Photos by Carol

Senior Session 2012 :: Connor

2012-01-04T10:39:00.000-08:00

What a fun photo shoot! Connor was the first male for me to shoot, and let me say it was quite an unforgettable day. His family is crazy-fun! We had so much fun driving around to spots and when we would randomly find one we would rush out, his brother would do a little jig behind the camera and 2 minutes later we were back in the vehicle for more. After the early morning shoot his mother was kind enough to make the energetic group a large breakfast; her waffles were definitely the perfect way to end such a fun shoot.

Senior Session 2012 :: Tara

2011-12-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

I have been really slow at updating this blog this year, but finally, I'm posting the second senior session of the summer. Tara challenged me to my first indoor shoot, which was such a blast! Granted, I learned if I ever decide to get a studio, lighting is going to be the first thing I buy. We also did some outdoor shooting and once you scroll down you'll see how much she rocked the beach! Thanks for the experience Tara, loved doing your photos and loved all the new tips and tricks I learned during this shoot :)

Senior Session 2012 :: Lindsey

2011-08-09T10:42:00.000-07:00

Somehow, despite the July heat, Lindsey managed to pull off some great pictures! I took her to some new locations, which searching for were quite adventurous. The day before I took her on the shoot, I took a little drive around the city to check a couple spots out and ended up running into Tech 9's tour bus at a random auto body shop. Let's just say I decided not to take Linds to that part of town. However, we found some great spots, but as everyone knows, location is only a small portion of what makes a photo great. Lindsey did the rest :)

And yes, I might have had just a slight obsession with her dress... it couldn't have fitted her more perfectly.

The Pool is Open!

2011-06-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

With the heat finally here, my sister's kids were able to enjoy a fun day at the pool. Luckily, my sister had a few babysitters (my mom, Abby and I) come with to help keep track of her fearless youngsters. Trey was running around everywhere, keeping the lifegaurds on their toes while Jersey was slow to warm up to the water; however, once she did, she loved it!

Abby's Dance Recital

2011-05-10T18:44:00.000-07:00

Recently I attended my younger sister's dance recital and of course, I had my camera in hand. Here are a few of my shots, quite the little showstopper I must say!

This dance group had one of the coolest costumes of the night; Their costumes were made from lights, how cool!

Senior Session :: Olivia J.

2010-09-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

One of the hottest days of the summer, getting stuck behind cornfields, almost losing Jordan sneakers, and rummaging around in an abandoned home equaled beautiful senior pictures? Who would have guessed. But with someone like Liv, it can definitely happen. Liv is one of those girls who knows exactly who she is and isn't afraid to show it, no matter where she is. Her pictures proclaim her personality as I know it to the fullest.

Senior Session 2011 :: Jasmine L.

2010-08-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful day to shoot! We went out bright and early in the morning in our tiny home town.. It's amazing what this sub 1,000 population village could offer for locations, but it couldn't have looked this good with out Jasmine :)

Senior Session 2011: Rhonda W.

2010-08-19T18:46:00.000-07:00

As the first senior session is always a blast, Rhonda's went great! Everything went smoothly, and she even got a few whistles from others walking by. Once you check out her photos you'll understand why :)

I've never seen someone pull off serious so well!

Senior Session: Ashley V.

2010-01-22T08:09:00.000-08:00

Ashley was one of my first trial clients. I called her up because I wanted to experiment with my new camera. The photoshoot went great and we ended with some winners. Experiment succeeded. (photos taken early summer 2010)

Senior Session: Emily

2010-01-07T12:32:00.001-08:00

Emily challenged me to my first all indoor session. With the temperature being below zero, photos outside would have been no fun. Normally, I try to stay away from using the flash on my camera, so I was a bit nervous. However, once I uploaded the pictures, the fears went away. Emily was a great model infront of the camera and very fun to work with; she easily went along with any of my crazy ideas :)

Jess, Adam, Lauren

2009-12-19T21:43:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving I continued with a shoot of my own family. With the creative help of my sister-in-law, we were able to figure out poses right at home. Little Lauren is such a blessing; take special note of the last photo :)

Senior Session: Kristina

2009-11-28T13:43:00.000-08:00

This session was in the summer, but with all my college stuff I've been so busy that I forgot to upload them! Krissy and I went on two different sessions, one at night and one the next morning. I have never shot in the morning before this session; definitely something I suggest doing -I think some of the best pictures came from the morning. Take a peak:

Love the dress! Can you say Vogue?

