New Addition: The 50mm 1.4

A couple of weeks ago for my birthday I finally decided it was time to upgrade my 50mm 1.8 to the 1.4. So thanks to my parents and in-laws, I was able to order the 50mm 1.4 as part of my birthday present from them!!! And last Friday it came in the mail!! I was so excited, and it came just in time too! Because on Saturday I went out to Gunter, Texas with my sister-in-law, Heather, to have a girls shooting night with Leslie Spurlock, so I was able to use my new lens! And I must say I love it so far!! :) Stay tune for later this week when I post a preview of some of the images I got at our girls night shootout.

(An Instagram photo I took - Follow me on Instagram - Username: MicheleShore)

My new baby :)

 

Another exciting thing happened this weekend; we finally found our new apartment! They are brand new apartments in the Fort Worth area and my mouth literally dropped when I saw them. I even told Daniel later that I had to hold back a squeal of excitement when we toured them lol. This place just has so many awesome things that most apartments don’t even offer. One of the best things about our new place is that I will finally have my own office!!! Yep, that means no more working from bed! :D Only 5 more weeks till we move in!!

(An Instagram photo I took of our new apartments clubhouse - Follow me on Instagram - Username: MicheleShore)

Happy Tuesday! :)

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My Birthday Week + The Expodisc

As some of you may know, this past Monday was my birthday!! Unfortunately, I had to spend the day working, but my wonderful husband and family treated me to a fun filled weekend that included Sprinkles Cupcakes, La Duni, Kobe Japanese Steakhouse, and an awesome new toy for my camera! :) As my birthday present, Daniel got me the Expodisc custom white balance tool!! I have wanted this thing ever since Zach & Jody Gray introduced me to it back in January at their CreativeLIVE workshop. I’m so excited to finally have one and put it to use!

I took this picture using the expodisc :)

For those of you, who are unfamiliar about what white balance is, check out this article. They give a great explanation of the subject better than I probably could.

To give you an example of what the expodisc does, here is the exact same picture from above, only without me using the expodisc.

The first one looks a lot better doesn’t it? lol

If you're wondering how I made my images look good before, the answer is hours in either Lightroom or Photoshop. But hopefully with this tool that time will be cut in half! :)

Well, I have a busy weekend ahead of me that includes going to watch the Crowne Plaza Invitational at The Colonial on Saturday and I’m second shooting my first wedding for Shayla J Photography on Sunday! So excited! :)

That’s it for today, Happy Friday!!

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Second Shooting!!

So I’m a member of this amazing community for photographers called Pixtus. This forum used to be called Texas Photo Forum but they have now opened it up to photographers all over. However, the community is still primarily made up of Texas members. Anyway, there are many reasons why I think this community is awesome!

1)    You can post your pictures on there and get honest critiques/feedback from local photographers.

2)    Big name photographers like, Leslie Spurlock, is an active member in the community.

3)    And last but not least, some photographers will occasionally post a thread that they’re looking for a second shooter/assistant/tag along. This leads me to the basis of this post…

I got my first second shooting job!!! I will be second shooting for the talented Shayla J.Photography on May 27^th, 2012 at White Rock Lake in Dallas, TX!! I am beyond excited and grateful for this amazing opportunity! I can’t wait to share my experience with everyone!

Well, this is the last week of the Spring 2012 semester at UNT and I still have 2 finals left. So I better get back to studying! :(

Until next time, Happy Tuesday! :)

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A Week of First

This past week has been probably one of the busiest/craziest weeks of my growing business thus far. I have been franticly preparing for my first wedding this Saturday. This included me designing & ordering my very first business cards in case anyone asked for one at the event. I actually just picked them up from Minuteman Press in Grapevine, and I must say they don’t look too bad for my first business cards! Luckily the cards came in today because I’m also preparing to do my first client consultation tomorrow with another potential bride and wanted to include them in her information packet. Anyways, I’m keeping my fingers crossed!! :)

 I can’t believe I even had a second to write this little post. As we speak, I’m about to run out the door to go get some new shoes for the wedding this weekend. My other ones are just falling apart and I don’t want to end up barefooted (at my first wedding at least lol). Hopefully next week I’ll be able to write a better post for you guys! As well as post some pictures of those business cards I told y’all about and my homemade client information packet lol.

Until next time, Happy Thursday! :)





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Facing Fears & Putting Myself Out There

I was planning on posting part 2 of my experience at Leslie Spurlock’s Workshop today, but I did something this past weekend that I never thought in a million years I would do. I submitted a video of myself auditioning to be one of the lucky 6 people who get to attend Jasmine Star’s CreativeLIVE workshop in Seattle entitled,  The Making + Marketing of an Editorial Wedding! So I decided to blog about this big/exciting/nerve-racking news instead lol.

