August 31,2010

So the love affair with my nikon is back on...and although i didnt get to pick up Nik today....I hope to tomorrow...and every day after that this week. We are shooting 2 weddings on Saturday. If I said I wasnt a little nervous I would be lying. But I have faith in us! We make a great team and this will just prove to us how far we have come in the last year. We both love our cameras and what they can do for us.....I am ready for Saturday to be here and be over with....Is it Sunday yet....loving every minute of life!

Aug 30, 2010 A day I dont think I will ever forget.

I PICKED UP THE NIKON TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and it turned out to be a day I dont think I will ever forget. I watched a little boy's face light up and a very proud dad choke back a tear or 2 as the Judge signed the paperwork for them to be legally father and son. Now dont get me wrong....Mike has been Jayden's day for 3 years. Every since he and Carrie got together...he has been his dad in every sense of the word. Basically all today was, was giving them the same last name. I asked Jayden when I first got to the courthouse today who was it that was going to be a Holliday today...and he got the cutest grin on his face and looked at Mike and pointed to himself and very proudly said ME! I wanted to cry..I watched him as the Judge was going thru all the formalities and he was sooo cute....he was watching his Daddy like a hawk, and every time that Mike would put his hands in a different position or lean on the table Jayden would do it to exactly the same. If Mike laced his fingers Jayden would, if he put his hands in his lap and sat back...there went Jayden doing the same thing. He wanted to be just like his daddy!!!!! ..So after all was said and done....Jayden was walking out of the courthouse with me and I said are you happy that you are a Holliday and he said YEP TODAY IS MY LUCKY DAY! Mike looked at him and said NO Buddy, TODAY IS MY LUCKY DAY! and Jayden just grinned from ear to ear and they were playful for a few moments about who was the lucky one....Well in my opinion they are all very lucky to blessed with each other. But today I think I was lucky also.....because I got to capture that memory for them forever. I'll never forget the look on Mike's face when he looked at Jayden as the Judge asked him if understood that it would be FOREVER. Mike said yes sir....and honestly I don't think he would have it any other way! If I was never glad before that I picked up the camera.....I was extremely glad today....Congratulations Jayden Devon Holliday! You are one lucky little boy who is loved so much by your mommy and daddy! You and Hailey are both truly blessed!!!!

another day...a not so productive one

So...another day has passed that I didnt take out my camera....the Nikon is screaming at me.....HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO you wouldnt have all those pics to play with photoshop in if you hadnt used me....your going to run out if you dont take me out of this bag soon....Maybe tomorrow I will listen to the Nik...I do love her but I suddenly have this overwhelming lust of photoshop. Its almost as if I am having an affair...I feel bad but I just cant seem to stop myself...I only popped out 4 pictures today because I kept trying different things. I just cant get enough...I read somewhere the other day that there was thing called too many layers......and maybe there is and maybe once I have been playing with it a little longer I will understand that....BUT.....I AM SO NOT THERE YET....My beautiful sweet Tiffany, and my gorgeous bestie and my incredibly handsome hubby keep showing me all these things that I can do...and the more they show me the more I want to learn.....but alas tomorrow I must only do what I need to and get my orders filled......I'm a little sad but the quicker I get my work done the quicker I get to play....This week is probably going to be filled with edits and such. I need to be completely caught up by Friday. We are shooting a wedding on Saturday. So this week and the next couple of weeks will be mostly work and little play. I am loving life a little more every day....its all falling into place. I know that there will be mountains but it only makes the picture even sweeter at the top.....I cant wait to see what tomorrow brings.....because today was beautiful!

August 28, 2010

Well I said I was going to start over today...and I meant it. I didnt take a picture today...however I did edit one. or 300....LOL! Not really 300 but you know what I mean. My husband...(the photoshop enthusiast)got us CS5 a few weeks ago...I was so intimidated by photoshop that I was scared to even open the darn thing. I have had CS4 on my computer for I couldnt tell you how long...just sitting there because of my fear of using it and being a little scared to let my hubby which is also my business partner know that I couldnt figure it out. However, I was to the point that I didnt want to really shoot anymore because I HATED with a capital H HATED editing...when I would see the picture I would know exactly what I wanted it to look like. But getting it there....yeah that was certainly a journey within itself. I have several programs that I use to edit...each of them doing something different. But NONE of them doing it all as in a complete package. So getting it from point A to point J was a hassle with every single picture....I could vignette in one but couldn't soften the border of it. I could black and white or sepia in another but couldn't vignette....not to mention I couldn't change the colors of the vignette to be whatever I wanted it to be....if you couldn't tell by the time I got to the finished product to watermark it I had looked at it so long that I didn't like it anymore. So taking the pictures was great during the first part of the session and then I would remember that I would have to edit them....I wasn't happy. Well last night my hubby and I had a talk and he started just lightly showing me some stuff that he was doing and I was like well why don't you try this and we were figuring things out together... I think he already knew he was just trying to make me feel better about it ;) but we will go with that...LOL! The more I watched him do it....the more I liked it....The more I started playing with it today....It can go from point A to FINISHED>>>>>Labeled disk and all in this ONE fantabulous program!!!!! I am suddenly addicted and in love!!!! I am so kicking myself for not listening to him and using it long before now.....I finished a sitting and got well into another one today....I am so excited to see what tomorrow holds....this blog may very well turn into my love of photoshop and I!!! JK...I love my nikon and hope that I let go of photoshop long enough tomorrow to pick it up.....anyways...I have pried myself away for the night...so I am going to go to bed so that I can get up and play in photoshop again tomorrow....I can already hear it calling my name.....if I dont walk away RIGHT now....I am going to open it back up........NIGHT>...gotta go~

August 27, 2010

Well....I can honestly say that I have epically failed at this whole 365 thing. Life has gotten in the way. So I am going to U-Turn and start all over. Tomorrow will be my day 1 again.....I can do this. I will do this...Starting tomorrow. Tonight I am getting much needed photo shoppe tips from my hubby. I am super excited about all the things I am going to learn over the next 365 days on my personal journey.I am determined....so I am 12 days behind Shane and that is ok....I am going to learn a lot from him. He has been faithful and diligent at this and I am going to be also....So let the journey begin!!!!

continuation of yesterday.....

I am so excited to be learning something new every day in photography. I think every single day will be a learning process and for that I am thankful. I am always up for the challenge of learning something new and exciting. Yesterday it was a quick lesson in how to shoot manual. I have been shooting with this camera for almost a year....it is time to get off my booty and start learning about the settings. I cant shoot in Auto forever....well I could but what fun would that be.....so over the next several weeks I am going to start playing with the settings....I think I am going to like Manual. Shane wants me to learn how to shoot in raw first. We are going to talk about it today and I am going to weigh it out and see which ones I want to do first....I will let you know. Yesterday I did a Maternity shoot in manual and I think it came out pretty good. There is still a whole LOT that I dont know but I have the determination to learn. So off I go to reading. I hope everyone has a great day and hopefully I will post more tonight!

A new day for love between my camera and I

So I shot a maternity shoot in manual today.....thankfully my maternity shoot was 2 photographers,.....I learned so many things today that I dont even know where to begin to tell you about them. So I am just going to post my favorite picture from the shoot and blog some more tomorrow........