{Santa Barbara Child Photographer} Before and After

This post is not intended to reveal all our secrets as photographers, however we are always having those who balk at the price of custom portraiture, after all, we can just take the shot, then simply upload your images on a disc, right?? :-) Actually, the opposite is true, I know I speak not only for myself but for many other photographers when I say that every one of your images has been lovingly shot and edited to create a little work of art for you to enjoy and cherish. When we say “handcrafted images” we honestly do mean just that!

This is a little example I’m posting to show you the difference between the photo how it looks right out of the camera or “SOOC” and then the finished product.

I took this shot of my son, on a bright sunny day at high noon- definitely not optimum lighting conditions for portraiture, so I took him to a nice shaded area to pose. Now, it is fine SOOC, but my white balance was still set to “sunny” so the image is a bit too cool. Editing in Photoshop, I adjusted the curves and levels, warmed it up quite a bit, added a little saturation so his blue shirt and eyes popped, then lastly I sharpened the whole photo.

Next, I made it look like a beautiful canvas gallery wrap, which in my opinion, is one of the best ways to display your portrait-

Voila! Your handcrafted final product! :-) Now imagine us doing this for not just one, but 20-30 shots from your session, now go hug your photographer today ;-)





{Santa Barbara Family Photographer} Sneak Peek {A~C~J}

I have to admit, I was a little late into the whole Facebook thing- I didn’t really “get” it at first, and slowly started using it more when I began connecting with people I hadn’t seen in years. I had a fun session yesterday with just one of those people, my friend from high school and her beautiful family! Boy if the walls in our high school library could talk ;-) right A?? It was a lovely (albeit windy) afternoon at Butterfly Beach, we even managed to sneak onto the Biltmore property for a few shots in front of their amazing wildflower garden (shhhh, don’t tell) :-) here are a few peeks at their session-








{Santa Barbara Child Photography} Yellow! {I Heart Faces}

When I saw the theme at I Heart Faces this week was yellow, I immediately thought of a shoot I just did that was completely styled with vintage yellow goodies, a kids party like none you have ever seen. I can’t share full details quite yet, but here is a sampling from the shoot, a little darling, enjoying a cool pop out of her retro paper straw, which is available at Santa Barbara Gift Basket. Be sure to check out more yellow entries at I Heart Faces!


processed using Florabella actions and textures





{Santa Barbara Photographer} Summer Love

Something simple for today- some things to love about Summer, Z’s the Day style :-) enjoy

An icy popsicle

A lakeside wedding

New Summer fruit

Baseball!

and last but not least, a cold Corona ;-)





{Santa Barbara baby Photographer} Faces and Flowers!{I Heart Faces}

This week on I Heart Faces is a “Faces and Flowers” theme, two of my most favorite things! I just adore a flower tucked behind the ear, this is one of my favorite photos ever, you can just see the joy and love between the teen and her new baby sister, awwww! Interested in more “flowers and faces”? see them here