Although I may or may not be one of them, most photographers I know are sticklers for file organization. For some of us, the thought of having random image files littered around the desktop is enough to have us chewing our nails with anxiety (again, I may or may not be just that neat ), and as much as a hierarchy of neatly ordered folders satisfy our needs, there’s always the need to backing up. Luckily, we all have a few options…

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I am a contemporary portraiture photographer but I have a thing for old-fashioned film photographs. Digital is nice, convenient, fast, crisp, and clean and so much more but there is something about film photographs that makes me stop and look at them just one moment longer than I initially planned.

Photography, Styling, and Make-up by Mira Crisp

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Image Source: Forbes.com

Most professional photographers are in it for the art. You love going out and capturing the most precious moments in life with just the right amount of personality and flare. You enjoy the creativity and ingenuity you put into Aperture or Photoshop to add the fine touches on your piece. You also get excited about packing it all up in a nice gift basket to present to your client.

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I went to the beach a while ago to take a few night photos. I waited for a clear and starry night to avoid the haze and get nice and crisp images. The night was perfect; moonless, no haze, a few stars and no people. The below photo was my first photo that night. I took it an hour or so after the sunset. That’s how I got a bit of color in the sky and the long exposure gave me this silky smooth water surface and captured a little of movement of the stars. I also had a couple of small clouds moving across the sky and they started getting smooth and silky, too.

 So, what do you need to capture beautiful smooth and silky water views at night?

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When we talk about photography triangle, we mainly refer to the exposure triangle: ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed. However, a triangle plays an important role in photography composition, too. I wrote about the Golden Triangle Rule here and this post will focus more on triangles in photography. Triangles are used in architecture, art and design and photography is not an exception at all. The shape of triangle enhances the order of items grouped together and draws the eye to towards the subject. In architecture, it also enforces the stability and strength of a construction. In photography, triangles boost the composition.

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I’ve been struggling with Adobe Photoshop lately. Not technically though… It’s been an ethical struggle wondering when is enough, really enough.

I started learning and using Photoshop in 2001. That’s 11 years of using Photoshop during which I’ve found many ways to hack Photoshop and get results using my own shortcuts. These days, I am capable of doing pretty much anything in Photoshop: adding, removing, shaping, reshaping, fixing, or destroying…  And that’s why I started asking myself… Just because I can do something, should I do it?

I can make people look 100 pounds slimmer but should I? I can remove all wrinkles and dark spots but is that necessary? I can make a 60 year-old woman look like she’s 40. Should I?

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Those of you who have been around for a while know how much I love Creative Live. Creative Live is one big virtual knowledge library for photographers and my main and prefered educational source. Many great things have started at Creative Live or  because of it and the most touching one I have seen in a while started during one of the Creative Live workshops. The brilliant Australian photographer Sue Bryce started a global movement with her story about Jill Conley and her fight and life with breast cancer. Jill was 31 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Please, watch the documentary and share the story. Most importantly, take care of your health – today.

The Light That Shines from hailey bartholomew on Vimeo.

Last year I watched a few photography workshops by brilliant photographer  Sue Bryce. She bases her work and success on careful posing; that’s what I am working on. Even though I am an experienced Photoshop user, there are two things that Photoshop cannot fix: out of focus images and wrong poses. That’s why I am spending a lot time on correct posing for my clients. After one of Sue Bryce’s workshops, I wrote Five Great Ways to Pose a Woman and I’ve focused on posing women in a flattering and appealing way since. I applied the first pose from that post: shooting from above during a recent session with this beautiful girl.

By shooting from slightly above, you enhance her eyes and the shape of her face.

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It’s finally time for glamour photography and is there a better occasion to offer promotional glamour photoshoots than Valentine’s Day? To help girls in Ft. Walton Beach – Crestview – Destin, Fl. area find a perfect gift for their loved ones or even just for themselves, I’ m offering a promotional glamour photo sessions at an incredibly low price. I am so excited to work with girls this Valentine’s Day! Valentine’s Day Glamour Photo-shoots for girls only are offered until February 3rd and include:

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Is an 8×10 print a standard in photography industry and why professional photographers work with 8×10 prints rather than with 8×12 prints? This question usually brings a smile to my face. You see, when I started taking photography classes, I was not aware that professional, full-frame (FX), cameras can actually take images at a 5:4 aspect ratio (an 8×10 print) while my DX camera was limited to taking images at DX 1.5x aspect ratio (8×12) only. With a DX camera, I had to crop my 8×12 images in Photoshop.

The Nikon DX format is an alternative name used by Nikon corporation for APS-C image sensor format being about 24×16 mm. Full Frame (FX) camera typically has a 36×24 mm sensor.

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The question everyone asks, researches, and doubts is the one what to wear for {any} photo session. And the answer is never simple as it always depends on the type of session, location, personalities, and even our ever-changing moods. For one of the holiday sessions this season, the family I worked with wore bright red… I loved it!

