Tiffanie Weaver Photography - Gossip

Beautiful day for a beautiful senior...

2009-03-15T22:16:00.006-05:00

What a crazy weekend, on Saturday I got to tag along with Teresa of Wiz of Oz Photography for a wedding, we had a blast. The most entertaining part was chasing down a particularly adorable camera shy flower girl. :) Great time.

Then today was such gorgeous day! I'm so happy that spring is finally showing it's face. I was so sick of being stuck indoors. Cory & I got a chance to shoot the fabulous Melissa today. It was great getting outside for a shoot, and it doesn't hurt having someone as fun & pretty as Melissa to shoot. Afterwords Cory's parent's took us out for dinner for Cory's birthday, which is coming up Tuesday (yep St. Patricks day). So a pretty great day.

Here are some of my favorite shots from today's session. :)

Look at those gorgeous eyes.

Her parents made us put her behind bars, lol.

Cory took this one, I love it.

Something different...

2009-03-09T09:08:00.002-05:00

Family preview

2009-02-23T10:48:00.002-06:00

I got yet another chance to head out the Quad-City Botanical Gardens, so we could pretend it was summer for a family session with my favorite family. :) You can check out some of their previous sessions here & here. I just got a chance to start editing, but these are two of my favorites so far, probably because the girls are just too adorable. I'm not sure if you can see it in the bottom picture, but she's talking to a turtle, he's hiding a bit behind the plants.

Argh... I'm getting old.

2009-02-18T09:24:00.004-06:00

Excuse the melodramatic sounding title, I'm just being silly. Sorry for the lack of recent posts, we're in the process of trying to buy a home, I'm working on a sample album project from last year and I have a portrait session that needs editing (look out for some super cute munchkin pictures) , but I felt like sharing today.
So anyways, remember thinking how dorky your mom was/is (love you, mom). Yeah so I always thought that wasn't going to happen to me, nope, I was going to be a cool mom. Not that I'm actually cool, I'm pretty dorky, but I like to think it's the cool art school kind of dorky (yeah probably not). Anyways, today I told my daughter she looked like Punky Brewster. So she rolls her eyes at me, and asks"who's that mom?" with a little teenage attitude going on.
Yikes, so that's my old lady story for today. :)

Friends & greenery ...

2009-02-08T17:26:00.002-06:00

Sorry, there haven't been a lot of blog post lately. I don't know what it is about winter that just makes you want to hibernate, but I'll admit I've been a bit lazy lately. Hopefully spring takes over pretty soon cause I'm so ready to get out. Anyways last weekend I organized a meet-up for some local photographers (if your a photographer & you want to join us some time check out our group at http://flickr.com/groups/quad-cities/) and we all got to pretend it was nice out at the Quad City Botanical center. It was a lot of fun and I got to meet some fun people & take some pictures. A big thanks goes out to Teresa Sellers, Lindsey Joens & Mandy Moore for modeling for our group. :)

3 month preview

2009-01-10T18:27:00.003-06:00

I got to see this adorable little guy again today. It's so much fun to see him getting bigger. Here are a few adorable previews from his session. You can see his newborn session here and here; and his adorable momma's maternity session here.

You gotta just love those baby blues. :)

"Go Hawks!"

I absolutely love his little laugh, so cute

Cory told me I couldn't edit these. The rivalry continues.

2008 Favorites

2009-01-07T10:58:00.003-06:00

With the start of a new year I thought it would be fun to go through and post my favorite pictures from the year.

New Year's Freebies!

2009-01-04T21:28:00.005-06:00

I hope everyone had a better New Years than I did. I had the stomach flu, and missed most of our party. Oh well, better luck next year. :) Anyways, in honor of the New Year I'm giving away some freebies if you book your wedding with me before the end of February 2009.

Book a Glitz wedding package and receive a free "Trash the dress" bridal session or $200 off your wedding package!

Book a Glam wedding package and receive a free purse-sized brag book copy of your wedding album!

Book a Glitter wedding package and receive an extra $50 print credit!

E-mail me at Tiffanie@tiffanieimages.com or fill out the contact form on my website to book your free wedding consultation.

Holidays are family time

2009-01-04T21:12:00.003-06:00

Holidays are crazy, and I'm partially glad to have them over with. I always get stressed out before hand, we have so many places to go, gifts to buy, errands to run and shopping is a pain with huge lines and no parking. I'm always sad when they're over with though. I love the christmas lights and getting together with family that you don't see often. Mostly I love how excited the kids get.
I hope everyone else had a great holiday season! Here's a few pictures from ours.

I love this series of Crystal, I think it would make a cute flip book. :)

I'm hoping she doesn't kill me one day for posting her bedhead robe pictures.

Anakin always looks so serious.

My family always had a traditon of getting a new ornament every year, so I've continued with my family. Can you guess who's is who.

It just wouldn't be Christmas without Missy playing in the wrapping paper.

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-26T09:22:00.002-06:00

I hope everyone had great holiday! We did, I've been crazy busy, but got to get together with all of the family. The kids had a great time, and I'll be posting some pictures of all of our holiday festivies soon. Now to start the post holiday diet, ugh. :(

Wedding with Sarah McGee

2008-12-22T09:10:00.004-06:00

Ok, this is long overdue. I had been meaning to post about this since September, but I'm just now catching up a bit. I finally got my site updated, and I have a few more changes in store for it, now it's time to catch up on some posting.
A few months ago I got the chance to 2nd shoot a wedding for the Fabulous Sarah McGee. I'm a big fan of her wedding work, so it was great to see her in action. You can read Sarah's Post about the wedding here. Plus it was the last wedding at the Abbey hotel in Bettendorf. That was kind of a big deal to me, it was one of the places I really wanted to shoot at, and I wouldn't have gotten a chance otherwise. Anyways a really great day, and Vanessa & Jeff were a fabulous couple. Thanks again Sarah for the chance to work with you.

Stephanie & Craig - part 2

2008-11-23T00:56:00.002-06:00

I had to post a few more from Stephanie & Craig's wedding.

I really love the time before the ceremony, there's a lot of anticipation going on and it can make for some beautiful documentary style images.

Some of my favorite images from Cory:

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They had a gorgeous reception

A few more baby L pictures

2008-11-23T00:42:00.005-06:00

I'm a sucker for adorable babies, so I had to post a few more.

Yep, he stuck his tongue out at me, how cute is that. :)

Halloween, Oboma, glasses & Jenny Mcarthy.... huh?

2008-11-22T22:58:00.010-06:00

I've been meaning to write some if this for a while now, but it seems like the last couple weeks have just blown by. Autumn is almost over and winter is really setting in. I've been crazy busy with work the last few weeks and we've had a ton of stuff going on.

