The Prophetts...

This is one of my favorite families! I have simply fallen in love with these boys and their parents are wonderful as well. My girls are always thrilled to know we are having them over to our home or going over to visit at their house. I cannot think of anything better than taking photographs of friends and I count myself quite fortunate to call Shannon a dear friend. Watching her boys grow through my viewfinder is something I will always cherish. Unfortunately, I am quite behind in posting their images, but thought you might like to see them despite the delay. There will be more to come, including a first birthday session that we are scheduling soon!

The Grays...

It is easy to remember why I love my job so much when I encounter children like Noah and Olivia. They were so delightful and the entire family is just beautiful, inside and out. They came out to the studio, and in spite of the wet grounds and dreary day, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and the images that resulted from our brief session together. I hope that you feel the same.

A Perfect Family...

What a delight to spend an afternoon with the Thompsons! Everyone was so relaxed and willing to just enjoy this experience together. The girls were amazing and I would not be surprised if a modeling career is in their future. Their perfect smiles and natural beauty made my job very easy. The twins were adorable and kept a smile on my face during the entire session.

I think the hardest part of this session was narrowing down the choices for their gallery. With a family this beautiful and children this cooperative, I ended up with more successful images than I expected. Because of this, I was able to be a little more creative in my "darkroom." I spattered their gallery with vintage images, black and whites, and even a few fairies. Here are a few of my favorites...

Brand New...

I had the extreme pleasure of photographing this precious newborn recently. Every once in a while, I have a chance to simply enjoy everything about my work. It was wonderful to spend time with this family and share in the joy they felt over this addition to their family. It didn't take long before I was captivated as well.

Due to the remodeling of my studio space, I stretched outside of my comfort zone quite a bit. Most of the session was indoors and with low lighting. Of course, challenges are just food for creative minds and it was a lot of fun to experiment. Mom came ready with some wonderful ideas and was so patient with my girls fascination with the baby. The mini-diva duo played the role of assistant photographers. I would not recommend having a five-year old rearrange your lighting as you are shooting!

Overall, this session has been a bright spot in my October. I have loved every step of this process and have been so encouraged by this family. I am looking forward to watching as this beautiful little girl grows.

Cody and Kristal

Contrary to popular belief, I have not dropped off the face of the Earth. Things are just pretty crazy right now and I am fervently searching for that extra four hours every day should have. I will do my best to find my blogging groove soon. In the meantime, I thought I would share a few images from a precious engagement session I completed at the end of last month.

Cody and Kristal are looking forward to their marriage in December and were a joy to be around. They are optimistic about their future and it was great to be surrounded by all of their pre-wedding excitement. I certainly wish them the best of luck in all their future endeavors and can't wait to see Jackie crying tears of joy as she watches her son wait for his beautiful bride.

Photodesign Workshop; September 25th & 26th

This weekend workshop will provide basic and advanced training in the areas of Photography and Adobe Photoshop. We will share all the tools and resources needed to take you from the process of capturing a photograph to the creation of art.

The workshop will take place at the Guinn Training Center on beautiful West Point Lake in Georgia. The fee covers your lodging, materials and meals. The training is my way of giving back to the photography community I love. For more information or to register for the workshop, please email me directly at amy@amymcdow.com.

Friday, September 25^th

1pm

Registration and Introductions

The fee for the two-day workshop is $40. An information packet will be provided with handouts for each class.

2pm

The Art of Composition

In this session, we will look at options for framing your photographs to make the most of your subject. Using the Elements of Artistic Design, we will demonstrate the difference between a snapshot and a creative, artistic photograph. Seeing the world through the viewfinder will become part of the creative process.

3:00

Break

3:30pm

Photowalk

We will explore the natural settings of West Point Lake to practice the techniques learned in the previous workshop. This hands on exercise will be followed by a group critique session where everyone's work will be evaluated with the opportunity to learn from each other's perspective.

6pm

Supper

7pm

Processing

This introduction to Adobe Photoshop will demonstrate a basic workflow for processing most images. The techniques applied in this session will be universal and should apply to any advanced processing software you choose. Sharpening, Contrast, Levels, Saturation, and Selective Colors are just a few of the topics that will be specifically addressed.

8:30

Break

9pm

Photoshop Tools

Photoshop's toolbar will be explored in detail. With the understanding of how each tool in the program functions, your editing ability will be greatly enhanced and your creativity will have the resources it needs to create your art.

10:30pm

Open Forum

Time to ask questions and get the answers you need.

Saturday, September 26th

8am

Breakfast

8:45am

Photography Basics

In this session, camera basics, equipment options and the elements of exposure will be covered. The technical aspects of creating a photograph will be discussed in detail.

10:00

Break

10:30am

Studio Techniques and Workshop

There will be multiple locations available to work with artificial and natural lighting indoors. We will discuss a variety of lighting and posing techniques that you can apply to your portrait and still life photography. Studio equipment options will also be discussed in detail.

12:00

Lunch

1pm

Studio Evaluation

We will meet to discuss the hands-on applications from the previous workshop. Individual images will be critiqued and we will learn successful practices from our trials and errors.

2pm

Photoshop Layers, Masks, and Advanced Selection

Layers and Masks are two of Adobe's most popular features. Understanding these two resources will enable you to have an unparalleled creative control over your images. Some tips and tricks will be offered in the area of selection techniques to make your creative process much faster and productive.

3:30

Break

4pm

Portrait workflow

Various techniques for processing portraits will be explored. A step-by-step look at how most professionals approach their images will be demonstrated. Blemish correction, skin tone adjustment, and eye enhancements will be covered as well.

My Newest Fairy...

What a delight to spend an afternoon with Miss Sophia! She is such a bright and beautiful little girl. We traveled around the grounds and experimented with a lot of different settings. Her creativity really inspired me during the session and while I was processing her images. I think she makes the perfect little garden fairy. These are some of my favorite images from our session...

Woodland Fairies

I decided to take a break from my ordinary work and play for a while. I used images of butterfly wings to turn a few divas into fairies. Hope you enjoy!

Jenn's Sale

I just love Jenn Culp's (Design by Jenn) work and talent! One of my favorite products is the ABC book she designed for children. I just got a notification that it is half priced this week making it a steal for $20 and I had to pass along the good news. Even though she indicated that these are not customizable, if you know a little about Photoshop, you can use selective color and color overlays to change the tones of the backgrounds. I found them great to use, although I understand her disclaimer since her normal templates are in multiple layers and very easy to customize to your needs. Hope you take a few minutes to check out her work!

Sunset Silhouettes

We had another gorgeous sunset over the lake today and it proved to be the perfect solution for my current creative drive. I have been wanting to try shooting silhouettes for a few days now and everything worked out for me this evening. There were so many appealing shots, that I had a very hard time narrowing them down for editing. These are just a few of my favorites.

I also created a new preset for Lightroom while editing. You are welcome to download it here.