for a visit last weekend and we were able to squeeze in a session. The forecast was rain all day, but we wanted it to work out so badly...and it did! We had a half hour or so of rainfree morning and then we pulled out the umbrellas and they worked it.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention why this session was such a treat...A) how cute are they? B) they were just placed with their beautiful baby girl not long ago and wanted to document their darling family in Philadelphia! I absolutely love working with families that have adopted...the love in this family was so apparent, and it always makes me extra grateful for my beautiful children.

Love Park.

Had to include this outtake...Mom's got a hand on her head and a baby sucking on her arm!


Handsome Tayeson (5 yrs)





And darling Ezmai (2 mos)








Umbrellas on Broad Street





Hope you made it home safe and sound...it was lovely to finally meet you. Good luck with everything, C Family!

Daven | Philadelphia Child Photographer

Meet handsome Daven, the six year-old cutie I did a portrait session with last week. He was so cooperative and went along with all of my chair-moving and spot-finding in the alley (maybe I'll start capitalizing it? The Alley?). I look forward to more sessions with this family in the future.

Love that darling gap!


What a cool dude.











We had planned an indoor mini session, but it was so nice outside we did most of the shots outdoors...but then we finished up with a couple inside.





Thanks, M family - your gallery's coming soon!