Lucid Light
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  • April30th

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    This one’s for the photographers! If you haven’t been watching the FREE weekend classes from creativeLIVE the last year or so, you’ve been missing out! creativeLIVE is online classroom that hosts some of the world’s most innovative photographers and airs their courses live for free on the internet. They believe in peer to peer education and using each other’s knowledge to lift the industry as a whole and as someone who couldn’t stand the rigidness of art school, that’s a philosophy I can get behind 100%. I love sharing information and hope to do something like this someday, so I just love it so much.

    Bummed you missed amazing classes with Zack, Jasmine Star, David duChemin, Jeremy Cowart, Bambi Cantrell and Tamara Lackey? No worries, you can buy the DVDs for around a hundred bucks…and they’re beyond worth it.

    During the classes there’s tons of fun stuff like quote contests on Twitter and a flickr pool for shots of where viewers are currently watching the class.

    In class with Zack Arias on creativeLIVE!

    Zack’s class this weekend is called Foundations of a Working Photographer and so far it’s been amazing. As I write this, Zack is about to start some outdoor portraits!

    Yesterday was an overview of photography and lighting basics, but before you roll your eyes…this wasn’t the usual aperture-does-this type of explanation! Everything Zack talked about I technically *knew* but now I really feel like I GET. Zack was the first photographer to explain the inverse square law in a way I understood in his One Light DVD and his explanation on lens compression and distortion yesterday was equally clarifying.

    Technically, I knew what a wide angle will do to a face and I knew that telephoto lenses compressed a background…but it wasn’t until I saw the staggering side-by-side photo examples that I really got how powerful something as simple as lens choice can be.

    I also FINALLY feel like I can calculate reciprocal exposures on-demand whereas before it was still EEEP MATH. I suck at math.

    I’d rave more, but Zack is getting going and I don’t want to miss anything! Catching this today or tomorrow? Tune in! http://creativelive.com/live

  • October5th

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    Remember my DIY Lightbox tutorial? Well Michelle, a fellow knitter, wrote me saying she was going to try it out and I asked her to let me know how it went.

    Well she did and she kind blew my mind experimenting with backgrounds by putting stuff between the light and tissue…genius!! Look!

    Have you made a DIY Lightbox with my tute? Let me know and I’ll link your post! Which reminds me…I should post some more DIY photography stuff! Wedding season is winding down and there’ll be a lot more time for blogging, knitting, blogging about knitting (look, I closed my knitting blog so you non-knitting readers…all 3 of you…will just have to deal!) and best of all…photography for the hell of it.

  • March29th

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    LINKS!!

    Posted in: Links

    I’ve been in my google reader all evening and thought I’d share some of the cooler stuff I’ve come across!

  • January6th

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    Links!

    Posted in: Links

    Here’s a long overdue link round up!! (All open in new tab/window)

    First of all, end the first week of 2009 looking back on 2009 and setting some goals for 2010:

    And here’s the rest of the links piling up in my “to post on blog” folder!

  • September29th

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    Links!!

    Posted in: Links

    While I wait for my 2nd wedding to batch re-size, I thought I’d clean out the ton of links I’ve accumilated in the last month or so! I really need to start doing these posts more often.

  • July7th

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    Time to unload the links again! But first, you may notice the site looks a little different. I needed a change. I’m planning to do some more things to it so if you surf over here to find a steaming pile of broken code, chances are I broke something and am busy nagging Adam to help me fix it.

    Now for the links!

