Just in case you were wondering if bigger is better…
8×10 vs 20×30. I think the 20×30 wins.
Image courtesy of Ariana Falerni
Archive for the ‘misc’ Category
big
April 1, 2011Backup
March 7, 2011Wake up call. Again.
Last year, I had a massive hard drive failure and knew I needed to implement a good backup system. Last week, a huge reminder of the importance of backing up happened again…this time at the expense of our dear friends, Josh and Amanda. Thursday morning, they woke up to…well…a whole lot less than they had the night before. Their house had been robbed while they were sleeping. I feel completely mortified and violated and it wasn’t even my house or my items. 27″ iMac, iPad, jewelry, printer, wacom, memory cards…GONE. As if the mess of dealing with it and heartbreak isn’t enough, now Josh (also a photographer) has to hope and pray his automatic backup system to his external hard drives worked properly so that he has all of his files and documents.
Friends, please don’t think you are immune. If it isn’t a hard drive failure, it could be something completely out of your control…a robbery…or perhaps a fire or other natural disaster. I just can’t imagine how devastating it would be to not only lose all of my family videos and images, but all of the client images and files I have spend the last five years creating!
BACKUP…and then backup again.
How do I do it? When I import my images into Lightroom from my CF card, I automatically send a raw backup to one external hard drive, and another jpg backup to another hard drive. So, my images are saved as raw files on my Mac and one hard drive, as well as jpg files on another hard drive. I then use an online backup service, Backblaze, to continually back up all of my jpg files from the external hard drive, as well as all of my documents from my Mac. I like the convenience of an online backup, but I know that some people use DVD’s or external hard drives as a final backup and then store them in a fire proof safe.
If any of you have any other good ideas for backup, I would love to know!!!
new year
January 3, 2011New Year. What a cliche post title. BUT. I absolutely consider this a new year with new goals, new changes (personal and photography), and a new me. While I will save those thoughts for another cold, January day, I do want to get on with the new year and I need your help!
While the image at the top of my blog is still one of my favorites, it’s time for a new image. It’s been up there for…um…almost a year now. Since I don’t personally prefer slideshows or collages at the top of my blog, I have ONE image to say…this is my blog and this is my photography! As I was looking through images, I realized that I love certain images so much because i am emotionally connected to them in some way…maybe I adored the personality of the person I photographed…maybe the lighting was really cool…or maybe she just had amazing shoes. I quickly concluded that I am not the person to choose the blog header image that will appeal to the masses (I like to pretend “masses” are looking at my blog).
So. Will you help a girl out? I need help finding ONE image that reflects my photography in the best way and will appeal to the masses (there I go again with the masses). Just look through my blog and either Facebook me, email me, or leave a comment with the date of the blog post and image description of the image you like best.
Of course I will reward the person who suggests the image I love best! Travis has created a blog collage action set that freaking rocks. No more saving templates on your computer, finding them in a folder, pulling them into Photoshop, and manually placing each image. You can see examples of the collages below. You just push “play” in Photoshop, and the action creates the blog collage for you and automatically places the images you want in the collage. Any size images on your blog. Photography blogs. Family blogs. You name it…it works for everything. He will be selling it soon, but the winner will be the first to receive it! You can see examples of the collages as you scroll down through both of our blogs.
I will choose a winner by next Wednesday…thanks for helping…and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
workshop announcement
September 8, 2010No, you sillies, I am not holding a workshop. BUT. I am announcing a very special, wonderful, brilliant, over the top awesome workshop by Shannon Sewell. If you know of her, you are already in love with her work. If you haven’t, you will be within five minutes of looking at her lovely images. I was instantly drawn to her images when I was first introduced. She has a ridiculous talent of stylizing her shoots and then telling a beautiful story through her images. Her view from the camera is unique and you will find that you just. can’t. stop. looking. You can find Shannon’s work on her website and her blog.
Intrigued?
Here are the details…
Date: October 19th (Shannon will be holding her workshop here in Michigan for ONE DAY and one day only)
Time: 10-6 pm
Where: Metro Detroit area
Cost: $350
Lunch: Delicious and included!
Seats: Only 10-15 available
Who is it for: Amateur to professional photographers
What you will learn: Whether you need inspiration or nitty gritty technique details, Shannon will cover her vision of a shoot, business (including branding, pricing, networking, etc), lighting, equipment, styling, post processing, and working with models. Shannon has packed this workshop with the information that has made her such an incredible photographer. And rumor has it that the styling for the model portion will be “very vogue” and fabulous. Soooo excited about it!
All right folks…it’s all laid out for you. An amazing photographer offering an equally amazing workshop at a killer price. Please email me at jean@jeansmithphotography.com if you are interested in registering.
