TGIF

SO happy it’s Friday! Too bad while everyone gets today off of work I have to go scout a location and Chuck still has to work. And he has to work on Saturday too! Boo! Well, I’m doing a mentoring session anyways, but it would have been nice to have the morning off.

To the people who emailed me yesterday about the pictures – yes, I know the file names showed which camera took which pictures. Did I care? No, not really. If I did some special code name I would’ve forgotten what my code names meant and then I wouldn’t have been able to tell you which camera took what picture. You people are hard to please sometimes!

So for those of you who did not put their cursor over the images here’s the order:

5D Mark II

5D

20D

30D

I was a little disappointed with the 5D Mark II’s performance. I really like the 5D image best, but I have yet to actually use the 5D Mark II for a real shoot so I will wait to give my review then. I should also say that I only bought the 5D Mark II because my 5D is broken. The LCD shows up all pixelated and rasterized. I can fix it if I bang on it, but for weddings I don’t want to count on that. I’ve been more than happy with the performance of the 5D up until now, but with it breaking I realized I need a reliable back up and would rather not use my 30D at weddings as my backup.

I wrapped up my first Mom*tog Pro session this week. I had so much fun getting to know Amanda and answering all of her questions for her. But, most of all I loved seeing her improvement. I was hoping that she would improve, but really I am blown away by how much she learned in such a short time. And I’m even more excited that she has decided to start her own business after finishing our session. Yeah! I just wish she didn’t live on the complete opposite side of the country from me. Our boys would be the best of friends if we lived in the same town

At the beginning of our session I asked Amanda to send me her best images so I could see where her skill level is. Here are a few she sent me:

Good images, but lots of room for improvement.

After discussing inside light she took this image

I think it’s an excellent image straight out of camera, but she was then able to edit it to this:

Wow!

Next, we discussed outside light and she took this image (which I am absolutely in love with and will be so mad at her if she doesn’t print this BIG and hang it in her house)

And she edited it to this

LOVE those eyes!

Here’s what Amanda had to say about her Mom*tog Pro experience:

I sincerely cannot gush enough about DrewB’s Mom*tog Pro sessions. In
one week, she improved my photo shooting & editing skills a thousand
fold. She gave me all the information I needed to know about taking
pictures, editing them, the business side of things and how to
maintain a work / life balance. When she says that she will answer
“ANYTHING and EVERYTHING” – she will! She answered every single one
of my questions and offered up extra information – plus she was fun to
work with. It’s not just for “Pros” (which I’m not) because she
tailors the program just for you. I liked my photography before the
Mom*tog Pro sessions but now I LOVE it and probably the most important
thing is that it has made me more confident as a photographer.

You can read more about her experience on her blog. I’m just so happy I found a way to be able to help Mom*togs across the country! It was seriously so much fun! We didn’t spend all of our time discussing photography. We did talk a little about my experience working with Justin Timberlake back in my MTV days

But, I digress. Thank you Amanda for your kind words. I look forward to seeing where your new business takes you! Remember to always have fun with it!

I’ve been getting a lot of emails asking me to discuss photoshop on Mom*tog. For the most part I will not be discussing any photoshop on this blog. Before you start writing your hate mail telling me that I’m just out to make money hear me out. The goal for Mom*tog is to teach moms (not professional photographers) how to take better pictures of their kids straight out of camera. Because you need to have a good picture with good lighting before you even begin to photoshop it.  I don’t think mom’s should be spending a ton of time photoshoping each and everyone of their images.  I mean, who has time for that?  The goal is to get good images right out of the camera.  So, if you want to discuss photoshop then a Mom*tog Pro session is for you. During those sessions I can go into depth about your specific lighting situations and how you can use photoshop to enhance an already good image.  I have several booked and will only be booking these sessions during weeks that I do not have weddings so space is limited. Use the contact button up above to get more information!

Oh, and by the way, my friend Kathy told me to enter this photo contest. And guess what? I won! The prize is a $1000 glider. I really wanted a nice glider for Brayden’s nursery, but we couldn’t afford one that I wanted. Well, now I have one. 14 months too late, but I’ll take it

Have a great weekend and I hope the Easter bunny is good to you all!