So, if you don’t know what to wear, please wear bright red! With that said, it is exactly one week left to take an advantage of the Holiday Mini Session and get your holiday photos at a mini price! Call today!

Seven weeks old and already talking to him momma!  

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Earlier this year I shared Photography Advice Worth Remembering series with  you. Each advice was written by a photo-blogger and today I am going to share one more with you. Today, Courtney of Click it Up a Notch is sharing her advice on learning and using aperture.

An aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels.

(Wikipedia)

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Her name is Jo but everyone calls her JoJo because it better suits her sweet personality. We got her three months ago when she was only eight weeks old. What can I tell you – she is the best dog ever and we feel like we had her forever! It took us a week to potty train her and teach her to sleep throughout the night. She loves to chase butterflies and leaves and it’s fun to watch her do that.

Jo never liked my camera but tonight she sat in front of me as I was setting up the space for tomorrow’s shoot. She kept moving her head up and down until I finally pointed the camera in her direction. Do I have any pet photo tips? Not really, I think the main portrait rules should to be applied for pet photos too:

• Keep the eyes in focus
• Pay attention to light
• Avoid double chin
• Have them interact with you

Also, if you are subscribed to Professional Photographer magazine or you just go to a newspaper stand and grab it, their November issues is dedicated to pet photography and you can learn from it. For instance, I learned that making an unusual noise will make most dogs react and smile for camera.

Here’s my little doggy model!

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Working with kids is something you, as a photographer, love or just prefer not to do. As a portrait photographer, I find adults easier to work with but kids are much more rewarding clients with their precious faces. And as we all know, kids are very spontaneous and free of that “do-I-look-good” fear that is so typical for teens and adults and that does not help when you’re trying to keep them still to get that perfect portrait.

So, to cope with these challenges, we all have our tricks and tips when shooting kids. And my main challenge for this holiday session was “what to do with this 10 weeks old baby girl”? She couldn’t sit among holiday props, she couldn’t crawl around the Christmas three, and she did not care about lights or toys. So what do you do to get beautiful holiday photos?

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Do you ever stumble upon your older photo or photos and get an urge to work them all over again? That’s what happened to me a few days ago. I was sorting my 2011 photos and I came across maternity photos I took at the island of Burano, Italy.  Not only I instantly had to go and make myself a cappuccino but I also had to retouch a few photos.

At the time I took these photos both of us, the expecting mom and I, lived in Italy. Probably because we lived in Italy, I did not feel like I needed to make photos more Italian. I loved the natural vivid color that Burano is famous for and I left it at that. However, I feel differently today. I kept looking at this photo and although it is clear to me that this one was taken in Italy, I kept wondering if there is a way to make it sooo Italian.

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Many of us like to add watermark to our images and there are many reasons why we do that. Here’s a few reasons why people like to watermark their photos:

- to protect them online from other people claiming them as their own

- to make them unusable for commercial or personal use without the author’s permission

- to tell people you have the copyright

- to give prospective clients information about the photographer so that they can look up for more of your work

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It is time for another Photography Advice Worth Remembering and this one is coming from Sarah Halstead. Sarah blogs over at The Naptime Momtog and she is one of the bloggers who  she brings you a new challenge every week, to stretch your shooting and editing skills through Tuesday Tutorials. This week I asked her what would her photography advice worth remembering be and she decided it would be on something that sounds very simple and yet it is very difficult to achieve. It requires a lot of practice, work, errors, time spent shooting, observing your own photographs as well as those of fellow photographers… It’s about finding your own photography style!

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One of my favorite photo bloggers is Cathy of Jack’s Paper Moon. I love stopping by at her blog to check out not only her creative studio-like photos but also the outfits she picks for her son Jack. Jack is the main subject in the photos and he makes her photos super adorable. Well, Cathy is joining us for Photography Advice Worth Remembering series with her tip on perseverance! While every photographer needs to be able to be patient and persistent, perseverance is crucial when it comes to kids’ photographers.

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Today a Photography Advice Worth Remembering is coming from Gina Keinworth of Gigi Marie the Chic Homeschool Mama. Many of you know Gina as an owner of Stylish Beach Bum and designer of beautiful camera straps. Gina is a very talented photographer who pays attention to details and captures meaningful photos. When I asked her what her advice would be, she said she always strives to capture sharp images and would advice everyone to work on their focusing. Therefore she is sharing a tip on getting a sharp focus. It is a unique one!

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Just like many of you, I too have lots of images that I am not very happy with. I no longer take a lot of photos simply because I prefer to enjoy time with family and friends rather than focusing on taking pictures. Actually, most of the time I don’t even carry a camera with me. So, as a result of taking very few photos for myself to remind me of places I have visited, and taking average snapshots that do not require a lot of time, I haven’t shared them with you. Most of them were taken with a 55-200mm or even 300mm zoom lens from a distance during not-so-perfect weather conditions, and captured in a lot of haze and fog.

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