professional photographer | Pretty Little Prints Photography

One year later…

This October will be my first official year in business. i have been having the itch to write about my journey in photography for a few weeks now, so here it goes. I started blogging back in May 2012 but had my very first customers that Fall. I have grown so much in a year and all this happened by practising, blog stalking, and reading. I consider my self a camera artist and not a “professional photographer”. In my opinion a camera artist is a person that sees beyond the photo. The artistic journey of creating art from a photograph…enhancing your talent. My journey has just began and i havent just yet had my “aha!” moment that i think will make me a “professional”. On the other hand i have seen work from “professionals” that is just not good! and wish i had that confidence. When will i get it? I have had moments where i felt like” i got this” and that has been just in the past couple of weeks. My style has changed and now i feel like it has been consistent and i will stay true to myself. I will not change it just for the simple fact that i own it…its my signature…its me…Pretty Little Prints.

So yesterday i looked backed and found this from a year ago. Yup! i felt like deleting this post from the blog but then reminded myself that we all start right on the same spot. I want my readers to know that if their work looks like this right now, IT WILL GET BETTER!…and do not worry, my BFF did not pay me for those LOL!

So my journey began with a life long passion for photography. I took this image with a Canon Rebel T3 and with the 18-55mm lens that comes with it(HORRIFIC #1). This is when i wanted to give an attempt to be in business not knowing what background blur (bokeh) was? Shame on me. Did you notice that shadow across his face! (HORRIFIC #2) what was i thinking? yup! I had no clue what golden hour was. People out there… never shoot during the sunny hours of the day, with this i mean having the sun on top of you. If you do, you must have your clients under a tree that is full enough not to let any light through it that can make horrible shadows. What do you think about this vintage edit and yellow skin? (HORRIFIC #3). This is called Picnick folks. What beginners think they can get away with because they have no clue how to work Photoshop. Sad huh?

So lets review beginner NO-NO’s:

– do not charge people if you do not own portrait lenses. DO NOT USE THE LENS THAT CAME WITH THE CAMERA. I recommend you buy a DSLR body and a nice sharp lens if you want to invest in this carrer. A 50mm, 85 mm and 35 mm are a must in family, children and newborn portraiture.

– Only shoot before sunrise and before sunset. If you live in Houston DO NOT, i repeat, DO NOT book sunrise sessions during the summer…humidity will ruin everything for ya’.

– You must be able to use Photoshop…. Picmonkey will not cut it for ya’.

– Use natural light, read on white balance and always keep your ISO on 100.

– NEVER use flash!

– Never shoot in .JPG… if you consider yourself a professional.

Here is another example. I had horrible light the week she was born. so i gave up and i thought a 10 day newborn was to old to work on. So i gave up on practising. I recommend from experience now, photographing them 10 days new or less. Shame on me because now her memories are that. Newborn photography is a TOTALLY different story. You have to be able to know how to remove blemishes using the healing brush in PS. You must know how to use the clone stamp to remove those nasty blanket wrinkles i have here in the background. You must know how to use the dropper to create smooth dreamy blurs in photos.

Aside from the tedious work in photoshop, comes the talent of patience and posing. Do not give up! i have a song that i have tried on several babies and works wonders! find your own tune! don’t worry, i have never been given the crazy look. My tune is magical 🙂 Book a session with me and you will find out.

A year later i learned:

– Its all about finding the natural light and the golden hour.

– Sharp lenses are the only way to get awesome photos, my 85 mm ROCKS! (F/1.8 and lower)

– Shooting in RAW will make all the difference in the world. (might be your “aha!” moment, for this you need PS and Adobe Bridge, i now another costly investment)

– Learn EVERYTHING your camera has to offer. Every button is there for a reason 🙂

– Must learn Photoshop and how to use actions.

– i aim at getting it right SOOC so i can only run an action or two and sharpen on my post processing. Most of the time i only use my own workflow action, color/blush brush from Florabella and add sunflares and gradients to make them dreamy. That is the Camera Artist thing i was talking about. I also do not crop! that is how good it comes out of the camera 🙂 i wont loose pixels if i dont have to.

– Practice, Practice, Practice! I personally have not taken any workshops or have had any education what-so-ever, feel free to invest on them! I would if i had some extra $$$.