{FRESH} Christmas Card Designs

I'm offering customizable Christmas cards over at Fresh Grace Photography starting today!  If you are interested, let me know asap so I can get them back from the printer and to you in plenty of time!  This is great for all the out- of-town folks too...just email your photo of choice, and I will do the rest.  Details over here.  Yep, not even Halloween and time to get a jump on Christmas...oh the madness : )

Fresh Grace Photography {Update}

After a couple of years of feeling my way through this photography thing (read: teaching myself how to use my camera, reading countless online tutorials and guides, teaching myself about 3% of Photoshop, taking a million pictures to see what works, and staying up into the night editing) I am making this little business official!  It has been a lot of fun, but a countless hours of research have gone into learning the business aspect of things.  I'm a wee bit analytical.  As in, things almost never happen because I can't stop researching and deliberating.  So after months of research, branding, building a website and blog, putting together packaging, getting an online professional printer setup, blah, blah, blah...I am thrilled to introduce:

freshgracephotography.com

and the blog:

freshgracephotography.com/blog

Hop on over to the blog and leave me a comment to win a gorgeous Organic Bloom frame to celebrate!!

Lens Love

What kind of camera do you use?  What is your favorite lens? How do I get the sharp pictures of my kids with a blurry background?  I hear these questions all the time people!  I get a kick out of helping others pursue their photography passion, so feel free to continue to ask away!

Here is an oversimplified, Cliff Notes version of the answers...

Step one: Buy a digital SLR camera body like this one. You do not need the kit lens!

Step two: Buy a lens that will allow you to shoot with a large aperture (key to the dreamy blur).  The Canon 50mm 1.4 is my favorite.  It pretty much lives on my camera at all times.

Step three: Set your f-stop to a low number (under 2.0) which will give you a large aperture (practice shooting in Manual mode, scary but crucial). 

Step four: Focus on your subject and shoot!

Step five: Practice. Practice. PRACTICE!  This is a digital camera.  We are no longer wasting film.  I take between 200 and 400 pictures at each shoot and generally end up with about 30-40 that I am really happy with.  

This was all very confusing to me in the beginning (and still is to some degree).  If this all makes perfect sense to you, don't tell me!  It is very much a hands-on, trial and error kind of endeavor.  I think the resulting keepsakes are worth the effort!

Fresh Grace Photography

After thought, prayer, and prodding from a few friends, family members, and especially my husband, I am launching Fresh Grace Photography!  Starting out small and simple and just seeing where it goes.  This is the perfect time of year for pictures while all is in bloom!   Leave me a comment or shoot me an email (under Contact section of Fresh Grace Photography) if you are interested.  First three to book Spring Sessions will receive 50% off the session fee.  Let's get out there and have some fun!