Saturday, June 6, 2015

Winner and top 10 {Out of the ordinary}

An absolutely amazing first week to tip off our guest judging and interviews. You guys, these images were nothing short of fantastic and definitely out of the ordinary unique! I was inspired all week. Thank you to Kelly of Kelly Akers Photography for joining us for the week. Each week we will have a new guest judge and an interview/feature to learn a bit about them. Judging and new themes start on Fridays and the interviews go up on Mondays. 
Each week there will be one winning image and a top 9 feature. The winning image will grace our cover photo for the week until the next weeks winner is chosen. Let's see who Kelly chose as winner.

Winning image... 

 
Watch them Grow Photography

"I chose this image as the winner because it is very out of the ordinary and I just kept coming back to look at it again and again. I am not sure how this was done and that intrigues me. I also love the texture and the conversion and the overall mysterious feel to this gorgeous image." ~Kelly 
Top 9 in no particular order... 

























Congrats all. What an amazing week. just look at these images. All so amazing. Thank you again to Kelly for guest judging. Join us this week for the theme {Texture} and go see the pinned post on Reflection page to see who the amazing guest judge is. Thank you. Until next time, XOXO! ~Amber
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Monday, June 1, 2015

Inspire, Create, Be YOU... Week 1

I am so excited to be kicking off our very first Inspire, Create, Be YOU interview/feature. Guest judges are chosen on their uniqueness, creating from their heart and just being them and being artistic. Those guest judges will have an interview for Inspire, Create, Be YOU series. I am so excited to introduce you to the very first Inspire, Create, Be you artist... Kelly Akers of Kelly Akers Photography. Kelly's work is nothing short of amazing. Shes definitely unique and shoots from within. Her work is moody, emotive yet dreamy and she is super inspiring. Enjoy...

1. What do you think the most important element is in your personal style? (example. Light, creativeness, perspective, story, emotion, texture, etc. What do you shoot for in your work? And what makes your work YOU?)

Oh gosh, all of the above?!? lol I am always chasing the light and love getting that magical golden light in my pictures but I think creating an image that stirs my soul is always my main goal. Hopefully others will feel it too.




2. What makes you tick? What keeps you inspired and pushing to be a better artist?

My husband and girls have always inspired me and are still the ones I love photographing the most. I think the friends I have, who are also amazing photographers, push me to be a better artist. It just amazes me how many talented photographers there are and I am so happy to be friends with a lot of them. Not only are they talented, caring, and supportive but they don’t mind helping you grow and become better.




3. Is there anything specific that helped push you towards your beautiful and unique style? And if yes, what was it?

My friend and fellow photographer Ana Myer was the first person I knew that had tried freelensing. I saw the magic she created and I had to try it!




4.  What is the one thing you would tell others that are trying to break away from their present shooting style to start forming their own unique work and create from their heart?

Let go of perfection; it doesn’t exist and chasing it can cripple your creativity.




5. We love to shout out to others artists here so if there was one artist who really inspired you to be the best artist you can be and really shoot for you, who would that artist be?

That would be my sister, Amber, of Lilies and Lions Photography. She has always supported me and loved my work but was never afraid to offer truthful critique of it. Plus, she is so talented she always keeps me on my toes. Sibling rivalry you know. lol




6. We love to see how hard people have worked with then and now's. And inspire other artists and beginners and show them that we all started somewhere. Can you show us a before and after of your very first work to your now work? And tell us a bit about your journey. How long have you been doing photography? When you started what did you want to shoot as opposed to what you shoot now? Most of us end up doing absolutely nothing we thought we would. How has your style and outlook changed?

I started in black and white film during college and moved to digital 2005. For a long time, I tried to get the typical family portraits that I thought people wanted but the ‘mistakes’ were usually the ones that moved me. I finally feel like I have been doing work that I love in the last couple of years. For me, I started out wanting to create art(was a fine art major in college) but got sidetracked and now I’m back to where my heart has wanted to be, or at least headed in the right direction.




7.  Can you give one thought on how to stay fresh, inspired and moving forward? What helps you?

Challenge yourself! Try shooting something you don’t normally shoot, at a time you don’t normally shoot or in a challenging lighting situation. I belong to a group that does a different challenge every few weeks which is great to learn new things, grow and move forward.




8. We all want to work on something or change something within our work or journey. Anything you are working to be better towards?

I want to get better and lifestyle and documentary style photography, it’s something I have been working on. 




9. What are your goals for the next year or two? Getting published, building or find a studio, traveling with your shoots, specific shoot you are trying to pull together? What are you up to?

I would love to be published or in an art show. I am also working on a project to document the adoption process of a family I know. I am super excited about that!


 


10. We are huge on encouraging here. Can you please pick one photographer that is just starting out that is super talented, inspiring with not a big following that is trying to get their name out or that YOU think deserves to be seen and known. There are so many out there. Let's give them a little shout out.

Can I name two? ShaTerra of Favored Photography and Alyssa of Alyssa Ahern Photography. They both went to school with my oldest daughter(wow I’m old!), have recently opened for business and are very talented. 