    • The Pioneer Woman shows you how to slim someone down digitally…I dislike this idea being a big advocate of loving your body, but if it’ll make your clients happy…go for it!
    • Speaking of loving your body, Operation Beautiful is taking off from this blog and inspired me so much I’ve started a flickr group to corral all the photos popping up on Flickr.
    • Tips for photographic products for effective sales here. Great for you etsy shopkeepers out there!
    • For The Hideout members especially (who are doing reflection photos this month!) here’s a list of effective photographs featuring reflections!
    • Vandelay Design has 60 Photoshop tutes on touching up photos.
    • Math end of Hyperfocal Distance mystify you? Me too. DPS explains.
    • This Pioneer Woman post should be plastered on my bathroom mirror. It’s all about noticing arms, legs, feet and hands in composition.
    • In case you’re either a wipper-snapper or living on the moon, you may have heard that Kodak is discontinuing Kodachrome…the color film loved by film photogs worldwide. Here is Photojojo’s tribute and guide to this legendary film which I am sad to say, I have never used.
    • You MAC people will get a kick out of this frame.
    • Tired of watching the ceiling while waiting for Lightroom to export? Speed it up!
    • Beyond Photo Tips shows why symmetry is a beautiful thing.
    • Forced Perspective, the subject of many a “Check out these amazing photos” email forward, is pretty damn cool.
    • DPS has 8 family portrait tips here.
    • Strobist has assigned food photography for the next boot camp assignment, get some tips there or here.
    • Childhood fears recreated in photographs: one of those things you wish you thought of.
    • Don’t have Photoshop? It’s insanely expensive so many people don’t! GIMP is a free program with lots of photoshop features. DPS gives you an intro to GIMP to get you started!
    • Ever had your flash and lightstand kiss the pavement after a gust of wind? I have. DIY Photography has a brilliant idea…using a frisbee!
    • Scott Kelby reveals what’s in his 3rd installment of the ever-awesome Digital Photography Book series.
    • It’s getting hot and steamy for lots of the world (well, not here in Seattle Boston) so here’s how to protect your camera in the muggy weather.
    • Taking off on David Hobby’s trick to slinging a strobe stand over his should, DIY Photography shows how to sling a whole set up over your shoulder.
    • I tell lens shoppers all the time how amazing the 90 dollar 50mm 1.8 lens is and no one seems to believe me. Here’s an article on the wonders of the nifty fifty!
    • The Cute Kid contest somehow got my email and has been bombing my inbox ever since, however today they sent me something useful. A “top” child photographer talks about her tricks for getting the shot.
    • IN THE OHIO AREA?? In or know a band or models that would like free shots? Michelle Black and some of The Hideout gang are hosting a group shoot on July 26th! It’s free and I can attest to all those photographers being totally awesome people.
  • July1st

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    Noticed an incoming link from Weekly Photo Tips , Scott runs a pretty sweet blog over there and linked my DIY Gridspot tutorial in his post on DIY grids! Go check out his blog, I did…when I should have been working…Thanks Scott!

  • June18th

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    I’ve collected quite a pile of links and haven’t gotten a chance to post them yet! I’ve been finishing up Ben & Molly’s wedding and catching up on paperwork…well…and reading trashy vampire novels but that is beside the point.

    Photos from Ben & Molly’s wedding coming, once they see them! I’ve also got a shoot at a Belly Dancing rehearsal coming up and I’m working on scheduling a day to shoot a friend of mine doing Silks. Silks performance is those incredibly badass women roll themselves up in and climb the long panels of silk suspended from the ceiling. Very cool. I’m hoping to get a wide angle lens by then.

    I have two more weddings this month, one this weekend and one next weekend and a possible product shoot coming up. I’ve been busy, busy! It’s great!

    Anyway, bring on the links!

  • April22nd

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    Happy Earth Day!

    Posted in: Links

    It’s Earth Day, go take some photos!! This website is putting together a mosaic from photos from all over over the world. Your photo could be on there, upload a photo of your little piece of Earth here! http://earthmosaic.org/

  • April5th

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    EHere’s a few before/afters of images I revisited last week while I was deleting crappy photos.

    Madison, the beautiful daughter of old friends. The first image was all about her eyes and cropped in tight, but I wanted to try something that pulled the whole photo together…

    BEFORE

    Madison

    AFTER

    Madison Redux

    This is an image of my friend Erin. I love the photo but I realize not everyone goes for the “ghostly pale” look. That and I’ve learned to sharpen properly since the first process.

    BEFORE

    Erin 09/20/08

    AFTER

    Erin re-dux

    I like both of those for different reasons.

    I also had fun trying my hand at “saving” a junk shot. I saw a few articles online this week (which naturally I forgot to bookmark for my links post) on salvaging crap exposures with over-the-top processing and fun with drastic edits. I put this one together going for “silly photoshopping”.

    I quite like it.

    Erin PS fun

    And here’s one last one, a re-edit of the photo of my son I processed after learning what the history brush did. It doesn’t take long to “get over” selective coloring so I re-processed this one with a more chocolaty tone.

    BEFORE:

    his blue eyes

    AFTER:

    Aiden @ 4 months redux

    And now…THE LINKS!!

    ETA! I forgot to add this! Michelle Black and Jessica Price (two of my favorite photog e-buddies who also happen to be amazingly talented.) are hosting FLARE: A National Photography Contest. All entrants get some freebies so go check it out!