I'm moving!!

I moved my blog last night to another. You can click on the title to access the new blog. Make sure you change your bookmarks so that you can get to my new place. ;o)

I soon as I figure everything out on the new one, I hope to have all my favorite blogs and links on the sidebar. Hope to see you all there.

http://julielawsonphotography.wordpress.com/

Here is the link so that you can visit me at my new blog. Lots of new pictures have been posted.

It's random Friday!!!

I thought I would share some random pictures of my girls with you all today. B. had cheer camp all week at ISU and had such a great time. She got nominated for the NCA (National Cheerleading Association). She didn't make it though, :o( but she kept a good attitude about it. On Wednesday that had theme day and all the cheerleaders from the 7th and 8th grade chose to do Gangsta. I wish I could have taken a picture of all the girls dressed up in their attire. I guess their coach even sported a "grill" momentarily. LOL

I also took some pictures of E and I. When I was looking at them afterwards, I noticed they were way too bright. I got to looking and somehow the exposure got bumped up causing the pics to be overexposed. Oh well, they were for me anyway. I used midnight sepia on them. Just thought I would share this collage as an end to this post. :o)

Why does custom photography cost more

I can't take credit for this post. I found this link on the sidebar on fellow blogger, Melissa Cockman Photography. She hails from North Carolina and her blog can be seen here: http://benmelissacockman.blogspot.com/



I'm glad that I stumbled across this article tonight. My friend Jen and I was talking last night about how I seriously undercharge people when I do a session. I don't know if it's a point of not feeling qualified enough.....I'm not sure what it is. My whole desire in photography is to have fun taking pictures all the while capturing people and their memories and personalities. I know that God has a purpose in all this. I know that I would eventually like to go on a mission trip to photograph the experience. In the meantime though, I want my images to be a blessing to my clients. I also want to be affordable.

Okay, enough babbling to the world. Thanks Melissa for that awesome link. It helped to bring what my friend Jen said last night into clearer focus. BTW, your new layout is awesome!

Childhood Treasure

I got this baby when I was born, so the story goes. I think I got the baby from my Aunt D, or my Grandma. I can't remember which at the moment. I can't tell you the age of the baby, because I would give away my age. ;op

The light coming from the living room was great, so I told E if she would sit down on the beanbag, I would let her hold the baby. She cooperated for only a few moments. I didn't want to use my flash so I had to bump my ISO up to 800. When you zoom in on the picture you can see the noise. I ran noise ninja on the pics.....and it helped some.

I'm also including some randomness to brighten up your Thursday. This child of mine can make some funny faces.

Baby Beans

Taken in 2007 with my old Kodak Z650

Labor Day is coming

Each year on Labor Day weekend, my town holds "The Little Italy Festival". A few weeks ago, the town got the two fountains that we have up and running. Last year at the Coal Fountain, I was able to catch a rainbow in the water. I think I shot it around noon and maybe that's why I caught it. Anyway, I thought I would share some shots of the fountains. My daughter is in most of them since I'm not able to go out and shoot alone.

Coal Fountain

Four Seasons Fountain

The Immigrant

Thanks for reading my mommy's blog! ;o)

More whitebalance-color setting practice

UGH! I seem to get fixated on one certain thing and practice until my head seems to spin. Thankfully, this fixation is dying pretty darn soon. LOL I am going to get myself a gray card because I can't seem to find the most neutral part of the pic in adobe bridge. Anyway, here is some shots that I took yesterday. I set the color on Adobe RGB and that made her look a little gray. So, I won't be shooting in Adobe RGB anymore, but I still thought my test shots are cute.

One picture-different edits

I thought I would take this picture and do several different edits on it to see what the outcome would be.

This one is Jgg Web High Key

Emotional Black and White

Classic Black and white

Original edit

Selective Focus

Random summer photos

My youngest learned to swim with floaties this year. This is a great milestone for us as it now means we have a little more freedom in the pool. Of course, we are still OCD when it comes to our children and we are never far from E when she is in there. I just thought I would share some snapshots of my children in the pool.

These are from the Turkey Run State Park Pool in Parke County Indiana

My oldest at the ISU fountain

Last night my oldest and I got to go to the ISU fountain with some local photographers to learn about white balance. I understand the process, but need to learn more. Like with everything I've learned thus far, practice, practice, practice. I got some decent shots I think. I can't wait to go back and bring E to see the fountain. I'm sure she won't be able to resist running through it. Of course, the camera will come with me.

Trying something fun with my editing

Here is my youngest. I thought I would try something a little fun with the edit tonight. You'll see first the original copy, then one with a selective focus, and then vanilla black and white.

I have to give a big shout out to actioncentral. I LOVE this site!!! They totally rock. There are so many free actions that it's hard to choose which ones. I found the selective focus one the other day.

More from my family's shoot

I just love my family! They make me smile and we always have such a great time when we are able to get together. If we get together in public, we usually cause people to look at us. We tend to get a little rowdy. Here are a few more from the other night.

The JUMP shot!!! LOL

Photo Shoot with my family

Yesterday we all gathered at my middles sister's house for a last minute supper, with the intention of taking a group photo. It was a lot of fun with great food, as usual. The guys did some silly stuff and I talked my family into doing the whole "jump" shot. They thought I was silly, but when they saw the results we couldn't stop laughing.
My youngest sister, J and her husband, C

The girl on the left is A. She is J and C's adopted daughter. She is a missionary that just got back from China and Mongolia.

Of course, the often photographed B and her older sister K.

This is my middle sister, J, with her husband M and their two girls.

This is my devastatingly handsome baby brother, J. Yes....our parents named us all starting with J's....LOL

I got my canvas print!

Yesterday, before we left for Turkey Run, the FEDEX guy brought me the most wonderful package. :o) It was my 20x24 canvas print that I ordered. It is so big, but it fits the spot in the hallway that I picked out perfectly. I am simply in love with it. Here are a couple of photos of it hanging up.

Messing with textured overlays

It seems that using texture on photographs is everywhere. I love this technique. If done right it just seems to make a special photograph, even more special. I don't know, but I love it.

Here is a photograph of a teeter-totter that is next door to my sisters house. From what I've heard, this was the actual teeter-totter that this neighbors kids used to play on and this neighbor is in her upper 80's? I'm not sure, but I know that this thing is old.

More flowers

For the first time in a year, I'm caught up with all my editing. I've been handing out business cards like crazy, so now I wait for someone to call me. Until my next job, here are some shots of my flowers from my backyard. I've been practicing with manual focusing. I'm not sure which picture is the result of manual focus and which is not. It seems though, everytime I try to photograph flowers, the wind decides to kick up. LOL