Busy, busy!

This past week my phone has been ringing off the hook! The response to my Spring Portrait promotion has been phenomenal, and I can't wait to begin shooting all these sessions. Best of all, more than half of the bookings are for past clients, and there is nothing I love more than capturing the little ones as they grow and change.

I really want to give a huge Thank You to those that have recommended me to your friends. Ever After Photography is really getting off the ground lately, and I can't tell you how grateful I am.

This week will be a big one, as I have a shoot on Wednesday that I've been looking forward to since last summer. Hopefully I'll have a sneak peak of the images by Friday. There are some lighting techniques that I have been drooling to try, and I'll get to use my D200 to its full extent for the first time. Wednesday can't get here soon enough!

Another big thing I'm looking forward to is the Kendal Elem. Renaissance Fair in Boerne. I'll have a table set up with some of my albums and prints displayed, and I'll be scheduling the last of the Spring Portrait sessions, because that is the last day of the promotion. I went last year and had a very good time, especially since I met some new clients and got to visit with some past clients. This year will be even better!

If anyone would like to stop by and say hello, I'll be there from about 10 am until 1:00 on Saturday. I'd love to chat!

Spring Promotion!

By now, everyone knows what photoshop is and what it can do. You can add stuff, take stuff away, stretch, push, and twirl. It used to be that a picture was fairly reliable proof of how something happened; and sometimes even highly doubtful things seemed real-UFO pictures, bigfoot and the loch ness monster come to mind. I always thought that the was a decent possibility that they existed because of the pictures. Not anymore!

I now have a hard time believing just about any unusual picture I come across. Our ability to manipulate an image is mind-boggling, and anyone can do it-even my kids. So now, we have a society which has a standard for beauty that is impossible for anyone to attain. NO ONE is as skinny, as blemish-free, or as perfect in person as what we see in print. But still we strive to attain those looks. It is CRAZY!

What does this mean for our kids? I can't even imagine where all this is going. I do know that kids today are much more sophisticated than they ever were before. But is it all bad? Is there a happy medium?

I have to admit that I'm not above digital manipulation myself. I try very hard to ensure that the image still looks like the same person, but I can hardly look at an unedited photo without thinking about what I can do to make it better.

Of course, it is easy to go overboard, and someone has written a blog about it, no not me, I mean an entire BLOG. It's hilarious to look at the mistakes that have been made.

So, what do you think of the use of photoshop in todays world? I'd love to hear some comments!

MOMS Club of Cibolo

Yesterday was the second time that my newly formed playgroup has met, and this time I remembered to take my camera. It's a very different experience to be a member of the group, and not the organizer. I had a hard time coming up with a differnt activity every week. It never occured to me to have a different person host each time. Duh!

I got a few shots of the kids, and as usual I hardly took any pictures of my own kids. Oh well, there's always next time. I think we are going to have a fantastic time with our new friends!

I've posted before about "S," my little next door neighbor. She's my daughter's "bestest" friend.

I'm giving a print of this collage to her mom as a Thank You for all of the incredibly quiet Saturdays I've had since they moved in. For some reason, the girls prefer to play at S's house instead of mine. It's probably to get away from the boys, but I think S has better toys than we do, or at least she has more GIRL stuff. Whatever, all I know is that M finally has a friend she can relate to. And that is PRICELESS.