I Found IT!!!

Yesterday I spent hours (HOURS!) looking for a cool urban location for an upcoming shoot. (I even dreamt about it last night.. a sure sign that someone has been spending too much time on the internet!) I had seen some pictures from other photographers that I loved, but I could NOT figure out where they were taken.

I tried everything. I even resorted to googling "really cool brick walls SLC". I looked up historic locations, browsed flickr galleries, and stalked photo blogs.

Last night, on a whim, I decided to search through the archives of a local urban photographer. And guess what? He photographed half of the name of a building RIGHT by this really cool spot. SUCCESS!! I found it!

Then Aaron came home from work, took one look at a portrait taken there and said, "I know where that is. I drive by it all the time!"

I didn't punch him. But I wanted to. Can you believe it? Self control, people!

Pictures will be coming this weekend!

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Wall Galleries

Every time a client receives their pictures, they say the same thing. I have know idea where to hang these!

Well rest your pretty little heads, and allow ME to design a wall for you.

MelissaE photography now provides one custom wall gallery design with 2 of our portrait packages.

I'm working on this little diddy as we speak:


Now pick a wall and let's get to work!

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Gracie Lou Sass

Oh, how I love when 8 yr. olds give me some spunk. Gracie was full of it. I think someone has been practicing in the mirror. :)

I wanted some shots of her in her baptism dress (since her lame-o aunt missed it), but after 5 minutes of freezing we opted for boots and a hat.








I wanted to play around with sun flair, and the picture on the left was the pose she gave me when I said, "turn around and give me some sass." :)


Love you, Gracie!

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YAAAY!!

It's done!

Finally.

And it feels soooo good.

Seeing this come together has been surprisingly emotional and I can't even describe how grateful I feel. Thanks to everyone who has supported me and this crazy dream.

melissaephotography is up and running.

And I feel like my heart is going to explode. Really.

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Surprise!

I am the world's worst secret keeper. Ask my husband how many times I have waited until Christmas or his birthday to give him his presents. (Never!) I can't stand the anticipation.

I have been waiting to post this session for 2 weeks and it has been killing me. It was definitely one of my favorite sessions of the year. They said they wanted funky and it was to be a Christmas surprise for Aaron (my BIL).

Here are 4 reasons why this session rocked:

* I about died when I saw L and N get out of their car. Funky layered goodness!
* We found a new awesome urban location.
* Hearing L and N say things like "look how the light hits that wall over there." Music to my ears!!
* Being beautiful doesn't hurt.



I love this picture of my nephew




Here is a short version of the slideshow I did for Aaron :

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Squishy Cheeks

After reading a photography book yesterday, I set out to get this shot.

And ended up with this:

and this:

Most of the pictures looked like this. I TOLD you he was wiggly!

Park has been sick for a couple of days. Yesterday I was stroking his head and he said, "Don't PET me, I am NOT AN AMINAL!!" Today the fever is gone, but he is still raging with some sass.

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Answers (part 2)

I hope to cover Chiemi and Cristi's questions in one post.

I just want to know how you get them (pictures) as vibrant and clear. What is your favorite editing tool to make your photo's so crisp?

Melissa's tips for getting great pics from start to finish: (are you ready?)

#1. Get a decent camera that gives you creative control. (allows you to select your aperture, shutter speed, ISO and focus points. I think the entry level Canons and Nikons are great. I have the Rebel and have finally outgrown it, but it has been a great learning camera.
Get a good lens! The kit lens is bad. Chuck it (or sell it on ebay). I never ever use mine. I would recommend getting a good prime lens like the 50mm1.8 or the 85mm.

#2. Turn off your flash. I never use my flash! I even have an attachable flash and I only use it when I absolutely have to. If you're shooting in low light bump up the ISO and shoot more wide open to get a good exposure.

#3. Get familiar with aperture and shutter speed. I'm going to assume you already know what aperture is and give you these tips: Try shooting more wide open (smaller number). The more wide open you are (4 and lower) the more bokeh, or background blur you get. Notice the blurry dots in the background? Bokeh!
Grasping Ap and shutter speed and shooting in manual is what finally pushed my pictures up to the level I wanted them to be.

#4. Use your auto focus points! I pick a focus point on every single shot. If the eyes are out of focus, the rest of the picture will look out of focus so focus on the eyes. Focus tends to drop a little behind your AF point so I try focusing in between the eyes.

#5. Find some open shade to shoot in. Great portraits can be shot in harsh light, but it's a lot harder to control- especially when you are just starting out.

Okay.. Now that we know how to get a great exposure, let's talk about post processing. There are 1 million different ways to go about using photoshop, and my method is just one way to go about it. These are things I do to almost every single picture.

#1. Shoot in RAW. Exposure issues are so much easier to fix in RAW.

#2. Remove any color casts using Color Balance Sliders. (Layers>New Adjustment Layer>Color Balance)

#3. Bump up the contrast. I use curves and form an S-curve. And I usually brighten my pictures a little using curves.

#4. Sharpen. Go to Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp mask. I usually do about 80-100% at .7-1.0 radius. This really varies depending on the picture.

**I do these four steps on almost every image and clean up any blemishes.

I hope this helps. Happy shooting! I have barely scratched the surface so if you have any questions that are more detailed, let me know!

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