Tutu Too Cute

I received my first girl prop today - a hot pink tutu!! For those who think this is a crazy silly prop, I tell you to wait until the pictures come in. They are the most darling and inspiring pictures! They are simply beautiful and it is a hot popular prop these days...so of course I had to have it! Hopefully one of the toddlers tomorrow will be willing to be my first tutu model! I am hoping to get a few more in different sizes and colors here in the next few months. I thank my friend April for making the perfect tutu for me!

Going Live

After hours and hours of website building...I did it...I finished. Yay!! I am live and my website is up and running. My draft website did a great job, but it was time to move up to something a tad bit more professional looking and easy to use. Got to love the all mighty flash! What a beautiful invention. You know I have to do this, but here it is: http://www.sunkissedphotos.com/. Now my next step is to portfolio build. Snap away!

Perseverance Has It’s Price

I now have a cold from the weather. That will teach me to play in the rain. And by all means who gets a cold in July? Seriously. I am praying to the good lord above that I am well by Wednesday’s photo shoot. I’m going to need all the strength I have to be able to shoot not one, but two little girls. I’ve never done a photo shoot for a little girl, let alone two. I’m going to need patience and my health to get me through this one. Thank goodness they are cute little angels or I might need meds to help me get through it! I have some new props that I am trying out and looking forward to seeing the end result.

Perseverance

I had a PB (Portfolio Building) Shoot scheduled for Friday afternoon with my best friend who was coming down from college for the weekend. I had everything prepared and set in my mind to where we were going and what type of poses. Friday morning I wake up to it raining, but not just any old morning shower…pouring rain. It was storming, with thunder and lightening. You have to be kidding me? I still had some time (a few hours) before we were due to meet up, so I was hoping that a miracle would happen and the clouds would scatter, the sun would shine, and the ground would dry up in a record time. There’s nothing wrong with wishful thinking. The hours went by and the clouds above met me half way. It stopped storming, but it was still drizzling and the ground was soaked. I told my friend we were still shooting today, because it was worth a shot. We went to location number one. We were doing great and getting a lot of neat shots when the clouds above decided to break loose and let the rain come down. I’ve never seen two women run any faster. We headed out to location number two hoping it wasn’t raining there (if you know Houston you know that it can be sunny in one area and storming in another). We get to location number two…it’s not raining. We get out get a few shots and sure enough, history is repeating itself. This time we get a little wet, but we still want to keep trying. We get to location number three (and thankfully final stop) and attempt to get some more shots. This time it doesn’t rain a single drop on us and we get lots of great shots. You can’t stop me from getting my shots! I’m too determined…and stubborn. Considering the day we had with rain, puddles of mud, flat hair, make up sweat off, and being exhausted we had lots of fun and ended up with about 10 amazing shots! I will be using quite a few of these for my portfolio and couldn’t be happier. It also helps when you have a beautiful model to photograph!

WWW Mania...

…and no I don’t mean the wonderful world of wrestling. For the past three days I have been putting together my website piece by piece. This is no easy task. I consider myself to be computer savvy, but this has pushed my knowledge to the max. Creating a website from scratch is making me use my creativity side in more ways then I would like. I’m designing every little detail and every little button down to the wire. I know it will take time and a lot of patience, but this is going a lot slower then I had envisioned. Not to mention everything I do is being done by trial and error. Sometimes things won’t work, flow, or go with what I need and have to be redone. Going back to the drawing board for something you have worked on for three hours is very frustrating. But I know in the end it will all be worth it. Patience is a virtue right?

Tags

I am writing here to try and add some tags for google's search engine. :)

Houston Children Photographer
Houston Newborn Photographer
Houston Family Photographer
Houston Kids Photography
Houston Children Photography
Houston Family Photography
Houston Family Portraits
Houston Family Pictures
Houston Maternity Pictures
Houston Photographer

Gaga for Grapes

Today was another positive experiment using props indoors. I felt very comfortable and was more then pleased (ecstatic to be exact) with my results. If every baby acted the way my youngest son did today with being photographed, I would be a millionaire. He was smiling, cooing, laughing, and shouting dada like a good 6 month old should. He even kept his hands where I placed them and did great with looking at the camera. If only all photo shoots were this easy (only in my dreams right?!). The entire shoot took only 20 minutes and I was beaming with happiness. I ended up with about 10 really great shots. After I spent some time editing them, I knew some of these were going to be great portfolio shots. A great photo session is an instantaneous confidence booster, that's for sure.

Take Two

Is it really too much to ask for a little cooperation from my boys? Probably. We took a family trip to the park in hopes that I could capture a few good shots. My youngest son was very uncooperative. Not only was he completely oblivious to the fact that I was trying to take pictures of him, but would not look at me or smile. I guess I should lighten up considering he is 6 months old right? My oldest did pretty good, but kept wandering into the areas of dirt filled with mud. Not to mention mosquitoes were pestering us trying to get a bite in every few minutes. So, the trip was cut short and I only captured a few shots. Although they were pretty good…I would have liked more. There will be more days to come of great quality photo capturing moments. It’s all about patience. When we got home I did attempt to get a few shots with my youngest son using a prop that my mother had just bought for me. I felt very comfortable using the prop outside and maybe that’s the way I need to lean. Outdoor props. I should really look into a bench, chair, or something to that affect.