This one's for her daddy :)

So elegant!

I <3 Photoshop!!

2009-07-20T10:43:00.000-07:00

Recently I just got Photoshop CS4 installed on my computer and I can't pull myself away from it!! I can manipulate my pictures to look just like I want them to. This is the kind of art I like :) and I haven't even had time to play with photoshop's actions yet... oh boy!

Thoughts of becoming a photographer are getting stronger and now I'm wondering if I chose the right major? Well... I guess there's quite a bit of photography in Media & Journalism and it's more broad than just a photography major. So for now I think I should be fine.

Here are some of the pics:

Before

After

I cropped this one to get rid of the awkward hand in motion. However I couldn't crop the hand out completely without offcentering the subject(which sometimes looks good, but I didn't want to here), so I added what many photographers fear, the lens flair, which added quite a bit pizazz to this photo :)

During Jordan's photoshoot, I was obsessed with her red heels! I think I shot about 10 photos of the heels alone haha. Jordy was an awesome model - very comfortable infront of the camera.

During Jordan's shoot she instisted that I get infront of the camera too. It gave me more material to play with so I figured "what the hay!" (haha I couldn't help myself by adding the pun ;))
The orginal copy of this photo was essentialy the same, except the colors weren't near as rich. I like the warm temperature because it makes the feeling of this hot summer day come alive.

Before

After
This one was one of my favorite pictures of Ben and I from his grad, but on my previous editing program the brightness, contrast and exposure made the picture look even worse, no matter how much I played with the settings. Photoshop edits with layers, which make editing pictures like this a breeze and actually fun rather than stressful :)

And how could I play with photoshop without doing something with the Yotes?!
Say hello to my new desktop image:

Senior Session: Melisa

2009-06-19T13:16:00.000-07:00

Melisa was my first 2010 senior to photograph. Luckily for us, one of the days was a little cloudy, which resulted in no squinty eyes :) Below are some of our faves. Take note of the last one, which is an example of a composite that I can make for my clients.

Shutter Speed

2009-06-13T08:16:00.001-07:00

Last night I was able to play around with my new favorite setting: shutter speed. Throughout these past couple of weeks I kept thinking how fun it would be to shoot at a fireworks show, but I had two problems: 1) I didn't own a tripod and 2) fireworks show? where? However, lucky for me, that all changed last night. My brother just so happened to have a tripod and there just so happened to be a fireworks show at the opening ceremonies of the CWS. Well, enough babble, here are the pictures:

Shutter: 2.5"

Aperture: F22

ISO: 250

Shutter: 3.2"

Aperture: F22

ISO: 800

Shutter: 3.2"

Aperture: F22

ISO: 800

Shutter: 2.5"

Aperture: F22

ISO: 800

Shutter: 2.5"

Aperture: 9.0

ISO: 250

Shutter: 10"

Aperture: F18

ISO: 100

...

Thought I'd throw this one in too ... This young fellow is my nephew :)

Senior Session: Becky

2009-06-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

Ohh the days before the SLR and adobe photoshop. Last August I helped a friend with some of her senior photos. We shot mainly in our hometown and a city nearby. Back when we took these photos I just had my little digital camera; I wish I would've had my SLR, these pics would have turned out much better! I guess they aren't too bad though for not having an advanced camera or an advanced photo editing program. The last one is my favorite :)

SLR: Day 2

2009-05-31T09:21:00.000-07:00

I was looking for an excuse to use my camera, so my sister and her friend gladly volunteered. It was fun trying to capture all of their innocence and spunk :)

Testing the SLR

2009-05-28T15:01:00.000-07:00

Recently, I bought my first SLR digital camera, an Olympus E-620. Just one day use, and I already like this camera way too much! Here are some pictures of my grandma's flowers. The best part about these pictures is that I had to do very little digital editing on the computer. I can't wait to shoot more!