Giving Back

When my good friend, Liz Labianca asked me to help assist at her group "Momtering" (mom mentoring) session, I was more than happy to tag along. 

I'm not going to lie, though, I was nervous. What if I got in the way? What if I wasn't as helpful as she needed me to be? Good Lord, what if one of the moms asked me a question that I didn't know the answer to! 

I was nervous about being put on the spot in a room full of strangers.

Well, it was a lot of worrying for nothing. Yes, of course, there were times where I second-guessed my helpfulness, times when I was put on the spot with a difficult question, times where my knowledge was challenged. But guess what else? For each moment where I felt useless, there were 5 where I felt that my presence was helpful. When challenged with a question, after stopping to think, I found that I already knew the answer. These amazing moms were enthusiastic, at times overwhelmed, but always eager to learn and apply their new-found knowledge. I learned something from them and their fearlessly confident teacher, Liz.

This experience made me realize that although there is always more to learn, I need to stop questioning where I am in my journey, and embrace it, share it.

 

I'm not sure if many of you know this about me, but I used to be a teacher. Participating in this day of learning made me realize something that I always used to instill in my students: teaching others something you have learned only instills a deeper understanding within yourself. 

 How quickly I had forgotten the power of sharing.

So thank you for the continued inspiration, Liz. 

And thank you to all of the moms for reminding me of this invaluable lesson.

 In honor of "giving back" I am going to start taking limited questions from you! Simply email your photography-related question to jmaconachy@yahoo.com. I'll be selecting a few questions once a week/month (who knows, I'm still working all of this out!) to answer right here on the blog,

starting...NOW!

So, ready? set? Submit!
(You can request for your name/info to remain private!)

*Included are selected images from Liz's Momtering session with my settings attached. 

Happy Shooting, friends! :)

Bunnies!

So, this year I offered very limited Bunny Mini-Sessions. They were a blast & the bunnies were just the cutest. I think it is a testament to the "adorable-ness" of my clients, that they can sit next to these cute & fuzzy bunnies, and STILL steal the show! Here are some of my favorites...

 

 

 

Framed

"Fathers be good to your daughters...

Daughters will love like you do."

 This photo was submitted to the I Heart Faces photo challenge – www.iheartfaces.com

18 months

So, I've been taking pictures of Q every month since that surreal day we brought her home from the hospital. Every month, I also wrote to her (old fashioned pen-and-paper-style) in my journal. After 12 months (when those convenient little onesie stickers ended) I stopped taking the monthly pictures. (Don't worry- she got plenty of camera time anyway!)
Well, I'm not sure what happened to time, but suddenly she is 18 months old...halfway to being 2!!! I figured it was a big enough milestone to break out the old "monthly picture" photo shoot again. I've always taken her monthly pictures in her bedroom, so I decided to keep with the theme. I also took a page from the fabulously inspiring DrewB, from Mom*Tog and decided to actually publish my letter to Q this time around. Skip to the pictures if you want. But, this one's for you, Q...

Q, Quinnie the Pooh Bear, Cake, Quinner, Quinosaurus, Quinniest, Bean, Pumpkin Noodle Soup (don't ask), Quinnie Boo Boo, Love Bucket, Angel Baby, My precious Quinlin Rhys--

       

Wow, I don't even know what happened...but all of a sudden you are 18 months old! That's half way to being 2...which Mommy can't even think about right now without tearing up. I thought you were such a big girl when you turned one a few months ago, and now when I look back at the pictures from your birthday party, you look like such a bitty baby. 

Daddy and I were looking at your pictures the other night, trying to pinpoint the exact time and place where you started looking so "old". We decided it happened somewhere in the past month. Something changed...your hair grew in, your chunk baby cheeks melted away, and you sprouted up like a little bean pole.

Although I miss cradling you in my arms and feeding you baby food, I love watching you grow, too. You are such a little person now with a mind of your own! You run EVERYWHERE, climb on EVERYTHING (I blame MyGym for that one), you love car rides, bathies, and eating. You request 'tatoes for every meal and say mmmm after every bite, which makes me just want to kiss those little mashed potato covered lips. You rock some major bed head, are obsessed with turtles, love reading, and you can't get enough of  "Melmo", "Buddies", "Mo" or "Rella" (aka Elmo, Curious Buddies, Nemo, or Tangled). Mommy's had quite enough of all of them, if I'm being honest.  You love stacking blocks until they topple over and you will sit and play with your Disney figurines for hours. I love finding them lined up on every and any hard surface around the house...except for the little purple octopus, which mommy constantly thinks is a tarantula.

