Oh, The Sunlight in Your Hair!

There is something so simple and beautiful about the sun painting a radiant glow along the edge of flowing locks of hair. This is something that can be so beautifully captured as the sun begins to set. It is the perfect kiss of color of nature’s purest highlights that can turn an ordinary portrait into a brilliant result. You can literally watch the sun work it’s magic to breathe life into the frozen frame of a portrait.

This technique of hair lighting works with any color hair, but with lighter shades, it is often most striking. For these casual senior portraits, the location was the side of the road, yet you can see how the sun against the dark green palette illuminates, Kylie in her photos.

We later moved to a brighter location away from the trees to allow some brighter light to shine down. And for these shots, I really wanted to showcase her long beautiful hair so I asked her to turn away from the camera and tilt her head up. Then I asked her to bunch up her hair and play with it. These shots were a mix of dramatic and playful images...and ones that became our mutual favorites from the evening photo session.

Photo Tip: When you feel like you are running out of ideas and poses to try. Ask your model to touch or play with her hair. Since it is ultimately attached to the person, there becomes some type of emotional attachment that unveils itself before the camera. It also helps to loosen up their hands and get them more comfortable with posing. Depending upon their hairstyle, you might want to introduce a clip, a headband, a hat or some other prop. Try this out at your next shoot and share with me your results!

Oh Those Eyes!

It has been a while since I have posted, but life has been just crazy busy. This is the norm between juggling graphics, photography, family life and being in the heart of volleyball season.

I would like to share some images from a recent Senior Photo Shoot done at Gleason Park in Eau Gallie. There are so many beautiful natural backgrounds there that allowed me to showcase Jessie’s beauty. Here are some cropped shots showing a variety of poses with a couple different outfits.

Jessie has such a natural smile and amazing eyes that I wanted to be sure to highlight in her photo shoot. Prior to the shoot, we discussed the colors and likely outfits that she would choose to wear. This is always a good idea for photographers to discuss with the people that they will be shooting. It gives you a great opportunity to make suggestions to accomplish the overall look that your client is trying to achieve. Now with cell phones, they can send you photos and the two of you can work in a partnership to achieve a successful shoot. 

Post shoot editing gives other opportunities to add styles and effects to create the mood for an image. If you look at the color version, shown in the right hand corner of the grouping above, you can see how different a feel a similar shot from that series has to it when stylized with my black & white allure action. Her eyes, oh those beautiful eyes, become the center of attention.

I've Been Published - a hybrid card in S&SA April 2011 issue

If you aren’t a regular subscriber of Scrap & Stamp Arts magazine, you will have to head to Barnes & Noble to pick up the April 2011 issue. Although I have taken a hiatus from writing due to being a bit swamped right now, one of my teal & black cards was included in a challenge section. This is a hybrid card which means it contains digital graphics combined with traditional cardmaking techniques and supplies. One really cool thing I did with one of the designs was to reverse part of it out repeatedly on a block of black. I printed it out and punched a decorative border punch down the side of it and added it to my card front...just one of the many fun ways to used digi designs and brushes. The main floral design is outlined b&w art in that set. I added the light grey shading on computer before printing it out so I didn't have to color within the lines. The pinstripe paper is from Doodlebug Designs and the verse is from a retired Stampin’ Up!® set.

Here is what fun items are included in the Hip & Happy set:

This still remains one of the favorite sets that I have designed because it is lighthearted

 and fun. I would love to see what you can create with this set of digi stamps. 

Also, check out these two companion sets, 

Hip & Happy Frames Brushes and Hip & Happy Frames

  

A Layout from Mom

A detail image from layout...

As moms and scrappers, we have pride in our children and lots of wisdom to share with them. As my girls grow older and college years are not that far off, I feel the sands in the hour glass moving at warp speed, yet I have so much that I want to share and teach them. This layout is one of many that will be an ongoing scrap theme for me as I watch my teenage girls grow up so quickly. I took this photo of Ashley shortly after she turned 15. She had such a sweet and innocent look and I wanted to hang onto that memory for a while. I encourage you, whatever the age of your kids, to create “notes from Mom” layouts. There are so many cool quotes and embellishments that you can incorporate into your page that can help you share some of those words of wisdom and inspiration with your children.

The background CS and many of the fun embellishments used are from Around the Block; stamps are Inque Boutique/Darice and chipboard is Chippies from Zsiage. And all the adhesives were Glue Arts!!!