{Blanket Fun! - Mesa, Arizona Family Photographer}

I wanted to share this session I did over the Fall.  I know, over the Fall?  What's that all about?  Well I haven't blogged most of my fall sessions.  Things get so busy and I'm on such a time crunch to get galleries up and orders delivered, so blogging the session images gets pushed aside, BAD I know.  But I really wanted to post this session - it's with one of my favorite and most dear friends and her family.  My friend Haleigh is also a talent photographer in my area!  She and her husband are also the owners of 'Fanciful Frames'.  Have you heard of them?  If not, you've got to!  And a little secret:  if you're a fan of Fanciful frames on Facebook, she often posts super discounted prices on their frames.  I just bought an 11x14 frame, 'tart' shaped in the fanicful color since she was doing a 48 hour sale only on Facebook on that color and several others so I snagged it just before the sale ended!  Yay!  I can't wait to get it.  I have 2 other frames of hers a 20x30 huge beautiful black frame and an 8x10 'Apple Tart' colored frame.  Super cute!  Anyway, I could go on but I'll stop  ;-)  Check her page out!

This fall I was lucky to photograph her beautiful family!  Aren't they beautiful.  Kinda unfair hu?  Yeah, that's what I was thinking.  They were so wonderful and easy to work with, not surprising since their momma is a photographer.  Here's a peek at our session.

{Project Twenty-Six on Friday's - 'can you guess my favorite childhood book?'}

I'm excited about this weeks Project 26 - Can you guess my favorite childhood book? How fun!!  I love things like this since I can take it in so many different directions. I didn't know quite what this entailed and what angle to take so I just ran with what I was thinking - it's a 'modern twist' on a classic.  So with these little clues I have shown in pictures I was only able to incorporate 2 characters since I didn't have more peeps or the time to really delve into getting a cast together lol.  So there are MAJOR pieces left out of this story but I think you'll be able to get it - a few of the images will give it away. Tell me your guesses and I'll post the answer later today at the bottom of this post.  After guessing click on Val's link continue the circle -  Val | The red balloon photography.  The circle is smaller this week, but that's just temporary.

So, do you think you know my 'favorite childhood book'?  You have to have it with the clues - right?  Some of you may have forgotten the boy with the bone in his hand....hmmmm.  I wanna hear your guesses.  Thanks for playing :)

Note:  the house photo {second picture from the bottom} - was taken by Katie Marshall who kindly allowed me to use her image.  Thanks so much Katie!!

UPDATE:  Yes!!  Many of you were right!  It's Hansel & Gretel.  Here' my silly book cover for the story :)   Thanks for playing!

{National Association of Professional Children's Photographers - Featured Photographer}

I was completely flattered when the National Association of Professional Children's Photographers (NAPCP) contacted me last month to be their featured member.  They mentioned that Barb Uil of Jinky Art Photography was the prior months featured member and if I wasn't sure and wanted to be featured I should check out her interview.  What?  Um, really?  Me, after Barb?  I felt a little intimidated but was honored and of course excitedly said, 'yes'.  I'm proud to be a part of this organization - here's a link to their site.  To see this newsletter click here.  They have a new layout with 2 page, full bleed spreads - I love it!  Thanks for checking it out :)

Here's just a couple pages from the feature.

And Monthly Tips - you may have seen the first one from my 'Shop Talk' series.

{'Shop Talk' - Chromatic Aberration}

It's that time again!  Shop Talk!  I love doing this series and covering topics that I focus on in my images.  Today is all about 'Chromatic Aberration' and how to avoid/correct this annoying occurrence in Photoshop.  So what is Chromatic Aberration?   Chromatic Aberration is a distortion in color also called 'color fringing'.   It's a common problem that occurs when the lens can't bring together all the  color wavelengths into the same focal plane.  It's very common in high-contrast situations.   Most of us have seen this and it's a pain since it doesn't represent the true look of the photo.  But there's a way to correct it!   I'll explain it using the images below.  So the first image it's hard to see so I've blown up a portion of Brielle's 'high contrast' shirt so you can see where I have to correct the color dispersion.

In the blown up area, you can see more of the color aberration that I need to correct.

To correct this in photoshop go to 'Filter'- 'Distort' - 'Lens Correction'.   You'll find the sliders used to correct the distortion to the right.

Depending on the image you are correcting the sliders will need to be altered accordingly.  Make sure you blow your image up (200%+) to see the aberration problems so you can move the sliders according to the colors that need to be corrected on your image.

below:  correction made

Final Image with 'Chromatic Aberration' corrected.  It's a small change but makes the image look a little cleaner, minimizing color disruption.

