A Decade (sort-of) of Travels Part ii

Part two of my decade of travels!

2007: My family took a cruise to the Virgin Islands. I didn't really remember any photos that I liked a lot, but when I went back through each island, I found quite a few I like. I do this a lot. I go back through photos and discover ones I didn't like before, but like now. Some of these are new finds, and some are older. I'm pretty sure I liked most of these this time around because I am currently FREEZING and want to go on a tropical vacation :)

Barbados 2007 

St. Lucia 2007

St. Lucia 2007

Antigua 2007

Antigua 2007

Antigua 2007

Puerto Rico 2007

2008: Wyoming

When we went to Maine in 2007, we had a goal in mind: We wanted to see some moose! Why you may ask? Because along with amphibians and reptiles, I love moose (mooses? meece?) Ok, really I just love all animals! But for some reason moose kind of fascinate me. They also terrify me. Anyways, we planned a trip for Wyoming and we got to see a TON of moose. Very exciting ;).

My family often hates me during vacations. A vacation is not complete for me until I drag myself up at least once before the sun rises in order to get great lighting. As it turns out, we saw a lot of wild life in the mornings and didn't have to fight with any crowds. If you want photos that don't look like everyone else's, get up early and get out during good light! Sunset is a great time as well, but don't always focus on just the sunset; take a look around at what the setting sun does to all the scenery. 

Grand Tetons 2008--taken right as the sun came up

This one was taken closer to sunset.

When in doubt, moose always get the right of way.

Baby Trice

Yesterday I had the privilege of photographing the newest addition to my extended family, Trice Reddick Elliott. Trice is my cousin Megan and her husband J.J.'s son. Megan and JJ are huge Cyclone fans, so obviously ISU photo's were a must!

This session took right around three hours. We found that the space heater was magic for little Trice! He wasn't too sure at the start of the session, but with a little patience we got some great shots.

One shot in particular that I've been wanting to do is a shot with scales. I've had this idea for a fairly long time, but wanted to use a baby of my cousins. Megan was the first cousin to have a baby that I could photograph as a newborn since getting the studio. My grandpa collected tons of scales throughout his life. When he passed away last year, all the cousins took a scale in memory of him. There were over 200 scales, but only 11 of us, so there are still plenty left over :).

The photo with the scale was a bit challenging. I wanted the baby in a hanging scale, but obviously didn't want to put the baby in harms way. So, I took a series of photographs and only had Trice in one. The photo Trice was actually in didn't have any other scales in it, and the scale he was laying on was setting on a box being held by his dad. Here is a behind the scenes look on the making of the scale photo.

1) The first shot I took was one of JJ holding the scale to Trice's actual weight. 

2 and 3) I took shots of of the set up with JJ on each side. That way, I could combine the two photos and the full set appear in the final.

4) The photo of Trice was taken with no scales. I replaced the scales with a wooden box set up to about the height of where I wanted him to end up. You'll see JJ is holding the scale so the chains would be up and is also super close to keep Trice safe. The baby was never really hanging. 

After taking all the photos, I combined them all in Photoshop. The red boxed area is what I used from each photo. Here is the final product:

Now, this was my first composite image, so I know it's not perfect. I'm not usually big on extreme Photoshop manipulation, but this was a shot I wanted to get in honor of our grandpa. 

Here are a few more photos from the shoot:

My favorite so far! 

A Decade (Sort-Of) Of Travels

I LOVE to travel. I think most photographers probably do. Fortunately for me, my family also loves to travel and thus has blessed me with many opportunities to see a large portion of the United States and beyond. This time of year always puts me in "slump mode", because it is a photographers dead time. And, it's been a pretty uninspiring winter so far! I've been missing taking photos for myself, so I decided to look through all my vacation photos from over the past decade (and by decade, I mean since 2005 when I got my first digital camera ;). I thought it may be fun to post some of my favorite photos from my favorite places. I started this task a few hours ago, and realized this is probably going to have to be a multi-part blog. Where to start? May as well go chronological!! 


Disclaimer: These are MY favorite photos; personal taste. When I take vacation photos, I take them for no one other than myself. I don't try to sell (though I don't turn down a sale either ;), therefore I have no one to please but myself. Maybe you'll like them, maybe you won't. Hopefully either way, you'll enjoy viewing/reading about some of my travels.

