Photoshop skills....

I got those! hehe Well, I am working on obtaining them. Photoshop is it's own universe with an infinite amount of possibilities. So much so that it can be overwhelming but I am working on increasing my knowledge on the subject.

Here are some samples I finished today, Enjoy!

Increasing My Exposure and Spending Money!

I have spent the last few days really working with various sites to increase our exposure.

I have advertised on Atlanta Bridal for several years but am now increasing our presence on their site with various ads as well as being listed in their featured vendors (beginning in May 2009). I am in the process of revamping my brochure on My Atlanta Wedding (member since January 2008) and have recently purchased space on The Knot Georgia's home page for the next year!

I am really excited to see where this will take MyLife!

This is the ad that will appear on The Knot until I find or take a better image.

I am also in the process of submitting a wedding to a magazine and I am also beginning the process to submit weddings to The Knot, Atlanta Bridal, and Weddings Unveiled for their "real weddings" features! I will keep everyone posted on our progress.

Here is my new purchase! It is a digital balance card. I am planning to use it in conjunction with the light meter I already have in order to obtain even more well balanced light in my images! I will let you know how it goes! It is in route and should arrive in a day or two!

My light meter by Kenko. It is a great product for not a ton of money.

Here are a few more of my Party Booth (photobooth) trials. They are so much fun! I hope all my brides start to take advantage of this feature!

Playing in the dirt again!

Today I took Owen outside to play! The weather was beautiful! Owen loves his new playhouse he received for his birthday and I got some great shots of him! He is really hard to photograph, very energetic I think is how people put it :)


Owen has also recently started digging in the dirt. He didn't do this last year and it seemed like an amazing new discovery the first time he did. Needless to say he took a long bath tonight! However, we had a great time.

If I posted a link for this blog for you please look and the entry below :)
Thanks

Photobooth? Phototag?

Input please!

I have seen a trend going across the wedding world for photobooths at the weddings. Often set up by the photographer. I am thinking of adding this to my services. I set it up in my studio today to try it out. Basically it is a backdrop about 5ft wide and 8ft high with a camera on a tripod and strobe (light). The people control their own photos and use a wireless remote to snap the photo. I think I can figure out a way to tether the camera to a monitor and have the images pop up so that they can be viewed immediatly but may just go on and try it out first without the monitor hook up. I do think people will enjoy it more if the images can be viewed instantly though.....hmmmm. Tricky.

My issues:

it takes up a good amount of space and often I have found that coordinators at weddings sometimes have an issue about photographers invading their space. The overall dimensions would end up being about 5ft x6ftx8ft(high). Too big?

Pricing.....it takes a few minutes to set up and take down, I would need someone to man the photobooth aka guard the equipment, and then all the extra editing from the images taken. People can take as many images as they want. They don't have to just take one they can take several so that leads to some additional editing time.

Would you want one of these at your wedding? What would you pay for it? I have a price in mind but I would love to hear from all my readers first :)

Here are my trial photos from today. Sorry....I am still in my pjs and without makeup :) oh well!

I am hoping that this would encourage silly, funny photos from all the guests.

Here is my phototag from Heather

The 4th photo in the 4th folder of your pictures

This is me and Big Nick Calhoun, he is famous around these parts and is one of my greatest friends. Nick comes to our house atleast 3 nights a week and it often seems weird and empty if he stays away too long. He is very smart and funny and maybe one day will rule the world. He loves Owen and is like an Uncle to him. He has even babysat him before just so I could go get a pedicure! No joke!

Nick is our: Chuck buddy, Guillotine and Risk opponent, Political dictionary, Philosopher, Playhouse helper, Food critique, and best friend.

I love you Nick!

Here are my tags! Have fun!

Lori

Laura

The McCrary Crew

Julie

Owen't 2nd Birthday Party!

This is what Dustin has been doing a lot lately. We bought Owen a cedar playhouse for his birthday which has required a great deal more work than any of us anticipated! It still isn't done but Owen already loves it!

The birthday boy before all of his guests arrived!

