Just chugging along

I know, I know... "What happened to being better about blogging?" you may be asking yourself... and the truth is, I don't know. I certainly have had things to talk about.

Our mission trip to Nicaragua is just around the corner! And we've almost raised all the money we need to go, so that makes me happy :) Also, we've launched our Blue Frame Photography and Design page on Facebook. There, you can enter any of our weekly contests to win super cool free stuff like Loopy Creation's hats, free photo shoots by us, free Avon products (courtesy of my good friend, Susan) and jewelry but another good friend, Hollie. We're constantly striving to bring in more stuff, too, so there's definitely a reason to be our fans :)

But on to our most recent adventures... Saturday, Frank and I went home to Salisbury and got to hang with Hollie. She and I went to the same high school and were both in marching band. Since then, though, she has served in Iraq, is a full-time Army soldier, has two of the sweetest girls I've ever met and makes her own jewelry (yes, the same Hollie as mentioned above.. more info regarding her jewelry will come in a later post).

This one is one of my favs. You can tell they're having a great time :)

This one is going to be a heart breaker for sure! Gorgeous!

See what I mean?

And we couldn't get enough of this little one! I adore the look in her eyes :)

There are ton more on our Web site.

We also got to hang with my sister and her family, and of course we took pictures. But I'll save that for a later post :)

I've joined a new web site that allows clients to "shop" for their photographers. But one of the stipulations is that I need to put a link on one of my Web sites so....

We are a preferred photographer in the Asheville
wedding photographers, North Carolina
section of www.studiolocator.com - a wedding photographer
directory.

Although I got this from another blogger, this has also been going around on Facebook (you should become a fan of Blue Frame, by the way ;) so I thought I'd have a try...

A - Age: I'm 24, although my birthday is just about a month away. And then I'll be a quarter of a century old.

B - Bed size: You know, we had the option of getting a queen-sized bed but honestly? I prefer our trusty full-sized bed. I don't feel at all squooshed or anything, but I suppose you'll have to ask Frank his opinion. haha.

C - Chore you hate: I pretty much hate all chores. But the one chore I reallllyyyyy hate is laundry. bleh!

D - Dog's name: We don't have a dog. 1) we're never home and so we would make horrible owners and 2) Frank is deathly allergic to basically anything but human hair. So, no pets for us.

E - Essential start your day item: I start every morning a half hour earlier than Frank. Hop in the shower, turn on the news and eat my cereal. And then I check Facebook. And email. And sometimes CNN.

F - Favorite color(s): I'm a fan of teal.

G - Gold or Silver: How about white gold? That seems to be a good compromise.

H - Height: 5'4". Okay, okay, if you want to be realllyyy technical, I'm 5'3-3/4" There. happy? :-p

I - Instruments you play: My mom taught me piano when I was in the second grade and then she paid someone else to give me lessons until I was in sixth grade. I stopped at the 3rd level because my hands weren't big enough to reach the octaves. They still aren't. Then I switched to clarinet and played that for....nine years? And then I gave my best shot at playing trumpet because I was tired of being in the back of the field in marching band. My band director didn't like me too much for doing that, but I don't regret it because I had a lot of fun in the trumpet line. :)

J - Job title: Administrative Support Associate for the Academic Success Centers at my alma mater by day and photographer/ graphic designer by night and weekend.

K - Kitchen wish list: I'd like to have more counter and cabinet space.

L - Living arrangements: I live with my husband in good ol' Waynesville. It's nice because it's halfway between my workplace and Asheville.

M - Mom's name: Janice.

N - Nicknames: hmmm growing up it was Peachtree, copper top, duracel, (one boy in the second grade called me petertree and it made me cry -- my maiden name was Petrea.). In college, a few of my friends called me Carriebear and now my husband calls me either honey or 'my love.'

O - Overnight hospital stay: only when I was born.

P - Pet Peeve(s): When people slurp their soup.... good golly, that gets on my nerves!

Q - Quote from a movie: ummm... the only one I can think off the top of my head is from The Producers when the two main characters visit a notoriously, flamingly gay director.

"May I take your hat, your coat and your..... swatztikas?"

Previously, the two had been to see a nazi fanatic about producing the play he wrote, "Springtime for Hitler." The nazi fanatic made them wear arm bands with a swatztika on it to show that they were serious about producing the play. The gist of the movie was to produce an awful, awful play -- one that no one would ever possibly like -- in order to bank big bucks. It's a funny movie. you should go see it.

R - Right or left handed: Right. But I once tried to become ambidextrous. It never fully worked, but I can do some things so-so with my left hand.

S - Siblings: 2 sisters.

T - Time you wake up: During the week, at 6:30 a.m. On the weekend, it's anyone's guess (unless I have something scheduled)

U - Underwear: Ummm. yes.

V - Vegetable you dislike: ummmm... beets. Are beets considered a vegetables?

W - Workout style: I don't workout like I should. Sometimes Frank and I will walk around the park near our house. And sometimes I'll get on the Wii Fit. But nothing strenuous

X - X-rays you've had: I had an x-ray of my spine in middle school. I remember it was sort of freaky to see all my bones like that. I had (still have?) scoliosis but I don't think it's bad enough to really affect me. I was off by like 10 degrees or something.