2004: Hawaii
My first photo is actually one from 2004, making my quest a LITTLE closer to a decade. 8 years counts, right? This photo is my favorite from our trip to Hawaii for my senior year of high school. I loved Hawaii. I want very much to go back. I was not pleased with my photos from this trip; it turns out, I didn't know nearly as much about photography as I thought I did! Who knew that putting your camera on "automatic" wasn't the best way to get results? Hmph. If only I knew then what I know now...oh well, life goes on! This was shot with a FILM rebel...that's right I said film! My first SLR was film, and I loved it. I still have it, because I get way too attached to things and have never gotten rid of any of my cameras, no matter how outdated...I figure eventually they'll be one of those neat old antique cameras I so desperately seek now. Off topic a bit? I think so. Ok, here is the photo:

There's something almost always pleasing about a sunset photo. Even though they are probably one of the easiest, less creative photos you can take, they are also always beautiful and pleasing to the eye. In fact, I'm working on a post made up entirely of sunset/sunrise photos.

2005: Florida/Bahamas
Shortly after our Hawaii trip, my good friend Sarah invited me on a Bahama cruise for Spring Break. Woot woot! Do I ever pass up a free trip? That would be a NO. (This trip was in exchange for me taking Sarah to Texas the previous year--it was cold, windy, and there were jelly fish everywhere in Texas preventing us from swimming...I got the WAY better end of this deal!!) While in Hawaii, I attempted to take photos of a gecko, but unfortunately they turned out absolutely terrible.

Before our cruise and again after, we spent some time around the great state of Florida. We got to tour the Everglades which was very firmly on my bucket list and therefore a dream come true for me! I was a little nervous walking amongst the alligators, but there were plenty of elderly people and children around-- I figured if nothing else, I could at least out run them ;). JK!

Anyways, while on one of the trails I found another gecko! You may wonder why I wanted so badly to get a photo of a gecko--it just so happens I was a big reptile/amphibian fan. I still think they are super cute. And, I was convinced that the gecko pictures I took in Hawaii were going to be amazing, and they were terrible (thank you digital!).

I spent as much time with that little gecko as I could making sure I got SOMETHING decent. After locking out the world around me to capture him, I was shocked when I stood up to find I was surrounded about about 5 other photographers patiently waiting to photograph the gecko as well. I had never felt so small, rocking out my digital rebel and cheap lens. They all had giant L series lenses and mono pods, and the cool "photographers hats". Oh well, I liked my photo despite having cheap equipment!!

Shot in 2005

2006: Florida

In 2006, my family was hosting a foreign exchange student from Moldova. They decided to bring her to Florida and invited me and my college roommate at that time. I decided not to be too tied down by cameras this trip since we were just going to Disney World. However, I did take my favorite ever POINT AND SHOOT photo! Haha! This is the only photo I've ever taken with a point and shoot that I have bothered to edit and actually am kind of proud of. My photography professors would be so ashamed! I don't care how it was taken, I like the feel of it, and I think it's kind of fun. Believe it or not, taken at Disney World. Gotta say, this one is ALL in the editing; you wouldn't recognize the original. I really wish the last palm tree wasn't cut off, but I'm not sure I even realized I had taken this photo to be honest. Sometimes, you just get lucky, other times you have to work at it.

Shot in 2006

Bored yet?? I'll keep going :)

2007: Maine

I had pretty high expectations of Maine. We were in for a bit of a let down. Not because Maine isn't beautiful, because it is. But it rained. And rained. And when it wasn't raining, it was hot and humid and full of mosquitos. Maine was the vacation where I learned how to change my perspective. Maine was where I learned that it doesn't have to be bright and sunny to get beautiful photos. In fact, sometimes you can get your best photos. While in Maine, I shot 2 (count them TWO) shots that I was proud of. It turns out, other people were as well. I entered this one of the ship in the Heart of Iowa Photographers Conference and it received a Merit. It also won me first place amongst first and second year photography students for first semester print competition. This second one didn't win any awards, but did sell well at an art auction fund raiser! This is also the trip where I learned just how easy fire work photos are. 

 Shot in 2007

Well, my husband just informed me that the Super Bowl is on now. I guess it's time to go be American and watch! I will continue on this travel adventure another time! I have many big trips still left to post and some will probably have to be their own entry.

Photo Candles

A little preview: I love crafts--however, when I craft I am messy, inconsistent, and random. For this reason, I can never make two of the same project. I am also horrible at things most people find easy (such as wrapping presents). I am the exact opposite of a perfectionist. I go through stages of crafting: card making, candle making, scrapbooking, etc, etc.