Halloween was a blast. We have this huge football rivalry going on. My husband Cory is a huge Green Bay Packers fan, and he's pretty much alone, everyone else we know are big Bears fans. So every week the guys have phone calls back & forth depending on who's won. At one point my mom & step-dad Jay bought my son a full bears outfit & got his pictures taken in it. My daughter Crystal is also a Bears fan (although when she started talking my husband got her to say "kick da bears" to everyone), and they write messages back & forth with the fridge magnets. So it was no surprise when my mom, Jay, their son Stephen (who changed before I could get a picture) and even their dog showed up for trick or treating in bears costumes.

Crystal went as a "Bratz cheerleader", which I wasn't really excited about, but it turned out pretty cute.

Anakin went as Spiderman. He wasn't really loving the mask, so he only wore it long enough for me to get a picture. He really liked the jumpsuit though.

Cory went as the guy from the Saw movies (I think it's Jigsaw maybe?), creepy.

I wussed out this year and didn't wear a costume for trick or treating, although I did dress up to go out with a few friends later. I don't normally go out much, but Halloween is so much fun. I love the bizarre crazy costumes people come up with. I was wishing I'd brought my camera the whole time. Shannon took this with her camera phone, yeah we're dorks. :)

Crystal had to get glasses this year. She did pick out some pretty cute frames though, & now she wants to wear them everywhere. Of course if you know any 8 year old girls, you know we had to pick up the "Hannah Montana" case to go with the frames. You can't go anywhere without seeing some kind of "Hannah Montana" products. Jeez.

We elected a new president, I'm feeling pretty good about it, all though it's too soon to tell. I'm really excited we live in a country where we can vote, so I get pretty jazzed up when we have an election. Hopefully we can get things going in a positive direction now.

Cory & I recently finished reading Jenny McCarthy's two books on autism, Mother Warriors & Louder than words. Really informative and inspiring. There is so much research that needs to go into potential treatments for autism, and it's great to see someone who has the ability to get some of the information out there. We've had our son on a Wheat & Dairy free diet pretty much since he's been diagnosed with Autism, and it's exciting to hear about some other dietary interventions that might help him out. After the holidays we're going to be trying some of the interventions she used in the book and hopefully seeing some more improvements. I'm feeling really optimistic about the whole thing. I will say I was a bit disappointed that she didn't go into more detail about possible treatments, but there is a huge message of hope there & I think that's what's important. If you know anyone with autism I really recommend these books & checking out the TACA website.

Baby L

2008-11-16T19:34:00.003-06:00

I'm a bit behind on posting, I was planning a big Halloween post, but by the time I get to it I'll probably be behind on a Thanksgiving post. Maybe next week?

I got to take adorable newborn pictures this weekend! Isn't he a cutie? You might remember his gorgeous momma from her maternity shoot a few months ago. It sounds like he had a pretty rough time making it into the world, but they both got through safely, thankfully.

He's actually quite a few weeks old, but ironically he now weighs what my son weighed at birth (10lbs, 13oz), so he looked newborn to me. :D Congratulations you guys on your new addition!

I just love baby toes, so cute. :D

I think this was my favorite.

Stephanie & Craig - Previews

2008-10-28T13:48:00.003-05:00

We journeyed out to Galesburg for Stephanie & Craig's wedding last weekend. They incorporated some gorgeous fall colors in their wedding too. Love it, fall's my favorite season. Cory & I got there at bit early and managed to find a few cool looking alleyways to shoot in. I love the top image, it just kind of shows how comfortable & happy these two are together.

I loved this staircase at the church, and it doesn't hurt that Stephanie's an absolutely gorgeous bride.

Stephanie sent me an inspirational blog (weddingparty.com, check it out, they have some great images and good wedding planning ideas) before the wedding, they had some great images of a couple in the middle of the road for an engagement session, so we tried something similar. I was just happy to have a wedding party willing to let me risk their lives for pictures. Mua ha ha >:)

The DJ had some really excellent lighting going on, which worked really nicely with the gorgeous decorations they had set up for the reception. We had to try a few ambient light images.

I'm going to stop for now with this image Cory took, he's got an eye for good romantic backlighting.

Ron & Ralisa - Preview

2008-10-26T12:24:00.007-05:00

I've been a bit behind on blog posting, this month has been crazy busy. Ron & Ralisa had a beautiful fall themed wedding at the Milan Community center. It was a beautiful wedding, and I absolutely loved the fall colors. These are a few of my favorites so far.

Ralisa was a gorgeous bride.

I really loved the white tux.

Shannon took this shot through the front windows. I think Ralisa looks like a 40's style movie star in this.

Ron's brother gave one of the most emotional toasts I've ever heard.

Cory took this during the ceremony

I loved the cool lighting in this shot Cory took.

Jenny & Mike - preview

2008-10-08T03:18:00.006-05:00

I got to shoot my cousin Jenny's wedding this weekend. We had a blast, and got some really crazy images. These two are so cute together. Here's a quick preview of some of the images, I'll have a more in depth post in a few days.

Crystal and Jade - School pics

2008-10-01T12:54:00.000-05:00

As promised I managed some time to get Crystal out for her school pictures. My other favorite munchkin Jade (my cousin's daughter) came along for some pictures too. We headed out to Vandaveer park, and lucked out on the gorgeous autumn weather. I was really loving the bright colors both of the girls had on. Crystal's obsessed with Hannah Montana right now, so we had to have both the Hannah Montana outfits for the shoot. Jade and her mom love horses, so she's got cute little horses all over her pink sweatshirt. Love it.

This shot was so difficult Crystal didn't want to lay down for some reason (found out on the car ride out that there was a really weird bug flying overhead, poor kid)

My favorite picture of Crystal.

She was just chewing on her bracelet, and I thought it was cute.

Isnt' she a cutie.

This just reminds me of playing in the leaves as a kid (or yesterday, whatever). Too fun

This is the Jade we all know and love, hands on the hips & lots of attitude. :)

The whole time they just wanted to make funny faces, these were some of my favorites.

Jade and her mom had places to go, so after we split up after Vandaveer and I took Crystal downtown for some "Rock Star" pictures. I pretty much just let her be her for these pictures.

No guitars were actually harmed in the making of this shot. She just wanted to fake it.

Anakin's school pictures

2008-09-26T23:05:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again. Cory and I took Anakin out to Vandaveer park to take his school pictures. I know the school does them every year, and the ones the school takes are fine for the yearbook or whatever, but they don't really capture personality that well, so I've been taking the kids out for my own version of school pictures each fall. I probably posted way more than I should have, but I'm a mom and I'm biased this time. Crystal was at Grandma's this weekend when we did Anakin's, so stay tuned for her pictures in a few weeks. :)

I love this one, I think he was trying to eat the flowers, but still cute.

He's totally in love with that huge fountain, he'd be swimming if we let him.