Y - Yesterday's best moment: hmmm hanging out with our friends, Susan and Daniel at a local pizza joint.

Z - Zoo favorite(s): I've always been fascinated by the elephants and the monkeys. :)
And because a post is always good with a picture, here's one I grabbed during Matt and Lauren's wedding. It's also incidentally on the cover of my new portfolio book, which should be here in about a week :) so excited!



Carrie

Retouch Fridays!

Hey everyone!

I know I'm not a regular blogger, but I'm making some plans that will (hopefully) help me to become a better blogger.  My first idea is to do Retouch Fridays, where I post the original image and the retouched image and explain what I did. 

Soo....Here's an image Frank took earlier this week. We drove to the Fines Creek area and just had our own little photo shoot.  It was a lot of fun, but it was also very difficult to take pictures of yourself without someone else there to help.  

Frank wanted to experiment with sun flare.  This shot is a pretty good one compositionally, but it just needed a little "boost" to jazz it up a bit.

To me, in photos like these, it's all about color. So, I played around with the contrast slider in Photoshop, bumped up the saturations and played with Curves until I was happy with the end result:

very busy!

Hi everyone again!!

These last few weeks have been REALLY busy for Frank and me! We did our first wedding June 6 and we had so much fun! Granted, we knew the people who got married, but we had fun interacting with the families too!! Last weekend was Frank's cousin's graduation party. I always love visiting the Lowery clan -- they're so much fun and we ALWAYS play poker. We had every intention on taking pictures, but sometimes you just have to put the camera down and enjoy time together. lol, so sorry. No pictures of that to share!

This past week was VBS at my church. I thought the theme this year was really interesting. We normally go through Lifeway for our VBS, but we tried another company called Groups and tried a much more "involved" VBS. Jordan, the coordinator, said we had about 50 volunteers this year! We did Paul and the Underground Church and transformed our youth basement into the "catacombs" -- the prison where Paul stayed. A deacon at our church played the part of Paul and a newer member played the Roman guard, who started the week very grumpy and very against Christianity. By the end of the week, though, he came around. lol. We had the "underground church" on the other side of the youth basement and all the kids had to be reaaalllll quiet so they wouldn't "attract attention" from other people. All the leaders dressed up in costumes and we had a "marketplace" for the various crafts. It was just very organized and very cool this year. I, of course, LOVED taking pictures of it!!


These kids are SO CUTE!! This is probably the only time until they're like 15 they'll get along. lol!



Frank helped out with the 2nd-3rd graders, which I thought was adorable. Here he is sporting a most fashionable yellow sash around his head. Later on in the week, he fashioned a nice neck tie. How inventive. haha!


This is David Youmans... er... I mean... "Paul." He aboslutely loves this picture -- and I really do too! It's the best one I took in such low light -- but it really does have that cave-like feel, don't you think?



And this is Brutus -- back when he was grumpy.



Here are all the kids at the assembly. I was floored how many kids we had the first night! It had to be pushing 60...


This little guy is so adorable! Jordan, the coordinator, asked all the kids to close their eyes and imagine Rome. This is his way of closing his eyes. He looks a bit like Calvin in Calvin and Hobbes, don't ya think?


And this one just cracks me up -- 21st century social culture meets 1st century wardrobe. haha!


We've been very busy, but I've really enjoyed myself! I've got another few gigs coming up, I think, so stay tuned!

I was explaining to a friend of mine the other day that I didn't know of any professional photographer who would sell their prints and images straight out of the camera. Most people don't know this, but there's quite a bit of post processing needed after a photo shoot. I've had very few images come straight out of my camera where I thought, "Hm, there's not much I need to do to this one." Some photographers spend hours and hours manipulating photographs to make skin tones "perfectly smooth." My philosophy, however, has always been "less is more." For instance, I just went to a local photographer's Web site, and to be sure his work is superb, I could tell he did a lot of post processing. The skin of one bride was so smooth, it didn't look natural.

When I was a pre-teen, my mother once told me, "The secret to wearing makeup is to make it look like you're NOT wearing any." This idea really perplexed me, but like makeup, the whole point of post processing is not to totally make over the image, but to enhance the natural characteristics that are already there.

To illustrate my point, I have two images: One is the original SOOC (straight out of the camera) and the other is the finished product. (click to enlarge)


Granted, the original image is pretty darn good (not to sound conceited or anything, but the colors are decent, there isn't anything distracting in the background -- minus a few annoying gnats! -- overall a good SOOC image).


However, this one has been brightened a bit, the colors are bolder and more saturated and their faces have been lightened to reduce the harshness of the shadows. I also went in and individually took out the gnats that were flying through the air, but you'd probably have to enlarge photos to even see them anyway.

So when you see my photos on my Web site, know that they are all hand color corrected and enhanced by me, so if it takes a few days to see your pictures, that's why :)

I might do a few more of these every now and then. It was fun and I think it makes people appreciate all that photographers do for their clients. Enjoy!

A Sneak Peak

We had the pleasure of photographing a family portrait with The Kincaids. Lauren, the daughter, is a friend of a friend whose family drove all the way from Florida to spend some time in Jackson County.  We could see this family's love for one another and it was truly an honor to get to hang out with them for a while.

I hope you enjoy these sneak peaks.  Many more will follow!