When I first found out in February that Jasmine was coming back to CreativeLIVE to do her third online workshop, I was beyond excited. My good friend, Mercy Nompone, immediately called telling me that she would be happy to help me make a video to submit for consideration. She was extremely surprised when I told her that I wasn’t planning on submitting and to be honest, I was too. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be considered but that I was too scared to put myself out there. However, when I found out that we were going on a road trip to Denver to see Jasmine at The Fix, I came up with the idea that we should record our trip and possibly use whatever footage we get to submit to be on CreativeLIVE.

So I called Mercy to tell her my idea and see if she would still be willing to help me put it together. She thought the concept was great and agreed to help with the editing. Long story short, when we got home from our trip with the video footage, I seriously considered forgetting about the whole thing and not finishing the video. However, I quickly came to my senses and decided to just go for it! Unfortunately, I just found out this morning that I didn’t get picked. But that’s ok, I’m still proud of myself for at attempting it and I will still be watching her live on April 27-29^th! :) If your friends with me on Facebook, I know you’ve probably already seen this video, but for those who aren’t, here’s the video I submitted:

That's all for today. Have a happy Wednesday! :)





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Colorado & The Fix Part 2

So I know I said that I would be posting part 2 of my trip to Colorado to see Jasmine Star yesterday, but I got so swamped with my dad’s 70^th birthday party and a few other errands, that I didn’t get a chance to write this post. So I’m making up for that by posting this today, literally a few minutes before I have to leave to drive 2 hours with my good friend, Mercy Nompone, to our first wedding photography workshop with Leslie Spurlock!! Super excited!! :)

Anyways, this post is just about the day after The Fix and what we did in Colorado. So instead of staying in Denver, Daniel and I decided to spend our last day in Colorado Springs. While we were there we did a Cave of The Winds tour, took a train up to the topof Pikes Peak, and toured around Garden of The Gods. All of which were a lot of fun and beautiful, but I definitely think the caves were my favorite. Also, on the way back to Dallas we decided to stop in Amarillo, Texas to see CadillacRanch and since it’s right by Route 66 we decided to look for the “Route 66” sign. Turns out, not easy to find lol. We drove around for an hour looking for it and just when we were giving up, the road we were driving on was blocked and we were directed another way which turned out to be historic Route 66! Talk about luck lol! Well anyways, I got to run to my workshop. I’ll post next week about my first workshop experience! :) Below are some more pictures. If you want to see more just friend me on Facebook HERE. I'll be posting tons later! :)

Oh, and I almost forgot. My big news is officially confirmed! I am shooting my first wedding next month, April 14^th!!! I was just waiting for the bride to send back the signed contract till I announced the exciting news. So excited!! Anyways, that’s it for today, enjoy the pictures! :)

Until next time, Happy Saturday!!

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Colorado & The Fix Part 1

I know I’m a little late on this, but this past week has been surprisingly crazy busy. So anyways, here it goes. This past weekend was our road trip to Denver, Colorado to see Jasmine Star in her tour of The Fix. My hubby completely surprised me with this trip after knowing how upset I was that I couldn’t go to her one here in Dallas. Colorado was so much fun and Jasmine was definitely worth the trip up there! :) We left on Thursday afternoon and stayed in a little town called Dumas, Texas, which is about 6 hours from DFW. We then got up bright and early the next morning to finish the drive to Denver. Along the way, we stopped at the Capulin Volcano National Monument in New Mexico and climbed to the top. (You know, your normal road trip rest stop lol) Luckily we made it to our hotel, The Ritz, holler! ;) With literally 2 hours to spare till the event started.

The Fix was held at the Artwork Network in Denver, which was nice minus the fact that there was nowhere to park, but we won’t get into that little stressful moment lol. Anyways, Jasmine gave an amazing 1 hour presentation over struggle, change, and making friends along the way. It was a very powerful presentation. Jasmine made me laugh, cry, and realize that I am not alone. The presentation was followed by some brief Q&A and then a reading from her book, Exposed. It was a great night with free drinks, and at the end I got to go up and meet her and have her sign my copy of Exposed. (I was beyond nervous! Lol) Oh, and for those of you who don’t know, this was my first ever photography event!! I was so nervous about it, but everyone was so nice and I made a bunch of new friends in the industry! :) Too bad they live 14 hours away. :(

Any who, tomorrow I will be posting part 2 of this post. I will also finally be announcing the exciting news I talked about a couple of post ago! So stay tuned for that! :)

Below are some pictures from the road trip as well as some pictures & a video from The Fix. Enjoy!

