If you didn’t make it to the Photography Session at BlogHer 08 this year, I wanted to make sure you got the Cliff Notes! Try some of these tips out and you’ll see your blog photos shine even brighter! We’ll start somewhat easy, get a little more technical and then end easy.

1. Define Emotion: When trying to decide if an image should be black and white vs color, ask yourself if b/w will help define the emotion. Sidenote: Brian and I shoot every thing in color and in RAW format. We don’t use the presets in the camera for b/w images. We make all those changes after the shoot in post process.

Example: I love this fun shot of dad and his boys. But when we see it in black and white, I feel like the emotion on dad’s face is much more defined.

2. Fill the Frame: Think about the Third’s Principle and Make Sure Your Background has Purpose

If you were to break your frame into thirds, is every third filled with something that accentuates the story of the photo? The story of the photo above is really about Blaze and his curiosity, where I decide to place Blaze (in what third of the picture frame) makes a big difference. I like his curiosity poking out from the bottom corner. This subject of framing, composition and the Third’s Principle is also covered in more depth on our DVD 1, Refuse to Say Cheese!

3. Less is More: See if you can capture a shot without any facial expressions, yet still have strong emotion. Brian is the master at this!

4. How Blurry Do You Want Your Background? The lower your aperture/fstop, the more blur in your background. The image below was shot at a 2.8 fstop. Check your lens to see how low your fstop will go. To enjoy the blur effect, you are going to want a lens that drops down to 2.8 or even lower.

Portrait Mode (the lady’s head icon) is essentially giving you a lower aperture automatically. But you can have fun and take control by switching to Aperture Priority Mode. This means you pick the degree of blur (by picking your fstop) and the camera decides the shutter speed for you. The subject of aperture, shutter speed and ISO are all covered in depth on DVD 2, Beyond the Green Box!

5. How Low Can You Go with Your ISO? The lower your ISO, the better your color saturation.

The image above was at a 100 ISO during “sweet light”. Sweet Light is that time of night when the sun has just set and the sky is the bluest it will ever be during the night (lasts about 15-20 minutes). Brian shot this using a tripod, low ISO, higher aperture for more detail instead of blur and a shutter speed that stayed open for 4-5 seconds. This example is a night shot, but we try to shoot at a 100 ISO whenever possible, day or night.

6. AI Servo is the Secret for Swinging! If you want shots of your kids on the swing or riding bikes, try your AI Servo setting because it will lock focus on your subject if they are moving toward you or away from you. For photo examples, go back to the Training Wheels post! These photos were all shot in AI Servo mode. Or here is a favorite wedding example.

7. No-nonsense Tips to Flash Lighting! The secret to using an external flash is where you point your flash head (yep, it moves. :)). As Brian would say, “Think of holding a super ball and wanting to hit your subject in the head with it. What wall should you throw your super ball against so that it bounces back and hits the subject in the face?” (Isn’t that great of Brian. That’s what he’s thinking when taking pictures of a bride! How can I hit her in the face with a super ball!)

Example #1: This is from the other night and the flash is pointing right at Pascaline and Blaze. See those nasty shadows around them and the black cave effect behind them? Yuck! Blaze looks like someone took charcoal from the fireplace and blew it on him.

Example #2: I took my flash head and instead of pointing it at them, I pointed it straight up at the ceiling. The effect is better, but I don’t usually like to bounce off the ceiling because of the shadows it can create under the eyes. You can see how it accentuates dark circles under her eyes, but it is way better than Example #1. Yet, we can get even better!

Example #3: Brian loves to aim his flash head off to the side with a slight tilt. He’s aiming that “super ball” where the wall meets the ceiling. Does that make sense? It brings back a nice side lighting that can look similar to lamp light or window light. Ohhhh, that is way better!

Example #4: This one is my favorite way to use a flash. I like to turn the flash head and point it straight behind me. The only downside is people will tell me all night at a wedding reception that my flash is backward. But the upside is that I get this wonderful, flattering light on the subject’s face. AND, no shadows friends!! What a difference between Example #1 and #4!

Recipe settings for using an external flash? We often have our ISO at 800, our Shutter Speed at 1/60 or 60th of a second and Aperture around 4.5-5.6 (depending on the shot). Try it out at home. External flash is WAY easier than you would ever think! You can totally do this!