I really love his "far off visionary" look. Anakin always seems like he knows some deep meaningful secret.

Elizabeth's photoshoot

2008-09-22T22:45:00.000-05:00

I had the pleasure of photographing Elizabeth today, probably the busiest high school student I've ever met. I hope she'll forgive me if I missed anything, but she's in soccer, choir, cheerleading, working on the school magazine and also working on modeling. I'm starting to feel like I slacked off in high school. :) At any rate, it was great working with her and I think we got some great images for her portfolio.

You probably can't tell it, but she climbed into the plants just so I could get the lovely cherry frame going. Awesomeness!

Gorgeous smile!

More dress trashings...

2008-09-14T19:30:00.000-05:00

I was really lucky last weekend, I got to meet up with a photographer friend of mine, Joe, and Lindsey again, she's a friend of mine from college and she's done some modeling for me and a local photography group before. She's a great artist and model. Plus she crawled around a giant press and got covered in ink, just so we could get some good photos. We had a blast, and I got some really great photos, and Joe taught me a bit about using gelled (colored) flashes to get a different look.

Despite that comment about gelled flashes, the lovely background light here is all ambient, I love finding cool lighting like this. The cool flash used for fill was a nice contrast.

This was some of that cool lighting I mentioned.

View a slideshow of the rest of the shoot below

Faith & Rachael

2008-09-09T12:36:00.000-05:00

My little sister Faith and her friend Rachael are both seniors this year. I was pretty excited to get to shoot their senior portraits. We've gotten to know Rachael pretty well over the last year, she's gone on camping trips with the family and they both come over to swim all summer. My daughter really looks up to both of them. She has a little plastic cell phone that she runs around with "texting people like Faith & Rachael do." Since that's all these girls do we had to take some pictures with their cell phones. Unfortunately my new favorite spot for portraits was loaded with bugs this time, not sure if it's the time of year or because we arrived later in the evening, but it was pretty awful. They still managed to look gorgeous, thanks for being such good sports about it. Anyways, we had a lot of fun and I think we got some really great photos.

My favorite picture of Faith.

One of my favorite shots of Rachael, Cory took this one and I think it looks really natural.

Another great shot from Cory.

This one is probably my favorite from the whole shoot, I love how pretty Rachael looks in that dress and the lovely sunset lighting.

Momma-to-be

2008-09-04T12:14:00.000-05:00

Sunday I had the pleasure of photographing Nikki, a beautiful mom and teacher. I think I was a bit nervous, it was my first maternity session, but I couldn't have asked for a better family to work with. :) Tim and Anna you two were such good sports. Now I just have to wait for adorable newborn pictures!

Ralisa & Ron's E-session

2008-08-25T15:09:00.000-05:00

I finally started feeling better this weekend, which worked out great, my cousin Scotty had a big going away party Saturday (look out for drunken Karaoke pictures, maybe), and a fun e-session on Sunday with Ralisa & Ron. I felt bad for poor Ralisa, she wore some really cute heals and I made her stomp through all sorts of mud & dirt and hilly rocks, I'm just happy she didn't break an ankle or anything. Thanks guys, can't wait till your wedding in October. :)
Here's a few of my favorites, enjoy!

Cory took this one, I love it.

Leos and teeth extraction

2008-08-16T00:15:00.000-05:00

Hopefully this post makes any sense, I just had my wisdom teeth out on Friday, and I've been on pain medication ever since. I had been putting it off for quite awhile now, but they're finally out. I just want to say thanks to everyone who rescheduled appointments with me for this weekend, I really appreciate it. :) Unfortunately I had to miss one of my best friends art show on Saturday, Shannon had some really fabulous pictures in it ( you can see them here: My favorite "Hope2", my second favorite "Hope4", Hope, Hope1, Hope3). I'm really excited for her, Shannon has been shooting weddings and portraits with me this summer and she's working on getting her own portrait business going, I'll post a link when she gets her site up!

Since I'm not doing much work this weekend because of the teeth thing, I thought I'd post some updates in my personal life.
August is crazy busy for my family, it seems we have an abundance of Leos. My sister, my daughter, my niece, two of my uncles & me. Crystal just turned 8 last week, and her birthday falls on my grandparents anniversary, which I always thought was sweet, my grandma likes to tell me that they were expecting my uncle to be born around their anniversary, so grandpa promised to get her a dozen roses if she had him on their anniversary, well she did, and he kept his promise. She tells it way better than I do, but I always thought it was sweet, and pretty special that my daughter was born the same day too.
Anyways we just had Crystal's party last weekend and Thursday she went out & spent her birthday money on a super cute pink guitar (even though she hates pink).

As I'm writing this Cory just came home & surprised me with birthday cake (we'll see if I can eat it) and ice cream, and some movies! Awe, he's a sweetie, my birthday isn't until Monday, and he already took me out to see The Dark Knight a few weeks ago (awesome movie by the way!). Ok, I don't think I can sit up at the computer much longer. Here's a few pictures of my other munchkin, Anakin. Have a good weekend everybody!

Trash the Dress - Prom style

2008-08-09T23:58:00.000-05:00

High school seniors, looking for something fun to do with your formal wear after prom? How about a funky fashion inspired photo shoot? I'm now offering "Trash the dress" sessions for any kind of formal wear. Don't let the name scare you, we don't really trash the dress, usually it just needs a good dry cleaning.

I posted a few teaser images last month of my first prom session. These are so much fun.
Don't be confined by the images posted here, urban locations are usually really great for this kind of session. Fashion magazine scenes work really well too, really the possibilities are endless.

I'll be putting up an F.A.Q. on the website shortly about "Trash the Dress" sessions, but feel free to e-mail me any questions or to set up your appointment at tiffanie@tiffanieimages.com

Planning a wedding?

2008-08-06T12:09:00.000-05:00

Check out the bridal community at Quadsville. It's a local social networking site (think myspace, facebook, ect..) crossed with a great directory source of local wedding businesses. You can find all sorts of local wedding vendors and articles to help plan the wedding of your dreams. Then you can set up a wedding profile and share any wedding related photos, planning details and important events.

More from Stephanie & Craig's E-session

2008-07-28T16:24:00.000-05:00

More from Desiree's Senior Portrait Session

2008-07-22T19:18:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I get a super creative kick at 3am when I'm editing photos. :)

Stephanie & Craig E-session

2008-07-20T14:34:00.000-05:00

Saturday I got to go out and shoot Stephanie & Craig's engagement session, It was the first chance I had to meet Craig, and it was great seeing Stephanie again. They're both really sweet and a lot of fun to hang out with. Turns out Stephanie & I are both accident prone, so stay tuned for some really bizarre wedding photos in October. Kidding, hopefully.

Aren't they adorable. :)

Girls who ROCK!