The party theme was Spongebob! I left a few decorations up so that we could continue to celebrate a bit :)

We rented an 18ft inflatable slide. As you can see in the photo it had been raining in the early part of the day but thankfully it stopped at 10am and the party was at 2pm so we were set! We did have to slide down a time or two with towels underneath us before the kiddos got on!

It seemed that Owen really loved everyone singing to him :)

The presents were a hit too! Thank you so much to everyone!

Some sliding goodness! The slide really was worth it! We had a ton of people here and this truely entertained everyone. I somehow didn't end up with a photo of everyone playing on it. The day was a little chaotic but so much fun! It was so much better to me this year than his 1st birthday. He was playing and into the presents and the other kids seemed to have a lot more fun with the slide and the toys! I really can't express how great it was. Thank you to everybody that came!

Owen's Birthday...officially.

Today is Owen's 2nd birthday! We aren't having the "real" party until this Saturday but we did manage to have a little cake today!

It only took one bite....

...and then it was on!!!!

More to come after the weekend!

New Year's Eve!

It was a blast and I am very lucky to have such a wonderful group of friends. They are there for all the times I have: good, bad, funny, tragic, drunken, and sober :)

I love all of you!

Our first photo of 2009!

Me and Heatherbean!!

Happy New Year and I am excited to see what happens for all of us in 2009!

Christmas Week!

This week is filled with lots of exciting events.


Tuesday the three of us went to the Georgia Aquarium. It was Owen's first time and he was amazed! The last time Dustin and I went to the aquarium was the day he proposed to me. So it is a special place for me. Dustin did great taking lots of photos and this was my favorite.


Also this week Owen graduated to a toddler bed! He is growing up so fast. He really likes his new bed and has taken to it well. I was worried about him constantly getting out of it but last night was pretty good. Today he is taking his first nap in it and is still fast asleep! Yay!

Tonight Santa comes! I will add to this post later.

Later.....

Santa has come! He was really good to us this year!

Thanks Grammy for the tricycle too!

Owen loved his giant tent...which we somehow stuffed into his room with all of his furniture. When I told Santa that Owen wanted a tent I didn't really mean one soooooooo big!

His favorites were Buzz and Woody!

The aftermath!

I took this with my new Nikon cool pix that Dustin gave me. Thanks babe!

Santa!!!!

Owen and I got to see Santa today! It was great, a little hectic, but great! We went at 11am this morning thinking that the line would be short but I must have been an idiot to think Santa wouldn't have a line a mile long no matter when or where he was! :)

Owen did really well, ok pretty good. No crying atleast. I was half expecting to walk out of there with the classic kid screaming on Santa's lap photo. But as you can see we survived!

It was his first experience with Santa Claus in person and I am glad it went well. He even gave Owen a candy cane.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Growing up...or atleast pretending....

This morning Owen sat at the table all by himself and ate his breakfast. I have been pushing his highchair up to the table recently but today he sat in a big person chair all by himself. You can tell he loved it!


Also his latest obsession is wearing Daddy's shoes and walking all over the house. Pretending to be Daddy I suppose, but it is so cute!

Christmas Time is Here!

It is Christmas time and I love it! I am super excited about it this year. Owen is nearly 2 years old now and I am looking forward to seeing his reactions to all that is "Christmas". I can't wait for Santa to come and watch Owen come into the living room for all that awaits him!

We started our family traditions after we returned from Thanksgiving in Statesboro with my sisters this past week. We always decorate our tree on the Saturday after the turkey holiday. We bake cookies all day and listen to nothing but Christmas music. Owen was very involved this year, it was wonderful.

Dustin making his famous ham for Sunday dinner with the Park family.

The sugar cookies were Owen's favorites!

CB and Nick were here to help.


CB even brought Joy a present....hehe! It was a picture of Obama....funny but not Joy's favorite I am sure.

Our tree is a collection of memories. This one from 1982 that I made as a child.

These candles are atleast 20 years old. They were in my parents home when I was growing up and this year we placed them on Owen's book shelf.

My favorite from my childhood. (The last unicorn)

The finished product of our living room. You can see that I am way ahead on my Christmas shopping! I am not usually one to put things off and I am nearly done with all of my shopping! Yay!

I hope all of my blog readers have a wonderful holiday!