Do I still Do Photography?

Why, yes! yes I do! But, I do it for me!

I kinda got burned out doing it as a business. All the advertising, photographing, post processing, editing, burning, deadlines… and then my babies being sick or teething,or growth spurt and just needing mom…

It just all got to be WAY more than I could handle. I was stressed out, my customers were unhappy cause of missed deadlines… it wasn’t fair to anybody.

So now, I mainly do photography on my own time, for me. Without deadlines, and without clients most the time.

I still accept clients, but I mostly wait for them to come to me, rather than me actively advertising and searching out clients.

Now, I’m back! I’m back to enjoying photography as my art form again! And it’s SO good!

I’ve done a couple weddings, some family photos, but majority of whats on my computer are just pix of my little girls growing up and having adventures. And those are what I love to see the most!

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I took this photo this afternoon. with no hurry, no pressure. just me and my girls enjoying an enchanted evening!

Vancouver, WA Pet Photographer: Lulu

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Truth is, I’m not a big fan of lap dogs. I’m a big dog sort of person, though I won’t prevent a nice lap dog from snuggling with me. But little Lulu was such a gem! She didn’t freak out around small children, she was very aware of her surroundings, but far from being paranoid about all the people. She didn’t utter a sound the whole time we were at  my aunts house for thanksgiving! She allowed everyone to pick her up and pet her and snuggle. And, she even sat for a few quick photos!

All photos are property of Sarah’s Scenes, Real Life Photographer.

Vancouver, WA Pet Photographer: Pipa

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Pipa is a 1 year old mini Australian Shepherd. She loves her “Momma” and a very sweet personality. She didn’t want to cooperate much for photos, as many people were in her home at the time and she wanted back inside near people and food. I did manage to get the photos above, and she is obviously adorable!

All photos are property of Sarah’s Scenes, Real Life Photographer.

Another year gone by…

I had the privilege of doing another family session with my brother and his little family. I hadn’t gotten to do many photos with them this year we finally managed to squeeze in another family session to update the photos from last year.

You can see photos as they are finished under the Family tab.
They are the Family: Silliman, D&B

Here is a photo of them all together last year:
IMG_2423 (2)And, of course, a family photo for this year:
006 1My, how they’ve changed! They all look amazing! I love being able to document the growth these families do, from growth of individuals within the family, to the growth in members of the family. I hope to document much more growth in this family as the years continue to fly by.

Our New Dog: Dixie

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Dixie on her bed

So gentle, even the little kids can take her for a walk!

So gentle, even the little kids can take her for a walk!

 

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Dixie is an 8 year old black Labrador Retriever, and is absolutely wonderful! She arrived at our home last night, and has only given a single bark ONCE! She’s been super quiet, looks like she’s smiling all the time, LOVES all the attention she gets from the kids, and enjoys exploring her new domain. She knows who is in charge in the house. After her walk this morning she went right over to my mom and laid down at her feet. She wags her tail a lot, being so happy in her new home.

She comes, sits, shakes, and stays on command.

Dixie has some medical tape on one leg because she’d been attacked by a dog at her old home. The other dog had attacked her in the past because of being very dominant, and Dixie only finally fought back last night. Her owners decided they’d had enough and needed to find someplace better for dear Dixie.

So, we got the most loveable, huggable, wonderful girl in the world, for free! Because her previous owners knew she needed something better. And what a great fit she’s been thus far!

Photos are property of Sarah’s Scenes, Real life Photographer.

Sisters and Best Friends

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_MG_9416 2We were getting ready to go to a local parade, and had a few minutes before we had to leave. The little girls were looking so cute, and sitting next to each other just hanging out in front of the house. So, of course, I had to take a few photos!

These girls are best friends! The older one hardly spoke till she was 3 1/2 years old, and then she realized she had a little sister who was learning to talk and she could chat with her! These two girls play baby dolls, barbies, cars, dinosaurs…… you name it and they play it together! Its very rare to see these two girls apart from each other.

They’re more than just sisters, they’re Best friends.

Photos are Property of Sarah’s Scenes, Real Life Photographer.

Couples Sessions Available! Book Now!

couples advertisement copy 1Use the “Contact Us” tab to book your session Now!

