NCS 2012 Senior Pictures - Norlina, NC

One thing is obvious when you pull up in the driveway. Family is of the utmost importance to these folks. Ms. B wanted pictures of family incorporated into her senior shoot. Sweet!



Special shout out to MaryLou Wright for taming that beast of a reflector....and doing a fabulous job with this senior's hair. Mine has never stayed tame no matter how much you fry it with the flat iron. Must make an appointment with her.



Besides the beach, farm land is my favorite place to shoot.




She didn't think her brother would be up for pictures but once he saw it wasn't absolute torture to be in front of the camera, we did get him to agree to a few. I forget how many happy meals and trips to adventure island were promised for this. Hopefully Ms. B's salary is higher than mine to make good on those promises!



We had to get a few with her jersey since she plays not one, not two but three sports.



Work it girl!









Thanks to Ms. B and her family for a fun evening in Warren County, and for the glass of tea!

Senior pictures from the beach

We shot at Coquina Beach thanks to a tip from the amazingly talented Courtney Hathaway in Manteo. You see her photos and I'm fired. But I had to publicly thank her, it was the perfect spot.

This is my favorite of the night (if I have to pick just one) and it's going on their wall on a large canvas. I'm going to beg her mom to let me take a picture of it after they hang it :)



The sun was setting fast so I had Scott following us around with the flash on a light stand. Electronics, water, and wind typically don't mix but I'm just crazy enough to try it. And I love the results. Isn't she just gorgeous!




The sun set on us pretty quickly so I had the privilege of shooting at sunset and sunrise with this senior!



If you know anything about me, you know I'm not a morning person. The light at sunrise was so perfect, I'm actually considering offering sunrise sessions.



We really lucked up with gorgeous skies that morning



One last shot before we headed off to Bodie Island lighthouse


If you read any of my posts on our trip to the Outer Banks, you already know about the mosquito plague of biblical proportions. We only got a handful of shots at Bodie Island lighthouse. It was seriously unbearable, and even the park ranger was wearing a mosquito net hat. But she kept on smiling, even after I sprayed her full of Deep Woods Off.



You can see more here on facebook.

Thanks to my recent seniors (another session will be on the blog soon) I think they're now my favorite to shoot. Couldn't have had more fun with this! We're going back the first week of May, I'll let you know the details after Christmas.

My favorite- the reception

Last time we had a little peek at the ceremony and a few formal shots. Now for my favorite- the reception. This is the part I love; you get the best candid shots!

Cake by Audrey Dudley



end of the father-daughter dance







I now refer to the groom as Mr. GQ since he's always ready for the camera!





Father of the bride and his daughter (matron of honor) were tearing up the dance floor!



Flowers from Gregory Florist in South Boston



They had an awesome band, CatBaby!. Yes, this man is playing 2 saxophones!









Well look who caught the garter...The beautiful lady he's dancing with was the hair stylist of the day. She did such an awesome job!



We had less than 5 minutes before it started to rain again (no time to walk to the end of the path in front of the mansion, it was already sprinkling) but thank goodness we did grab a few outside that night. Berry Hill in South Boston is the perfect venue for weddings. The lovely couple....

Before and After

Got another before and after for you. This one took less than 4 minutes, and when you're as gorgeous as this senior you really don't need much. I prefer not to sit in CS4 all day and night, so there's not many photoshop tricks going on around here.


She's a little underexposed and pink so here's what I did:

lightroom 3-
upped the exposure slider a little, removed all sharpening (I'd rather do it in photoshop), clicked on calibration profile for this particular lens and exported, open in CS4
photoshop-
use levels dropper and picked the brightest spot on her shorts to set the white point.
new layer- levels again, this time the black dropper on her shirt to set the black point - masked that off the face and skin a little so it wouldn't be too contrasty.
Flattened layers.
Levels helps a HUGE amount. If you get your whites white and blacks black then color casts and other color issues are much easier to deal with IMO. I can't live without my levels adjustment....
Ran TRA pro retouch at 13% on skin
Flatten layers.
Ran Florabella milk and honey action 14%. The gold reflector already gave her a little golden glow, but the yellow tint in that particular action (along with levels adjustment) helped tone down all the pink.
Crop
Sharpen
Took less than 4 mins.
Very basic editing. A little goes a long way!

About that 4 minutes......calculate that times about 800 and then we see why wedding pictures take so long to finish! And there's a lot more to it than that. Renaming files, loading to galleries, culling images, etc.....

Dudley family - OBX portraits 2011

More Outer Banks beach portraits! We had the prettiest light at sunset....and it went away all too fast. Wish I'd had another hour!
Saying something like "hey, you've got 3 kids I know you can get closer than that" is probably not appropriate for normal sessions. But I know this family so they actually laughed. Be warned. If you schedule a family session, I will attempt to get photos of just you and your loved one too. I don't care about statistics, I still believe in forever. Maybe because I know I have that with Scott :)




Gorgeous kiddos!




A beautiful night in Nags Head, a beautiful family portrait if I do say so myself.

The Ceremony

When all invited guests but 1 make it to your wedding during a hurricane, that says a lot! Who wouldn't miss a chance to attend a beautiful wedding at Berry Hill Resort even if you do have to drive through South Boston in terrible weather? As icky as it was outside that day, it was twice as beautiful inside! Here's a few shots I loved from the ceremony and formals.



The Richmond Symphony String Quartet played while we waited for the beautiful bride




Look at that grin when the bride walked in!



Dad walking his daughter (baby of the family) down the aisle


The rings




The kiss! Don't miss that handsome little ring bearer.



The happy couple



A few formals-
The handsome groom and his groomsmen



The bride and her matron of honor, her sister


The bride and her father


And yes, I'm still capable of shooting in color. The bride loves black and white and so do I, so I'm having a fabulous time with these!
Next time.....the reception!

We're back from OBX beach portraits

I didn't want to leave the beach but I did want to leave the mosquitoes. Think I'm being dramatic? Check out this article for context. We went through 3 cans of deep woods OFF and I still have 40+ bites on my arms, 34 on one leg, and stopped counting on the other leg. Thought of posting a picture but trust me you don't want to see it. Starting bottle #2 of Benadryl this morning.

Despite the plague of mutant skeeters and the non stop rain the first few days we were there, it was beautiful. Sunrise Saturday totally made up for it. Haven't posted a before and after in a while so here you go....

Shot in RAW, auto white balance, ISO 400, 1/1600 SS, F4, D7000 with 35 1.8. I like to do most of my editing in lightroom but this one didn't need much. Screenshot so you can see I didn't monkey around with the settings. I sat there looking at the screen like...hey that's a cool picture, did I really take that?


Sometimes you just get lucky with beautiful light. And you have a husband who's sweet enough to hold a reflector just outside of the frame. And an amazing person in front of the camera. That's all it took.


Before on the left after on the right. In photoshop- I added a little contrast- 18%. Then a new saturation layer on the clouds- 20%. Then clicked levels and pulled in a little black for more contrast on her reflection in the water. That was at 12% and masked in only on the reflection. And I might go back and leave the reflection alone- haven't decided which way I like better yet. Sharpened. Tada.

So many photos I love from the beach sessions. Families and a Senior, I am one lucky girl!