Taking a break from the blog...

I have been blogging "religiously" after every session and have LOVED this part of my workflow. I love writing and telling about my highlights from each session and also picking out a few of my faves from each session to give immediate sneak peeks. Then, I added facebook photo tagging to the workflow... and it's starting to seem redundant to post in both places. As I continue to gain more experience in my photography and business, I am constantly re-evaluating what works well and how to maximize my time. I mean, after all, I should be starting to be more efficient, right?! Well, it seems the more experience and knowledge I gain, the pickier I become with my editing and quality of work :)

One of the things I pride myself on is quality of work and also getting pictures to my clients in a timely manner (within a week of their session) so every minute counts!

So, I'm "breaking up" with my blog, or at least freeing myself from it for posting from every session! I will still post random tidbits, but for the most part, my quirkiness and personal photos, etc can be found on facebook. I'd LOVE for you to join me there if you haven't already!

Recent photos from all of my sessions (with approved consent) are posted on my facebook albums page. You can view them even if you don't have an account on facebook! Check out the link:
FACEBOOK PHOTO ALBUMS

If you're on facebook, I have two business pages. And of course, I'd LOVE for you to "like" them both:
Diana's Photo Expressions facebook link
Senior Expressions facebook link

Toodles.... for now! Off to facebooking photos:)

Nine months old!

This little guy has the most gorgeous bright blue eyes! I'm sure his parents hear this all the time:) Grandma came along to this session, so we had to include her in a few, too! Such a fun and easy session. I just saw him a few months ago and he's growing up:) Amazing how fast that first year just seems to fly by! Thanks again for another fun session!

Three months old!!

Ahh, sweetness! This is my first time meeting this gorgeous little girl and she did so good! At three months old, babies are starting to get their personality which is always fun to see. I also always love when parents bring anything that's significant to them to incorporate. It makes their photos unique and special to them. Grandma made this gorgeous quilt! Thanks for a great start to my Saturday!

He's ONE!

Yep, another little guy who I've watched grow this past year! I can't believe all of "my" babies are graduating out of their baby's first year program:) This little boy is always so happy and easy to photograph. And I always have fun chatting with mom and dad as they are "old" friends from my hubby's hometown!

I LOVE the idea mom had...she brought many of his fave toys from his first year and we plopped him in the middle of them. Awesome idea! Thanks again for another great session!

Date night with my hubby!

As I write this, I'm sitting in my quiet house while the kiddos are at school! Reflecting (and recovering a bit) on another fun country concert date night with my hubby last night! We both love concerts and it had been a long time since we'd been to a concert as well as being way overdue for a date night. If you want to check out my entire album, here's the link:
http://dianamandernach.zenfolio.com/kennychesney

I'll try to keep this post mostly "informative" in both the photography sense but also what I've learned over the past few years from my concert ticket buying experiences :) So, here ya go:

TICKETS: Buying tickets for concerts is really quite annoying but I really can't imagine how it must have been before online access! So, if I really want to go to a concert, I try to get the presale codes or get online right when they go on sale. I've gotten lucky a few times with decent seats but I hate the five minute window you have to make the decision of buying or not! So, for this concert, I ended up with 6 tickets initially! I know, crazy. Thought we were going with another couple and then I kept trying for "better seats" and ended up with too many. I ended up selling all of them as in the meantime, we decided to be on a stricter "budget" (which I hate by the way...a whole other topic). But I've had this concert on my calendar for months and REALLY was hoping to go!

So, last week, I entered a radio station contest with a picture and winners were going to get tickets. I thought for sure I would win :) ...and I didn't and had practically conceded to the fact we probably weren't going to go. However, I scoured many ticket broker websites and craigslist and had been eyeing a few on stubhub.com... to make a long story a little shorter, I ended up buying a pair of tickets the morning of the concert for a little over face value for the BEST seats! We were 11th row center stage, right in front of the "cat walk" end part of the stage. Yay! Best seats in my opinion...and great for photographing with my little point and shoot camera!

So, here's my little tidbit of knowledge on buying tickets. If you want good seats and good prices, you may luck out if you wait until the week or day of the concert. Oh, and I do recommend stubhub as I've used it a few times. If you're already paying a $$$ for your tickets, you might as well spend a little extra to get great seats (in my opinion)!

PHOTOGRAPHY: So, I know I've posted a few helpful hints on photographing at concerts before, but I'll post a few tidbits again! No, I don't take my "professional" camera as it's not allowed! So, I, like everyone else, am stuck with my phone camera or my little point and shoot. Most people tend to keep the point and shoot on "auto" function. But play around with the other presets. I think I ended up taking some good pics with the "indoor" setting.

Typically, if you turn your flash OFF, that works out great. You get the other lighting ambiance which looks cool. Also, set your ISO on high (if you can figure that out)! Last little tidbit (and I had a hard time with this on my point and shoot last night)..hold the button halfway and see if it shows the settings. If it has shows something like 1/30 or 3", your pics will be blurry! That's the shutter speed! I think my somewhat decent ones were at 1/60 and still somewhat blurry.

And my last little photo tidbit, read your manual. Uggh, I hate that one! But it does actually help :)

I'm a dork though. At concerts, I always want to get some fun "good" pictures but I also want to have fun! So I usually go between "freaky photographer (I want to get a cool picture) mode" to "put the camera down and just have fun and enjoy the experience" mode.

CONCERT LAST NIGHT: well, since I've blabbed on this long, what's another paragraph, right?! So, if you were wondering, YES...hubby and I had a fun time! We've seen Kenny Chesney a handful of times and always have fun at his shows. We always do the candid shot of the two of us where we hold out the camera and cheese it up. As long as I get both of us actually in the picture frame, I usually like these pictures better than the ones that other people take of us. Anytime you can hold the camera slightly higher than eye level, is usually a more flattering angle :)

Nine months old!

Ahh, sweetness! I just realized I never blogged about this little cutie! You'd think after three years of doing this, I'd start to be more efficient, but I think I just continually get pickier and add more to my workflow! And now that I tag photos on facebook (with consent of course), I sometimes forget about the blog or this is now the last step! Nonetheless, I'm still super excited about this cute little guy and his pics.

Mom pointed out to me that the first time I photographed their fam was when older sister was this age, so I've seen this fam quite a bit and watched this little guy grow from a newborn to now already nine months old! What a great infectious smile he has, don't you think?!

Almost two weeks old!

Another newborn! How lucky am I?! Little Miss {K} was a dream and so pretty. Finally got the little cute sleepy smile right at the end, so a good note to end the session on! Thanks for another awesome newborn session and I look forward to seeing her change over the next year!