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 I just got back home from an incredible weekend with 40 workshop attendees, Cheryl Muhr and Brianna Graham.  And it was fabulous!  This workshop was so inspiring.  I love Cheryl’s style and philosophies about doing work you love and not doing things you do not.  And about making sure you price yourself so that you feel like you have self worth and are doing something incredible for others.  You are capturing memories for families.  You never know what life has in store for you and those you love.  And as photographers, we document life.

Watching Brianna and Cheryl shoot was fun.  They have completely different styles, yet both produce stunning images.  I often get asked in photoshop trainings how to imitate these two photographers.  And my best advice to you is to be inspired by them, but do not try to be them.  Every photographer sees the world through different eyes.  Let your eyes and your heart guide your images.

 So… do you want to see some of my photographs of the models?  Here is a small sampling (ok - 20 so not that small) of the images I took and post processed.  I shot in manual, was at ISO 200, primarily shot these at 2.0-2.5 and varied my speed based on the light.  I post processed using MCP Actions - Complete Workflow: Color Burst or Color Explosion and/or Quickie Collection Actions using Crackle, Color Flair, Night Color, Sharp as a Tack, and a few others.  I also used the Eye Doctor on many, Magic Skin on a few…

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Well I do not actually have a secret, but am at one - “The Secret Workshop” in Flint, Michigan. 

The mixer tonight was amazing.  Cheryl Muhr is absolutely a joy.  She is inspirational and refreshing.  And I am excited for the weekend.  There are 40+ photographers here - from all different locations and backgrounds.  And it is so energizing to be interacting with everyone. 

Plus the “Secret” guest is coming to the workshop tomorrow.  So check back to hear who it is.  I am so excited for her (I do actually know).  And it will be a blast. 

I am keeping this short as it is 11:55pm here and I have to get up early tomorrow.  But a quick thought - “Love what you do and who you are as a photographer.   Do not let other’s define your self worth.  Be proud of your work and respect yourself.”

Jodi

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My girls wanted to sing this for all the moms who read my blog.  

Click on the photo of the three of us taken of us taken by my husband at the Hannah Montana 3D movie.  Excuse the quality of the photo and the video (both from my Point and Shoot) but we wanted to share.  And remember to capture memories, not just portraits!

And remember on Mother’s Day, I will be announcing the winner of the “What Motherhood Means to You” Photo Contest.  Thank you to everyone who has voted.

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What a crazy weekend….

Friday night my husband and I were heading to a business event.  We were on an expressway and saw a big accident up ahead.  There were many ambulances, police cars and fire trucks on the scene and many more that kept coming.  We needed to get over a lane.  As we pulled into another lane, we got rear ended by a semi truck.  We are fine.  The car has $2,000 or so worth of damage.  But in the whole picture it is not a big deal. Sure it will be a pain, yes our out of pocket costs will be high, and yes we need to claim it to our insurance.  And yes we missed the event we were headed to.  But we are alive and in one piece.

We had to wait on the scene for 2 hours as the police cleared the major accident.  I watched many bodies being cut out from the cars in ditch and be put on stretchers. The freaky, eye opening part is that when the police woman was available for us, she apologized but explained it was a fatal accident.

So I sat there realizing that had we not stopped for gas or had our sitter gotten there earlier, we could have been in that ditch. Basically every little thing leads to the next.  When we 1st got hit by the truck, my husband said, “had the sitter come on time, we might not be dealing with this.”  The thing with life is you never know what is around the corner.  You never know if the path you take, your timing, or your decisions lead you to something incredible, something life altering, or just simple everyday life.

Many years ago (probably 15 or so) I use to read books by an author Richard Bach. They were about this very thing - how every single decision and movement leads to the next, and how if you made a different choice (major or even minor) how that leads to who you are and where you are in life.  One of his books actually showed alternate paths concurrently. It was really fascinating. Something to think about.