I hope you enjoyed as much as we did. Please go show Kelly A ton of love at Kelly akers photography. Until next time, XOXO! ~Amber
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Saturday, May 30, 2015

winner and top 9 {From above}

WOW, best week yet I think. More and more people submitting and that makes me smile. I want to see more and more every week. I am taking this page back to my roots and keeping it that way. I want to see more people shooting from their heart but not only that shooting unique, creative, artistic, emotive imagery. Its what I want my magazine to be about so I want the page to move that way to. This week was huge on creative images. I loved them. I loved them so much I couldn't pick 10 so I picked 13. I just couldn't narrow it down anymore. Such a hard time. You all rock. So keep in mind every week. Artistic, creative, unique, emotive imagery. LETS DO THIS...
Each week there will be one wining image and a top 9 feature. Or in this case a top 12 feature for this week. I NEVER do that for this page, ever. I am in a good mood. First time for everything, right?! The winning image will grace our cover photo for the week until the next weeks winner is chosen. Lets see this amazing winning image.

Winning image...




"I chose this image as weekly favorite because it really spoke to me. It really moved me and caught my eye. They all look so very content. happy and peaceful together.I love that its shot from above. The post processing is stunning. It is just a beautiful family image. Makes me so happy inside." ~Amber

Top 9 (this week 12) in no particular order...













  





















Just gorgeous, aren't they?!?! Congrats all. Please join us this week for the theme {Out of the ordinary} With guest judge Kelly Akers Photography. See pinned post on Reflections page for something new that is kicking off. Until next time,  XOXO! ~Amber


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Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Winner and top 9 {Adventure)

Great week everyone. As always, amazing images. More and more talent I see each week. Each week there will be a winning photo and a top 9. The winning image will grace our cover photo for the week until the next week image is chosen. Lets check out the winning image.

Winning image...



"I chose this image because its wow. The whole scene is to die for. That location is gorgeous.  The white tops of the waves in the background, the composition, the clouds. It is just gorgeous. As soon as I saw this image it stopped me in my tracks. I had to go back and look at it multiple times through the week." ~Amber

Top 9 feature in no particular order...








Holly Nicole Photography 



















Please join us this week for the theme {From above} Until next time, XOXO! ~Amber
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Sunday, May 24, 2015

Dramatic Light

I run a photography support group. Each week we are posting up new short tutorials and we will all challenge ourselves and share an image that has to do with the tutorials. Nothing long and fancy. just short, to the point tutorials. This is our first week. DRAMATIC LIGHT!

Light is a huge part of photography, right? There's so much you can do with it. Dreamy light, back light, dappled light, low light, harsh light, golden hour light, light leaks, light flares. There's SO much. One of my favorite ways to use light is dramatically. Dramatic light is moodier, darker light usually. High contrasted light, low light. Many things you can do to make light dramatic. Learn to use light to your advantage and really push your camera settings to make your images come out how you want. Don't let light control you. You control the light. 

Use your settings to create gorgeous, creative images with your light. What I like to do a lot is shoot under exposed back lighting to make focus more on details, textures, shapes. Shooting under exposed with water shots to make the water more obvious and contrasted. Shoot under exposed to focus on the outline, detail of some gorgeous texture in clothing. To make silhouettes of your subjects. I love shooting under exposed back lighting. Here are some examples. 


 Above I shot underexposed to focus more on the water contrast.



 Above I shot underexposed to focus more on the light and to highlight her hair.



Above I used the light to really focus on the gorgeous golden tone of it and her hair blowing in the wind.



 Here I shot again, underexposed to focus on their bodies and body language. More of a silhouette shot. Also, by shooting underexposed back light it really brought out the water.



 Use window light to make dramatic scenes. Here I used my settings to shoot underexposed focusing on just the details of his hands and feet and the reflection on the hardwood floor underneath the carpet he fell asleep on.



Here I shot to focus more on the golden tones kissing her hair. With light light behind me and her being in a darker area made the image super dark except where the light was hitting her hair.

These are just a few ways I use light dramatically. Let's see your take on dramatic light. Window, low, backlit in a dramatic way, contour your subject, clothing or hair. Anything you want. Get creative. I can't wait to see what you all come up with. Thank you. Until next time, XOXO! ~Amber
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Monday, May 18, 2015

Winner and top 9 {Creative crop}

WOW, Great week. So much inspiration. Each week there will be a winner and a top 9 feature. The winner will grace our cover photo for the week until the next weeks winner is chosen. But this week since there was two weeks of creative crops there was no way I could pick just 10 so I went a tad over :)

Winning image...  



"WOW, is all I can say. The reflection is so amazing here. And I just love \how you made that the focus of the image with just s tiny bit of her feet showing. Brilliant shot. I love how I can even see the clouds."~Amber
Top what is normally 9 but today is 20!!!!


 Kelsey Smith Photography






















































Congrats all. Please join us this week for the theme {Adventure} Thank you. Until next time, XOXO! ~Amber
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