Upcomings...

I am excited to start building and expanding my portfolio for future clients. At the moment they are mostly family or friends, but you have to start somewhere right? I'm really anxious to launch my website, but know it will be months before I am able to do so. I need to find my creativity and strong points, but can only do so through practice. In August I have a shoot for 2 little toddlers, a baby, a family, and 2 couples (thank goodness for play groups!). In September I’ll be doing a family reunion. And then in October I have my first maternity shoot, which I am very excited about. I hope I am moving in the right direction and can’t wait to grow as a photographer with my creativity and art.

Got Props?

My next challenge was to come up with a set routine of props to use in portraits. I searched throughout the house to see what I could find. I found a blanket and a basket. The blanket was dirty (I have two sons you know) and my younger son (who I was using as my model for the day) was too big for the basket. Darn. The family took a trip to a great wonderful store named Ikea. God love this place. I found numerous baskets, bowls, and blankets. Not to mention for a great price; got to love their sale that only happens twice a year. We got back home and right away I went to work putting everything together. This was my first attempt with props and I felt very uncomfortable with it. I was used to outdoor shots with kids acting like themselves: playing, laughing, and smiling. This was more posed and purposeful. I was snapping away with this huge uneasy sunken feeling in my stomach. I felt as though I was missing something, maybe personality and being spontaneous? I took several shots with different blankets and props…I did all I could do. The photos uploaded and as I went through them I was pleasantly surprised on how well they turned out. Maybe venturing into a new unknown world of props was not such a horrible idea after all?

Going SLR

A huge challenge I face right now is equipment. I have a fabulous point and shoot Canon PowerShot S2 IS. However, it does not do much in manual mode. I need something that I can go up to a 1600 ISO setting. I need something with a faster shutter speed. I need to be able to change the AP for each type of portrait. I need an SLR. After reviewing for weeks I have narrowed it down to two SLR’s…both being Canon Digital Rebels (XT vs. XTi). Both will do everything I need plus more and both come at a price. So, in due time (6 months) I should have my new camera. I cannot wait to have it in my hands and explore all my endless possibilities. I look forward to creating magnificent art.

Paparazzi Mama in Motion

Another important aspect of having an attractive photography website is an eye catching portfolio. I had a few shots that I could put in my portfolio, but needed more and I needed diversity. I thought as a good start would be to take my 2.5 year old son to the park to get things going. It was a perfect day…perfect sunlight…no cloud coverage…my son was in a great photogenic mood…except for the fact that it was 101 degrees outside. So as my 2.5 year old toddler wandered about the park exploring in more ways then I would have desired, I snapped away. I kept snapping. He kept running. It was blazing hot with sweat dripping everywhere. I snapped, he ran, I sweat, the cycle continued. It was exhausting chasing this little boy around in the heat and not to mention a post-op boot on my left foot for a previous foot injury. Was this supposed to be fun? Is this what I see my future as? Absolutely! I loved every moment of it. I captured expressions that I will be able to retain forever. It was worth every sweat drop and I knew this was my future!

Loco for Logo?

One of the next tasks I set for myself was getting the website up and running. I came across several decisions, problems, and set backs. One of the first decisions I encountered was overall theme or look to my site. What were my colors going to be? Logo? Theme? I was overwhelmed all at once. I sat back in my chair, took a deep breath, and thought. I thought about the name SunKissed. What came to mind with those words? Visions of pink, orange, outdoors, bright, vivid, and colors ran through my mind. Ok, it’s a start and something to work with. I attempted my logo first. I had the words sunkissed photography written in black with pink and orange dots. It looked good. Not perfect, but a great draft. I consulted my friend again and she helped me finalize it into a riveting logo. It was beautiful and filled with my personality - pink, orange, and butterflies. I uploaded my new logo on to my website and hit publish. I had a solid start…a name, logo, colors, and theme. Whew!

Birth

After many comments over a months period of time of how I should venture into the photography world as a profession and not just a hobby - I did. I took the leap...a big huge frightening leap mind you. On this very day I decided to go ahead and do it. After deliberating over names of my potential business I had nothing concrete. All these wonderful names were coming to mind, but I felt as though they were not fitting to my ideas and creations. A friend of mind came up with a name and wouldn’t you know, it fit like a glove. SunKissed. What a perfect fit describing my exact line of photography – natural lighting. Scrambling to my computer to see if the name was already taken I went to check it out. To my blissful surprise, it was free. Could it be true? Not waiting a single moment I registered and received my domain name for the world wide web – http://www.sunkissedphotos.com/. It was real! How exciting as my first step with my new found business, but wait…now what?