View from the top of the Capulin Volcano.

Some cows with the Capulin Volcano in the background.

A River of Lava Turned to Stone...

The long road ahead...

Jasmine Star speaking :)

Jasmine Star reading a page from her book.

Below are pictures of me meeting Jasmine. Both pictures were taken by Jasmine's Fix crew. You can view the rest of the images from this event HERE.

And finally, below is a video of me actually meeting Jasmine Star!! Shot by my wonderful husband, Daniel. :) I think you can tell how nervous I was lol.



 

Happy Thursday! :)

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Clothes & Speedlites

This past weekend, Daniel and I went shopping for a new outfit for me to wear to The Fix. Unfortunately, it was an ugly/rainy weekend, but the good news is that I did come home with three possible outfit choices! Thanks to Nordstrom’s Rack! I can’t wait to decide which one it’s going to be! :) Only 2 more days till we leave!

Another exciting purchase that I came home with is my new Canon Speedlite 580EX II! I am so excited that I finally have my first speedlite! I had been meaning to get this for a while but just never got around to it. Now I have another one of those fun little manuals to read lol.

Happy Tuesday! :)

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Update

Happy March 1, 2012 everybody! I know it’s been a little while since I last posted, I ideally like to try and post twice a week, but there hasn’t been too much going on with me in the photography world. My main focus right now is finishing school. However, I’ve been looking for any opportunity (that doesn’t conflict with my classes) to build my portfolio, expand my knowledge on photography, and find time to work on my business plan. Last night Jasmine Star came to Dallas for her tour of The Fix, and I unfortunately wasn’t able to attend because I had my 3 hour night class, which ironically was Business Ethics so it wouldn’t have been very ethical of me to miss it now would it? Lol Anyways, since I wasn’t able to go, I did purchase one of Jasmine Star’s CreativeLIVE videos yesterday entitled “BuildingYour Wedding Photography Business.” I can’t wait to sit down and start watching it! I also purchased yesterday an eBook from Photography Concentrate called Simple Wedding Photography by Lauren Lim. This eBook is 201 pages of awesome with 6 worksheet bonuses and a video commentary on album design. I have only skimmed through it but I will definitely let y’all know what I think when I’m finished. :)

A few other things happening…

A couple of weekends ago, Daniel and I went to an antique mall in downtown Fort Worth and came home with another old camera! Nothing fancy, I just thought it looked really cute so Daniel got it for me. He’s so sweet! :) Anyways, it’s an Imperial Mark XII Flash in green. Picture below:

Last weekend I watched SandyPuc’s Bellies and Babies on CreativeLIVE. Even though my main focus is wedding photography, I am also interested/curious about newborn photography. It was a great workshop and I learned a lot! Sandy was so generous in giving away tons of freebies to everyone watching. This weekend I will be watching another CreativeLIVE workshop called Glamour photography with Sue Bryce. I am super excited for this one because Sue knows how to pose ever type of woman to make them look absolutely gorgeous! Hopefully I can learn some of her tricks! If you’re a photographer who would like to watch this workshop as well, it starts tomorrow at 11am central. You can click this link to watch live.

I have a couple other really exciting things lined up within the next couple of months, but for right now they’re a secret until they are confirmed. But I can’t wait to share the exciting news with everyone!!! :) So be sure to keep coming back to get the scoop!

That’s it for today. Until next time, Happy Thursday!

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What I'm Reading & The Meaning Of Success

A couple of months ago, for Christmas, I got some pretty awesome new stuff! One of those things just happened to be my Canon 7D DSLR, a few AMAZING lenses (the 35mm 2.0 & 100mm 2.8Macro to be exact), and some pretty sweet photography books as well (which is what this post is about).

Now, for those of you who know me, you know that I am not a reader. I mean, I have tried to read all kinds of different books but could never seem to stay interested (maybe it’s the ADD? I don’t know...) I know this may sound kind of silly, but I really only like books that have pictures in them lol. Honestly! I get bored just looking at words. I need some art too!! I think Andy Warhol said it best; “I never read I just look at pictures.” That quote is totally me! So why am I excited for the books I got for Christmas? Two reasons:

1.    Since they’re photography books that means they have TONS of pictures in them! It’s a match made in heaven! Also, I just really enjoy anything & everything about photography.

And

2.    I heard a great quote by Dave Ramsay from Zach & JodyGray; “Where you will be in five years is dependent on two things, the people you meet and the books you read.” I take this quote to heart! I hope to meet some amazing people this year but more importantly I hope to read more books this year than I have ever read before.

