It's coming...

Go ahead and drool. I will wait....


Done?

Are you sure?.....

I have been waiting and hmming and hawwwing since well...before I bought the original 5D ages ago. Kirk made me do it- I swear (he always makes me do the things that my fathers voice in my head tells me not to do...the man could make a nickle scream). The 5D Mark II is officially joining our happy little family. I am going to have to tip the UPS guy reeaaallly well during the holidays this year.

For you non photographers...I think even you can appreciate this beauty (or I am delusional- both work for me!). The stats on the new hotness can be found here: DP Review


What does this mean for my clients? Ginormous images (ever wanted a bigger than life poster of yourself?), AMAZING colors, beautiful low light shots, and more amazing images. Oh. And it does video. Its just nifty like that. I think we shall name it Jimmy.


I am one happy Kate.

Photographers- A little something shiny!

...and other people who like pretty things too. Look what I found!



Its a pretty, photographer themed scrabble pendant.

Aren't ya jealous? Don't you want one in your stocking from Santa this year? Isn't it purty? I figured it would be great to wear to shoots and shows and PPA and whenever...maybe it will even spark conversations about photography!

Plus, I will look smashing, and adorable, and all that fun stuff! Mine happens to be a T for Terrific (or something...mebbe I should have requested a K for Kool and Kate...).

If you want one too (and you know you do, because all the cool kids are wearing them) go get one! They are inexpensive, handmade with love (I bet you could even ask for extra love) and shiny!

They are from a shop called Home Studio on Etsy. Even if you are not a photographer, they have lots of other pretty desings. (Hmmm I wonder if they would like to use some pretty art prints for them...I know where they could get some pretty pictures ;) ). If you are a photographer and you have to have the cute little vintage camera too, I call dibs on Pink!

Wishlist: Drop It Modern

If it was not obvious, I have a clear taste for damask. Apparently, the folks at photographer run Drop it Modern get me. And I love that.

Most of you who work with me know I love to get out and about to shoot- go someplace new, fun, different - and play! But for those rainy days, or gotta do it in the studio shoots....these are the bees knees!!!!!

Take a look! So lush, so gorgeous, so mod! I so need one!

Who on Earth Runs this Place?!?

Often these are words I hear from my mother, when the mess in my office has gotten out of hand. Not my favorite thing to hear but I figured I would come clean about who the boss is around here.

Here you see a shot of my messy, but lovable workspace. Yes, I know I need to sweep up the corner. Yes, I know windex could be used everywhere and anywhere here.


I am a creative. I am a mess. I am a creative mess.

But the brains of the bunch...the cracker of the whip, is hard at work at her post under the desk.


Mirabella would like me to inform all of you that she in fact runs this place. Ask, her and she will tell you she runs the world.

Here she is hard at work in her favorite designer garb (with swarovski crystals, which you can't see because shes dreaming on them), that we all work so hard to keep her in. Clearly she works really really hard for her nice things....hehe.

See? Here she is supervising....


And here she is making sure everything is running smoothly....


Odds are if I am at my desk, shes there, keeping a handle on things. If she is not, she leaves Aldo in charge but lets face it, we all know hes a goof.

So, complaints, concerns and the like go to me...praise, love, treats and worship go to the boss... and don't you forget it!

Photographers- When Was The Last Time You Got A Little Action?

Or a lot.

I am not talking about that kind of action (get your head out of the gutter man!)! I am talking about your tool arsenal for processing images...your photoshop actions!

While we don't use actions for everything, or even most things, they are a nice tool to have when you want to do a little something special with an image.

After what felt like forever and a half riding the fence over Boutwell's Totally Rad! Actions I took their launch of their new and improved site today as a sign that it was good and time to add a cool new tool or two (er...46) to my work flow!

While I have not had more than a half an hour to play with the rocking 46 (count em, fourty-six!!!) cool new tools since the whole family went to watch my husbands little brother Brett do an AWESOME job emceeing for his high school's Spring Dance Show...but I can tell you this already...these rock!

Heres a before shot of Mirabella on my Mom's sofa, SOOC:


And here is the after image- I quickly added a little drama and fun by using Prettyizer and Derelict *yes, most of the actions have fabulous names to go with their fabulous functions!*:


And thats just a quick pass leaving out the staples like "Magic glasses" and "Yin Yang" or the really funky "Rusty Cage" or any of the other fun goodies.

Heres a quick panel of a few of the cool b&w actions offered too! These are called "Magical" "Awesome" and "B*tchin". See? What did I say about the names?
Pretty slick huh?

Now, if you have google, or clicked the link above- you probably figured that part out on your own. Theres a ton of examples of what these actions do just waiting for you to play with them. What may boggle your mind though is that they are easier to use than you think! Doug Boutwell's actions provide an amazing amount of control (at least as far as I have messed with so far) and they are so incredibly easy to use! If you can use basic layers and have a general understanding of the tools available to you in photoshop- you are good to go! And if you don't....well watch the amusing tutorial and solve the problem.

At about $150, its just a smidge more than a very affordable $3 an action. The support is awesome- with entertaining tutorial videos, a forum and well documented manuals available, its pretty hard to go wrong.

More awesome still, these actions all play nice together for the most part, and with the amount of control you are given no two photographers will use them exactly the same way. By changing the order, opacities and layer masks, these flexible tools have unlimited possibilities, and really could fit into just about any photographers look (including ours).

Look for us using some of these handy new actions in a few of our images on upcoming sessions. Our bright, fun, look is not going away by any means (again we don't use actions for a lot of it and we love our look- thats why we do it!), but look forward to seeing a whole new side to some of our images too!