8. Play, play, play with your Shutter Speed. If you need more available light then slow your shutter speed down. If you need less light speed it up. The key is to stop feeling intimidated by your camera and just play. Mistakes are necessary when getting better at photography. The subject of Shutter Speed and shooting in Manuel is talked about a lot more in DVD 2, Beyond the Green Box, with exercises for you to try too!

If I speed the Shutter Speed up on this image, then there is less light. If I slow the Shutter Speed down there is more light and you would probably see less and less of the outdoor furniture behind Pascaline.

9. Three Keys to Post Process for Me Ra and Brian…I keep it simple because I don’t have a lot of time to spend in Photoshop. I may apply actions, but at the very least I do these three things.

#1 Add Contrast

#2 Decide if image should be BW or stay in Color

#3 Add a soft vignette around the outer edges. The vignette setting is easy to use in Lightroom.

10. Pick ONE Tip at a Time. Every year Brian and I pick on thing to work on. One year it was working on improving our color images because most of us see in color so how can we make a color image stand out even more? One year, we focused on Off Camera Lighting.

Remember, one thing at a time. Otherwise you get overwhelmed and miss out on how much fun photography is.

Mistakes are necessary when getting better at photography–mistake away!!

Where to go and what to do if you want more photography exercises and tips?

We cover these subjects and much, much more in depth at our workshops. Chicago has a couple spaces left if you are in the area, and we may open one up for early December too! (are there still December takers? if so, email me at mera@merakoh.com)

Can’t make it to a workshop? You can check out the DVDs mentioned above. We get amazing feedback every week from people watching our DVDs and trying out the exercises! Sidenote: We realized late last night that our website host didn’t tell us it had updated things in our shopping cart. This means that since last Wed no one has been able to finalize a purchase. BROTHER! No wonder the sales were not happening, it seemed unusual but you know how you get busy with stuff and then leaving for San Fran, we totally forgot. Anyway, such is life. We poured ourselves a glass of wine and got to the bottom of the issue. All fixed now–for real!

Want a free option? You can check out all the Photography Tips for Moms that I’ve posted! There are over 102 posts in that category so have fun!! And don’t forget to send me some of your results!

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New deadline for WATER photo contest is Monday, July 28th at midnight PST.

To enter our new Photo Contest for July, send your image as an attachment to contest@merakoh.com. The theme is Water. Any thing that has to do with water is welcome!

Fatherhood Finalist will be announced this week! (refresh Lauren, refresh! :))

To see our day job , visit here.

The Summer of 2007 will go down in history for Pascaline!

Check it out! She has kissed her training wheels goodbye!

Pascaline has been working off and on for the last 18 months. But we both decided the other day that it was time to get outside and focus until she got it down. I would count her pedal strokes “1, 2, 3–Yeah! You did three pedal strokes!” Then we’d start again, “1, 2″ fall over and start again “1, 2, 3 and a half!” We did this for over two hours, and then all of a sudden it was “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6……up to 23!” She was RIDING HER BIKE!!!

Oh my goodness, it was one of the best parent moments ever! Pascaline jumped off her bike and ran over to me with the biggest hug! I told her I was super proud of her, and without skipping a beat she said “I’m proud of myself mama!”

When dad got home, we had to show him what exciting things had been happening. The lighting was to die for with sunset in progress. (in fact, the shots above are from sunset. I decided not to bring the camera out until she was feeling more confident and wanted her picture taken.)

Here she is…riding into the sunset! You’ve got to love that sun flare! To fun!

Since we’re talking about sun flare, do you want to know how I did it? Here’s a new summer photography exercise!

1. Get the sun in one of the upper corners of the frame, either the left or right side.

2. Woah! I need to back up! Make sure you have your lense hood on your lense. I know some of you threw it away because you didn’t know what it was for. Time to dig it out. If you don’t have a lense hood, cup your hand around the outside of your lense as a fill in hood type effect.

3. I make sure my ISO is at 100 for best color saturation.

4. My f stop or Aperture is not super low because these shots often have more detail. So maybe 5.6 or something around there.

