Letting Myself Learn

It's been a really long time since I've sat down to write about my thoughts and processes. It used to be a habit when I took IB Art back in High School, but it was easy then. I was required to document that sort of stuff. While no one's forcing me to do that anymore, I've enjoyed the little bits I've written here and there since I made that leap-of-faith-purchase with Sammy for our DSLR cameras that August of 2014.  I've really gotten to see how far I've come and how I was feeling along the way.

I just finished editing this new set of engagement photos of a sweet couple, Taylor and Bryan, from Elizabeth City who drove to meet us here for this shoot in Winston-Salem. Taylor's also working on a photography business of her own which I believe she mentioned having started sometime late last year. After getting referred to us from her future brother-in-law, who also happens to be a teammate of mine at work, she told me she looked at my work and trusted me to pick the location and timing of the shoot, so long that it was during the golden hours of the day. Of course she would know about that! And I was flattered that she trusted me so much to work out the details of our scheduled shoot.

The weekend had been so windy and we were scheduled to shoot for Saturday initially, but the wind was not our friend. We decided to postpone for the next day on Sunday instead and it was much better by then. I thought it went really well! Sammy was great helping me with our checklist of poses, angles, and lightening up the mood. He's become a much better photographer since helping me as my second shooter these last several shoots we've been on together.  In fact, I've actually picked out a few of his shots in this set you'd probably never guess were his!

So getting back on topic, the point was to write about my progress. The shoot was done which left editing; the part that really distinguishes an individual's personal style, and one that I feel keeps changing for me! I've never been afraid to experiment and I do so with each and every shoot I've done. Asides customizing the shoot details for every client I've worked with, my editing has also been unique to each shoot. There hasn't been one job that's been the same as the next. The overwhelming green of the park and gardens were beautiful in person, but in the photos seemed like too much. So I tried to create a more dynamic source of light from photo to photo so that it didn't seem overwhelming green and monotonous. It makes for a less boring shot, I think. 

SUPER happy with the way these turned out though! Taylor's biggest push was to shoot during the golden hours of the day so I kept that in mind as I edited these, knowing that she was probably looking for that warm glow-y feel while at the same time, added my own personal touches as well. 

Now it's almost midnight and I can finally wrap up. The weekend's mostly consisted of monitoring social updates for work, an over-hyped massive yard sale, a long due grocery shopping trip, cooking, and a movie in with my husband and brother over cheese and wine...and I'm not complaining. :)