2008-07-14T21:59:00.000-05:00

Don't let those gorgeous eyes fool you, this girl's a black belt.

That was probably my favorite picture from the senior portrait session I did with Desiree on Sunday. Her eyes are just gorgeous!

This session was a total blast, I got to catch up with an old friend of mine who was friends with the family, who I hadn't seen in ages. These ladies were a lot of fun, what can you say when the portrait session starts out with this...

She totally did that all on her own, which is great! I love when people can be themselves and let that come across in their photos. Um, which brings me to this one...

Ok, that was all Desiree, well and maybe a bit of Heather coaxing. :)
That was like the hardest picture I've ever had to edit, I have like this total eye thing. Ha, ha, but I so had too. Ok, here's some more from the shoot, enjoy.

Yeah, I know I have a total shoe issue, but I had too. :D

Props to Mom for pointing out this cool truck we climbed into! Awesome location spotting!

More to come....

Suprises on the way!

2008-07-13T12:08:00.000-05:00

I'll be explaining these shortly, but for now a preview.

More "Wonder Woman" Bridals :)

2008-06-21T12:23:00.000-05:00

Flooded bridals!

2008-06-16T09:14:00.000-05:00

This weekend was so much fun! Saturday I assisted at a wedding with Rick Jennisch Photography, I got to work with Rick and his other assistant Felicia, they are both really great photographers and really nice people, so I had a great time! I love shooting weddings for myself, but it was great to get a chance to 2nd shoot again, I really love doing that as well, you kind of get to step back and try some more creative angles. I can't wait to see all the images from the wedding. :)

Sunday I met up with Teresa to try some really different bridal portraits. I'm always on a quest for something different and with all the flooding going on downtown we just had to incorporate it into the photos. We tried some other locations too, but I was really excited about using the flood, how often do you get water covered street signs. I should probably mention that I feel really awful for everyone who has been affected by the flood and I don't mean to make light of it, it's just that I can't resist a cool photo op.

Expect some more shots from this session, I nicknamed Teresa "Wonder woman" because she was scaling buildings and what not, these were definitely "fearless bridals."

More of Heather's session

2008-06-12T14:37:00.000-05:00

I think I promised more of these a few months ago, but it's been crazy busy lately. I will have another fun modeling session coming up next month, so keep checking back.

More from Michelle & Mike's Wedding

2008-06-06T12:52:00.000-05:00

I love that they have a Tolkien quote in their doorway!

A few images from my assistant photographer Shannon:

Some images from my assistant photographer Cory :

1st Wedding of the Season, Middle Earth Style.

2008-05-28T13:50:00.000-05:00

We were a bit worried about the weather all week, but Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day for an outdoors wedding. You might remember Michelle & Mike from their engagement session about a month ago. I love this couple, they seem so happy and in love!

They had a beautiful ceremony at Vandeveer Park and released butterflies at the end. Their reception was at the Col Ballroom. I love all the little unique touches they added to their wedding. Michelle is a "Lord of the Rings fan" so both of the ring bearers had these cute little hobbit cloaks and necklaces with rings around their necks. The flower girl had faerie wings, what a cutie. At the reception all the tables had little cards with different movie covers on them. I about flipped when I saw the Labyrinth card (love that movie). It was a gorgeous wedding for a wonderful couple. I wish them both the best of luck!

Michelle looked absolutely stunning.

I really like this picture my assistant shooter Shannon took.

The very affectionate ring bearer (and adorable camera ham) giving his mom a kiss. :) This one Cory took.

Right before Mike put the ring on her finger he kissed her hand, so sweet. My husband and assistant shooter Cory captured this moment.

I'll be posting some more from this wedding in a few days.

Weekend Preview

2008-05-12T10:21:00.000-05:00

Saturday I was lucky enough to get invited along to a model bridal session Rick Jennisch set up. I'll be getting the chance to 2nd shoot some weddings with him and his associate photographers this summer. I'm a big fan of his work, so I'm really excited about the opportunity! You can see some more of his images from this session on his blog here, here & here. He should have some of my shots up and posted in a few weeks, I'll post a link as soon as they're up. Or Keep checking his blog for updates.

I also got a chance to meet Melanie and Matt Bishop of MediaInnovations. I've seen some of their video work online and it's fabulous, really artistic and high quality. Rick posted some of Melanie's shots here. The models Rick brought for the shoot were awesome, Jayna and Sorcia were real troopers, climbing up buildings and practically freezing (the weather kind of sucked). They still managed to look gorgeous.

Updated: MediaInnovations posted the video from the session, you can check it out here

After all the fun with the bridal session I had to hurry over to Black Hawk state park for a family session, with my all time favorite family the Huffmans. :) You might remember a newborn session I did recently for them. This time we got the whole crew together. These guys seriously crack me up.

Bri & Dave are such a cute couple.

I love this picture of Bri with her new baby. So sweet.

These two are so adorable, he kept trying to give her bunny ears. Too cute.

I really need some help for this shoe addiction.

For some reason I wasn't the least bit surprised when Rob ran up a tree. I think he might be part monkey. :)

This little cutie would not sit still for anything, I think maybe monkey runs in the family, lol.

Spring is here!!

2008-05-06T14:18:00.000-05:00

It's about time too, I think I was going stir crazy waiting for nice weather! :) These are just some pretty flowers from Vandaveer's botanical garden.

My Smokin' Hot Sister

2008-04-22T00:28:00.000-05:00

I might be a little biased because she's my sister and I know what an awesome person she is and how beautiful she is on the inside, but I really think my little sister is one of the most gorgeous people I know. On top of being super hot, she's also a wonderful person, she just came back from a year over in Iraq, and came home to some circumstances almost as stressful, but throughout it all she's remained strong and caring. I'll stop gushing, but I've been really blessed with wonderful family. Anyways, when I got the chance to spend Sunday shooting bridal pictures of her, needless to say, I was pretty excited.

It almost didn't happen though, we were supposed to shoot last weekend, but we got rain on Sunday, and then this week, it still looked a bit cloudy in the morning, and then she couldn't get her hair done. I wound up doing her hair for her (I'm surprised it turned out, I'm a bit of a wash & go kind of girl, and unfortunately for my daughter, hairstyling isn't where my talent lies), and we had my husband make the bouquet, look out for our new wedding package including hair and flowers, maybe I'll get into cakes too. Kidding, lol.

I'm off for the rest of the week on vacation, one of my best friends is staying in town with us for the week so I doubt I'll be getting much work done.

These are a few of my favorites from the session. Expect more to come soon.

April is Autism Awareness month, and free photos

2008-04-13T15:41:00.000-05:00

In case you didn't know, April is Autism Awareness month. This is a cause that is very important to me. My son Anakin was diagnosed with Autism when he was 2. Dealing with the disorder has been both challenging and rewarding. He is 6 now and in kindergarten, he is still non-verbal, but he is making progress with sign language. We are blessed that he has had some wonderful teachers working with him and he's making a lot of progress.

