The gals and I are well into this SOAR! year (can you believe it’s over half over!?). As the year progresses we are one step closer to having everything set up for our businesses. Which brings me to the exciting news…we are on our way to having official websites! And we have the creative minds at Fastline Media to thank for that.

When we first heard from Billy at Fastline, I was giddy! How awesome it would be to have a website! Somewhere potential clients could come check out my work, but more importantly, check out who I am. The process has been pretty smooth with Fastline. They have given us easy steps to follow to determine what we want in our sites.  What I love was that we could easily look at examples of their previous work. They have a plethora of examples of smugmug customizations they have done. This was awesome for me since I really had not a clue of what I wanted. I knew a bunch of things I didn’t want, but nothing definitive on what I did want. Then I saw one of their example sites and it all came together.  I emailed Billy and told him which site I loved and what I loved about it and how I wanted to incorporate the colors of my logo.  He was awesome…listened to exactly what I said and came up with a draft that I was in love with. With just a tweak here and there, I was set! Yes, folks, the layout of my site is done! And no, I’m not going to give you a sneak peak. You’ll have to hang tight until we launch it!
What I love about Fastline is that they listened to what I said and made it happen. Thank you, Billy, for giving me the website that is perfect for me!

Some things that inspired my site…..

I’ve always been scared of the thoughts of shooting weddings. What if I mess up the day? What if I don’t capture the moments I want to or worse..that the bride wanted me to!? Luckily….there’s almost always a second chance. There’s the day after pictures, which are becoming more popular. Or you could find a budding photographer (ahhem, ahhem) and be the subjects for her photography assignment.

I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find a couple to put on their wedding garb, let alone a Marine who volunteered to put on his Dress Blues in the desert, in summer, with the sun still beating down. Luckily Monroe and Corbin answered my ad on our local yard sales website!  Thank you!

This shoot was harder than I expected. I had a few ideas when I came, but then it did get easier as we spent more time together. They became more relaxed, as did I!  We just walked around a bit and found some great backdrops for our photos. Now, enough talk, I know you just want to see the pictures!

I found this awesome little cove to hide in and this is where we started.

I really like walking away pictures, especially into the sunset. But the sun wasn’t at the right angle…..

So then I had them walk the other way…much better! I love how bright and colorful this is.

So much time is focused on the bride, I love how this takes the focus to how much the groom loves his bride.

I love how removed from everything they seem to be, like they are having their own special time not worrying about anyone else.

How gorgeous is she?!

Want to see the rest of the pics? Click here.

This week is reflection week…..a little but longer video since there was so much to think about!

Did you love the kids and car in the background? After these few things happened,  I couldn’t redo it again! I was spent!

Julia Cameron has a great way of teaching us new tricks to dig deeper into ourselves, all the while constantly reminding us of other important tasks. Each month she reminds me how important it is to take care of myself. To take care of me mentally. To nurture and baby me. She reminds me that by not taking care of me, I can’t take care of others. How true it is!

We all have our vices-the things that make us feel good. They help us de-stress. For some folks it could be knitting, others it’s reading, others still may enjoy taking a bath. For me it is exercise. I was reminded of this in the past couple of weeks. We moved into a new house less than two weeks ago. 9 days after our stuff was delivered we had a bbq at our house! What does that mean? I was hastily unpacking boxes so our house would be a home before our guests came. While trying to get all that done, I did not exercise for 8 of those 9 days. Looking back I realize how much of a crab I was, how short I was with my children, and how the littlest things bothered me. I was reminded once again how important it is to take care of myself. For me that means getting to the gym or going for a run at least 5 times a week. This is not only beneficial to my body, but also to my mind. Healthy body, healthy mind, happy Rachel.

I notice that when I feel better, when I am less stressed; I also have more confidence in myself. Being so new to the photography world, I am constantly critiquing my photos and worrying about the quality of them. I find that when I am less stressed (exercising), I  am less worried about my photos. I relax more during shoots and in turn have better photos.

So it all boils down to one thing-taking care of me. I do that by exercising. How do you take care of you? What is your vice? Share it in the comments (I really do love reading them!)

Smile and Go For It!

Rachel

After the shock of wining the SOAR! scholarship started to wind down, I went through and checked out how lucky I was to be receiving all the amazing prizes/gifts. One that jumped out at me was being gifted from Adobe. This was a company I was somewhat familiar with. I actually already had photoshop-and loved it. It wasn’t until I took MeRa’s workshop, I learned about Lightroom. Then I learned about Bridge. Oh my! So much to learn.

After the workshop I was all about Lightroom! I played around in Lightroom trying to figure it all out….though it didn’t take long; Lightroom is quite user friendly. In less than 2 minutes I can start with these two pictures….

And end with 4 pictures (the two originals and these two edited ones)

Lightroom is a great one stop shop for editing. I can import my pictures, edit them, and convert them all to JPEG (since I shoot in RAW) all in one program. Converting to JPEG is super easy to. Click export in the file menu and this screen comes up…

Here I can tell it where to put the pictures, what format, how I want them named, what size, and more.