5. I turn my camera to Manuel mode because if I don’t, the camera will think I have to much light for the picture. But I know I want a lot of direct sun light, so I have to tell the camera what to set the Shutter Speed at.

6. Then with the sun shining right above my lense hood in one of the upper corners, I tip my hood just enough to let the sun spill into the camera. I take the picture and adjust my Shutter Speed by what my preview looks like. If my image is to bright, I speed up my Shutter Speed. If my image is to dark, I slow my Shutter Speed down. I have fun finessing this until the sun flare is right where I want it.

7. I bring the image into Adobe Lightroom and up the contrast to add a little more drama to the sun flare.

Hope this makes sense! Watch Katie and Mike’s Wedding Slideshow (one of the most elegant weddings ever) to see my favorite wedding sun flare image. It’s like the rainbow is right over the top of them.

But what about Blaze! He has been tearing it up with his tricycle!

I’m finding that the tricycle is a lot more work than a normal bike. For every single pedal stroke that Pascaline makes, Blaze has to do four! He never misses a chance to let me know how he feels about this.

These are the days. Don’t you sometimes wish you could go back? Learning to ride your bike, singing spontaneous songs on a summer evening, running through sprinklers and then eating ice cold popsicles on a warm towel as you got brain freeze. I miss it.

But I wouldn’t trade it for smiles like this!

p.s. Brian wanted me to make sure you know the new Batman comes out tonight. I know you are so thankful he told you this.

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To enter our new Photo Contest for July, send your image as an attachement to contest@merakoh.com. The theme is Water. Any thing that has to do with water is welcome.

To see our day job , visit here.

For more fun photo exercises, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese , our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, or for details on spots left in our upcoming Chicago Workshop , click on the words of your choice!

Our good friend John Louviere flew into town Thursday night from Salt Lake City.

We’ve been friends with Groovy Hair (that’s what we like to call him–kinda sounds like Louviere but focuses more on the hair :)) for over fifteen years. He knows all our dirt, and we know all his! When someone knows all your faults and still loves you, wow, you have a certain level of freedom to get silly.

I have to show you a few photos of what I mean.

First of all, Diego (the suffering guy–yeah, that’s him) comes over for dinner Thursday night. We’re having a great time eating by candlelight on the back deck.

And then I’m not sure what shifted, but with three guys and me at the dinner table…our conversation got more and more…gladiator like…

Look at this aggressiveness in his next shot. Ladies, I’m not connecting with this. Is this a guy thing? Those eyes are serious!

Then Groovy Hair has his own turn with the Lego land outfit. And Diego is mister cool man behind him. I think I was in college when I last saw someone stick out their tongue and do that hand sign in the back of a picture.

And then comes the moment in the evening when we need to take “band” shots. Guys, I know you know what I’m talking about. Girls like to get together and chit chat away, but guys like to get together and pose for possible, future CD covers.

Here comes the “angry/shouting” one. Groovy Hair doesn’t really pull it off, but we’ll give it to him for good effort.

But this one is my absolute FAVORITE!! Diego turns to try and blow the flame out and look at his lips! Then the flame almost licks Groovy Hair and Groovy Hair’s face! I’m serious, this image kills me!! And what’s Brian doing? He looks so peaceful.

It’s been a great 4th of July weekend. Totally refreshing and fun! But tomorrow, I have to tell you about the craziest thing that happened on the afternoon of the 4th. Seriously, it’s SUPER crazy! In fact, be on the watch because I have a lot of posts for this week, so you may see a new one more than once a day!

Tips or Recipes Anyone?

All these photos in today’s blog post were taken late at night. So how do you take pictures when it’s dark outside, and you prefer not to use a flash?

First, shift into Manual mode.

Next, bump up your ISO. We went all the way up to 3200 for the images above. As we illustrate in Beyond the Green Box, the higher ISO causes more graininess in the image. But the high ISO also helps you get away with not having to use a flash.

Third, go as low as you can in your aperture to let as much light in as possible. Our aperture was down at 1.4 or Fstop 1.4.