In the book “The MillionaireNext Door” the author claims that the average millionaire reads one non-fiction book a month. So since I plan on becoming a millionaire one day, I better get started! :) Here are the non-fiction books that I am currently reading:

Exposed

By: Jasmine Star

Jasmine Star is a California based wedding photographer and kind of a celebrity in the photography industry. This girl is probably my biggest inspiration and I just love her! This book/magazine tells the story of how she got started in photography and how she got to where she is today. I swear when I read this book I feel as if I am living her life all over again. I completely relate and it’s nice to hear someone as big as her was once going through the same struggles.

Fine Art Wedding Photography
By: Jose Villa & Jeff Kent

Jose Villa is also a California based wedding photographer and has been named one of the top 10 wedding photographers in the world by American PHOTO. He is one of the few photographers still using film and I just think that’s awesome! This book is about Jose Villa, who basically invented the term “Fine Art Wedding Photography,” and how he captures his trademark technique.

The Digital Photography Book Volume 1

By: Scott Kelby

Scott Kelby is president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and Editor-in-Chief of both Photoshop User and Layersmagazines. He also has an educational website called, Kelbytraining.com, where there are tons of videos to learn anything and everything about photography and editing in Photoshop & Lightroom. I am a member of this website and really enjoy all of the useful information! This book takes you step-by-step through the basics and fundamentals of digital photography in a very easy to understand dialogue.

And last, but certainly not least…

The Canon EOS 7D Instruction Manual

Yes, you read that right. I am reading my instruction manual. I put this one in here because I think so many people just think they don’t need to read the manual and they’re wrong. I have learned so many things by just reading my manual that I probably would have never learned anywhere else, or at least it would have taken me years to find out. It may not be my favorite thing to read (there aren’t very many pictures lol) but I think it’s super important so I force myself to do so. And if you’re a photographer who hasn’t read their manual yet, I highly suggest you get to it! :)

So there you have it! My 4 small steps to becoming a millionaire. Hopefully I can stick to the one book a month thing and update you guys on what I’m reading next month. To end this post, I have a video of some amazing photographers sharing their perspective on success. Enjoy! :) (Photographers Include: Jasmine Star, Jessica Claire, Kevin Kubota, Jesh DeRox, Mary Marantz, and Sarah Rhoads)

[suhk-ses] WPPI 2011 from stillmotion on Vimeo.

Happy Wednesday!

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A Kodak Moment

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! <3 I absolutely love this day! And I’m not just saying that because I’m married. I have really and truly ALWAYS loved Valentine’s Day, even when I was single. This probably partially has to do with the fact that it is also my mom’s birthday (Happy Birthday Mom!), so it was always kind of a celebration in my house. But the real reason why I love this day so much is because I just love, love! It’s as simple as that! Whether that love is with a spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, friend, child, sibling, parent, dog, cat, etc. it’s a day of showing your loved ones (whoever that may be) that you care and I just love that! :) Oh, and not to mention it’s the number one day for guys to “pop the question,” and as an aspiring wedding photographer that = another reason to love this day!! Lol


Anyways, enough with my rambling about how awesome this day is, let’s get to the good stuff! So as some of you may know today marks a year since Daniel bought me my first DSLR camera! (The Canon Rebel T2i) And since that last Valentine’s Day I’ve already upgraded to the Canon 7D and I’m loving it! So I guess Daniel decided to keep with the tradition of buying my first DSLR camera with buying me my first vintage camera to start my collection! I have been saying for months now that I want to start collecting old cameras and I guess he was listening! He’s such a good husband! :) Anyways, he got me a Kodak No. 2A Folding Cartridge Hawk-Eye Model B, made between 1926 and 1934. It’s so old and pretty. I just love it! I took a picture for you all to see below:

Until next time, Happy Valentine’s Day! :)

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Oh, Happy Days!

So I decided to create a blog to document and share my journey of becoming a wedding photographer. As well as share some insight for future brides & aspiring photographers, like myself. :)

So here goes nothing…my very first blog post!

To be completely honest I am actually very nervous about starting this thing. There are so many unanswered questions going through my head right now; like what do I write? Will I be able to keep up with a blog? Is it too early to even be starting this thing? As a current college student, new wife, mother to my puppy (Sophie), and learning photography I have a lot on my plate. Should I be adding blogger to that list as well? After all, I’ve really only been photographing for about 4 months now, and It’ll only be a year next month since I got my first DSLR camera. But I’ve decided that I’m ready to take this next step towards my career as a professional wedding photographer. :)

Side Note: This day is special to me in more ways than one. Not only is it the day I started my first photography blog, but also 6 months ago today I married my best friend and the love of my life, Daniel, and I couldn’t be happier.

Photograph taken by the amazingly talented Sarah Kate, Photographer.

Until next time, Happy Monday!

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