If you've never met any one with Autism, odds are that you will soon, about 1 in 150 American children are diagnosed with it every year.

"Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others. Autism is defined by a certain set of behaviors and is a "spectrum disorder" that affects individuals differently and to varying degrees. There is no known single cause for autism, but increased awareness and funding can help families today." (From the Autism Society of America Website)

"Here are some signs to look for in the children in your life:

Lack of or delay in spoken language Repetitive use of language and/or motor mannerisms
(e.g., hand-flapping, twirling objects)
Little or no eye contact
Lack of interest in peer relationships
Lack of spontaneous or make-believe play
Persistent fixation on parts of objects "

(From the Autism Society of America Website)

More information on autism

To help the cause for every wedding package booked in April I'm donating $150 to the Autism Society of America.

I'm also giving away 3 free portrait sessions to Quad-City area children with autism. The winners will receive a portrait session in a location the child is comfortable in, a disk with High resolution digital files from the session and a free 8x10. To enter just send an e-mail to tiffanie@tiffanieimages.com with the following.

Name
Phone Number
E-mail address
Age of the child

A drawing will be held May 14th to select the winners. If you have any questions e-mail them to Tiffanie@tiffanieimages.com.

If you would like to make a personal donation to the ASA you can do so here.

These are some other helpful links if you want to learn more about Autism or know someone with autism and are looking for help.

http://www.autism-society.org/
http://www.autismspeaks.org/
http://www.autismlink.com/
http://www.talkaboutcuringautism.org/index.htm

Quad-cities Support groups
http://www.autismqc.org/calendar.htm
http://www.qcautismcenter.org/page/page/2959054.htm
QC yahoo group - http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/quadcityautism/
Iowa Services - http://www.autismlink.com/locations/view/16
Illinois Services - http://www.autismlink.com/locations/view/14

Gluten-Free Casein-Free Diet information
Recipes, menu planning & info - http://gfcf-diet.tacanow.org/
http://www.gfcfdiet.com/

E-Session: Michelle & Mike

2008-04-07T01:34:00.000-05:00

Finally spring is starting to peak out. We've gotten some fabulous weather lately & I'm thrilled about it. Saturday couldn't have been more beautiful, I had an engagement session with the lovely Mike & Michelle. We headed down to the Davenport riverfront for some fun romantic images. These two both have the most gorgeous blue eyes (I'm hoping when they decide to reproduce they let me take pictures of their beautiful blue eyed babies, please!). They were a lot of fun and totally in love, I really can't wait for their wedding in May. :)

I love the way they're looking at each other here.

Shannon, who will be assisting me with weddings came along to help out. I love this image she captured. (Above)

Early Easter

2008-04-03T02:49:00.000-05:00

When my mother-in-law Jean asked me to take Easter pictures of the kids(my two and my niece Autumn) this year I was a bit stumped on what to do. Last year we just did a white backdrop with flowers, so I wanted something different this year, so we headed out to the Pioneer Village out by Scott County Park. Unfortunately nothing wanted to go right, Easter was super early this year and so the grass was still mostly dead and even though it looked nice out, it was pretty cold. The poor girls didn't want to take off their coats, so most of the pictures they're doing more shivering than smiling, lol. Anyways it was at least a nice drive out there, and we had some fun playing. I did manage to get a few decent shots out of the whole thing too. The one at the top was my favorite.

My favorite shot of Crystal, she looks a bit grown-up in it. :(

My adorable niece

Anakin wasn't going to have anything to do with looking at the camera, but he's a cutie anyhow.

My beautiful daughter

Proper little ladies. :)

After sticking a camera in their face the whole trip I thought it was only fair to let the girls throw eggs at me. :)

Caution - Adorable baby!

2008-03-29T20:49:00.000-05:00

Last weekend my friend Rob asked me to take pictures of his newborn niece Lily (They named her after my first car, ok not really, but I'm going to pretend.) , I was so ecstatic. Rob is one of those friends that I've had since high school. He's been around for most of the important moments of my life since then (we were playing Star Wars Trivia Pursuit when I went into labor with Crystal, and yeah we're dorks, lol) and he's a really great guy and an awesome friend.

Not only that but his family is awesome, they're some of those rare people that would make you feel at home even if you're a complete stranger. When my daughter was about two she used to call Rob's sister (Brianne) "Girlfriend", I still am not quite sure why, but it was super cute.

Anyways when I heard newborn I got excited, since my kids are both in grade school and it seems like so long since they were tiny babies. I did however forget how much newborns want to be held, so I almost got my fill of baby holding, almost (Bri, seriously call me if you ever want a sitter for either munchkin!!) . These were some of my favorites.

Look at those cheeks, isn't she the most adorable baby.

I love tiny toes!

Fun & photogs

2008-03-07T02:47:00.000-06:00

So I kind of organize a local photography group on flickr, and Sunday we had quite the get together. It's just usually just a small group of us that get together and go shoot parks or other local attractions. This time we decided to do something a bit different, Shannon managed to get the KWQC station for us to shoot in, and my friend Lindsey modeled for us. We wound up with way more people than usual, and had a blast. I got to meet a lot of cool photographers, made some friends, got some good shots, learned a few things, and probably had too good a time at the bar. I haven't had a chance to process all of the pictures, but these were some of my favorites of Lindsey.

Bad Ass Lindsey

Not only is she bad ass, but she's smokin' hot too.

View the rest of the set here

New Couple Welcome

2008-02-24T18:06:00.000-06:00

Welcoming Stephanie & Craig. They're getting Married in October 2008. I didn't get to meet the groom yet, but the bride and her family were very nice. Stephanie and her sister are both involved in creative fields, so I'm excited to see what they come up with. Congrats!

Boudoir Marathon Session

2008-02-17T15:14:00.000-06:00

I occasionally do tasteful boudoir photography. I understand that there are a lot of women interested in this kind of photography who would prefer a woman photographer, which is the main reason I offer it. If you would like more information about it check out my boudoir site here for more details. In May I have a client offering to split hotel costs with any other interested ladies. All sessions would take place on the same day but spaced out for privacy. I don't want to give away too many details in public, so if you're interested e-mail me at tiffanie@tiffanieimages.com.

New Couple Welcome

2008-02-17T15:09:00.000-06:00

Welcoming Michelle & Michael. They're getting married May 2008 in Vandaveer Park with a reception at the Col Ballroom. I'm very excited Vandaveer is one of my favorite locations, and I'm sure it's going to be a beautiful wedding. Congrats.

Albums, resolutions and what not...