You are such a free spirit and you are finally starting to give me the "cheese" face when I break out the camera. I know, as a photographer, I shouldn't encourage this....but it's the cutest little face I've ever seen and I want to pinch those tiny dimpled cheeks when you give me that smile! You love to dance, squeeze your puppy, and rearrange and delete all the apps on mommy's phone. You are also obsessed with the potty and it's hard to believe that I may need to actually start potty training you soon! 

You are my sunshine, and you always be. You are growing into such a loving, happy, spirited little girl and I love that you now have an opinion and a say in everything! (Did I mention that your new favorite word is "no"?) You seriously are a little ray of sunshine in our lives. I can't believe that there ever existed a time when you weren't in it!

I love you my tiny little angel girl...no matter how feisty you may be at times! As so, as I tell you every night before bed, "Mommy loves you Quinlin Rhys, more than anything in this whole wide world. She loves you forever and ever and always, no matter what. And don't you ever forget it."

xoxo

-Mommy

A little comparison.

(Don't judge my photography skills back then, baby...Mama didn't really know what she was doing!)  Eeeeee....look at how teensy you were!!

VDay Editing Sesh!

Happy Heart Day, friends!

Here's a little before and after with some super simple editing tips, from me to you. 

A little way of saying thank YOU for your continued support...it means more than you will ever know!

Ready to edit in 3 simple steps without using ANY actions? 

Here we go...

Straight out of camera image:

 

1. The very first thing I did was run a basic curves layer. I knew I wanted to brighten up the mid-tones but I also did not want to loose the colors of the sunset in the background, sooo after running curves (#1), I used a black brush to erase the curves layer just along the horizon line and the sky (#2). 

See the subtle difference?

#1

  

(with full curves layer applied- see how the colors from the sunset are all washed out?) 

 #2

(with horizon painted black to bring back color)

2. My next step was to add a yellow photo filter to warm up the skin tones. I lowered the opacity to about 20%. I then painted this off the rocks and the blue sky, leaving it just on her skin and on the horizon line. (I could have "sunnied" the image up using a few other steps, but I'm going to keep it simple for now!)

 

3. My last step was some major tinkering with 3 of my favorite tools...dodge, burn, and sponge! I burnt out the corner edges for depth, sponged over the colors I really wanted to "pop", and lastly did a quick (large, soft) dodge brush over her to make her really jump off the screen.

*Note: Be careful with the sponge tool. "Excessive Sponging" can cause some chromatic aberrations (I just learned alll about this!)  in your image (which I don't always mind, necessarily...but everyone has a different opinion!). Pretty sure I caused some in my final image but I don't mind for this particular photo.

 

Voila!

 Aside from some knit-picky cloning adjustments, that's all I did! Here's the finished image again along with a side by side b&a (so you don't need to keep scrolling to the top)! 

Hope you enjoyed this super simple 3 step edit!!

~Before & After~

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to let me know on FB or by leaving a comment below! 

(just so I know whether or not I should continue doing them!) 

 :)

Rock the Shot- Red!

You know how sometimes a photo just "clicks" with you? Well, that's what this one does for me. True, I've got about a gazillion photos of Miss Q, but there is something about this pictures that just melts my heart...the way her tiny little toes are dangling off the chair, the golden light in the background, the pops of red, her little eye peeping over her teddy...the way she is sqeezing the life out of that poor little bear!  I can almost see the face she's making behind that teddy, can't you? 

I love the sweetness of it, the simpleness. I feel like "Mama" is going to stick her head out the window of that little red house in the distance any minute and yell, "Dinner!" Anyone else getting the Little House on the Prairie vibe? No...just me? Ok (...maybe the tutu is throwing you off?)

 he he he.

This image was submitted to Rock the Shot's February Photo Challenge: RED. Head on over and check out some of the other amazing entries! 

www.rocktheshotforum.com

Finding the Light

A little confession...I've been just about stalking this workshop for months now. It's never been in the budget, so instead I just stalk the facebook page, watch for participants' posts about their latest "assignment" and what they have learned. I can't lie...I'm dying for a seat in this workshop! Dying!!!  

Well, here's the light at the end of the tunnel...Finding the Light Workshop is having a little contest! Some of the winners will be given discounts and free workshop seats! Do you have any idea how excited I would be?!

Anyways, the contest theme is "white"and all the rules and details are here:

Contest Rules

Finding the Light Workshop

Here's my shoot from a few mornings ago...included are 2 of my entries...but I won't tell you which they are! 

 fingers {...and toes} crossed