Before & After Thursday

So I've done a handful of Before & Afters on my post-processing using Totally Rad Actions.. Well this past week, I received a nice surprise. Totally Rad Actions tweeted on their Twitter account that they were loving my before and afters... and as a result, I have had over 400 hits on my blog! I was totally stunned, but also very humbled.

So in lieu of a Before & After today (I don't have one prepared because of the holidays!) check out these Before & After recipes on the TRA site...

Happy New Year's Eve! See you in 2010!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you've been able to take a few minutes out of the busy-ness of the holidays to remember why we are celebrating Christmas... because God loved us so much that he sent his son in the form of a sweet, innocent baby to influence our lives and to teach us how to love.

Love someone today.

Before & After Thursday

I was inspired by a visit to Silver Dollar City on Sunday for today's Before & After. I've always liked the vintage saloon photos and wanted to give the same processing to some buildings I photographed in downtown Springfield on a photo walk this summer.

Happy Christmas Eve!

BEFORE

AFTER

POST PROCESSING:

Totally Rad Actions

*Oh Snap! @ 100%

*Grandma's Tap Shoes @ 100%

*Old Skool @ 83%

*Crystalniqua Delicious @ 44%

*Destiny Starr @ 39%

*Get Faded @ 16%

You can view a larger photo here.

See recent Before & Afters here and here and here.. and check out the blog for this past month to see other photos using TRA processing...

Thanks for looking!

Jenn & Justen

Jenn is a friend of mine from college. She contacted me to do a quick one-hour session with her boyfriend, Justen, for some Christmas presents for family. Luckily, I had today available... and despite the 30-degree weather and a flurry of snowflakes, we managed to get the following pix at the MSU campus. Jenn & Justen were troopers!

The MSU campus is actually my favorite place in Springfield, believe it or not!... I graduated from MSU, so I had four years to admire the campus! My favorite place is by the fountain in front of the library on summer nites. So pretty!  I've been wanting to do some couple's pix on campus for awhile, and when Jenn contacted me about pictures, I knew exactly where I wanted to take them.

Enjoy!

P.S. I apologize to Jenn & Justen for having to be seen with me today... With shoots on cold days, I layer up... and I wear my non-matching scarf, headband, and my gloves with the end cut off. I pretty much look like a hobo. But at least I'm warm!!

See the rest of the album from today's session on my Facebook page!

My Brazil Pix on the New OakStar Ads!

I was contacted recently by the president of a local ad agency in reference to purchasing some of my 2009 Brazil photos for a new OakStar Bank ad campaign. The theme of the campaign is "personal passions."

Remember Charles? Charles Hachtel is the Vice President of Commercial Lending at OakStar, and his personal passion is the mission work that he has been part of the past several years in Brazil through our church and a great organization called Christian Missions Unlimited. I have been to Brazil with Charles and this group four times in the past five years and can attest to the life-changing impact it has on the person who is there to work and lay bricks, as well as those who are on the receiving end.

Charles passed on to the ad agency that I was quite a shutterbug and may have some photos available of him that would work for the campaign, and they took the bait! Here are a few of the photos that were used... Five were used altogether.

And here is the final ad, "What Sweat Taught me About Banking." You'll be seeing this ad rotated in the Springfield Business Journal for the next few years!

Be sure to contact Charles at 417-447-9559 if you have any questions about OakStar!

Before & After Thursday

Charles and Alice were one of my first engagement sessions back in 2008. With my point-and-shoot Canon Powershot S5IS, I got the shot below. I didn't have editing software at the time, so I thought I would take another look at this picture today and see what I could come up with since I have the tools now.

BEFORE

AFTER


Using Totally Rad Actions
Punch-Out!!! @ 100%
Shadow Separator ~ lighten 100%
Troy @ 57%
Crystalniqua Delicious @ 57%
Then a crop at the end


P.S. If you've picked up a Springfield Business Journal this week, Charles may look familiar to you. More about that on Friday's post!

Clifton & Jen.. It's Christmas Time!

Today I grabbed some pictures of my best friend, Jennifer, and her husband, Clifton, for some quick Christmas card pics. We wanted to incorporate some pictures of the beautiful house they recently bought. I just adore these two.

Clifton's the king of funny faces...

Just because it was fun...

And a family pic...

Dad...

Mom... (so beautiful!)

and child, Bingo!

He wasn't really digging the HO HO HO shirt or the cute necktie. He was kinda pouty.

This reminds me... 11 Days til Christmas... and -1 presents bought (don't you hate it when you buy the perfect gift for someone, and then you decide you need it more for yourself? Sorry, Erin! My new scarf is lovely!) :)

Santa Baby, Asher

You've met Asher before... He was featured in mom, Tegan's, maternity pix last month, in the form of a baby bump. He officially made his entrance on December 7, which makes him 5 days old for these pix. His daddy, Kevin, is my coworker. I predicted Asher's due date twice and lost. Kevin got it right on the dot. 

Asher was my first newborn shoot... I honestly didn't quite know what to expect.. but this little guy was pretty much wide awake the entire time, showing us his pretty blue eyes. He wasn't a huge fan of being scantily clad, and he repeatedly shared his high-pitched squeal to let us know he wasn't overly thrilled about the idea. But it was adorable, nonetheless.

I'm happy with the results, and as you can see below, I had a really hard time choosing some favorites, so you get to see a lot!

I don't know what song he's snapping his fingers to, but I like the sound of it :)

He has SO MUCH HAIR!!

Since Asher's daddy, Kevin, works at American Family Insurance, 

he received a gift of a stuffed teddy bear which was wearing this AMFAM shirt. 

It turns out that the shirt looks pretty adorable on Asher.  (even if it is a little short!)

We've decided that putting this picture on Kevin's desk will help his sales tremendously. :)

And lastly, if you're ever having a bad day, come back to visit this last picture. 

You can't help but smile. 

This is the only time in a person's life in which a double chin is adorable.

THE END

Melanie - To Be Continued...

Meet Melanie... I've gotten to hang out with this gorgeous girl over the past few years, and she's beautiful inside and out. I offered a long time ago to do a quick session for fun, and finally had some free time to fit it in the schedule... but the rain had other plans for us this morning. We had to improvise and do these shots inside Melanie's apartment next to the sliding glass door to grab the natural light. Hope you enjoy the few that I was able to get today... and if they leave you wanting more, don't worry... We'll be rescheduling for an outdoor shoot as soon as the weather permits!

Check out these blue eyes!

The Faces of Brazil

These are the last of the Faces of Brazil for 2009. I think it's true when they say that a person's eyes are the windows to their soul. Just look at these eyes...