2008-02-02T18:02:00.000-06:00

So resolutions, yeah, those haven't gone so well (oh, come on, I'm not the only one, am I??). I did manage to quit drinking pop, which was suprisingly easier than I thought it would be. I did manage to drop 10lbs, but I've slipped quite a few times. Blogging every day, um yeah, that one didn't go so well (as you can see). So I guess I haven't done that bad.

I'm still working on getting everything ready for my official business opening on May 1st. Although I had some set backs with logo design, and had to redesign alot of things I'd already called finished. The website is getting closer, and this week I started designing a sample album.

I have just about finished my portrait album. I can't wait to get it submitted so I can post some images of the finished product. The picture above is my favorite spread in the whole album. That's my cousin's daughter, and she is such a blast to photograph, she's at that age where she is completely comfortable in front of a camera, and this girl is so spunky I don't think she'd ever be uncomfortable anyways (takes after her mom). I think her mom's getting some more pictures done of her in a few months, can't wait. Anyways, I have the rest of the album here. I'll be putting together a wedding album in a few weeks.

I did get a chance to meet up another photographer (Shannon Colgan) last weekend, she's become a really good friend of mine over the past few months. She is going to be shooting weddings with me. I'm so stoked about it. Most photographers are really good at seeing things we see everyday and bringing out the extraordinary, things most people will just walk by and ignore. This girl can find things that most photographers will just walk by and ignore. She's got a totally unique spin on things and I love it. I think she's going to really bring a different flavor to the table. She's also won quite a few contests and had some of her work published in the area, and she is awesome at pool. I'll be working to set her up with her own blog soon, but for now you can check out her flickr stream.

Tips on getting the most out of your wedding photography

2008-01-24T04:15:00.000-06:00

This was written by a great wedding photographer, who also happens to be a really nice guy. :)

Brides Guide to Better Wedding Photography
by: Marksbrides.com

I’m sure you already know that choosing the right wedding photographer is more important than choosing the right groom. (Just kidding). Getting the right photographer is important, but there are lots of things that YOU can do to ensure that your wedding photos are as good as they can be.

1.Pre-Wedding Photo shoot.Having a pre-wedding photo shoot can improve your wedding pictures more than anything else you might do. Think about it, your photographer is VERY comfortable on his end of the camera. The time you spend with your photographer in front of the camera will help you become more comfortable being the subject. Try to get to know your photographer. Have fun. Be crazy. Let’s face it; those "magazine bride photos" that you have been looking at do not happen all by themselves. They are well planned, rehearsed, and the photo that you finally see in the magazine was probably picked from hundreds of photos. The more time you spend with your photographer, the more likely it is that he will capture that one special moment that only happens once.

2.The Pose."Chin up, a little to the left, shoulders back, stand on one foot, hold your breath…hang on…don’t move. " Any photographer worth his salt should be able to pose you in an elegant and attractive position. Do you know the reason for all these the contortions? By lifting your chin you banish the double chin. Holding your elbows away from your body reduces the apparent width of your torso and accentuates the bosom. Shifting your weight to your rear foot cocks your hips into a position that gives you a sexy curviness. There are many other little tricks your photographer may teach you. Just listen and he will not lead you astray.

3.Hair and Makeup.Your wedding day is not the right time to experiment with makeup and hairstyles. Be sure to plan a separate day to have a hair and makeup "dress rehearsal". If you plan to wear a headpiece, use this time to make sure that it will fit with your hairstyle. If you plan it right, your photographer may be available to take some formals on this day too.

4.Props.Give you photographer the tools he needs to be creative. When ordering flowers for the wedding, be sure to order an extra single rose, boutonniere, ribbon or other inexpensive items that the photographer can use in your photos. Don’t forget to have a copy of your wedding invitation that he can incorporate into the detail shots of your big day. Photos of wedding rings with flowers, invitation, maybe even your shoes and garter can really add to your album.

5. The Bouquet.How should you hold a bouquet? In a single word.. DOWN!! Never hide your thousand dollar dress with a hundred dollar bouquet. If you’re a five foot bride, do not order a 3 foot cascading bouquet. It’s going to be a long day. By the end of the day, you will be wishing that your bouquet was smaller, lighter, more durable, and maybe even artificial. And if it’s too big you may even injure your guests during the bouquet toss.

6. Backgrounds and angles.Remember, your wedding day is all about you. Many times complicated backgrounds in your photos distract the viewer’s attention away from the bride and will take away from your photographs. Keep backgrounds as simple as possible. Interesting angles are what keeps the images of a professional photographer from looking like the images of "Uncle Joe". Everyone knows what a wedding looks like from 5 feet 6. You may see your photographer lying on the ground or climbing trees. Don’t laugh at him. That’s why he gets paid the big bucks.

7.LightingWhen choosing your venue and time of day, keep lighting in mind. If your wedding is outdoors, the best light happens 1-2 hours before sunset. If your wedding is indoors, try to avoid buildings with high dark ceilings and few windows. Since natural light will look much better in your photos, try to plan your wedding when the room will be the brightest. By the way, photographers hate fluorescent lights. They make you look green.

8.Single Use Cameras: Lots of people use them and they seldom work. You may get a few good photos here and there but don’t expect too much. You’ll probably get a whole camera full of photos of Cousin Skip’s girlfriend that you hardly know. Your three year old niece will probably take a lot of pictures of people’s belly buttons. And if anyone gets tipsy at the reception you may get a lot of photos of the ground, shoes, or eyeballs (from holding the camera backwards). Your photography is best left to professionals.

Well that’s it for "The Brides Guide to Better Wedding Photos". Congratulations on your big day. Now let’s make those memories last!

Mark Parker is a Birmingham Alabama Wedding Photographer. His work can be seen at MarksBrides.com.

What's with the name change?

2008-01-19T10:39:00.001-06:00

Some of you may have noticed things look a bit different around here (or if your new around here, wondering why I keep talking about Torrid photo). I decided to change my business name from "Torrid photo" to "Tiffanie Weaver Photography." Why you might ask? Turns out there's a clothing store with the name Torrid already, and I don't want to get mixed up with them. I wouldn't want any confusion, so I went with something a little more in line with what I want for my business. I will be taking anything with the old name down in the next couple of weeks, but I hope that clears up any confusion in the meantime.

QC Brides - Win a free Fearless bridal (Trash the dress) Session

2008-01-17T03:24:00.000-06:00

Yep you heard me. First bride to write me an e-mail at tiffanie@tiffanieimages.com (you must live in the Quad-Cities to be eligible) will receive a free Fearless bridal session, an online gallery & a free 8x10.
Not sure what a fearless bridal session is? It's a super fun fashion session after your wedding, where we can go out without any fear of getting your dress dirty. Rolling around on the beach, jumping into a lake or fountain, or even just posing in some grungy urban settings. Most of the time your dress will be fine after a good dry cleaning, but really it's just going to sit in your closet anyways, why not make another excuse to wear it again. :) Check out the Trash the dress blog to get some examples. If you have a fun idea you'd like to try, include it in the e-mail, if it's interesting enough, I might be tempted to take on more than 1 freebie.

