I’ve enjoyed the snow we’ve had this Winter but I’m dreaming of Spring.

Since January seems to be the new June, it took me longer than expected to put this together.  2009 was a great year thanks to all of you who put your faith in me.  2010 is shaping up to be one exciting year with a couple of really cool destinations. I couldn’t resist this song choice since I heard it at so many weddings this year.  Crank it up or hit the mute button!

My husband surprised me with a bunch of lovely red roses as I sat here, camera in lap at my computer. Click; got it. It was a smiling moment, half laughing out loud really as he did sneak up on me. I was happy to have just captured it. Once I downloaded the image, I realized that it was the perfect candidate for a technique that I’ve seen before and never tried. The dreaded, trendy, dated, oh no I can’t believe how ugly my wedding album is (even just five years later)….Selective Color.  We’ve all seen it.  Why I bet many a photographer has used this technique for years to sell brides their wedding albums.  But, don’t ask me to do it for you!  Yuck!  Sorry my opinion on this technique is just that it was kind of like the big bad hair of the 80’s.  Hey, I had to try it once.  It makes the joke on my husbands face even more funny to me and now I’m over it.  Did I mention recently that I just found my parents wedding album?  It really touched me.  First because they are so obviously young and excited, second because my Father passed away many years ago and I miss his smiling eyes and incredible intelligence, and last because the album was so timeless and classic.  My Mother stood at the fireplace mantle with her bridesmaids and Maid of Honor.  She had a shot done of her pinning the boutonniere on her Fathers lapel and lastly, a gorgeous shot of them exiting the church in the snow.  Classic design never goes out of style, and I do love red roses.

O.K. so I know that not everyone is a photo geek the way I am, but I love tools that make my work look it’s best and save me time on my workflow.  I’m a complete fan of all of Doug Boutwell’s “Totally Rad actions”.  I own and regularly use all of them.  From the original Totally Rad Photoshop actions to TRA 2- The Revenge and Dirty Pictures-Image Textures, I love them all.  I was so excited when Doug started a TRA Recipes site and featured one of my images.  Here’s the link to my blog post about that http://bit.ly/bxzOLm.  Well he’s done it again and the long awaited Lightroom presets are here!  Once again I am honored to have one of my images chosen for the samples on his site.  Of course I picked up my copy of the presets the moment they were officially announced.  103 of them to be exact, most of them offered in several strengths.  This will totally change how my clients see their online proofs and I’m really excited about it.  I think that Lightroom users all over the world must be doing the happy dance.  Congratulations to Doug for yet another fantastic achievement, that is besides the pilots license.

Here’s a screen shot of my image from the TRA site, a portrait of my friend Ryan looking all dapper.