 

James

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Missy, seizing the opportunity

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Our cat, Missy, follows us every time we leave the house on a walk. She’s the sweetest thing! As I was doing photos with Naomi the other day along our driveway, Missy kept following, pausing only momentarily to check out a sudden movement in the woods that caught her eye. If I tried to squat down to her level she’d come running up to me and commence rubbing herself against my legs. So, I found a way to get at her level, without causing her to run up to me, so that I could get a nice photo of her. There’s a rather steep portion of our driveway, nearer the house. On our way down, she had her attention drawn to the woods, for a brief moment. I quickly turned around, did a half squat to get the right composition and level, and VWALLA! A beautiful portrait of our lovely guardian kitty.

Photo was shot with a Canon 5D body and 50mm f/1.8 lens.

Photos are Property of Sarah’s Scenes, Real Life Photographer.

Editing Photos

Editing in Photoshop can be a very laborious thing. It can take many hours to get a few photos done. And its not because Photoshop is so hard to use, its because there are many steps to get the look you want in your photos.

Fortunately, there are many that have come before us that have put a lot of work into creating “Action Sets.” These Action Sets are a pre planned set of steps to help speed the process of photo editing. These actions have several layers that will show up in the “Layers Palette” when the action is activated for a specific photo, these individual layers can then be adjusted to taste.

For the image I’m editing today, I used a new action from Colorvale called “Fall Envy“, you can get it for free by clicking on the name.  I also use a set from yellow Sky Actions (click Here to see the set I use), the set cost me $50. And I use another free Action called “Poetic Winter BW Fade PSE” (click on the name to get the free download).

To start, here’s a before and After of the image I’m editing this morning:

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This hen is a Barred Rock Aracauna mix we purchased this last summer for our flock.

Getting Started:

Open your photo in Photoshop (I use Photoshop Elements 8).

Your actions should show up in the upper right corner of your photoshop workspace. In the action box, click the Colorvale action “Fall Envy.”

I leave this action as is, and don’t do anything with the individual layers, this is my preference though and you may do as you like with them.

Next, Click the Yellow Sky Action “Rustic Goodness.”

Once all the layers have appeared, I go through and change the “Opacity” of each of the following layers in this action:
Bright & Crisp: 50%
Color Me: 12%
Touch of Color: 5%
Touch of Warmth: 4%
Level up: 0% (I delete this layer, which can be done by simply right clicking on it and select “Delete”)

Next I use the Yellow Sky Action “Soft & Rich Brush”, which in elements will affect the whole image, it won’t be a brush in Elements. Click “Ok” or “Continue” when it asks if you want to proceed. Adjust this layer Opacity to 12%.

Now click the poetic Winter BW Fade PSE Action (it will have a photo appearing as a camera sitting on a desk in your Actions box). I don’t change anything for this set except to make the Gradient Map layer invisible (just click the eye next to the layer to do this, you can make it visible again later).

Right click on  any of your layers and select Merge Visible.

Now, select your bottom (“Background”) layer.

Go to Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Brightness/Contrast.
set the Contrast to -50%.
repeat this process and set the Contrast to -25%.

Go to Filter>Distort>Diffuse Glow
Set the grain to 0, Glow to 1 and Clear Amount to 19.
Click “Ok.”

Then, Enhance>Adjust Color>Hue/Saturation.
Set the Saturation for 20%.

Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Levels
Set the dark side to 20.

Now you need to “Duplicate” your background layer.
Right click on your bottom layer and click “Duplicate Layer.”
Click “Ok” when the pop up appears asking about naming your new layer.

Select your new layer (should be second to bottom layer) and go to Filter>Stylize>Emboss.
Set Height to 6px, Amount to 100%, Click “Ok.”

Now your image looks like its got a grey mask over it, now don’t freak out….
“Oh No! What have I done!”
This mask will help to sharpen your image.

Now set this layers “Style” (next to the Opacity bar) as Overlay
and set the opacity for 50%.

Merge Visible. Zoom in, can you see the difference?

Ta-da! What do you think?

Now, Go to File>Save and save your image as a JPG
(or another file type if you have a preference).

You can alter things to meet your own style as you go along. This is just to give an idea of all the work that goes into a photo. Even with Actions, editing can take a while. But it’s what it takes to get the photo just the way you want.

There are lots of other ways to edit your photos in Photoshop, so have fun with it! Don’t be afraid to experiment a little here and there.

This is Sarah’s Scenes, Real Life photographer.

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