I hope this was helpful.  I've been getting some topic suggestions from blog viewers.  Feel free to e-mail me at kara@karamayphotography.com with any suggestions you might want me to cover.  I'll try to get to them as I can. Thanks for viewing my Shop Talk post!

{Project 26 - 'Once Upon A Time'}

I love this week's theme!  The possibilities are endless, but I had to stick to only one...that was hard.  In my closet I've been storing my old ballerina dress that I wore when I was little.  My mother made it so it has even more meaning.  I didn't think it would fit Brielle yet, but with a little pinning it was perfect!  It was surreal seeing my baby girl in MY ballerina dress.  I never imagined having a little girl that might someday wear it.  It easily became the inspiration for this project. Once upon a time....

Thanks for reading to my silly little fairy tale :) We could've done a cinemagraph like last week again but I opted to just focus on the theme so you may see a few more cinemagraphs in the circle.  Click Val | The red balloon photography to see what Val did for this weeks project.  And don't forget to click through all of the links to complete the circle.

{Happy Valentine's Day!}

Happy Valentine's Day!!  Are you doing anything special today?  My kids came home from school so excited and on a fun little sugar high (yay!).  I spent part of the day at school living vicariously through them, remembering Valentine's Day and the excitement I felt passing out my Valentine's to my classmates when I was young.  I love that this school embraces holidays and celebrations - it's part of childhood memories that I think are so important.  Both kids class had a little celebration and it was so fun to be a part of it.

I've had several e-mail and friends at school asked me how I made these cards.   The mustache is an overlay (from Oh Snap Boutique)  that I added to the image and I made the chevron background paper in photoshop.  Added text and printed then off a little smaller than the size of a business card.   I used my home printer an Epson Artisan 810.  And the trick I finally found was in the printer settings (not in the normal place you'd think it would be... in a later box that is easily dismissed.  You need to choose the specific type of paper and the image quality via the drop-down menus.   With this printers set up it's not intuitive and I was ready to toss it since it printed images so badly.  But then I discovered this part.  You have to do it each time you print pictures though, a bit of a pain but worth it.

Here's the little tags we made for our Valentine's day treats.  :)  We had fun making them.

Tonight we're celebrating by just being together.  Jeff and I typically don't do anything for each other but we still enjoy the holiday and make it fun for the kids.  Sometimes a card and an extra smooch and we're happy.  Hope you have a great Valentine's Day!

{'Shop Talk' - Newborn Safety & Cyberbullying in the Photography Industry}

It's a 'Shop Talk' day! Yay!

Shocker image above right?  Yes, this is an example of 'non-composite, non-posed' newborn photo (we'll be discussing composite photos below).  It's just a sweet newborn who was not enjoying my camera being in his face.  He was happy with his pacifier and wanted me to leave him alone.  I respectfully did, after this shot and maybe a couple more. :)  Anyway, this image sets the mood for my topic today.

I'm sure you've seen adorable newborn photos of  babies hanging from a whimsical looking tree branch or babies with their heads perfectly propped on their hands. They look so sweet...but how do photographers do this?  Are these babies naturally posing this cute?  A lot of people aren't aware that these are actually composite images.  What's a composite image?  It's taking two (sometimes more) images and meshing them in photoshop to edit out unwanted hands (or other items) assisting in the set up.  Pretty cool trickery ;-)  My friend Amanda is an amazing photographer and her newborn photos are breath-taking.  I wish I had her skills with newborns.  She's the owner of Amanda Andrews Photography located in Boise, Idaho and she let me use these composite photos so you could see what a composite is and how it works.

   The results are breathtaking when done properly, as Amanda shows above.  She's aware of safety and makes sure that is top priority.  I'm still in awe over her images and her abilities.  Sigh....

