Soo…I’m a little behind the times right now!! I just figured out that BLUDOMAIN has a NEW blog…AND I haven’t bookmarked the new one yet, so I just stumbled upon the old one while doing a quick blog check from my bookmarks!

So, I happened to end up at the OLD blog…and I DISCOVERED Kailee’s MOST VIEWED BLOGS list…and to MY SURPRISE…I WAS on her LIST!!! SERIOUSLY!!! I was totally stunned and SOOO honored!!! Kailee…YOU ARE THE BEST!!! THANK YOU soo very much!!!! I’m SOO honored!!! (I stole the I love Kailee pic from Fred Egan’s Blog!!It was too cute, I could resist!! Fred is amazing, too!!)

A friend of mine told me about this SUPER cool new service called JOTT!! It’s a free service that allows you to call a number and provide whatever info you want (i.e….to do items, important info to remember, phone or email info to remember, etc) and it takes that info, transcribes it into text and emails it to you!! Isn’t that COOL!?!? I’m TOTALLY the kind of person that makes calls and lists while I’m driving, but I try and jott them on a post it note or even into the voice recorder I carry (because of this issue!!)…but the notes and lists PILE up on my voice recorder and so I don’t get to them all and/or the post it notes go all over the place and I can’t find them! So, I think this is a great, clean, organized way of keeping notes while on the road!! You can also have other people added to your account so they get the notes…i.e…your husband or wife, assistant, etc!? So, it’s also also like an email on the road kind of thing!! LOVE it!!! All you have to do is sign up and get the number! It’s that easy!!!
CLICK HERE TOCHECK IT OUT!!!

I just found a GEM of a DIGITAL CAMERA!! It’s the CANON POWERSHOT SD1000!! I LOVE IT!!! I have gone through MANY digital point and shoots! I get bored with them…or they break…or they get dropped! I don’t EVER invest more than $250 in a point and shoot because I KNOW how it will end up! Soo, I heard rumors that this little cutie was a good point & shoot…and I read a few reviews…and I was sold!

THEN, I checked B&H, where the camera is only $214 AND THEN…they have a $50 REBATE! So, this awesome little guy is a GREAT deal….and super easy to use! It even has this awesome “face recognition” feature where it actually finds the face in an image and focuses on it. So, you don’t have the blurred point and shoot images…like all my other cameras would take!! There are two other BIG features that I LOVE about this camera….it has video mode and the videos are SUPER!! THEN….a battery wall charger COMES WITH it…so you don’t have those RIDICULOUS docking station deals…OH, I HATE THOSE things..they just take up space!! SO, you just take the battery out, throw it on the wall charger and it’s FULLY CHARGED in an hour! LOVE THAT!!! THEN…GET THIS…I got the SD cards that have a BUILT IN USB…so you pull the SD card right out of the camera, throw it into the usb and you have your pictures!! YAY! I’m throwing all those stupid docking stations with their 50 cords IN THE TRASH!! YAY!!

Ok, here are the first two pictures I took with the camera….Mark and I were headed to dinner and I did a few of my famous “self portrait in the car” shots!

I know I’ve been talking about albums alot…but I guess in all of that, I’ve somehow missed mentioning my actual album company…because I’ve been getting lots of emails about it!! LEATHER CRAFTSMEN!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Leather Craftsmen! They are truly wonderful, produce fantastic products, have quick turn around time and awesome customer service!

On a side note, I know alot of you think I just LOVE everything and everyone because I’m always talking about how much I love everything, but I assure you, that is NOT the case!

My last album company was an absolute NIGHTMARE to work with and I’ll openly tell you about it if you like…so please trust that my words are credible and I’m basing what I tell you off of the experiences I’ve had!

Ok, so anyway, I use the 3500 flush mount series albums! They are great albums because they are very classic & clean with simple lines, yet are modern and stylish!! I’ve mentioned how I don’t like alot of FLUFF on anything or excessive “pretty” stuff….I think timeless, simple stuff is best and the 3500 series is EXACTLY that!!!

