Photography Heaven

I don't know if I have mentioned on the blog before but my baby sister is getting married this summer. When she got engaged I had a mini mid life crisis. She is ten years younger then me and there is no one in between us.

I remember holding her as a tiny baby thinking about her wedding day. I wanted to make sure to get a photo session in even though she has an officially photographer

(Oddly enough I some how didn't think I could handle shooting a wedding I am part of 8 months preggers and with 3 cuties on my own ha!) One of the things I have absolutely loved about being back in the states is the overwhelming amount of amazing locations to do photo shoots.

Every where I look there are little "hidden" spots that are perfect for photos.

I talked her into donning a retro outfit I put together and after some convincing got her fiance to go with it. We used the red suit case that our mom brought with her from Ireland when she moved her to marry my dad.

When I told them where I was taking them I think they thought I was a little crazy. I described it as the "McDonalds parking lot by my in-laws house". We both drove the '68 Volkswagen beetle in high school so I thought it would be fun to incorporate it.

We had to do some funny ones

Since her fiance is quiet the jokester

It was a fun shoot and it was nice that they already had their official engagements so there was literally nothing to have but a good time :)

In other photography new Evie is turning two soon and I wanted to get some shots for her birthday invite. I made her a dress using the easy peasy Sweet Dress pattern.

I quilted together a bunch of fun fabrics to make it since I couldn't decide on just one.

I made her some ruffly leggings using some tiny remnants of ruffle fabric.

Of course it involved a cupcake bribe.

There are soooo many cupcake stores here it is crazy! Evie started doing this new thing when I tell her to smile. She simply tips her head the side and stares at me. It is hilarious.

I am pretty excited to celebrate and cannot believe how fast she is growing up!!

My Go To Lens

I swear I am alive...barely ha! I swear there is a tutorial for how to make the Toe The Line Knock off dress coming. It has been a CRAZY week trying to organize shipments to three different locations, selling and giving tons of never used items away, AND doing a photoshoot every single night of the week! Yup, things have been busy. And since it is my policy to have a 24 hour turn around with clients and their pictures (I ABHORE waiting to get my DVD from photographers) I have been spending my "after the kids go to bed" time preparing DVD's etc. All this photography got me thinking that I haven't done a photography post in a while. Then I thought about the fact that LOTS of photographers just starting out really struggle with what lenses to spend their hard earned money on. Now of course this all depends on the type of photographer you are, your disposable income limit etc. I am basically a family photographer, specializing in children and newborns.

This means my subjects are wiggle, high energy and a good shot sometimes just means no one if picking their nose and everyone is looking at the camera (although I don't consider it a successful session unless I get 25 frame able shots)

Shooting families (often with pups as pictured above) means I don't often have the luxury of switching lenses several times. I have to have a go to lens that stays put until I feel I have gotten enough good shots that I can mix it up, take a break and put something fun on my camera.

This lens for me is the 50mm 1.8.

It is Uh-Mazing.... for the cost. At an average of $110 found HERE on amazon and HERE on B&H Photo for great deals, no beginning photographer should be with out it. All of the above pictures were taken with it. You could go a bit further and get the 1.2 but I find that I rarely go down below 2.8 when shooting children, unless I want that SUPER sharp amazingly clear close up shot.

To be honest I usually save shots like this for the end and snap on the splurge of my photographic career the 85mm 1.2.

This lens is prohibitively expensive and absolutely amazing in its color saturation and clarity. The problem is with family photography the 85mm demands LOTS of space and most of the time you will be shooting at 3.8 or higher so you won't really use the 1.2 soooooooo much.

If you can, go for it but I am TELLING you 8 times out of 10 my favorite pictures from a shoot are with the uber affordable 50mm 1.8. Which come on is 20% of the time worth 10 times the cost? I don't think so.

Now in closing I have to admit that I am a prime lens junky. I think the clarity they provide is stunning. The fact that they make YOU move not just zoom in and out means you get far more interesting angles and never stop moving (sounds exhausting ha!) I also shoot exclusively in manual. If you want the most out of the lenses you are spending your hard earned money on you have GOT to learn to use your camera to it's fullest. Take some courses, read some books, download some online manuals and practice, practice, practice ;) If you love it, this will never seem like work but always an opportunity to stretch your skills and do something you enjoy ha! Now I promise the next post will be the long awaited for Toe the Line Tutorial... just gotta do the photoshoot HA!!!!!

