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Snowbound

Posted on January 29, 2010

I love the snow. Especially when I have nowhere to go.
Today we had somewhere to go. My sister, who I haven’t seen in over two years is just hours away (she usually resides in Anchorage). Her husband, Matt, had arranged for us to surprise her in Santa Fe on her short house-hunting trip to Colorado. What fun, I was so excited!

Enter major snow storm.

It snowed all yesterday with high winds and big-fat, happy, snowflakes. We still have flurries now but the worst (or best) is over.
The major interstates out of our lovely town are closed.

We are snowbound and I’m extremely dissapointed. Now I have to wait 4 more months until they move to Colorado. Ughh. Four loooong months!

I guess the good thing is we have all day for snow play (but I would much rather see my sister).

The crazy mutt…

As close as Ada gets to snow. She will get her chance, just not this time.

Hope everyone enjoys the snow!

More For Moms (or Dads of course)!

Posted on January 25, 2010

If your a Mom looking to take better pictures of your kiddos, then have I found a blog for you! Check out Beyond-snapshots for tons of great info on using your camera to take awesome pictures. The blog is managed by two incredibly talented photographers, Rachel Devine and Peta Mazey. Go check out there work and then come back so I can tell you “I told you so”!

Speaking of kids, here are mine!

Gettin’ Learned

Posted on January 24, 2010

For the past several years I have wanted to check “totally awesome Photography Workshop” off my to-do list and next month I will finally get to bust out the pen and cross it off. In several weeks I will make the trek to Salt Lake City to attend Nichole V’s life as art workshop. I have heard an abundance of great things about this workshop and I think I may self-implode from giddiness before the big day even arrives. Nichole is a talented wedding and portrait photographer and I am uber excited for what this will do for my business as well as for you who find yourself in front of my camera. Bring on the education! Now excuse me while I go take some deep breaths and try not to hyperventilate.

In the meantime, here are a few images of Riley’s awesome big brother, Brenden, as he hung out with us during Riley’s session…

Free Senior Portraits {Amarillo and Canyon High Schools}

Posted on January 20, 2010

The Salted Image is looking for a couple 2010 Seniors from each of the area high schools to give free sessions too!

Receive a free session as well as your high-res images on disk for you to print off as needed. What I ask in return is that you pass out some super cool senior rep cards (your image on one side my business info on the other) to your family, friends, friend’s friends and families friends! Send me an email to leah@thesaltedimage.com if your are interested.

And how boring is a post without pictures? Here is a recent picture of our uber-cool friend, Meg in the snow. Maybe by posting this the snow will come back, enough with the 60 degree days already!!

Riley: Miss Energy

Posted on January 19, 2010

If you get tired while looking at these pictures it is probably Riley’s non-stop energy that made you so!  

I love this girl, not only is she super cute, sassy, and fun but her stamina is unbelievable. If we could bottle her energy we would have enough to supply the state of Texas with electricity for at least a week. So yes, I am admitting that I was out done by a four-year old, but not before we got some great images of her to celebrate her recent birthday.

We started off  in Canyon at the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum on the West Texas A&M Campus…

 

A brief rest…

April, thanks so much for giving me he chance to run after Riley and take her pictures. We had a blast! Also, thanks so, SO much for dinner, it was great! I will put some pictures up of Brenden over the next couple days.

Why I miss my PC

Posted on January 18, 2010

I know Mac’s are suppose to be the best computers since sliced bread but my Mac and I have never gotten along. The hard drive freezing up the first month and taking irreplaceable wedding pictures to there demise did not help (luckily, I had never erased my memory cards). Months later, when the hard drive failed completely,  my newborn daughter’s pictures were lost forever (unluckily, they had been erased off my memory cards). Now, it is acting persnickety again and making me long for the good old days with my PC.

So while we settle our differences here is one image from Riley’s session. More to come later…

And yes, you better believe that EVERYTHING is now backed up onto an external hard drive immediately!

Watchin’: Dances with Aliens

Posted on January 11, 2010

I originally had no interest in Avatar, which is weird for me because I love any movie where things blow up and/or there are computer-animated creatures. I had thought the movie was based on a video game and therefore would be enjoyed best by 13 year old boys who excel in Warcraft and Runescape and not make a lick of sense to me;  non-gamer, old-lady, that I am. When Dustin recommended we arrange for a sitter so we could go see it, I was less then enthusiastic. Then he mentioned it was showing in 3-D and my interest was perked. I mean what is cooler then sitting in those uber-hip black glasses for 2 hours and 40 minutes?

