Lauren: Senior 2008

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Lauren and her mom, Liz, met with me this past week down at the City Market for a fantastic day of shooting! These two ladies, well, I just gotta say this…they rock! Lauren’s energy was bursting and she was smiling and laughing from the word go. She is an energetic and spunky cheerleader. She has a great sense of laid back style and a fun laugh…I had a lot of fun and I hope they did, too. We got some fun shots here and there that may need some explaining, but please tell me what you think of the photos.

For all you photographer’s out there, I added a 24mm f/2.8 to my arsenal. Snagged it off ebay. I also shot this whole session in manual mode (for all my years shooting, I have used Aperture priority unless I am shooting in the studio). It was a total learning experience for me. As long as I remember to check my settings in each new spot, I do okay…I also noticed I was able consistently process the photos that much faster using my Lightroom presets. Yeah!

Without further ado….here’s the pics. Lauren, I hope you dig them as much as I do.

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A little bit of 5′2″ fun with a Minsky’s menu inside the restaurant …Ha! 

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Look who’s behind door number one!

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Cheerleader getting a bit of air! I love this little 24mm lens. Way cool for shots like these. 

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Man, you can’t hide from all the tourists around these days! :-)

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The tears in her eyes are from the bright, bright sky…not from seeing my ugly mug. Be nice to me, people! :-D

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Wow. The slightly overcast day made for amazing lighting…It looks like it is studio light, but it is all real. Photographers! Go find the light and make it work for you!

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Gotta love the reflections.

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Stop laughing at your mom, Lauren! Goodness, where’s the respect?!  Ha!

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Kiss and make up. 

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Aaaaaaagggh! Too much fun!

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Tell me what you think, folks! I really want to hear from you.

Seriously. Tell me already. :-)

Charlotte: Senior 2008

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Charlotte was wonderful! Quiet, fun and mature with a radiant smile! Charlotte and her Grandpa met me at a beautiful little church in Gladstone where we proceeded to take advantage of our surroundings. Lots of cool little nooks to shoot in! Also, she came prepared with lots of great clothes to choose from, which always makes for a fun time of outfit picking and brings variety to the photos.

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Don’t mind me…or the “artistically” out of focus image. Okay, not so artistically, but just plain out of focus. It’s hard shooting a self-portrait with regular arms and a 50mm on a cropped sensor! :-)

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From the Archives: #003

From the Archives: #003

To continue with the “From the Archives” series, I wanted to share one of my all-time favorites that I shot of the talented model/actor/singer/dancer, DJ Rouse.

I chose this image because I originally processed it with this not-so-nice, greenish tint that looked kinda funky, but didn’t bring out the full potential of the image. Since it was originally processed poorly, with fresh eyes and my new Lightroom Presets, I saw some potential with this image with the new post-processing. I am very happy with the results.

Session Notes: This was shot in natural light, mid-day, with my trusty old Nikon D70 and my 50mm f/1.4. I shot it in RAW and processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. We had just poured water all over his head with a jug so he had kind of a wet appearance. He was a good sport and went along with it for some pretty cool results. This was re-processed with Steller Lightroom Presets (Gray Craze Warmer).

Gray Craze Warmer Preset

Here is the original RAW file next to the Gray series preset, Gray Craze Warmer. This is only one of the 52 presets included!

Presets

See this image on my Flickr.

Steller Lightroom Presets

Attention Photographers!

Steller Lightroom Presets!

After many people have inquired about purchasing my Adobe Lightroom Steller Presets, I am proud to say that I finally have everything ready for delivery! There are 52 individual quality presets in the collection being offered at the special introductory offer of only $40!

Lightroom? Presets? Why? These presets allow me to artistically process hundreds of photos for proofing in a quick amount of time, all while giving each photo a little unique love of it’s own! Your clients will love you for the speedy turnaround and the “artistic” style that you are able to share.

With Lightroom’s lightning-fast mouse-over preview function, these presets offer a great starting place for sparking your creativity. After selecting the preset you want, you are able to tweak the settings to fit the photo (maybe just increasing the exposure or bumping the saturation), then sync those custom settings with every similar photo from the session. Ta-da! You’ve got it made and you get to spend more time do what you love…taking photos!

After processing in Lightroom, editing in Photoshop becomes a relative breeze. I usually refine each photo with a trusted action (Check out my favorites from Doug Boutwell – Totally Rad Actions) or set of steps to maximize the photo and then I am done!

Here is a preview of some of the presets in action on some of my favorite photos.

Steller Lightroom Presets!

Find out more about the Steller Presets!