It's a New Year

2008-01-04T14:52:00.000-06:00

OK, that picture has nothing to do with my post, but Anakin passed out on the kitchen floor the other day and it was too cute not to share.

Not exactly a great picture, but I really just wanted to give her a hug, like everyone else.

Moving on, it's a new year, and I'm super excited, last year was kind of a rough year, and I know this year is going to be better. For one thing, my sister came back from Iraq last night, she's been gone for the whole year, working with kids and helping organize and rebuild. I'm very proud of what she's been doing over there this past year, but we were all a bit nervous something might happen to her. Fortunately she made it home OK, although her flight was delayed until almost 11pm, so most of the family couldn't make it up to see her.

As for New Year's, I don't normally make resolutions, but this year I think I'm really going to work on improving myself. I'm hoping if I make them public, then I actually will do them. :)

For starters, I'm cutting out my Diet Pepsi addiction. I already started working on this one after Christmas, and I've managed to get down to 1 glass in the morning (I was drinking 2 2 liters a day, ouch). I think I should have that lass glass cut out by the end of this weekend. Caffeine headaches are a bitch by the way.

Next up, the big weight loss goal, I know everyone makes these, but I really need to watch it. After my babies were born, I had put on about 110 lbs, and I had the hardest time taking it off, I think it took about 5 years for me to get back to close (10 lbs heavier) to pre-baby weight. I've managed to keep it off, but the last few months I've started gaining again, and I really need to watch it doesn't get out of control. So my goal for now is to lose 30lbs by summer, and start exercising again.

The third one is probably going to be the most difficult for me. I've always been a bit shy, and I'd really like to work past that this year. I'm starting my business this year, and I need to be more outgoing to get to where I need to be. So this year, I'm coming out of my shell. :)

I have quite a few more goals related to Torrid Photo. It's in the starting stages right now, and I really need to get my wedding website put together, I need to start blogging more often. I've got quite a few more things in mind, but probably too many to list.

So, bring it on 2008!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-30T17:50:00.000-06:00

I hope you all had a safe & happy holiday season!

Anakin turns 6

2007-12-08T23:08:00.000-06:00

Ok, well technically his birthday isn't until the 11th, but we celebrated my little boy's birthday today. He got a mini trampoline from us, and he got lots of clothes and a basketball hoop from his grandma's. We got him an ice cream cake, and man did he love it, probably because it's not on his normal GFCF diet. Then we took him and Crystal to bounce town. We ran into Rob & his whole clan (his family is soo nice and so much fun.) and we hadn't seen him in forever, so that was fun. Anakin wasn't really digging bounce town, way too noisy for him, but after awhile he managed to adjust and actually have a good time. :)

My Daughter is fantabulous.

2007-12-08T19:44:00.000-06:00

Well, I would say that anyways, part of being her mother. :) Really though she is an awesome kiddo. :) We worked on some of her art today, I'm teaching her Photoshop, although for her at the moment, it's a glorified paint program. Here's what she came up with. :)
This cat one, which she's entitled "Super Cat" is my favorite.

How cool is that?

"Poof the flower"

"United States Flag" "Pirate Flag"

Just had to share how cool my daughter is. :)

Christmas

2007-12-04T00:47:00.000-06:00

I really hate winter, it's cold and dreary out, and you're stuck in the house for most of the season, but I do love getting ready for Christmas. I love buying gifts for everyone, even though I'm horrible at it. I like making things for people. I love setting up the tree and all the decorations.

Cory & I both got sick for Thanksgiving, so now I really can't wait for Christmas. It's a little different this year though, my sister is overseas in Iraq and won't be home until after the holidays. I'm a bit nervous about her being over there, but fortunately it's almost over.

This weekend we decorated the tree. Cory did the hard part, rearranging everything so it would fit in our tiny living room. Sunday Crystal & I did some shopping, we actually went to the mall, which I usually avoid like the plague, but they had a ton of cute ornaments. Then we went and picked up some craft supplies, and we spent Sunday making ornaments, and making candy.

Crystal's (left) & Anakin's (right)

Crystal's tree

Cory's (left) & mine (right)

Oh, and although Cory's looks evil, he's really just "unhappy with his lot in life." lol. Anakin decided to treat the ornaments like basketball's and ran around the house bouncing one on the ground...

And stealing sips of my pop, as usual. Good times.

I'm published!!

2007-11-30T02:42:00.000-06:00

Wohoo! Just had to share my good news. I had one of my images published in a ca lander for the "Friends of Vandaveer." My image is under March, and I guess they will be having it up for display at the Vandaveer conservatory in March '08, along with a digital slide show of my images. It was kind of cool to see how many other great photographer's the Quad-Cities has, although I've already met quite a few great ones. Anyways Vandaveer park is one of my favorite places to shoot, I have a ton up on flickr from there. Oh and if you're in the area, go check out the Vandaveer Conservatory, right now they have the whole thing decorated with Christmas lights and they have displays up with Christmas characters, and yes they had Jack from Nightmare before christmas!!! I think we're heading back there this weekend to do our family christmas picture with Jack. :) I have a ton more I want to say, but it's 3 in the morning, and I need some zzzz's.

New site

2007-11-14T02:35:00.000-06:00

I'm in the middle of redesigning my site, I've been working on it a bit at a time for awhile now, getting the new logo out and redesigning my blog. I think I'm finally happy with the look of things, I just have to finish up with getting the content filled out. Let me know what you guys think of it. Torrid Photo

I also managed some time last weekend to take my little brother & sister out for school pictures.

My daughter went with too (and as a result we have a ton of bunny ear pictures, but I'll save that for another time.)
This one's my favorite, I love that she's wearing flip-flops in November.

That was my favorite picture of Stephen, and we almost missed it. I saw these stairs as we were driving out of the park, and I had to turn the car around to torture them with more photos. ::evil laughter::

Dirt bikes rock!

2007-11-04T20:30:00.000-06:00

We spent Saturday out in Walnut, IL watching the Midwest VMX dirt bike races all day. It was pretty fun. My father-in-law races. I had never been to anything like this before, and it turned out to be pretty cool. These guys really get into this stuff. It sounds like I'll be seeing more of these next year, because Cory will be signing up to race next year. For now I have close to 1000 pictures to start editing (don't expect to see me off of my computer anytime soon). Here are just a few of them.

My father-in-law (Leroy), flying through the air. :)

This was a friend of their's Mark. He and his wife were both really nice, and Crystal really loved their dog Jessi (I gave her the camera and now have like 20 shots of Jessi).

Oh, and this is just here because Bultaco is the funnest word to say.