But many new photographers are unaware of this process and want to replicate these images.  Unfortunately safety is compromised without proper information.  As most of  you are aware, this has became a very heated topic in the photography industry as a result.  We are seeing more and more non-traditional newborn set-ups that appear to very dangerous and compromise these fragile babies.  More photographers are sharing their images through social media.  This cyber sharing is bringing to the forefront these dangerous practices.  But we're also seeing blatant attacks on new photographers who don't know about the important safety precautions needed to create these images.  More seasoned photographers are posting these 'unsafe' images on their Facebook pages.  They're including the newborn photographers website as well as watermarked photos along with insults and hurtful words.   This is the catalyst for a string of unconstructive, hurtful comments and image 'shares' (cyber-explosion) on Facebook. The definition of Cyberbullying is: harassing, humiliating, threatening or embarrassing another person through electronic methods, such as instant messaging, email, social networking sites or text messaging. I've watched how quickly this spreads and in a matter of hours I witnessed 1) the post 2)the post being shared 22 times  3) 100+ comments that weren't constructive and   4) the new photographers wall fill page after page with hateful and threatening comments.  Are these pictures okay?  Not really, they're clearly are unsafe.  But is bullying helpful or constructive?  Not at all.  Education and awareness of safe practices are what's helpful and constructive.   Cyberbullying is becoming rampant in our industry I'm embarrassed to admit.  Rather than reaching out to the photographer and providing constructive advice and communicating concern, many are posting hurtful and damaging things about these photographers.  Safety is number one, but there's a way to communicate these concerns.  I reached out to one woman who was cyberbullied by other photographers back in November to see how she was doing and how these comments have affected her.  She told me that she realizes now that she didn't use the safety precautions necessary and she feels awful about that.  She said it wasn't the bullying that helped her realize this, it was one e-mail from a photographer that included safety tips and sites where she could see composites (a practice she wasn't aware of).   But she also said  that all the comments and threatening e-mails have made her leave the industry.   She told me 'she was crushed and completely devastated' by the mean comments and emails she received from photographers and even non-photographers.  She thought she was being safe but later realized that she needed to learn more.  Someone sent her an e-mail threatening to 'hunt her down' and hurt her children, because that's what she could've done to these babies.  Crying became a regular part of her day for weeks.  She still enjoys photography but no longer has a business and still feels grief over the whole incident.  She said that she felt like she 'was an awful human being' for this and it continues to haunt her.  This is the sad result of cyberbullying.  And it needs to stop.  We know better.

So next time you see an image where a newborn looks compromised, please reach out to the photographer who posted the 'unsafe' image and help that person through education.  Our industry is a wonderful one - but we need to be build people up (through education), not knock them down (through cyberbullying).

I'm leaving you with one more of this little guy who clearly wasn't a fan of my camera.  I've convinced him otherwise since this session.  Yay!  Thanks for reading my post.  xoxo

{Project Twenty Six on Fridays - 'the people who keep me sane'}

What an insane week.  Fitting for this week's topic.  So busy, a little sick around here, and feeling so behind.  But I'm excited about this weeks Project 26!  Who keeps me sane?  Those that also make me insane :)  Honestly, I think my kids and my husband keep my sanity in check.  My kids remind me that I need to slow down and enjoy every moment I can with them since it'll be gone if I don't.  They make me laugh, make me cringe, make me think of them before I think of myself (a good thing), and they make me realize that life needs to be more simple sometimes, that I need to think like a 6 and 9 year old  for me to delve into their world.  And I love it.  Sometimes they'll say to me, 'put your iPhone away and just enjoy.' And they are so right.  So I've been trying to be more 'in the moment' with them. For them as well as for my sanity, happiness and the memories that I'm making with them all the time.  And my husband.....he's the calm one.  He's the one who is calm in the mist of a storm while I'm the one who's freaking out.  He's centered and centers me when I'm not so centered.  I like to think we balance each other.  These are the people who keep me sane.

So this week's challenge was coupled with something completely new to me so please don't judge.  This weeks challenge combines the theme of 'those who keep me sane' and the use of either a cinemagraph {a what?} or video.  So what's a cinemagraph?  I had no idea what it was when I heard it was part of our challenge.  A cinemagraph has elements of a still photo but with moving parts.  {note: the first image at the top is not a cinemagraph as you can see, but the ones below are}.  Sounds easy, sounds simple, right?  Then why are the pictures so grainy, and why do they look so blah?  Basically to do a cinemagraph you have to video your subject and use that as your base for the image.  And when you've compressed a video into an image and want to place it on the web, it's going to have some grain as you can see from the images below.  But I used about 74 frames in my image so they are very grainy and blah.  Next time I'm going to try to cut it down to about 7 frames if I can so it will be less pixelated and blah.   But it was fun to try something new and see if I could make it work.

Below, was my first attempt at a cinemagraph.  I didn't use a tripod so you can see that it's shaky - but I had to add is since my son was such a good sport and thought this end result was pretty funny.  :)

And lastly I decided to make a little video of the people in my life who keep me sane.  All the video was taken from my iPhone which was fun and easy.  Sometimes I love the ease of technology :)

Check out Kara Jo’s  project 26 ‘the people who keep me sane’ post – Kara Jo Memphis Newborn and Child Photographer and continue to click through the  links to see the whole circle.

