Workflow and Editing

Here I am, sitting on my bed, listening to Glee, and blogging yet again at an incredibly late hour. I need to start actually getting work done during the day. That's what most people do. But anyway, I still have some fun news to share, whether it's day or night! :D

I have been feeling really uninspired lately, as I have mentioned a couple times in the past few months. I haven't really felt motivated to take pictures of people and as much as I knew I didn't want this to happen, I felt my love for photography slipping away. That ALWAYS happens to me when I'm not shooting often, which is usually in the winter. I hate it. Soooo, do me a favor and hire me for senior portraits. :) Haha. But I really did feel my dream of becoming a senior portrait photographer getting thrown out the door and knew it was happening but I just didn't know how to stop it since I had no one booked for pictures to remind me that I loved it.

Thankfully, Michelle Moore, my favorite photographer, posted on her blog one day a couple weeks ago saying she was doing a Breakout Session that would include videos of her shooting, editing, etc. Let me tell you, I have been waiting patiently for that day for over a year. I am constantly emailing her, reading any of her guest posts, and dissecting her work like crazy. I know that sounds so weird but I LOVE her pictures. I'm aware I shouldn't aspire to be her or try to make my work look like hers. That's not what I wanted to do. I wanted her to remind me of how fun photography is and give me some tips that I could apply when I shoot. So I signed up and spent all of yesterday watching her videos and learning so much! I'm so thankful she put together everything because it was a huge, huge help and I now have the urge to take some portraits, like I usually do after being inspired by a fabulous photographer.

But because I had no one to take pictures of, I went outside around two o'clock yesterday in the dreary weather and took some self portraits. Most of my yard is completely bare right now so my first area of business was to find some color! The only color I found was a little bush in my front yard.... I was hoping I could find something in my back yard, but noooo. I had to take these pictures about forty feet from my street, which is heavily populated by cars..... It was interesting to see all the people wonder what the heck I was doing but that's okay because it was worth it and I spent my entire day applying Michelle's editing techniques to my photos.

I've always struggled with how to edit my pictures. I'm always trying something new and although I'm never unhappy with them, I've never been ecstatic. But today, I shot the self portraits in RAW (which I usually don't do because I hate how it makes the photos a little extra grainy, but I'm learning to love), edited them in Adobe Camera Raw and then moved them to Photoshop. If you're interested in the whole process, sign up for Michelle's session. It's not too late. :) Okay, back on track... I came in and edited all my pictures, was super happy with them, and then changed my logo/watermark. I wanted it to match my blog header.

So as simple as all of that sounds (shooting RAW, editing differently, and changing my watermark), it gives me something to look forward to when I hopefully do some pictures soon. I have some changes to make and am so excited to apply everything I learned about reflectors, makeup, and lighting to my next shoot! :)

Hope everyone has a great Sunday! Here are some of my portraits from today.