I am going to talk a bit about a photo candle project that I made for our unity candle. This is the YouTube video that inspired my technique:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1257_Td2Ag

I used this exact technique and tweaked it a bit to include my personal photos.

You will need to adhere an 8.5x11 piece of white tissue paper to cardstock. I used a scrapbook tape runner and went along the entire outside edge of the cardstock to make sure no part would get jammed in the printer.

I used Photoshop to create a collage of photos to cover the whole candle. You do NOT have to do this; you can print each photo individually and adhere all separately. I didn't want to do this, because I wanted a nice smooth finish and the more pieces you adhere the more likely to get bumps you are. I also wanted to add in our names and wedding date. I made all of my photos in black and white to avoid color issues when printing on tissue paper. Make sure you do not print too close to the edge, as that part will tear when you remove it from the card stock.

Before you print make sure your paper is facing the correct direction to print on the tissue paper; this is something I OFTEN forget!! :)

After your image is printed, carefully remove it from the card stock. I used an exacto knife to make sure I didn't tear part of the image.

Wrap your image around your candle the way you want it to appear. Use a small bit of adhesive to help hold your design in place.

Once you have your image in place and all the creases smoothed out, take a piece of wax paper and wrap around the top. I like to have a large piece that I can really grab onto; you want to be able to pull it TIGHT. This is what is going to keep your candle smooth.

Once you have it pulled super tight and smooth, begin heat setting it using a heat tool. Take your time with this. Also, watch those fingers, the heat gun gets HOT. You will have to shift the wax paper several times, but once some has melted this becomes easier. It will be easy to tell when it is finished because it will look glossy over the wax paper. You will want to make sure everything is melted. If you miss a piece, it is easy to go back in later and melt it.

When you are finished you should have an image that is set in the wax just under the surface. It should appear as though your image is printed directly on the candle. Cool! These make great and inexpensive gifts. (The top photo was taken by Rae of Light Photography)

CREDIT CARDS!

Woot woot! After 2 years of living in the dark ages and having customers write checks or pay cash (which I rarely had change for) I am FINALLY equipped to accept credit cards! Thanks to the age of smart phones, I am able to do this without hooking the studio up for internet or phone service (NOTE: Lower overhead=keeping prices low;) ). I drug my feet about getting set up, because in all honesty, I was terrified! After doing a lot of research to find the best rates, I have set my Droid phone up to accept credit cards at the studio, and my website up for accepting online.

Introducing: At Home Sessions for Baby!

I am happy to announce that in 2012, customers will now have the option for a comfortable, laid back session at home with their new baby. I have a new portable studio perfect for babies up to 9 months in age. At home (indoor) sessions are not recommended for babies who are able to walk, as they will no longer fit on my new backdrop set up. As always, you may have an at home outdoor session for kids/families of any age.

These at-home sessions are available with the $100 baby package. (See below for details on baby packages) The package includes one consultation, one however- long- a -session- needed, multiple outfit changes, and travel up to 20 miles from either Des Moines or Jewell ($.50 per mile after). You will receive unique, personal images of your baby that last a lifetime.

With at home sessions, you have the comfort of your home, but the professional look of a studio. You have the ability to utilize aspects about your house that are special to you and create one of a kind images. Being a new mother is exhausting; photos shouldn't add to that.

Incentive Program

All along I have sworn that I would never force people to order photos within a certain amount of time. Rather than punish customers for not placing orders within a timely manner (ie: losing a deposit if photo orders aren't placed within a month), I will be rewarding customers who do place their orders within a 2 week time frame.

Starting in 2012, if you place your photo order within 1 week of them being placed online, you will receive 10% off of your entire print order. If you place your print order within two weeks, you will receive 5% off of your total order. After two weeks, all prints will be full price again. This discount applies ONLY to prints: albums, jewelry, mounts and frameless artwork are excluded.

Referrals: Customers will be issued a card at the time of their session with their name on it. If a friend or relative is inquiring about a photographer, all they have to do is hand them the card. When that person brings in the card for a session, the customer who's name is on it will receive a $5.00 gift card to Photography By Becca. You may have as many referral cards as you want.

Wedding Referrals: If you recommend Photography By Becca for a wedding photographer, and they book me, you will receive a $50.00 gift card to a store of your choice. If you were referred to Photography By Becca by someone, please make sure to tell me so I can give them credit.