NOTE:  when viewing the video, scroll to the bottom of the blog and turn off the blog's music since there's some silly music on the video. :)  Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yHU75DGYfM&feature=context&context=C3002b83ADOEgsToPDskJZ9XfBI5_0aheO8CCZMWqs

{'Shop Talk' - RAW vs. Jpg + 10 Photoshop shortcuts I can't edit without}

It's week 2 of 'Shop Talk' and I have so much to talk about but I'll save my words so I don't overload this post.  :)   Have you ever wondered if you should be shooting in RAW or Jpeg?  It's a question I get a lot from other photographers.  Many aren't sure if they should be shooting in RAW, Jpeg or both.  As we know, RAW files are HUGE and require post processing.  And now that computer processing power is much more affordable  it's not as big of a deal as it was just a couple of  years ago.

So why shoot in jpeg since digital space isn't as big of an issue as it was in the past?  There are some advantages to shooting in jpeg for certain users.  Some photographers prefer the camera to apply the processing algorithms so there is less post-processing after the picture is taken.  The camera applies exposure, white-balance, color, contrast and sharpening processes to the image so you don't have to adjust these in photoshop if your settings were applied accurately to the image.   When you look at a SOOC jpeg image it looks decent and sharable, while a RAW image looks flat, very low contrast and somewhat muted.  Also shooting in jpeg won't drag your camera's speed since the files are compressed.  Okay, so then why would someone opt to shoot in RAW if it adds to your workflow and the images don't look pretty coming out of the camera?

There are so many advantages to shooting in RAW (of course there are drawbacks too, some mentioned above).  You can control exposure, color, white-balance, contrast and sharpening rather than having the camera apply these irreversible settings.   RAW files make batch processing easier when adjusting the saturation, contrast and temperature of all a group of similar images.  Jpeg files can be inconsistent and if adjusted there's a possibility of damaging some of the pixels trying to reverse contrast or another element that was pre-processed into the file.  Also RAW images record a higher dynamic range with the ability to properly bring out more highlights and shadows in post-processing.  Jpegs can be manipulated but not without loss of data.  Even rotating a jpeg image will cause data loss.  When shooting jpeg your cameras firmware compresses the image quickly (so speed is faster since it's making the data output smaller) but in the process there is some range of color that is lost as well as resolution loss.  Jpegs are also grainier because of this compression.

So why not shoot both since you have that option on your camera?  Shooting both RAW and jpeg takes up more room on your memory card.  Additionally, having 2 files of the same image (duplicates) can cause organizational headaches to your filing and editing workflow.  It can be done but I personally don't think it's necessary to shoot in both RAW &  jpeg.

Is there a right or wrong method of shooting?  No.  It's all in what you want, how much control you would like to have and  how much post-processing you want to dedicate to your images.  I personally prefer to shoot in RAW.  For me , I love that I can save a large image with all of the proper information recorded from the cameras sensor to the raw file so there is no data loss and I can have the freedom to manipulate the image how I choose.  And since computers are more powerful and buying storage is getting less expensive , it's not causing as much strain on speed or space than it did in the past.

I hope that clarifies some of the questions and or misconceptions that are out there about file format settings.

10 Photoshop Short-cuts I can't edit without.

I have my mouse set to zoom in and out by scrolling up and down (huge time saver)

Press B - to change to the brush tool

[ - Decrease Brush Size ] – Increase Brush Size Shift+ [ - Decrease Brush Softness by 25% Shift+ ] – Increase Brush Hardness by 25% 1 → 0 – Tool Opacity 10% → 100% Shift+1 → 0 – Flow / Airbrush Opacity 10% → 100%

move the selected layer to be the first or the last one Ctrl + Shift + [ Ctrl + Shift + ]

Alt+Ctrl+G Creates/Releases Clipping Masks

Opt + Shift + "-" or "+" key allow navigation through the blending mode drop-down.

'maintain aspect ration button' (not really a short-cut but a valuable tool - it's the little icon that looks like a chain link) - use when you're cropping, copying and using the free transform tool.

Check back in two weeks for my next 'Shop Talk'.  If you missed last weeks post, click here :)

{My Velvet Owl Interview - Women In Business}

Heidi of owner of the 'Velvet Owl' asked me a while ago if she could interview me for her 'Women in Business' series.  I was flattered.  She posted the interview on her blog today.

This past fall, the kids, Jeff and I went out to do a family session in timer mode.  Always a challenge but worth a try.  I never posted those images.  I have more but since I'm in a hurry I'll start with just these.  Jeff and I are never alone in pictures....so we let the kids run around so we could have some pictures of just the two of us.  We were laughing most of the time but there were a couple of serious ones lol.   And me with the kids (again, rare for us).   Thank for popping by!