Guest Posting

We have been having torrential, I mean insane, rain here over the weekend, which means a long string of power outages and no internet. While I was attempting to create a post from my hubbies phone I got so frustrated and was having a minor temper tantrum when I thought about how absolutely ridiculous I was being and how grateful I should be that I was in a home that barely leaked and had plenty of supplies to last a long crisis needs be. This is miles away from the majority of those that live around us here in Timor. So, I put down the phone and decided the post could wait and spent the rest of the day cooking muffins to giveaway. But Monday is here and the sun is shinning! So, have ya'll been following the "DIYers Big Ticket Item" posts Kathleen is doing over on Grosgrain? I follow everything Kathleen does ha! One of the items she talked about was Photoshop. I am obviously a huge fan of Photoshop and am constantly learning something new about it. It's price tag does make it prohibitive though, but today is your lucky day! Shauna over at Schwin and Schwin is GIVING AWAY a Photoshop suite! I know! It is huge! When she emailed and talked to me about it I was pretty floored. This is a huge opportunity for a lot of photographers and creators to take their work to the next level. She asked if I would be willing to teach a few tricks I use in photoshop and I said "heck yes!" (even though I fell 100% inadequate to be teaching anyone to do anything in photoshop ha!) If you would like to know the quirky ways I sometimes soften skin or brighten eyes subtly taking a photo from this:

to this:

Then hop on over! And HELLO! Do whatever it takes to get yourself entered into this giveaway!

Landscape Photography

I have missed doing photography posts and although I would love to share some of the pics I have taken while here in Singapore, as per my usual pre traveling, frantically packing self, I left my cable that hooks my camera to my computer at home. Yup, I do this every time. I actually own 3 card readers and two cables because I do it so often and usually can't stand to wait until we get home to get the pictures off. But this week I have been thinking a lot about a type of photography that I am really horrible at, Landscape photography. Now I can take a fine picture of a barn on a hillside in the fall probably as well as the next person but I really struggle with how to make everyday scenes interesting.

How to add drama through black and white editing etc.

My lovely photographer friend Leah has wowed me again in this very area and I just had to share some of her breathtaking pictures and the site she created for them, with you. This summer she blogged about taking some landscape pictures at the ranch they vacation at. She posted a few and I thought they were lovely and then didn't think much of it again until she posted about the book she commissioned with all here pictures in it. (You can see the results of the book HERE)

She also created a site for Shinning Mountain Ranch that, well, I am not going to lie after seeing all the pictures I am dying to take my kids there and I have NEVER, even briefly, thought about going to Montana before ha!

I have always enjoyed being able to document my families growth and their wonderful smiles but I have been thinking lately how fantastic it would be to be able to decorate our walls with amazing landscape photos that I actually took, not Ansle Adams ha!

I guess maybe I just need to jump into it and start snapping away. Timor offers an overwhelming number of locations to shoot. Maybe every now and then I can share some with ya'll and you can tell me what you think. Heaven knows there is going to be a learning curve here and at first you might think, um Kelly, that is a totally uninteresting picture ha! If anyone has any good learning sites let me know. It seems this corner of the photography world is mainly dominated by older men, so I am really proud of Leah for carving in her niche! Pop on over to either site and enjoy some soothing pictures of our beautiful state of Montana! Meanwhile I have one more day in Singapore then it is home to Timor. Finn and I are quite excited to head home. We miss our family (and I think Finn is getting sick of me, he has stopped laughing at my jokes and just stares at me now ha!)

PS. All photos are Property of Leah Miller Photography. Please do not use them without her expressed consent. I have made sure they are unclickable but I know there are ways around it. She does beautiful work and is an equally beautiful person to work with so if you like her pictures contact her, don't take them :) 

Newborn Tips Part Two!