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Fast forward to Saturday…

I have not been on a bike since I was a kid.  I actually broke my arm when I was a pre-teen.  I cannot remember if that was the last time I was on a bike. For some reason I had been wondering if the expression “it is just like riding a bike” was true.  Are there some things that once you learn them, you can do them forever, even if 25 years have gone by in between? Well my mother-in-law has a bike she never uses.  So we got it from her house and pumped up the tires.  The first try I was wobbly.  I lacked confidence.  I was nervous.  But after a few more minutes I was cruising around my neighborhood.  My twins were watching and said, “you did not even need training wheels.”  I felt so alive and proud of myself.  I think we often forget to be proud of ourselves.  I was.

So next time you are unsure if you can do something, JUST TRY IT.  I never would have known if I could do it if I did not try. And when you do it, pat yourself on the back.  Be proud!  You did it.

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So how does all of this relate to a photography and photoshop blog?  Well you get to know me as a person and what is going through my head.  But really there are so many lessons in all of this, about life and photography and photoshop.

If you do not take a photo in fear it will not be good, then you will never know how it would have been. If you do not try and try again, you will not get better.  I plan to keep riding!

And from the first story, I witnessed how short life was for the cars in front of me in the accident.  Take photos of your family and friends.  Take photos to document events.  Every photo does not need to be a portrait.  Sometimes snapshots are the best photos of all.  They do not need to be perfect.  They just need to document LIFE.  So live and capture your life and those lives you love.

Thanks for reading,

Jodi

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My twins had their recital costume photo day yesterday. 

We are at a new dance studio this year which means a new photographer taking the photos.  The photos from last year were terrible.  I will refrain from sharing the names of the photographers.  They basically took one shot of each kid.  It was either good or bad.  And done.  You had to buy blindly and if you did not like it, so what.  The price was very low but it was not a good value since most people were not happy.  

I was very impressed with this year’s set up.  They had a photographer taking photos, owner of the dance studio helping pose the children, a person with a computer deleting bad shots as they were taken - the camera was hooked in directly. They did not just take one shot - they took probably 20+ of each of my kids and then took some of them together.  I never asked them to, they just knew to.  How smart.  Last year’s studio would take one shot of each kid and if asked one with a friend or sibling.  That was it!

Back to this year, in another room there were about 15 computers for viewing.  As soon as your kids photos were taken, you could go see proofs, pick which photos you liked and what sizes or what specialty items you wanted (like montages and sculptures, etc).  Guess what?  Prices way way way more expensive.  But better value!!! Way better. People bought more.  Way more.  They spent TONS of money.  They felt good about it. 

Low prices does not equal your customers being happy - If you can increase your perceived value, you can charge more and yet your customers leave more satisfied.  They will spend more.  You will make more.  And it is a win - win.

So what did I buy…  I will start by telling you that I took probably 100 shots in my home photo studio before I left.  I had no intent of buying anything except a class photo…  Yet even I walked away ordering.  The sold me.  I ordered 8 4×6 - of poses I knew I did not take.  I know I got some I can print big so I did not buy bigger from them.  I also ordered a keychain for me of my twins together.  And I got them each a cut out sculpture.  I spent $168 even though I have plenty of photos and I did not need them.  I wanted them.

Hope you enjoyed my MCP thought of the day…  Next post will have dance photos I took

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So by now many of you have probably heard that Adobe has released a free version of Photoshop.  It is a very scaled down version of elements and is web based. Click here to check it out in person.

Before any of you say, “oh no, I already have Photoshop,” read on.  This program is meant for the most basic of editing.  If you are a photographer, photographer, hobbyist photographer, scrap booker, or just enjoy manipulating photos, this program is likely way too simple for you.

I have included a screen shot below so you can see what it does.  It can do the most basic of exposure adjustments, sharpening, hue changes and touchups. After creating a log on so I could see it, I tried to think who would benefit from this.  I would say someone like my mom would.  She has a simple tiny point and shoot, snaps away, then prints.  She never edits before getting them printed.  So for her this would be perfect.  I would say this is a great beginner tool for those who are not interested in editing but want to make their photos slightly better before printing.

Another use for Photoshop Express is creating a gallery to share.  You get some space on photoshop.com where you can save and share photos.  That could be useful for anyone.  But there is a lot of competition in that arena, such as flickr.

I would love to hear other people’s opinions of this new Adobe product - please put your thoughts in the comment section.

Thanks - Jodi

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PS. and before anyone asks, “nope, none of my actions work in Photoshop Express…”