To broaden my horizons, I have tried my hand at Bridge too. This works in conjunction with Photoshop. Bridge is great because it works right from where your pictures are, no importing. I can edit in Bridge, then when I’m ready to convert to JPEG it opens Photoshop for me, converts them, and places them in a special JPEG folder within my RAW folder. Again, so user friendly.

I could write all day about how awesome Adobe is and how much they have to offer (like online trainings, in person trainings, books, classroom in a box, and so much more), but your eyes might get crossed after staring at the computer that long. So I’ll sign off and leave it to the other gals to fill you in more on the greatness of Adobe!

Smile and Go For It!

Rachel

Textures don’t always have to be on location…..see how I found some close to home!

Wow! This week Karen from The Wisdom Connection has made me really turn and look at myself in the mirror. She has made me look past the clothes and examine how I see myself-what traits I posses, how I work with others. If you haven’t read about this yet, take a look here.

After making my two lists-how others see me and how I see myself-I sat down and looked at them.  The list of how others perceive me is great, flattering actually, all positive. Then I looked at my inner self list. This was the direct opposite. All (except one) trait I wrote down were negative. Not necessarily because I was putting myself down; I think more from fear. The fear of failure. Fear of my business failing, fear of failing my expectations, fear of failing others.

I needed to find at least one way they two could line up…were there any similarities between my inner and outer selves? Only one….public speaking/being in front of a crowd. It is something I am comfortable with and have been told I am good at. This is probably why my favorite jobs I’ve had have been teacher, swim instructor, and (my most favorite:) group fitness instructor.

Karen is absolutely right…when our inner and outer selves don’t line up we can not be truly happy with what we do.  I now understand why I have been struggling with what type of photography do I want to do? How do I go about being great at it? How can I get more comfortable doing it?

The more important question (which I just realized while writing this) is: How can I synch photography with teaching/speaking?  Now this is a huge step! I know it is the first of many. But what I’ve come to realize is that while photography is a big part of me, I need to keep my focus on all aspects of me, not just photography. By doing that, my life will surely come full circle and I will be truly happy with whichever path I choose to pursue.

How do your inner and outer selves synch up? Leave a comment (I LOVE reading them) or head over to the forum and share with all the gals.

Smile and Go For It!

As many of you know, I’m more of a nuts n bolts kind of gal than a get in touch with my inner self gal. So I was a little nervous when I learned we’d be working with the gals from The Wisdom Connection, because I knew I’d be taken so far out of my comfort zone and I didn’t really know what to expect. But let me tell you-my reservations were thrown out the window once I started working with Karen, Fay, and Genie. They have made me feel totally comfortable in such an unfamiliar place. They have taken me mentally to the places that I avoided-and I’ve enjoyed the journey thus far.

My favorite part has been working with my personal business coach. What I love is that Genie and I don’t just talk photography business. She brings my personal life into conversation and figures out how all the aspects of my life play into where I am in discovering and setting up my business. She has given me tools to use in my daily life that will help me when I use them to make decisions about my business.

One thing we’ve talked a lot about it signs. I’ve always wondered how people get signs from G-d or hear G-d speaking to them. Genie has opened my eyes that it is not always a voice-it could be a sermon from the Rabbi, a street sign, a license plate, or an overheard conversation. G-d can speak to me in ways that had never crossed my mind. Thank you, Genie, for opening my eyes.

What’s the best part of working with Genie, Karen, and Fay? I have learned how to get in touch with my inner self (and liked it!) and have still been able to get my nuts n bolts assignments each month.

Thank you, Wisdom Connection gals, you rock!

“1, 2, 3, open your eyes!” Then came the click of the shutter. Sound familiar to anyone? I remember when I was younger and taking a picture, that someone told me to make sure the sun was at my back. This was so the subjects’ faces would not have shadows, they’d be well lit. But then everyone was squinting and the smiles were in no way genuine; they were actually pretty awful.  Thankfully I learned the trick of the trade in February at Me Ra’s Confidence workshop!  Now I can actually see the eyes of my clients! (nope, not going to tell you the trick-head to a workshop for that!)

When I saw that this month’s photo assignment was harsh sun, I thought “I have to intentionally put bad sun on someone’s face? Bummer!” But the subject didn’t know what I was doing. (I’m so sneaky!) Let’s take a look….

Good pic of mom, and how about this super cute baby! But see the right side of her face? It’s the only spot with light on it. Not so great. So I had her turn and kiss baby and got this awesome expression!!

Now his face looks great, but I want one of mom smiling too. So I turned their whole bodies and tried a different position….

See the awesome backlight on them? I love that. Now the sun spots are gone and I get a true smile.

Now, these were all taken around 10am in the Texas sun. By the time we were done, we were all sweating! How I don’t love the humidity.   How bad can you make those pictures look with the harsh sun? You know where to share the pictures!

Smile and Go For It!!!

Rachel

PS….I am now out of the humidity and living in the Mojave Desert of California….we hit 111 driving through AZ last week! Yipes!