For The Love Of Pictures Photography 101 Workshop

I am SO incredibly excited to announce that I will be conducting my very first Photography workshop!

My years as a teacher are combining with my love of photography into

For The Love Of Pictures Photography 101 Workshop

(Click on the Image to see it larger!)

The workshop is going to be amazing!

Please contact me (michelletravisphotography@yahoo.com) if you're interested in attending. Space is limited. You will be sent more information regarding the class (location, what to bring, etc) once you have registered and paid =)

Thank you to everyone who is supporting me in this new photography endeavor!

52 Week Project- Week 4

I've decided to officially participate in MCP's 52 week challenge =) You can join anytime so get cracking!!!

Somehow I missed a week. So week 4's theme is: "Soothing Repetition." Hm....interesting. I took a look around MCP's blog, FB page and Official Flickr Group to get a better understanding as to how people were interpreting this theme. Then it came to me. (After considering photographing a group of wine bottles....soothing to me!) My son's pacifier is incredibly soothing to him =) When I looked in the drawer I saw the perfect amount of blue and green pacis. Awesome!

Here is my photo, enjoy!

Soothing Repetition.

If you're interested in participating with this 52 week project Week 5's suggested theme is: Muse.

I Found Some Natural Light!

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in SW Oklahoma! Lots of beautiful sunshine and not a cloud in the sky =)

As I walked into my bedroom something struck me. I bet there would be some great natural light in this room if I opened the shades in the full length windows on the double doors that lead out to the backyard. So I opened them and WOW! How had I never noticed this before, LOL!


When my daughter woke up from her nap, I laid out a white blanket and bribed her to sit down ;) Once she got situated at about a 45 degree angle from the windows I started snapping away. Her face was just beautifully lit up by this soft light streaming in.


Here are a few of the images, the only editing was a slight contrast boost and sharpening for the web.







Oooh, I'm so excited! Now to get my little man to sit down for more than 2 seconds!

Have a great day everyone! You never know when something new and exciting will happen =)

Fix It Friday #84

What a cute baby! The pictures really wasn't the best. The lighting was okay and the beautiful colors in the background left a bit of a color cast.

SOOC:

Edit 1:

My style is usually to be clean and natural (but better ;) Here is that edit using LR3 and PSE7.

Edit 2:

I used the edited image from edit 1 and then ran Florabella's Luxe action in Musette. I tweaked it a bit and actually love the outcome!

Thanks for stopping by and check out more edits of this image at I Heart Faces!

52 Week Project- Week 3!

The theme this week was 'Winter.' I was trying to think out of the box on this. As my 'box' is always people. =) So, I stepped outside my front door and it hit me, the trees! All the trees in my front yard are totally bare. Definitely winter!!

I also wanted to step out of my 'editing box' on this image too. So here it is!

WINTER!

Pixel Perfect Blog Hop

The kids and I actually got some time outside yesterday! I don't usualy take my camera out with us but yesterday I was really feeling the need for some good new pictures =)


SOOC:

My son riding on our 'roller coaster.'


Edit:



In the color edit first I adjusted the temperature, brightness, clarity and vibrance (in ACR). Then over in PSE7 I made a duplicate layer and with the spot healing brush got rid of some of the leaves, etc in the background. I also ran MCP's Eye Doctor action and then evened our his skin with Coffeeshops Glamour Glow. I really like the color edit, nice and clean. But I am a sucker for a B&W conversion. So here it is with Florabella's Vanilla action. LOVE!





Thanks for stopping by and check out Pixel Perfect for more great Before and Afters!

The {K} Family Photo Session

Two weeks ago the {K} Family and I braved the Oklahoma cold (and wind) to get some family pictures. John is an avid photographer himself so the pressure was on! ;)

These were also the first professional pictures for baby JJ!





Everyone did so well and we got a LOT of smiles!

Pixel Perfect Before and After

This week I took a few pictures that were so cute but needed a LOT of help! Perfect for the Before/After at Pixel Perfect!

SOOC:

My white balance was WAY off! My husband had yelled to me that my daughter was being cute with all the bubbles in the bathtub, so I just ran in there with whatever settings were already on the camera. Mistake, LOL!


After:

Since I had a whole batch of them I went to LR3 and changed the white balance (-50 temperature) then increased the exposure and brightness a bit. Then in PSE7 I wanted to see what else I could do so I made a duplicate layer and changed the blending mode to screen. I reduced the opacity to 25% and used the eraser to mask of the effect on the painted wall. But it did make all the white in the tile and the bubbles really pop! I then ran the high pass filter to sharpen things up. Thats it! WAY BETTER!




Thanks for stopping by! Hope you're having a great week =)

52 Week Project- Week 2

Okay, I'm behind on this week. Already!?!?!? But the theme for "last" week is Birthday. (as it was Dana's birthday that week! Happy birthday!)