 

So we watched it  and holy smokes, it was amazing. The special effects are WAY beyond anything I have ever seen. It was jaw-dropping. It took four years to make and it is evident that only the best was put into the incredible visual effects.

However the plot was a little over done. It made me think of Dances with Wolves, only with aliens. Same characters, same story. It also reminded me a little of a guy I went on a date with. He was beautiful, however his personality ws arrogant, shallow and dull at best. But did I go on a second date with him? You betcha! He was THAT cute. Like that date of long ago, I would so see this movie again. Just for the visual feast and eye candy alone.

Oh, and no the guy was not my husband, my husband is cute and has a personality too match.

A Happy Minute

Posted on January 6, 2010

What is it about boys and baths?

When my brother was a little boy he would run around naked after his bath. It was no ordinary running. It was a  joyous cavorting, a boisterous romp calmed only by  my mother’s entreaties to quit leaping on the couch (which of course  backed up to a giant window that faced the road).

After G’s bath, he tucked his towel over his head and took off calling “Up, up and away” and “Superman to the rescue!”  I am not sure where he picked up the phrases, as he has never been up and away, nor seen Superman rescue anyone.

Regardless of why little boys enjoy frolicking in the buff, it made for a happy minute in my life.

My List for 2010

Posted on January 5, 2010

I have seen plenty of lists over the last couple days. Lists of resolutions and things to do. Lists highlighting the best (and the worst) of 2009. Everywhere I look are lists. So, not to be left out I cheated and made today’s post a list. At first I was just going to answer the most asked question I recieve as a photographer (what kind of camera should I buy) but instead…

My list of things that will take your family photos from drab to fab! Ha!

First off, which camera should you buy? Well, first you need to ask yourself if you are looking for a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex, you know a “fancy” camera where you have to look through the viewfinder with one eye), or a point and shoot that you can easily throw in your purse (or man-bag) and take anywhere. 

For your SLR I would say the Canon Rebel or Nikon D3000 are great places to start. Although I shoot Canon, it is only because it would be unaffordable for me to shoot with both brands. Get whichever brand makes you happiest. 

Now I know very little about POS’s, but if I were to get one, I would get the Canon Powershot SX10 IS. It allows you to zoom and the pictures I have seen taken with this camera have been amazing. For in-depth reviews (much more then my silly opinion) go here.

 

If you end up with a SLR, please, oh please, do not buy the crapola kit-lens that comes with the camera body. Just get the camera body and use the money you saved to buy the 50 mm 1.8 lens. This will cost you around $100 and give you images that will be so much sharper than the cheapo zoom you get with the kit. For a bit more, purchase the 50mm 1.4, I so adore this lens. It is awesome for low light, and gives super crisp images with beautiful background blur. The drawback to these lenses (to some people, at least) is that they are prime lenses, which means they do not zoom in and out, and are fixed at 50mm, but that’s why God gave us feet, right?!

Next up, Lightroom. Sure Photoshop is an awesome program but let’s be real it is not practical for most people because of the HIGH price tag. Although I use Photoshop for most images that end up on my blog, I use LR for EVERY single image I process. It is so easy to use and so very efficient. If I have 40 images all taken in the same time frame and light, I can process one and then apply those settings to the other 39 images all at once. This frees up time to take more pictures, which makes me very happy! I would even recommend it for those who just want to take pictures of their kids and family. Because everyone has images that are just a bit under exposed…

the difference is pretty obvious, and I am sure by this point you are wondering how you ever survived without it, right?!

But wait! There’s more! You can get creative and use your artsy side to make all sorts of changes (belive me, you can go WAY beyond just changing an image to black and white).  

Not sure you want to spend the money on the program? Try it for 30 days with the trial version at Adobe.

So, there you have it. My super short list of things that will help you make great pictures! 

Enjoy 2010, make it your year of non-drab pictures!

G’s First Snow

Posted on January 1, 2010

It has snowed a couple times since we moved here but this was Gavin’s first time to get to play in it. After 20 minutes of bundling him up in 12 different layers he went outside for no more than 10 minutes before calling it a day and coming in for hot chocolate.

Dustin on the other hand spent around an hour building a snow man…

I know I brand myself as a non-local by admitting this, but I am so excited for more snow!