Fourth, the shutter speed was pretty slow. It was 1/8th of a second for the gladiator shots. You would almost think the one of “Diego the Gladiator” standing still would have more blur because the shutter speed was so slow. Normally the image would have more blur if it was 1/8th of a second, but we were shooting these with the Sony 300 DSLR. The new Sony DSLR cameras have an image stabilizer inside the camera body instead of on the lens, so you can go a lot slower in your shutter speed and still get a pretty clear image. It’s seriously AWESOME! No sharpening on these images, straight out of the camera.

For the “BAND” photos of the guys, I was able to go up in my shutter speed because the flame cast so much more light then the candles on the table. My shutter speed was up at 1/200th of a second. I kept my aperture and ISO at the same place.

I hope you enjoy!

I’m so BUMMED!!!! I worked on this post on the 3rd and set it to go live for all of you for the 4th, but it didn’t-which is totally weird. I’m so sorry! While we were gearing up for our BBQ, I even thought, ‘I should check the blog and make sure the fireworks tips went live.’ But then I forgot. Oh man, I’m so sorry you guys! I’m going to go ahead and post it now, but I truly apologize!! Maybe you have some leftover sparklers so you can still try the photography tip….

Hope you all had a great 4th! We have a friend here from out of town, and the kids did their lemonade stand. Can’t wait to show you the fun pics. Much love and have a great weekend!

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It’s that time of year again!

Time to drag your tripod out of the closet and blow some dust off it! When taking pictures of fireworks, your tripod is your best friend. BUT…having said that I do know some photographers who held their camera in between their knees and just held super still.

Key things to remember tonight when taking pictures of the fireworks.

1. Set your camera on Manuel Mode. (don’t be nervous, you can do this!)

2. Set your ISO down to 100. This way you get maximum color saturation. Since the ISO will be so low, you’ve got to have that tripod set up or strong thighs.

3. Put your aperture/Fstop at F11 or F16. Having lots of blur isn’t important for these types of pictures. We want detail, detail, detail!

4. Put your camera on Evaluative Metering so your color and light is metered throughout your whole frame. Thus, enhancing the color everywhere.

5. Slow your shutter speed way down. Take a deep breath, relax and just play around with different speeds. Start with a slow shutter speed of 3 seconds. When the fireworks go off, push your shutter release button down and wait for the image to record 3 seconds of the light. Then when the shutter closes (you’ll hear it close), look at the back of camera and and see if your image is bright enough. If it’s to dark, slow your shutter speed down a little more. Maybe try 4 seconds.

Last year, Jennifer Macniven sent me this AWESOME photo! Any of you remember this? It’s hard to believe I had yet to meet Jen in person. But since then she’s come to our workshops, attended our PUG meetings and started her photography business! She recently launched her own beautiful website and blog. Check em out!

If taking pictures of fireworks stresses you out, try my Sparklers exercise with your kids! FYI, you’ll want to scroll down to PART 2 of the Sparkler blog post. This exercise is SUPER fun for both you and the little ones!

For more fun photography exercises, check out our popular DVD series, Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box!

Here is an inspiring story about a man and his beautiful bride: John and Lauren.

They came into our life when they got married. Brian and I had the wonderful privilege of being their wedding photographers. It was the BEST time–great couple, great details, hilarious memories made–wait, do you remember the playbill wedding program? That’s the same John and Lauren! If you never caught their wedding, check it out.

I’m not sure if they caught the photography bug before or after their wedding, but a year later John and Lauren were signed up for one of our photography workshops. Lauren came to the Beginner’s Workshop, and then they both came to the Advanced Workshop. Brian and I were so excited to speak into their lives and help their beginning business grow.

Then I get this email a couple weeks ago from John. He says they’ve just posted their second wedding and asks me if I’d check it out. Can I just say I didn’t expect these kinds of shots to be the results. Man! If this is was only their second wedding, look out!!!

Doesn’t this image below just look dreamy!! Lauren shot this one. I’m so proud of her. I love how we don’t see the eyes. I love that the background is totally dark. The whole set up, lighting, and post process to this image is perfect!

John said they had some time to play around with lighting during the getting ready part of the day. He said he remembered the blog post I did on back lighting dresses and decided to try the same idea. I’d say he figured it out and then some!

The blog post and exercise that John was talking about it is called “Off Camera Lighting Demystified“. Check it out and give it your own try.