We celebrated my daughter's 3rd birthday in December, but luckily we've had this sign from her birthday up on our front door for quite some time ;)





We had a great time at her totally princess party!

BTW: I got this great sign and other princess printable from Amy @ Living Locurto.





Hope you're having a great week!

The {W} Family Downtown Maternity

Last weekend the {W} Family and I braved the cold to walk around "downtown" and find some beautiful backdrops for their maternity pictures! When you live in a town of less than 20,000 people the "downtown' area is a definite figure of speech ;)

I was so pleased with the beautiful areas we did find!!!





I was also thrilled to be able to present Jill and James with their images at the baby shower for their little girl just last night =) Can't wait to meet her!

Fix It Friday #82

Yeah its Friday!!! Among other thing it means another FIF over at I Heart Faces!

The SOOC from Rachel Durik, is gorgeous!

With only a few minor tweaks (+ 6 temperature, +15 exposure & +30 vibrance) the images is stunning. BUT why not have some more fun!!! I didn't want to go B&W because this little girls blue eyes are just too amazing so I decided to play with texture! I added Florabella's 'Truffle' texture on blending mode: multiply then reduced the opacity to 35%.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!!!

I Heart Faces- Smile

This week one of my favorite websites, I Heart Faces, is turning 2 years old! To celebrate their contest theme this week is: SMILE!

I can't wait to see all the amazing entries!

Here is mine from a recent family session. This sweet little girl had a blast!

LOVE her smile!

{M} Mini Maternity

I had my first mini-session the other day. My friend, Renae is due to have her 3rd baby any day now! (gender unknown- not for lack of trying)

Our schedules are so busy that we finally were able to squeeze in a mini-session at her home this week. I'm so glad we did, they turned out beautiful!




So dramatic and beautiful!


Gotta love selective coloring in these moments!

Renae had the most wonderful red chaise. We definitely had to use it!




Who knew 9 months pregnant could look so great!


One last shot of Renae and her youngest child.

I can't wait to meet their newest little one!

Pixel Perfect Blog Hop

Phew, it's been a while since I've entered Monica's blog hop over at Pixel Perfect. Thankfully, I have a moment and a nice picture to share!

A few weeks ago my family and I went to a local nature preserve. Every time I've passed this creek, I always wish I had my camera with me. Thankfully, this time I didn't forget!

Before:

After:

I have Lightroom 3 now! Woo Hoo! So I did some minor adjustments to the vibrance, saturation and blacks. That's it....no Photoshopping involved!

Hope you're all having a wonderful week!

52 Week Project- Week 1

This is the first week of a 52 week photography project over at Dana's Blog.

This week's theme is: NEW

There are so many new things at our home now, thanks to Christmas and 2 birthdays! But my daughter's 2 new loves are: horses and the movie Cars. So when she started playing with them together I had to grab my camera!

The new things at my house!

Head on over to Dana's blog to play along...you're not too late, it's only the first week of the year!

MY NEW WEBSITE

Ok, I said I'd share the news here first.....

My new website is up and running!!!

Michelle Travis Photography

I've been working very hard on getting it just the way I envisioned and I'm SO happy with it!!! The template is from BluDomain and it couldn't be better!

Please check it out and let me know what you think!!!

Thanks so much =)

Finding My Holiday Joy!

I'm so excited to make an album out of the images I've captured during Kelly Willette's Finding Your Holiday Joy class! Here is a sampling of the pages I've created so far! (the background is white, so it does look a little strange ;)


















I'll definitely be posting some pictures of the album when it gets here!

Welcome to a New Year!

That's right everyone! As you all know it's 2011! Hurray! Now, 2010 was an amazing year for me both personally and professionally. My family and I moved from Florida to Oklahoma and I started my photography business. *phew*





I believe that 2011 is going to unbelievable too! I have some exciting plans for this year already!





First of all............I'm getting my own, real website! Woo Hoo, I'm SO excited! The site should be up and running in the next few days. I'll be sure to break the news here first!





Secondly, I'm also very excited to be participating in Dana's 52 Week Photo Project! My friend and fellow photographer, Dana Suggs is starting a 52-week photography project. Each week will have a new theme. The goal is to post a NEW photo that fits that weeks theme! The project starts this week and the first theme is: NEW.


Please check out Dana's blog for more information and to link up (on Wednesday).



I have also completed Kelly Willette's Finding The Holiday Joy class. It was a bunch of fun and I have a post coming up with the pages I've made that will be created into a 2010 Holiday album!

But the great news is that Kelly is offering a FREE Valentines class in February! Check out Finding the Joy of Love and sign up!

Hope you all had a fun and safe New Years and welcome to 2011! I can't wait to see what it has in store!!