Autumn Fairy

One of our neighbours recommended Stevens Pass as one of the best places to see the fall colours, so I was really excited when we had the opportunity to visit up there.  We did not get much notice, so I had to put together a costume real quick.  I was glad I had been planning for a while.

We put together a headdress from autumn leaves and cream flowers.  (ps glue gun + haste = burnt fingers) I had wanted to experiment with a black swan dress I had had for a while.   I roped in my husband to play assistant.  It rained intermittently, so we made use of the first break of the clouds.  The clouds created awesome soft light.

 

 

 

A weekend away

We are still living in a house that is part construction site.  We had to get out for the weekend on short notice as they had to smoke-seal the ceilings. (Unhealthy fumes and all that.)  Found a lovely cabin up in the mountains (Stevens Pass) to go stay at.  It was beautiful up there with all the autumn / fall colours. 

There was even a river nearby we could walk to.

We spent the rainy hours playing board games, a great way to relax (especially for me since I won most of them! I usually play as teammate for my youngest. )  Our puppy loved the outdoors and slept the rest of the time.  He seems to prefer the cold tiles. 

The misty mornings were so beautiful, everything would glow from the dew.  It felt like we were walking around in a fairytale, with cabins peaking out between the trees and moss growing everywhere.

 

I even had a chance to take some photos for a photo shoot I had planned for a while.  We took these right outside the cabin.  Some blue skies peeked through the clouds and I roped in the family to help. I had a puppy who loved photo bombing!

I’ll post more on the fall photo shoot soon…

The issue with printing

Ever wonder why professional photographers make such a big deal about prints?  Why do they get their knickers in a knot when you go to the local quick 10c place to print off their images?  Well, here goes, lets see if I can explain it. 

This image looks fine, right?  The problem is, it does not print the way it looks on the screen.

When we prepare an image for printing, we decide on which paper we will use.  The type of printer and the paper used have a profile. (You get a file that has the profile.)  Once we have decided, we load the profile to check for colours that are out of gamut, that is, in simple terms, colours that won’t be replicated correctly on paper with the detail we see it on screen.  This is called “soft proofing".  The screen shot below is the soft proof for the image on Chromajet Metallic White paper.  As you can see, the overall colour is slightly different to the image above.  All those red bits, those are the areas that Lightroom indicates will look terrible in the print and needs to be fixed.  (In Photoshop those areas are indicated in grey.)

After the fix, the file looks like this.

After

Before

The difference on screen is slight, but HUGE in printing.  THAT is why we take so long to get those prints to you.  We want it to be perfect.  And we cannot guarantee perfect at the supermarket…

(The gorgeous outfit and hairband is from Fairy Dance, Melbourne.)

Little girls and tutus

I had so much fun working with this gorgeous little girl who turned one not too long ago.  It is amazing to see little babies grow up before your eyes and having the honour of capturing the memories for their parents!  I just loved her eyes in this photo, how she peeks over the teddy bear.

She is a real little daddy’s girl.  I couldn’t help but notice how she held her daddy’s hand when they walk together and had to take a moment to take a photo of it.  I suspect fathers always see their girls as being this size, no matter how old they get!

I’ll be posting more from the photo shoots soon. I have the wonderful experience of photographing some of the new catalogue for Fairy Dance.  I don’t know who is going to have more fun, me or the kids!