And then I just have to show off this photo because it’s to cool. Look at that back light behind the groom. Isn’t it fantastic! Way to go you two!

Take a look at the whole wedding slideshow. It’s not only great photography, but you’ll be inspired to keep after your own dreams!

And if you have a minute, leave some comments on their blog letting these two know it’s not just me who thinks they did an AMAZING JOB!!

What a crazy and amazing week!

The honor of being in the room when Grayer took his first breath has left me speechless. If you haven’t checked out my little nephew’s photos, you must. I’m totally in love!

But it’s good to be home and back with Brian and the kids. The sun is actually out!! Yeah!!!

I’ve been making myself take naps when the kids take naps. My week of three to four hours of sleep is bound to catch up with me even though I’m on a high from seeing Grayer’s birth.

When I’ve done lots of travel or had to push myself with a project for work, I need to ground myself. On top of napping, I ground myself with cooking. It’s the whole process of cooking that I love. Every thing from going aisle to aisle in the grocery store, as I sink my creativity into what to make for dinner or what type of juicing combination to do in the morning.

Our friend Genie, from the Next Octave, came yesterday to stay for a couple days. Genie is fantastic, you will see more on her later. She told us she wants to write her on blog post of what it looks in our home from an outsider’s perspective. I don’t know, may be scary!

After Genie and I worked out this morning, she made the most amazing greens drink for the family! I had to share because wow, it left me with the most amazing refreshed feeling!

We used the blender and started with Purple Kale.

Then added Parsley, Mint from the Garden, Almonds, Almond Milk, Rice Protein, Just Cranberry Juice, Coconut Water, Fresh Ginger, Frozen Blueberries, and a little Ice.

Voila! Try it!

Anyone else like to juice? If you do, please, please, please share your juicing recipes in the comments!

What other things do you do to ground yourself after a crazy week?

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Recipe for the above image:

ISO was at 100 for maximum color saturation.

Aperture was all the way down to a 2.0 for that yummy blur.

Shutter Speed was 1/100 or 100th of a second.

Camera was the Sony/DSLR-A300 (love this camera and the 350–you can’t beat the live preview and color quality on these!)

Where did I take the photo? On my kitchen counter.

(It’s one of those long posts today so get your coffee. :))

Back in April we had our wonderful, fragrant, yummy Sonoma Photography Workshop. I have yet to show you my special blog post for this workshop!

But today, I wanted to share with you about our Add On Day with Rick Chapman and some deeper lessons I learned in Portrait Photography.

Rick is an amazing photographer. He does wonderful portrait work for celebrity athletes. But he also has this HUGE heart that oozes out of him when he talks about his family or his photography. This is Rick with his little guy. (fyi, these great workshop images are by Garrett, our fearless Sonoma Workshop Host! Thanks Garrett!)

For the Add On Day, we were given the honor of going to Rick’s home in Stinson Beach. Wow, what a place of quiet inspiration!

He started our time by showing us a breathtaking book that was all about his wife, Leslie. Get this…every page of this book was a single portrait he had taken of Leslie over TEN years time. Rick told us he prepared this in secret and surprised Leslie. He described this as a personal project in documenting that constant, changing beauty of his wife over ten years time. (Oh my goodness, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room at this point!)

As Rick began to teach his approach to working with clients,

he described how he begins a portrait photo shoot. He first starts with one question, “What’s the one photo you’ve always wanted of yourself but never had?” He said that since his clients are often well known celebrities, they’ve had thousands of photo shoots done. So he likes to start with their desires. What a wonderful way to start a portrait shoot, don’t you think?

As the day unfolded, I told Rick there is a portrait I’ve always wanted of me and Brian that has never been done. I asked if he’d be open to trying this idea out while at the same time modeling a photo shoot for the group. Rick was more than willing.

I had no idea what kind of an impact this experience would have on me. Weeks later I’m still processing this photo shoot and the journey he took us on.

So what’s the portrait I’ve always wanted of me and Brian?

It’s a moment when we’re not laughing but the connection between us is ever there and powerful. If you’ve met us you know we laugh a lot together. When people take our picture we’re often being silly. But I’ve always wanted a more serious shot of us–something that reflects our deep losses, the pain we’ve gone through–and shows that their is beauty and life with these things in mind.