They also have GREAT cover treatment options!!! I recently discovered that I LOVE the cowhide leather options!! I was reeeeeally into the suede for a while!! I LOVE the suede…especially in the celadon, apricot, mushroom, & solar yellow…but I’m on a cowhide kick right now!! I got an album in the cowhide and it was GREAT!!! Shiney and modern…and SLICK!! The font looked perfect with the sleekness of the album!! LOVED IT!!! Check it out!! And if you aren’t a huge fan of your album company, CALL LEATHER CRAFTSMEN!!!!

I have been meaning to do this post for a long time, but just haven’t had the chance!! If you recall, I did a post about my new editing company, LAVALU, a while back! CLICK HERE to read the post! I know I’m a pretty passionate person, but my passion is real and not just to blow smoke…so when I say that I LOVE something, I MEAN IT! Well, it would be safe to say that HIRING LAVALU has CHANGED MY LIFE!!!! I genuinely mean that!! They have taken over the editing on ALL of my weddings!! I will do my blog selections and edit those, then send the wedding to Lavalu for editing! They do my rough editing (determining the keepers and deleters) and then my RAW processing. As I mentioned in the previous post, you give them your preferences on everything from preferred color temps to saturation levels, to cropping preferences and they edit for you, with those preferences applied! They also like to get feedback as you go along, so that after a few jobs, they really have your preferences and personal image style nailed down to the point that you don’t have to worry about a thing!! As much as I hate to admit it, I was roughly 6-8 weeks behind at any given point during the past few wedding seasons and that was just because I didn’t have enough hours in the day to keep up with the editing…and all the other stuff…album designs, album edits, accounting, emails, voicemails, meetings, portrait & commercial work, portrait & commercial session editing, etc, etc, etc…was all in line behind that editing!! It was the worst feeling that, although I worked 7 days a week, without a single day off, I was still soo behind that I couldn’t ever see the light at the end of the tunnel!! This wedding season is like a HUGE BREATH OF FRESH AIR and I feel like a NEW PERSON!!!! My life has changed because I now have LAVALU to help me!! The work is not TOTALLY gone, I still do a quick rough edit on the wedding, then do blog selections and then edit those, then when I get the wedding back from Lavalu, I pull it onto my computer, review it, make a final edit on any images that i felt needed a little adjusting, then DVD archive it and ftp it over and finally harddrive archive it at the end! It’s just that the DAUNTING part of the job is GONE and so the rest of it seems like a BREEZE now!!!! The BEST thing about LAVALU is the staff!! I work directly with Mike & Leon and they are genuinely the nicest, easy going guys EVER!!!! They always call if they are concerned or have questions, they keep in touch with me regarding status of the jobs, they welcome my calls and are always happy to help me! They are also constantly working to ensure my happiness, always working to perfect my images to “my look”…..offering input on helpful stuff like updates on Bridge or ACR! They even cross reference my blog to ensure that the images are looking like I will expect!! I CANNNNOT say enough good things about them!! They make me feel like I am their only customer, yet I know that countless other photographers use and love them…and who they are providing the same AWESOME service to! In fact, after doing my last post, I got THANK YOU emails from photogs who joined Lavalu per my advice and said it had CHANGED THEIR LIFE!!! NEEDLESS TO SAY, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND LAVALU!!!!!! The service they provide, both technically and customer service wise is INVALUABLE to me!! I never knew how AMAZING outsourcing could be…but I do now and I’ll never go back!!! This wedding season, I have no more than about two weeks worth of work on my plate at any given moment and it’s all very managable (albums, portrait & engagement editing, accounting, emails & voicemails, etc)!!! I LOVE IT!! I feels GREAT!!! Pretty soon, I’m going to actually start taking DAYS OFF!!! Oh, I can’t wait!!!
CLICK HERE TO VIEW LAVALU’S WEBSITE, PRICING & CONTACT INFO!!! Be sure to tell Mike that JESS SENT YOU!!

(HERE is a sampling of a few recent images that lavalu processed for me!)