Aaaand, how about a little Shannon Sewell eye candy to end this extremely long post…
reminiscing
June 11, 2010One year ago today, we welcomed our sweet Beckham into the world. Feeling just a bit blue today. Anyone else out there have the my-last-baby-is growing-at-light-speeds-and-i-kinda-just-want-him-to-stay-tiny-for-a-bit-longer blues?
Photo Walk
June 7, 2010Bring it on Eastern Market! Laurel and I hosted the iheartfaces Photo Walk on Saturday and it truly was so much fun. I absolutely loved meeting the other photographers who came out and loved seeing how they viewed the world. That’s what makes this wonderful world of photography so wonderful…we all have cameras…but we all use them so differently. I love it.
As we were walking, talking, and taking pictures, I very quickly realized that I am definitely not a “thing” photographer. Geez…objects and things are hard to take pictures of! But, it was so fun to step outside of my “people” box and look at the world from a different viewpoint. If you can’t tell, I was a bit obsessed with the flowers…
tons-o-announcements
May 4, 2010We have a lot going on around here and I thought I would just shove it all in to one big blog post. So, please, read on…lots of good stuff is a comin…
1. We just announced over on the Boka Studios blog that we are now accepting 2011 senior rep applications. You can read all of the details over on the blog, but in a nutshell, my husband is accepting 1-2 seniors from high schools in and around the Detroit and Ann Arbor areas. You get a free session fee ($250 value), 50 free 411 cards, 2 free websize images for Facebook or Myspace, and an online gallery of 30-35 images. All you have to do is spread the word about Boka Studios! For every paid session you refer, you will receive an 8×10 and 2 sheets of wallets ($100 value), and for every three paid sessions you refer, you will receive a 12×12 coffee table storybook album ($400 value). Wanna see more of my hubby’s awesome senior work? You can view more senior images on the website or on the blog.
2. I am super excited to announce that I will be leading an iheartfaces Photowalk with Laurel from Laurel Photography on June 5th at the wonderful and colorful Eastern Market in Detroit. This is for photographers at any level or stage in their photography journey. The first 25 spots filled up right away, so they opened up 25 more spots. Hurry, click HERE to go an sign up…we will have so much fun! Can’t wait to meet you all!
3. Aaaaaaaaaaaaand, last, I teased you all a few months ago with talk about some possible mini sessions. I haven’t done any since early 2008, so don’t you think it’s about time to bring them back? I am in the planning stages of this and would just like to get a feeler of anyone who would be interested. They would be child mini sessions (for up to four children) and I am considering the dates as August 27th, September 23rd and 24th, or October 23rd. I am just looking to finalize dates right now, and the rest of the details will follow. If you are possibly interested, let me know which dates work best.
Along with this overload of information, I’ll leave you with some sweetness as well. Love this little guy…I last photographed him a little over a year ago, and my, can you just FEEL how much his parents adore him?!?!
question for you
April 8, 2010Traditional vs Lifestyle? What type of session would you prefer (not to photograph, but to have on your walls)?
After my last post, I got to thinking. I know how much I love photographing kids and families in more of a lifestyle manner. But, how do others like it? And by liking it, I mean, I-would-rather-slather-my-walls-with-lifestyle-images-rather-than-posed-with-a-backdrop-images.
Before you commit to “liking it,” let me explain exactly what I mean by a lifestyle or “day in the life” session. The best example of what a “day in the life” would be like would be here. A lifestyle session would be here…or maybe even here. It is basically a storytelling session. Backdrops, stiff poses, perfect ruffley dresses…out the window. I’m thinking more along the lines of superhero capes, favorite foods, cooking together, games, dressups, dancing…you know…the good stuff. Why do I love photographing like this? Duh. Because it is fun. It is real. And most important, because we are capturing details and quirks that will be forgotten in five years from now.
Coming full circle, that brings me back to my question.
Imagine your walls and picture books decorated with perfect images taken by a professional photographer…are they posed and perfect, or are they fun and unexpected?
Keep in mind as you answer the question, there is NO RIGHT ANSWER. Just because I photograph a certain way, it does not mean I don’t adore and appreciate beautiful traditional images. Everyone has their own style, and I love and respect that. It’s just my sheer curiosity to know what people prefer.
I would love if you (and by you, I mean ANYONE reading this blog) would leave a comment and let me know your thoughts. What do the images in your mind look like of an absolute perfect session of your children and/or family? Oh, and you can leave an anonymous comment if you want…I just want to hear from you :)
happy
April 4, 2010happy day to everyone.
iheartfaces
March 22, 2010The challenge this week over at iheartfaces is “angles.” It’s amazing what using a different point of view will do for any image. Here is a recent fave…
