MCP Actions Give Away...

Okay, I think there are a lot of great things in life!  Family, friends, my dog, the easy going life most of us have here in America, and MCP Actions blog.  If you check this blog out you will be amazed!  Why?  Let me tell you...an absolute wealth of knowledge, great actions, great tips, great give aways.  Oh, hey...speaking of great give aways...go check them out for your chance to win a gift certificate to Adorama. 

Win!!!! Check it Out!!!

Okay, not that I have many people following this blog...but I have to pass the word along.  There is this site that I follow on a regular basis called April Showers Blog and it is all about blog design.  I have learned a little about html code here and am very thankful for all the free tips she posts.  I have even participated in one of her blog design classes, which was awesome!  Right now she is having a giveaway that would really make yours or my blog look better!  If you are wondering how, go check out this link to find out for yourself.  Good Luck! :)

I plan on posting a new picture here, but I have to take one first! :)

Tears...A Couple of Smiles...Chattering Teeth...

I was lucky enough to take pictures of one of my oldest friends, way back to the 6th grade!  She was brave enough to let me experiment on her and her kids.  The really big problem we had that day was that it was crazy cold!  Teeth chattering cold!!  Before I even left for the shoot, I put on a pair of my husbands snowboard thermals under my pants, layered up with 3 shirts, and the thickest pair of snowboard socks I had.  I am telling you guys...brrrr kind of weather!  So, we all show up and the wind is blowing and the kids immediately start to freeze.  We are used to the sunny warm weather here in California and this was not making any of us happy, especially the kids.  Of course, my friend Lisa had already bribed her kids with food and video games...but that nasty bitter cold was winning this battle. 

I would say 10 minutes into the session we had our first tears, and I really can't blame them.  It was a little scary though when my friend Lisa started to cry!  :P  Just kidding around.  So, we decided to move to this abandoned train box car on the tracks to shelter us from the wind and cold.  Plus, how cool to be in a train, right?  After we finally get ourselves up in this thing, which was not an easy task...let me assure you... we start to take pictures.  Then some kid who was around 16 or so years old hops the train and starts to tell us to be quiet, and that we didn't see him jump in here.  He was strutting around with that gangsta sort of walk and seemed to just maybe be high or something!  Wonderful!  He ends up bailing and we all take a breath of relief.  After that we go our separate ways to the wonderful heaters set on high in our SUV's. 

However, on the ride home I start to itch all over my back, neck, and arms like crazy.  I get home and my husband the very, very, careful, analytical thinking engineer gives me one heck of a lecture why it isn't safe to just hop into a cargo container.  Why?  Well, apparently some people transport..oh...I don't know...nasty chemicals, etc in them.  Hmmm...to the shower I go, after I call Lisa and tell her to bathe herself and her adorable kids.  Fun stuff!

So, what did I learn?  No shoots with little ones on crazy cold days, they are miserable and that takes all the fun out of getting pictures taken.  Also, don't hop a train and roll around on the ground trying to get that great shot...could have some sort of nasty chemical eating your skin off!  Not to mention, the people and their kids that you are taking pictures of could get hurt!  What else?  Oh!  I think those movies where people just going running next to a train to escape the cops and they gracefully hop onto the train is a big pile of rubbish!  It was stinking hard enough to get in that non-moving train and I am not too sure I am a believer of the running...jumping...onto a moving train pitch!

Photoshop CS5 Image File Says "Image Name.JPEG @ 25% rgb/8"

Okay, I gave myself a mini heart attack tonight.  I was noticing when I was opening up my images in photoshop to put my watermark on the web sized photographs that my image name would say something like "Kids Playing Ball.jpeg @ 25% rgb/8".  I hadn't ever noticed this "@ 25% rgb/8" before and thought that maybe these files were only 25% of the rgb color, so they would be less rich when printed.  Or something horrible of course!  To the net I went..researching...and getting sorta ticked since I wasn't able to find anything quickly that gave me my answer and to stop making me think that I wasted a couple of hours editing.

Well, I decided to open up some older pictures that I had edited and noticed that they would say "Image Name.jpeg @ 50% rgb/8"...hmmm.  Then I noticed at the bottom left side of my workspace a little 50% next to the ruler.  So, I opened up the 25% files that I was working on tonight.  Asked my husband who was busy killing these awful looking dead skeleton zombie things on his warped game of mass killing if he could possibly pause his killing spree and check out my computer.  He looked at it for less than half a second and says, "try zooming your photo in"...so I do, and that stupid 25% changes to 33.3% as the image gets larger before my eyes.  So, why did I freak out?  No good reason, photoshop was just letting me know that I was viewing my image at 25%. 

Dork!  What else can I say about myself?  Big Time Dork!  Why am I even posting this...well, it might happen to some other poor sap one day and thought that I could share my experience with them.  Yes, if you have this problem as well...I hate to say it, but you might be a big dork too! ;)

On a different note, this picture is of my three year old daughter looking out our front window.  I love this picture, her hair was a mess, she was wearing a big pink fluffy dress that a friend gave us for dress up, and I am sure there is food smeared across her adorable little face.  This is why I love photography so much, you can capture such true moments in life.  When I see this picture, it just makes me want to pick her up and hug her.

One of the Edits I Did Today that I Thought was Cute...

One of the cutest families ever!  I liked the urban feel to this picture and since I haven't posted anything for a couple of days I thought this would be something fun to check out.  Thanks for looking!

Outdoor Family Portraits of Redding, CA Continued...

How stinking cute are these boys!  I can't wait to edit more of this family's pictures!  They were awesome and I am stoked that I will be able to use a bunch of their images for my portfolio that I am building currently!

Outdoor Family Portraits Redding, CA

Starting a new family's session tonight.  Here is a little sneak peak!  This girl is amazing and the crazy thing is she is super nice on top of it!  Watch out boys...much later though!!!!