As a photographer, I find that sometimes it’s easier or more comfortable to encourage and capture the laughing kind of energy. It’s true to life too. It much easier to be with people who are having a good time, then to sit with someone who is suffering and know you have no answers. This is why I love the verse that says it’s better to visit the house mourning then the house of praise because what a gift it’s been when people have visited my uncomfortable house of mourning.

I told Rick about how we’ve gone through a lot of pain in our marriage. We’ve lost much and still carry the sadness from it. I told him that I want to believe beauty lives in the sadness too.

I want our kids to see that suffering doesn’t stop with the pain: the suffering can also create beauty and goodness. But then I told Rick my two fears. One, I was scared to go to that place with a photographer because it felt so vulnerable, and two, I was afraid that the more “serious shot” wouldn’t be “pretty”.

Pretty? It sounds petty, but it was how I felt. Would I myself see beauty in the serious shot or prefer to stay comfortable with the side of us that is fun? Rick being the safe and gentle artist he is created a space for Brian and I to risk discovering the answer for ourselves.

At first we were laughing because we were nervous. I think it was great for the women attendees to see that even though all three of us are professionals, it still takes work and a little time to get into the core of of your subject–no matter how much experience the photographer or clients have.

When the nervousness started to die down, Rick asked us to close our eyes and think of our children and the gift we have in them.

After a couple moments of our eyes being closed, he asked us to now open them and for me to look deep into the camera with all that I’m feeling.

This is what Rick captured.

He had Brian move behind me and play off the dynamics of our marriage. Brian is the total cuddler between us that often holds me together when I feel like I’m coming apart.

And an unexpected snuggle.

Rick helped Brian and I find a quiet place within ourselves. It didn’t come right away, but he guided us and then all of a sudden we were there. As he was shooting, I could feel the pain, the loss, and the energy of life. It was a moment of such enduring strength.

To have this photographed was an amazing gift.

I realized that even though I wanted these type of images done, I was afraid that I wouldn’t like what they looked like. Or better said, I wouldn’t like what I looked like. Was I comfortable seeing my own serious side, the part that feels the suffering more than the joy? Would I think this side of me was beautiful when captured in a portrait?

As you can imagine, so many lessons were taken from our time with Rick. I know the women who attended took away their own powerful lessons (maybe they’ll share some in the comments…:)). Not to mention how excited I am to ask my clients, “What’s the one photo you’ve always wanted of yourself but never had?” Can you imagine the diversity in answers you would get?!

Rick, thank you for helping us see that yes, their is beauty in the quietness, in the loss, and in the sadness.

We are in debt to you.

I’ve been working on a magazine submission for one of our bride’s this week. Her wedding has a very good chance of being featured in a well respected wedding magazine (we’re keeping our fingers crossed), and we wanted to send the editor images of her invitations, programs, address labels, etc.

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to shoot still life? I totally prefer taking photos of people over still life because people have all the emotion to work with, but wow, when it’s still life…my respect for food photographers goes way up! The food in Cooking Light gets much yummier looking for sure!

In our Getting Published 101 Kit, I write a lot about what magazine editors are looking for when you submit individual stock images or full weddings for publication. I have found that one of the key components that makes or breaks a wedding being featured is the amount of detail images. You can have the most beautiful bride and groom photos, but if you don’t have detail images too your chances of getting published just went way down.

Why? Editors know that brides buy wedding magazines to look for new and creative detail ideas for their own upcoming weddings. Whether it’s the untraditional veil

or making your programs look like actual Playbills

or the gifts for all the dinner guests

and the heirloom pearls and favorite teacup

brides love details! I did when I was a bride. And I still do!

As I’ve been working on these wedding images, I’ve noticed that the 85mm (fixed/prime) lens works best. The below shots are all the way down to a 1.4 F-stop/aperture. This means super blur every where expect the point I’m focused on (the focus point was the pearls on the invite). I feel like the low f stop helps add emotion and dimension.

When shooting details think low aperture/f stop. If you’re a wedding photographer, consider buying a macro lens for your details. (I used the macro lens on the above teacup/pearls image.) There are maybe 10 images I shoot with the macro in the whole 12 hour wedding day, but those 10 macro images may be the very thing that gets the wedding published in a magazine. And that publicity is definitely worth the cost of the macro lens.

