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.

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.

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!

The H family

We started planning this in March. I had no clue if anyone would schedule a session, but it's something I really wanted to do so I took a chance and hoped it would all work out. Reservations on the house with Village Realty went smoothly, everyone in the family stayed healthy, and we even dodged a bullet with Hurricane Irene. But as soon as we arrived in the OBX on Saturday, the bottom fell out. It has rained every day, and was non stop Saturday and Sunday with weather channel calling for 6 inches in that time frame.
Sunday morning around 9am we finally caught a break. I had 45 minutes with just sprinkles here and there to photograph the Harris family. Soon as we walked off the beach it poured again. Just in time! The weather was awful but they kept on smiling! They were awesome! Cindy said even a bad day at the beach is better than a good day at home. Since we're from Warren county, I have to agree with her.




Love this in a 10x20 crop



I can't tell you how thankful I am that God has blessed me with such wonderful people to work with. I mean it when I say I have the best clients ever! Thank you so much for supporting me. For making the drive down here, those of you who made it, those of you who planned on making it and couldn't due to a chunk of HWY 12 missing, and those of you who will be here later this week.....thank you, thank you thank you. You make my heart happy!

Raining cats and dogs

But just after that we caught a break for a few hours. Long enough to head to the beach.





Nice and deserted! Kassi claims the water wasn't cold.


Sandi wanted me to come back and add this picture with her beloved pink snuggie. Cell phone cameras do come in handy sometimes...

Beach Bums {beach family portraits NC OBX}

Howdy beach bums! Promised I'd keep you updated so here we go. Looks like we have 4 spots left Monday-Thursday Sept 26-29. If you're on the fence, go ahead and get it scheduled. We even have a back-up plan for rain. Beautiful pier and gazebo on the sound where we're staying. I can't wait!

Beach Bums! {Outer Banks Beach Photographer}

***as of 4/18: 24th-25th is booked. Now we have the 26-30th and one spot at sunrise on Oct 1st. Will keep you updated in this post****

Raise your hand if you love the beach.
Super geeked out over this one folks! I mentioned this before it was set in stone and already have 2 spots taken, 2 more pending. So here's the official announcement.....you ready? I am! Click on the ad for larger view


Adios and Vaya Caminos! The countdown to Nags Head starts now! Spread the word!

Boys! {NC Beach Photographer}

We went on a family vacation to Myrtle Beach back in June. As luck would have it, an old friend and her best friend were there around the same time. So we got together with the kids for a little session on the beach. It was a challenge, so thank goodness I had beautiful subjects! Sand was flying everywhere and it was close to 100 degrees even in the afternoon. But look how cute these little guys are....