If you attended the event, or just like my pictures click here to order prints from this race.

More to come.

Trick or Treat part 2

2007-11-02T02:43:00.000-05:00

Ok, I freaking love that picture. My cousin's daughter is probably one of my favorite people to shoot, because she is just full of attitude, and adorable. That picture about sums her up. :) Anyways, had night 2 of "Trick or Treat". We hit up Moline with my mom and their family again. Anakin didn't quite make it that long, I think he had it with the whole thing so we cut it short. Which worked for me, because it was way to cold and I actually decided to dress up.

I'm a witch, although you can't tell because I had to take the picture myself, sometimes it sucks being the family photographer. Although I can't have anyone else take my picture anyways, I hate having it done and I am always the one in the picture blinking or making some horrible weird face. ugh.

More of the "Gouhls" (yeah, I know that was bad).

We had "Corpse bride", "Mad Hatter", and a cat.

Oh and how could I not mention that Jay dressed up their dog as a "glow stick" he's too cute. Didn't get a great picture, because their dog is more active than Anakin.

Oh and on another note, got the new CD from Serj Tankian (lead singer of System of a down), it's awesome, the whole cd is great, but this one song has been stuck in my head all night, so I thought I'd post it. Check out the CD it's good stuff.

Trick or treat

2007-10-31T15:01:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Davenport's trick or treat night. I took it off work to go out with the kiddies. Usually we wind up buying the ready made costumes, but this year we kind of improvised. Anakin picked out this goofy hat so we came up with the mad hatter costume based off of that.

And Crystal had her outfit picked out for months. We were checking out goodwill for photo props (they have some awesome stuff there on occasion) and she found this cool white "veil" ponytail holder thing, and decided she was going to be a Corpse bride. I was utterly shocked when 3 months later she still wanted to be Corpse bride.

This is the first face she wants to make everytime I break out the camera. Total ham.

Oh and we decided to stick with the Tim Burton theme (because we're huge fans) and have a "Nightmare before christmas" pumpkin. Here's Jack.

Anyways we had a great time, the kids got a ton of candy, and we're headed back out tonight for Moline's Trick or treat with my mom and their kids. Oh speaking of which, my little step brother Stephen went with us yesterday (actually we had a pretty big group of family). He totally scared all the little kids.

Happy Halloween!!

Fall

2007-10-15T14:01:00.000-05:00

I'm so happy it's fall, I love the leaves falling. We went to an apple orchard this weekend, left the camera at home and just spent most of the day with my kids, it was awesome. :) We had a hayrack ride, and everyone ate a ton of apples. Then yesterday I took the kids out for a portrait session, we decided a bit ago I was going to do their school pictures this year. So we all went down town (even managed to drag Cory with), and found some neat buildings.

This was my favorite of Crystal, she just looks really cute, and didn't give me one of her cheesy smiles. :)

And this is my favorite of Anakin. He wasn't really into the whole thing, and didn't want to sit still for me, I think he's sick of the camera. So I just tried to shoot him doing whatever he wanted.

Yeah, she struck this pose all on her own, cause she's a super model. That's my goofball, she cracks me up. :)

See the rest of the set here

busy, busy, busy

2007-09-02T22:28:00.000-05:00

So, I've been pretty busy lately, and a bit stressed I suppose. We had a lot of work this week at the times to get ready for the holiday, I just had a few photo sessions with some friends of mine, and some shot's for a party my aunt threw. So I have a ton of pictures to process. My sister is back in town for vacation, she's been working in Iraq since the beginning of the year, so lots of family things going on too. I'm glad she's back, but I wish she was staying longer. She'll be home for good in January though.
I just started processing some of the shots from my cousin Lizz's glamour session Saturday. She's been wanting to get shot's done with a motorcycle for quite awhile now. Unfortunately we didn't have much time, and we didn't exactly have an ideal location, but I think we got some decent shots. Lizz makes a great model, she knows how to pose and can really do the whole pin-up look pretty well. :) These are some of my favorites so far.

(click here to view the set on flickr)

Justin's photoshoot

2007-09-02T21:36:00.000-05:00

Last week while I was on vacation, I spent several hours photographing my friend Justin. He wanted some artsy shots and a few different portraits, and we spent some time exploring his hobbies, and then we were just lucky enough to have the day end with storm clouds. He was a lot of fun to work with, and pretty forgiving of my inexperience. These are some of over 300 pictures we took that day.

(click here to view the set on flickr)

Infrared

2007-08-28T03:23:00.000-05:00

Ok, just got my infrared filter today, thought i'd share. I didn't get much time to play with it before work, so they're not great shots. For anyone wanting try it themselves, I'm using a Hoya R72 filter with my Nikon D50. If you're shooting film you can just use infrared film with a filter. With digital I've heard that certain digital camera's have more sensitivity to infrared light waves, so some camera's might not work so well. You can buy one converted here, or learn how to make your own here. (There is also a photoshop technique to make your photos look infrared, but I didn't think it worked too well.)

Without converting your camera, you can still take infrared photographs with your digital, it's just a bit more work. The Hoya R72 filter is completely black, so in order see what your shooting, you have to compose and focus your shot without the filter on and then put the filter on your camera and take the shot. Now, most digital camera's have a filter set up to block most infrared light from hitting the camera's sensor, this is a good thing because it would ruin your normal shots. For infrared photography though, it means that you will have to use a slower shutter speed to get a good exposure, and you pretty much have to guess at what you're exposure will be. So break out those tripods.

The photo above was taken at F7, 1/3 second. The nice thing about digital is that you can check your lcd to get a good idea on your exposure time.

Before you take your shot, use a shot of the grass with your filter on to set the white balance.

This shot with the brownish sky and blue-white trees is what an infrared shot will look like straight out of the camera. To get the blue skys and white trees seen at the top of this post you'll have to do a channel swap in Photoshop.

Channel swap in Photoshop

In photoshop go to the image menu, under adjustments select Channel mixer. The dialog box should open with red selected. Under source channels change red from 100% to 0%, then change blue from 0% to 100%. Then change the output channel to blue. This time change the source channels for red to 100%, and blue to 0%, click ok and your done. You should have something more like this.

Update: 8-29

Got a chance to head out to Vandaveer park today and take some better shots, and I even tried an ifrared shot of last nights lunar eclipse.

(Click here to view this set on flickr)

Templates

2007-04-11T15:57:00.000-05:00

I'm thinking of selling templates to other photograhpers. These are some I've made, there will be more coming. They're available here.

Peeps

2007-04-09T01:50:00.000-05:00

So I had fun with peeps tonight.

ladies man black & white

2007-04-08T20:01:00.001-05:00

ladies man bw, originally uploaded by Tortured Pixie.

We did easter photos with the kids this weekend, this was probably my favorite shot.