For more tips on getting your images published, check out our Getting Published 101 Kit. We’ve had great feedback from photographers who have purchased it!

Also, the Early Bird Special for the Chicago Workshop ($799 instead of $999) ends tonight at midnight PST! If your planning on coming, make sure you don’t miss out on this 20% savings!!! You can register here!

Can’t wait to meet all of you in Chicago!! And yes, the forum is still in progress so hopefully all of you Chicago ladies will be able to chat there sooner than later. (again, fingers crossed)

We head back to Seattle today after a wonderful week in San Diego. But first, I have to give a huge shout out to Dana, our fearless San Diego Workshop hostess!

Dana, you went above and beyond the call of duty for being the hostess!! Thank you so much for all your help!

On Monday we had our Add On Day that covered Business and Marketing. It was held at Dana’s house. We covered everything we could in our time from pricing, structuring your business, when to outsource and what to outsource, marketing strategies and much more. It was an amazing time together (and thank you Dana for letting us use your living room!).

But we have to thank Dana for one more thing! She had the BEST idea for building a portfolio that I’ve ever heard!!

For those of you who want to build a portfolio but are not comfortable with charging people just yet, Dana did something you could do too! She told her friends that to take their pictures takes the same amount of time to make dinner. So if they wanted to compensate her, they could make her a dinner. Last year, she ended up getting handfuls of gift certificates to all different restaurants with credits ranging in $50-$150! Her family loved it! The kids are already asking her to take pictures again this year! Don’t you love that!

What a great idea to give your friends so you’re not “giving” your time away. Your time is precious, valuable, even if you’re in the “building” stage of your business. Plus, it’s a great way for friends to show their thanks to you!

Dana, you are the Queen Bee!! Love you and so thankful for you and ALL your fabulous ideas!!!

(thanks for the photos too!)

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If yesterday was about climbing, today is all about JUMPING!

Last night we got to have dinner at Carey’s house, and it was a blast!

Carey has a big ol’ trampoline in her backyard. Let’s just say a few of us went crazy on it. Can you imagine who that would be?

Notice Blaze crying in the background with Brian. Do you know why Blaze is crying? Because Brian was bouncing to hard and flipped Blaze.

But this shot is my favorite one!

We were using Carey’s new Alien B1600 light. These lights range in price and you can find them at Alienbees.com. I think her light was around $360. But without the light, this is what the pictures would have looked like.

So now for the recipe!

We did these shots at 7pm. We still had plenty of light outside, so we had to be in Manuel Mode to trick the camera for this type of dramatic lighting. We wanted the camera to think we didn’t have any light outside and that’s why we needed the off-camera lighting.

Our ISO was 100 so the color of the sky would be as blue as possible. The Shutter Speed was 1/250. When using strobe lights like this, you’ll want your Shutter Speed at 1/250. Now the Aperture was a little tricky because we don’t want it dialed down low like I usually like. Remember, the lower the aperture gives more blur in the background. These shots don’t have any thing to do with getting blur in the background. These shots are all about dramatic lighting with strobe lights.

Since these shots are about dramatic lighting, we want our aperture to be really high–maybe F11 or F16. We want the little hole that the light come through to be super tiny. This means if we took the photo without the off camera lighting, the image would be really dark because the aperture is so small. But that’s okay because we want the off camera light to be our main source of light. Does this make sense? If you’re feeling confused give yourself some breathing room because it is a bit tricky when you’re not familiar with it. But don’t let the confusion keep you from thinking it over and mulling it around because playing with light can be so fun!

We had one light for the images above. But Carey got together a couple months ago with an awesome photographer named Rob Benson. He is a master at off-camera lighting and for the shot below used three lights. Wow! Take a look at what drama he is able to capture! Is that the coolest soccer kid picture in the world!! And to see how Rob is setting up these shots, check out Carey’s wonderful blog post. And be sure to check out his website (it’s hyperlinked to his name)! It is SO COOL!!

For more help with lighting, shutter speed, aperture and all that good stuff, check out our crazy fun DVDs!

Enjoy! We are off to Legoland!

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