#tbt...just for fun

Since today is #tbt, I thought it would be fun to look back on some old pictures that I took and compare them to more recent work. I’m happy to say that I think I’ve improved a great deal! When I started as a photographer, I was very uncomfortable with using flash, so I mainly used natural light. This isn’t necessarily bad, but I never achieved the look I wanted. I realized that I needed to learn to modify the light, and I started playing with reflectors, shoe mount flashes, and strobe flash. Currently, I use a combination of all three in my portrait sessions in order to make the light do what I want. There’s still a lot to learn, but it’s a fun process!

[Senior] Branson

I love photographing seniors, and I'm always excited to shoot senior sessions. But, I must admit, I was super excited for this senior session. When I got the email from this senior's mom asking if it would be alright if we did part of his session at the York Airport in Thomasville, I just about died of happiness! Senior session with an airplane?! Heck yes!

Branson is taking flying lessons at the airport in order to obtain his pilots license, and he is planning on going to college for aeronautical engineering. The plane in his pictures is the plane in which he learned to fly. I love when seniors incorporate things that are important to them in their pictures!

Sometimes, my clients think I'm crazy...

Saturday afternoon, I photographed two of my cousins for their senior pictures. And, as usual, the first picture I took generated a puzzled look. One of the first pictures I take in all of my photo sessions is a picture of my model holding a little piece of paper called a gray card. This little card single handedly takes hours off of my editing time. My clients just think I’m weird, but this card is one of my most important pieces of equipment.

The purpose of the gray card is to color correct images. By including it in one picture in each setting that I photograph, I can simply go into post processing and with about 3 clicks of my mouse fix the coloring of all the photos taken in a session. I thought I would show a before and after of one of my cousins, Leah. You can see that the before image on the left is very cool…it’s not a bad picture, but it doesn’t reflect the warm light in which we actually photographed. With one simple step in post processing, the gray card allowed me to color correct the image, saving me a lot of time and frustration. So easy to use, and it creates a much more accurate picture!

[Family] My cousins :)

I had the privilege of taking family pictures for my cousin, his wife, and his son this past weekend. We had so much fun, and their son is seriously the most content baby I have ever met. I can't wait to show them the rest of their pictures!

[Senior] Amber

Amber's senior pictures were also taken at the Reading Public Museum Arboretum. After photographing guys for the past few senior sessions I did, it was fun to be able to finally photograph a girl!

[Senior] Micaiah

I traveled to Reading recently to photograph my cousin's senior session. We went to the arboretum at the Reading Public Museum. If you live near Reading or ever travel there, you should visit-it is beautiful! I could have photographed there for hours! Thank you, Micaiah for letting me photograph your senior pictures!

[Senior] Patrick

I photographed Patrick back in August at Codorus State Park. Talk about a great guy-he is one of the nicest, most polite guys you'll ever meet. He hasn't decided on a college yet, but wherever he goes, I'm sure he will do very well!