New product from S&S Humboldt Weddings

S&S Humboldt Weddings is proud to show off it's newest product that is offered with some packages. It's a 20x20 canvas collage of 48 photos from your wedding day. You know you want one...


Check out our website....

Sneak Peak

Here's a little sneak peak of my "in progress but almost done" studio space....

10 biggest mistakes

We all make mistakes as we learn. I thought I would share with you the 10 biggest mistakes I made when I first got serious about photography and started doing "photo shoots"... (in no particular order)

1. Using a wrinkled sheet as a backdrop. It's easy to do, but it just screams amateur. If you are just starting out, try a large sheet of felt or fleece. Or better yet, use the outdoors.

2. Using too many cheesy props. I don't have a problem with props if they are used sparingly. Simple is better in my opinion.

3. Placing my subject too close to the backdrop. This causes weird shadows sometimes and reduces your ability to blur the background.

4. Assuming that it was a good idea to let the camera make all the decisions (i.e. shoot in auto).

5. Letting the photography judges at the Humboldt County Fair determine my opinion of myself as a photographer. Judges have their own opinions, likes, and dislikes. Just because they didn't choose my images as winners does not mean that I don't have photography talent.

6. Falling into the mindset that "It doesn't matter if I get a good photo.... I will just fix it in Photoshop." Bad, bad idea! Photoshop should be used for enhancing photos, doing small cosmetic fixes, and fun design projects.

7. Spending way too much time fixing images in Photoshop that should've been just deleted. You can't save 'em all! Sometimes it's just better to delete and try to get the image later.

8. Trying to imitate other photographers' style rather than finding my own. It's easy to do. I still get inspiration from other photographers and artists, but I use it to help me find my own style.

9. Settling for a murky looking black and white image. B&Ws have always been tough for me. I am just now getting comfortable with my conversion method.

10. Avoiding reading my camera manual. This is so important. It is especially helpful when you sit down with the camera and go through the manual step-by-step while you play with all the functions.

Any other photographers out there, feel free to add your "biggest mistakes" in the comments section.

Busy but good weekend

J.T. was gone all last week with Pam and Charlie. He went to Ellensburg, WA to visit Charlie's family. Andy and Abigail left on Thursday for 4H horse camp at Cuneo Creek in Southern Humboldt. This left me with a unusual weekend to myself!

First on my list was a police ride-a-long with my BFF, Sergeant Sandi, with the Humboldt State Police Department. We had a fabulous time cruising around and talking about everything under the sun. We didn't, however, have any excitement or have to deal with any bad guys. I am going to do another ride-a-along sometime when Humboldt State is back in session. I was with Sandi from about 7:30 pm until 2:30 am. I got home around 3:15 am and got a few hours of sleep. I wasn't as tired as I thought I would be.... until later on Friday afternoon when I took a 3.5 hour nap.

I had a relaxing Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. On Saturday afternoon, I headed down to 4H horse camp to spend the night. It was much warmer down there so it was nice to find some sunshine!

We were all pretty tired by the end of the weekend, but it was fun that we all were all able to do some new and different things!

Doing some market research

I am doing a little market research if you wouldn't mind responding to my survey...


Survey Results - GlowDay.com

Thanks!!

New family photo

I wanted to do a new family photo while we were in Hawaii this year but I wanted to do something a little different. This was taken on our favorite bench at the resort. Andy and I spent some time here most mornings enjoying our coffee. Now when we look at this photo up on the wall, we can remember what it felt like to look out into the ocean....

2010 Fair Entries

I took my photography fair entries in today. The fair doesn't start until August 12 but entries had to be in today or tomorrow. I entered the "professional" category this year for the first time. We will see how it goes... Here are my two:

Lots of random things...

1. What is your occupation right now? mom, wife, photographer, office manager

2. What color are your socks right now? not wearing any

3. What are you listening to right now? nothing

4. What was the last thing that you ate? cereal

5. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes!

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Abigail

7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? not sure where it came from

8. How old are you today? 35

9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? Nascar

10. What is your favorite drink? water or coffee

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Nope

12. Favorite food? Sushi or steak

13. What is the last movie you watched? Legally Blonde

14. Favorite day of the year? Don't know

15. How do you vent anger? talk to my BFF

16. What was your favorite toy as a child? Barbies

17. What is your favorite season? Fall - love the colors and weather

18. Cherries or Blueberries? blueberries

19. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? of course

20. Who is the most likely to respond? not sure

21. Who is least likely to respond? no clue

22. Living arrangements? with my family in our new house

23. When was the last time you cried? couple weeks ago

24. What is on the floor of your closet? clothes

25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending to? no clue

26. What did you do last night? went out to dinner at the Brewery

27. What are you most afraid of? snakes

29. Favorite color? brown

30. Favorite day of the week? don't have one

31. How many states have you lived in? 2

32. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds

33. What is your favorite flower? Hydrangeas

I'm back!

As you probably noticed, I did a complete re-vamp of my blog, including lots of new back posts. I needed to catch everyone up, in addition to keeping the posts going for my yearly blog book. I hope you will start coming back again as I have lots of new posts coming. Thanks for checkin' in...

The gorgeous Miss S

I helped Sandi with this shoot of her beautiful cousin.... it was so much fun.


I really want to get into doing portraits for women to make them feel their absolute best. We all have flaws and things we don't like about our bodies. Every woman is beautiful and I think I can show you that...

Maui 2010

We just got back from a fabulous Maui vacation! We went with the Victorine family again (4th annual trip) so that was really great.

I didn't take a lot of pictures at the beginning of the trip. We did some different things that we hadn't done before, including a group dinner at the Melting Pot. I think some in our group weren't so sure about fondue, but I know everyone loved it! It was hard with the kids because the whole 4 course dinner took about 3 hours. It's a good thing the hostess put us in our own separate room.

The kids loved the beach...












We were able to drive to see the fireworks show over the ocean that the town of Lahaina puts on for the 4th of July.


We went to the aquarium, which we had never done. The kids liked it and wanted to take lots of pictures. Here's one that I took. "Whatchu lookin' at?!"


This might be the only picture that I am for the whole trip. Oh well....


That night we went to the Royal Lahaina Luau. I think the kids really liked it. I had a great time experimenting with trying to take pictures while the sun was going down.




We bought us all snorkel sets when we first got to Maui. We all tried them in the ocean, but the kids really loved using their masks in the pool because they didn't get water up their noses.



It was a great trip... now back to the real world of getting the house organized and everything unpacked!