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the fresh class.

Posted on July 21, 2010

Last week we held our last Fresh Class of the summer, we think, as we haven’t decided if we’re going to offer the class again. We LOVE the women we’ve hosted and have had a great time teaching but with our schedules we’re not sure we’ll host another one for a while. We do have a small list started of people that want to come to a future class so please email jodie@freshartphotography.com if you want to be placed on the list!

Our last class was filled with a lot of familiar faces which is always so fun!

Watch the blog next week for the JUNE class to have their contest and then at the end of August we’ll have the July class contest!  I can’t wait to see what the girls are coming up with! I know they are all working SO hard!

Thanks to all that came out this summer for the class!

our family summer scrapbook.

Posted on July 20, 2010

Early in the summer our friend mentioned that her daughter, about to start second grade, had to make a summer scrapbook for school… it got me thinking and ultimately we created our own!

To create the binder I just went HERE and uploaded my design and they printed the custom binder for me… it’s an awesome website!

Then, it’s as simple and using a three hole punch!

All we’ve been doing is saving every thing we’ve done this summer and putting it in the binder. So if we go to the zoo we include any tickets we had, maybe a zoo map and then when we get home the kids color a picture of their favorite part! It’s making our outings even more fun b/c then we come home, add to the scrapbook, work on our pictures and talk about all that we saw! I’m putting random things in there too like art work the kids do, pages where I just write about what we’ve done or thoughts, etc. I might even include a grocery store receipt or other random things like news highlights and things that in 20 years would be interesting to look back on!

I’m also creating contact sheets of photos that eventually, when I print them all, will go in the correct order (we’re putting ours together chronologically) so by the end of the summer it will hold all the photos too!

The kids LOVE looking through it and are SO proud to show their grandparents especially all that they’ve been doing! I think I might start one for each season… or maybe just school year and summer… I can’t decide. You could also use those plastic photo holders for scrapbooks if you wanted to print 4×6 images but I like that if I design the pages then you can never take a photo out and lose it or something.

Anyway, we’ve been LOVING this activity this summer so I thought I’d share the idea! Here are some pages…

Random artwork from Grandma’s house.

For Gray’s birthday we went to The City Museum and they have an antique photobooth…

More photobooth pics, the Zoo map and my handwriting about Bailey feeding the stingrays.

Parker’s drawing of a stingray (I think that’s pretty great for a 3 year old!)… we looked in our animal encyclopedia for a photo of a stingray so the girls could remember how to draw them… again… just stretching the activity!

When cleaning out the basement for our yard sale I found a poster Chris had written on that hung in my college dorm room and was just something I could never get rid of so rather than just toss it I cut it to fit and wrote about the yard sale! Now I will always remember it!

Favorite drawings and I love when they are on random sized papers… the scraps make the book interesting I think!

We even got my mom in on the action and when she took the kids to see the pirate exhibit at The St. Louis Science Center she saved the tickets and brochure for our book! Thanks mom!

Fan from the Muny (you see the back of it on the left) and the tickets+program… we’re putting things in there that Chris and I do even without the kids b/c it’s not just all about them!

It’s a work in progress of course but seriously, it has been one of the highlights of our summer! It’s amazing to look at, in one book, all the fun we’ve had and memories we’ve made… and even when I decide to enjoy the moment instead of capturing it there is still always something to do to remember it like color a picture or save a ticket stub… it’s taking a lot of pressure off me this summer!

Hope you all are enjoying your summer too!

my love affair with lightroom.

Posted on July 18, 2010

When Chris and I started dating it was hot and heavy right away. We spent every waking second together and immediately started dreaming about our future. We had kids names picked out, watched a million movies until the wee hours of the morning, played trampoline football, went on walk&talks and there are still songs I will hear that will take me right back to that time in our lives. We were 18 and idiots really, but man was that first summer amazing!

Then in college we went our separate ways for a little while. For about two years we were on again off again with lots of drama. We had our own experiences, met new people and lived our own lives even though we were still in the back of each others thoughts all the time.

But then one day Chris walked into the place I was working and said he had moved home from Spokane for the summer. And he wanted to see me. Seriously. With intention. But I was guarded and not-trusting, having been hurt one too many times. I kept my distance and went into our new friendship not really believing it would lead anywhere. I was filled with doubt even though Chris seemed so sure of where our relationship was heading.

Three kids and almost 6 years of marriage later obviously I was wrong and Chris was right. Thank goodness.

And that about sums up my relationship with Lightroom too! HA!

When Kim first made me start using it I was all excited (although a bit nervous) and worked endlessly to learn everything I could.