So, I found this GREAT new product and I just had to share it with you! It’s a PICTAGE product, so SORRY if you aren’t with Pictage and go ahead and TUNE OUT now! It’s their new product, the COMPANION BOOK! I just sort of noticed it for the first time when placing an album order the other day! Then, I ordered some to just give them a try and turns out that THEY ARE GREAT!!! They are these little 4×5 (if you had a rectangular album) or 5×5 (if you had a square album) soft cover albums that are just a perfect duplicate of your original album! They have this awesome, modern pearlescent silver cover with a clean modern font with the names on the cover. I find that it’s very challenging to find products that are just very simple and clean without alot of fluffy or pretty stuff…and I love that this is just super simple, but VERY COOL! The pages are actually SUPER impressive!! They are cmyk, but they look REALLY good! You also buy these albums in lots of 10, 20 or more! I think they are GREAT!! CHECK THEM OUT!!!! How convenient that I happened to do the sample of these in the same album I featured on the album design post!!

I get lots of questions about my use of Pictage’s album designer…

So, I thought it might be helpful to share some before and after designs from Pictage! To explain, I start my albums by having Pictage do an initial design with 150 images! I use it as sort of a spring board and take the design that they come up with and adjust about 75% of it! The reason that I do that is because I have found that I save LOTS of time by having them do the initial work of putting the main structure of the album together…and then put about 1-2 hours of adjustments into the album! When I was doing the albums 100% by hand, I was putting up to 2 DAYS into them….so this is a GREAT solution for me! I LOVE IT and even better, the Pictage design is 100% FREEEEE!!!

HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES:

ALBUM 1:

CLICK HERE for the Original Design

CLICK HERE for the JRS Edit

ALBUM 2:

CLICK HERE for the Original Design

CLICK HERE for the JRS Edit

ALBUM 3:

CLICK HERE for the Original Design

CLICK HERE for the JRS Edit

I honestly believe that this is an incredible service that Pictage offers!! I’m ALL about outsourcing..especiallly when it’s FREE…and I would highly recommend looking into this service if you don’t have a great album design system! CLICK HERE to view the order form and read info about getting started!!!

*****EDIT…..YOU HAVE TO HAVE A PICTAGE ACCOUNT TO VIEW THE ALBUMS! SOOO Sorry…I forgot to mention that!! I just assume the whole world uses Pictage….so I didn’t even think to mention it until I just received a few emails about it!!!

that my SHOOTSAC has FINALLY ARRIVED!??? YES!!!

It came yesterday and I wasn’t fully sure of what it was….and THEN….I opened the box and this bright green card caught my eye and I was soo excited!! SO, JUST an FYI…if you ordered your SHOOTSAC from Jessica Claire in Las Vegas then YOURS will arrive shortly TOOO!!!!

I decided to go with the black damask pattern for my first cover, since it goes with my black wedding suit really well, and it goes well with a white, bright yellow or bright green tee & jeans (my standard for shooting engagements & such)! I do plan to branch out into some more fun covers in the future!! I also appreciate the standard black cover that comes with it…for those times when you really don’t want to draw too much attention to yourself! I’m headed to Ohio tomorrow for an engagement shoot and then down to Southern Indiana on Saturday for a wedding, so I will get lots of opportunities to use it! Can’t wait! I still think this was SUCH a great idea and I’m soo glad Jessica Claire created it because I have been in search of something JUST like this for a LONG time!! THANKS JESS!! You are GREAT!!!:)

APERTURA!!! Ray & Erwin are downright AWESOME!! Their work is SOO inspiring!! They push the envelope and I love that! They are super nice guys, to boot…and I just really like NICE people! CHECK THEM OUT!!!

that I LOVE THE new PHOTOSHOP CS3 with BRIDGE and ADOBE CAMERA RAW!??? Well, I DO!! I use ACR for all of my editing and have REALLY been wanting them to make some changes to it, for some time now….and FINALLY, they did!!! You NOW have the ability to control saturation in LOTS of ways, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE!! You can control the vibrancy and saturation, then pull the saturation from certain colors…which is really helpful! There are also lots of different brightness features, such as a fill light slider and a recovery slider. You also have have a built in healing tool and cloning tool, which is SOOO fantastic! It’s also fast and has TONS of great new and updated features!!! I just LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!! I have yet to really see what’s new on CS3, but I’m sure it’s pretty rockin’ TOO!! CHECK IT OUT!!!