The last post was deleted due to minor controversy and I thought it would be easiest just to delete it. 


I wanted to finish my tips for newborn shoots with talking about making your own in home studio. Now bear in mind this is for the beginning photographer who is still working with natural light. This is my own little system which may not work for everyone, but when I was starting out and I couldn't sink thousands of dollars on lighting, backdrops etc. it worked out pretty great! First I found an area in my home that received lots of soft natural light for an extended period of time. This then became "my spot" I moved everything out of the space giving myself about a three foot by five foot area to work with. (You can of course work with a smaller space, I was just lucky that this was at a location we never used) I then purchased myself an inexpensive curtain rod from Target, mine was $1.99:

If you know you are going to keep this location for a long time you can go ahead and screw the hardware into the wall. Since we are never anywhere to terribly long I use 3m hooks instead! That way when I am done I simply pull them off the wall and take them with me. 

I place one 3M hook about 3 feet off the ground. Then I use my leveler to place the second hook a little over 2 feet straight across (as long as your curtain rode opens that wide), at the same height as the first.  I then went in search of some good "backdrop" fabric. I perused my favorite back drop website "Drop It Modern" to get an idea of what would look good. 

I have found that the thicker the fabric the better. I usually stick to the home decor section. It is great to find some fabric with dimension such as a damask with a lifted velvet. These look great in pictures. One of my favorites is from Ikea:

Once I have found some great fabric, I purchase at least two yards (the more you have to work with the better) I take it home and wash it per the instructions then iron the heck out of it :) I then sew a hem across the top wide enough for the curtain rod to slide through.  Taddah back drop! 

Now for my favorite part. Since I like an array of poses (some close, some full body etc) and I didn't have super cute wood floor in my apartment I went searching for a solution. I found different sites selling different "barn wood flooring mats" etc. but they were too expensive. Then I was walking through Home Depot and saw a gorgeous, but opened box of white birch wood flooring. 

I hauled it up to the customer service and asked the manager how much he wanted for it (there were two pieces missing). He looked it over and said "five bucks". I almost dropped it on the floor. I bought it and ran to my car before he could change his mind. I set up my backdrop curtain and then snapped together the pieces of wood flooring. I was worried that there wouldn't be enough space but there was PLENTY! I was so excited I made all my kids come over and lay on it for some pictures

Once my backdrop is set up I slide my pieced together flooring up against the wall so it is nice and flush. 

Now if I catch some of the flooring it will look cute! Then if you have these Sugar Snappers actions under your belt and you don't even have to worry about buying another set of flooring: 

I also use the wood flooring covered with pretty fabric for top view pictures. This way the fabric lays nice and flat and the basket rest evenly. 

What is great about this is when I am done I simply unsnap the boards and put them in a closet, take down the curtain rod and fold up the fabric! Easy up, easy down! I hope this helps if you have been toying with the idea of doing studio photography. If nothing else you can do this set up super affordably and take some fun pictures of your kiddos! Happy picture taking!

You want a piece of me?

Okay so that sounds like I am looking for a fight or something ha! Which as you can see by the sad state of voting over at Project Run and Play I am not that major of a contender so of course I wouldn't be picking a fight.

What I am doing is getting excited for my visit to the states this May and June.

We are booking flights and figuring out where we are going to stay when. Plus I am working on something BIG I am hoping to pull off. 

Anyway after talking to the hubs about said something BIG I will be offering a VERY limited number of Photography Sessions while I am home in the states.

I really would love to go to some of my favorite old haunts to photograph but only have a few days that are free.

All the pertinent information can be found HERE on my site. Please email me if you would like to set up a session.

This will be first come first serve :) 

I am only available for one session in Southern California (Anaheim area) in the middle of June and the rest of the time will be spent in and around Salt Lake City, UT (although I will be sneaking off to DC and Williamsburg, VA briefly). 

Hope I get to meet you!
PS To keep it more about SINML I used only pictures I have used on this website. To see actual session pics hop on over to my photography site HERE. 
PPS. If you haven't voted yet Puh-lease pretty please head over to Project Run and Play and vote. Although I think my design is a bit beyond the hope of wining now ha!