But then we got busy, and my workflow was so much slower, and I couldn’t get it to do what I wanted, and I was frustrated and hated it. So I sort of stopped using it for the most part. Slight tweaks here and there but really I relied heavily on Photoshop.

Until last week when I asked Kim to just give me some more help. Because I always love her edits more than mine! And for the last two days I buckled down and edited Kalen’s wedding shots fully in LR first before taking them into PS for some final tweaks. It took me more than twice as long, maybe three times as long to get them all done. And I’m not talking 500 photos. I’m talking about 100. Because these are just my portraits and doesn’t count Kim’s shots, the ceremony, the reception or the photobooth. Two solid days in front of the computer to get 100 images edited is crazy.

But OMG. Me and LR? It’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship! Seriously! Talk to me again in 6 years and thousands of photos edited… we’ll be humming along like an old married couple!

Here are two shots that were edited completely in LR with just one edit done in PS to finish it off…

The slower pace is HARD and it’s making my personal photos+blog suffer b/c I’m just trying to keep up with client images right now but I know if I stick with it it will be WAY better in the long run! I’m already ecstatic at how far I’ve come in a week!

So the reason for this post? (Besides to encourage you to step a little away from PS and buy LR? HA!)

Well, after last week’s Fresh Class I have been thinking a lot about starting from scratch. And how far I’ve come since I first was gifted my original DSLR the day I gave birth to Bailey, five years ago. How many photos it’s taken me to get to here. How many times I missed focus and used bad lighting and tried terrible posing. And obviously tons of bad edits!

Learning something new is really hard. And there will be a million times you’ll want to give up. But if you push past each and every one of those defeating moments, in the end, you will be so glad you did and amazed at how far you’ve come!

So to all the ladies we’ve taught this summer, stick with it! Hang in there! And email us anytime you feel defeated… we’ll talk you off the ledge and encourage you to keep working!

And to Chris, who put up with me strapped to my computer for the last two days… thanks for being an amazing dad and keeping the kids busy for me! I’m so glad it’s you that’s on this ride with me!

the broshears family | St. Louis Family Photographers

Posted on July 18, 2010

Last week Kim and I got to photograph one of C’s BFFs! Dan, or Coach B as my kids call him, coaches girls soccer with Chris at Webster and we love him! It’s just an added bonus that he has an awesome wife and adorable kids! They just bought a new house and they’ll need some art for their walls… and what better to decorate with than your own family?

We met them on a HOT and BRIGHT day so finding shade+good light was difficult and for once, we really stayed in a small area to shoot… normally Kim and I like to walk and walk and walk around. But this worked perfectly and made for a quick shoot which I don’t think anyone was upset about!

Thanks Becky and Dan for coming down to the city… you’re going to die when you see how many smiles we caught of Sophie! I’m saving most of those for your gallery so you can be surprised but enjoy this TINY sneak peek! SO MANY MORE to come!

And because I love Dan I had to include this out-take of him and his girls! HA!

That’s the face I see a lot while he’s coaching! HA!

Thanks Broshears!

Isabella | St. Louis Newborn Photographers

Posted on July 17, 2010

This sweet TINY baby girl was SO easy! She slept the entire time which just made our job, well, not feel like a job!

We also had a tiny departure from our normal newborn session because although we do usually put our newborns on the bean bag for some basic+clean shots, we also put them in a lot of other props. But sweet Isabella was so curly and so tiny that it seemed a shame to put her in anything else. So in a very non-Fresh Art move, we asked mom and dad if we could just shoot her on the bean bag… and they were great about it! Of course we did a few extra shots at the end to give them a little variety but MAN are these my favorites!

Thanks for coming all the way out to the studio Loraine family and we hope you enjoyed your lunch out after the session!

evan & olivia | St. Louis Twin Newborn Photographers

Posted on July 16, 2010

This week we had the special treat of having my cousin and her two new ADORABLE babies to the studio! It was awesome to be able to photograph family and not just work with the babies but cuddle them and give them lots of kisses! Oh my gosh they are so cute! Here are just a few of little Olivia and Evan… the quilt in the background was made by their great grandmother out of her house dresses! LOVE that!

Thanks for coming from so far out for this Lara! It was great to see you (and your mom!!!) and to meet the newest cousins!

a facebook prize | St. Louis Family Photographers

Posted on July 16, 2010

Not sure everyone noticed it or not but a while back we announced a giveaway on Facebook… we gave away one full session and one mini session! And last weekend we got to meet up with Erin and her family who won the full family session!

There are a LOAD of photos and after not having a computer for almost a week I am SWAMPED so let’s let the images speak for the great time we had ok? Thanks to this entire crew for making our job so easy and fun!

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