I Just Might Explode

girl in sunshine.

I shared a sneak peek of the this shoot last Thursday evening and I'm excited to share my final edits!

I've been feeling rather uninspired with photography and a shoot in the sunshine with Kaitlyn was just what I needed.

It also helps that Kaitlyn is the same size as me, so styling some of my 70sish thrifted dresses makes it easy. I definitely wore that blue dress to high school a few times. ;)

Like I said in the last post, I wanted a sunny, 70s vibe and I like the spookier edge some of the photos ended up having.

Next up we're going to do a 50s shoot. I'm excited to pull out my Junior year Prom dress (that still has a torn arm from all the dancing, haha!) and get some beehive action going in Kaitlyn's hair. And, man isn't she gorgeous? You might remember this shoot we did last summer. She makes it easy. 

I feel like my editing style is coming in and it was so much fun to edit these.

And, thanks to Darian for coming along and assisting! <3

nate.

I promised that I'd share some of the digital photos I took of Nate last month and finally got around to uploading them. 

It's making me wish I was spending the afternoon in SoHo and not working in rainy Brooklyn. Ah well. Happy Wednesday! 

home sweet home.

While I was home in Idaho during my Winter Break, I spent part of a quiet afternoon taking photographs of my home. For a few years of my life, I wasn't a huge fan of my house. My mom and I have different decorating aesthetics and I fantasized about talking her into redocrating.

But, time wore on and I grew up and came to love our small blue, suburban house. Friends often remark on the hominess and are quick to supply that movie nights should be held at the Haupt house.  I love that it always smells like coffee or those wall smelly things from Bath and Body Works. I love that there is always Tillamook cheese in the frig and my mom only reminds me once to stop sitting on the counter. 

When I came home after those 4 months in New York and collapsed on my couch with that wonderful fleece blanket, I listened to the conversations in the kitchen and remarked on the other worldliness of this place. 

Sure. Time went on and I was ready to leave and annoyed with my little brother again, but I will always love this place. 

See you soon, Boise house...

 

photo final.

We had a self-guided assignment for my black and white photography class. My idea was to take photographs of people in their favorite places in New York. 

First, is Nate in Soho. Nate is from Boise and goes to a school in Manhattan. He went to the same high school as Kip and we met when Kip was here visiting me. I creeper texted him and asked if he would model for me. He said yes!

And, I apologize for the crappy scans. I did large 10x10 inch prints of them and these scans don't do them justice at all. Lame!

I also took some digital photos of Nate that I'll share in a few days. He's my new favorite model, haha. 

And, next is Rusty! Who, coincidentally is another fellow from Boise. Haha! You can read more about Rusty here. 

I asked Rusty where he wanted to go and he said the Chelsea Market. I was a little surprised when he told me that, because the Chelsea Market isn't very... Rusty-like. Haha. When we got there and were sipping on coffees, he said "Kara, I have a confession to make... First, the Chelsea Market isn't my favorite place. Second, I've never been to the Chelsea Market before. Third, I don't like it very much". Apparently he just wanted an excuse to visit since he hadn't been there. Oh well! We had a great time anyhow. Haha!

a closer look.

I've gotten some questions recently about my editing, so today I thought I would give you all a closer look at my post processing. I'm mostly self taught in Photoshop and still feel like I have a lot to learn... I got some Totally Rad Actions last summer and it's completely changed how I edit photographs. Photoshop Actions are awesome. They're quicker and easy to customize to get the look you want. Leigh-Ann has a good explanation here on how to use them.

I edit with Photoshop CS4. This photo was shot on my Canon 50d with the 50mm 1.4 lens. I always shoot in Manual.

And I have to say, editing never makes up for shitty settings. It's really important to start off editing with a properly exposed photo. I'm going to use a photograph from this post. 

Here is my straight out of the camera photo:

My settings for this photo- Aperture: 1.8. Shutter Speed: 2000. ISO: 200.

I always start off editing using Camera Raw  (a function in CS4-5) to adjust the exposure. (Click on the photo you want to open, and over on the bottom right there is something that say 'Format', and click 'Camera Raw', then click 'Open').  A dialog window will appear. For most shoots, I shoot JPEG, but want to start getting in the habit of shooting in RAW. When I shoot for clients, I use RAW. 

I eyeball minor exposure adjustments here. See that blue triangle in the corner by the histogram looking thing? If you click on that, it will make all the blown out highlights appear red. This is great for when I can't tell if I'm losing the data in those spots.

Camera Raw also has a quick function for making vignettes. Click on the Lens Corrections tab(I circled it in yellow) and play around with 'Lens Vignetting' arrows.

The after my Camera Raw adjustments:

Now I open the file in regular part of Photoshop and use my collection of Totally Rad Actions. (I also did some minor blemish airbrushing with the Healing Brush Tool).

This one is called 'Oh, Snap'. It's great for a little pop of contrast. I don't usually use it at 100%, but I liked it here. :)

Opacity: 100%. Layer Style: Normal.

Next action up is, Pool Party for a pop of color. Opacity: 22%. Layer Style: Normal. 

Next I used a free curve from photographer, Nirrimi's, awesome curve/actions store called The Color Shop. This curve is "Great Grandma".

Curves at 31%. Layer Style: Color Burn.

I wanted to make the photo a little darker, so I made another Curves layer and played around with it until I got a look I wanted.

I decided I wanted to bring out the purple is her dress and face, so I used one of the Get Faded layers. (I like Winter and Autumn the most).

Get Faded Autumn:18%. Layer Style: Normal.

And there you have it!

Final Before & After:

hey, i know you! installment five. stephanie luke.

Guys! I am so excited to introduce you to my beautiful best friend, Stephanie. I've mentioned her a lot on this blog, but nothing is better than a formal introduction.

This girl... We met when were nine and she is, by far, one of the people I feel most lucky to have in my life. We grew up together(a few houses away for a few years and then about a 10 minute walk for the rest). We wrestled through high school, first boyfriends, Color Guard one year(haha!), different friendships and groups, and all that sticky emotional stuff together. I can't imagine going through all of that without the constant rock of our friendship. We've never had a fight in the almost ten years of being friends. She's the first I go to talk to. We have similar senses of humor and deep respect for each other and our beliefs. One of us can start of an ambiguous sentence and the other one will know what they're talking about it. It's really weird. She's really funny and easy to get along with and basically, I adore her.

I informed(I do a lot of bossing and she does a lot of rolling her eyes) Steph that I needed to take photos of her for this feature. So one day during Christmas break, I told her to come over to my house with some outfits and shoes for me to choose from. She let me do her hair and makeup(which, ironically, is something we haven't done since like... 12.) and we drove through the backroads in Boise until I saw a field I liked and told her to stop driving. We ended up having a great time while I told her to stop complaining about being cold.

Please meet, my lovely Stephie.

 

Tell me about yourself?

My name is Stephanie Luke. I'm a college student at BYU-Idaho (sort of). I took my first semester online classes only, but am planning on moving to the campus for the spring semester. I have one older sister and two younger brothers who are amazing, Kara and I met when we were nine and she's been my best friend ever since. I love floral prints and Ingrid Michaelson concerts. I'm very easy going, I don't like making decisions and love dark chocolate. Spring is my favorite season...or fall whichever is coming the soonest. I  love being 'internet famous' (which doesn't happen very often) and so of course am very excited to be a 'Hey, I know you' feature.

If you could imagine the most perfect day, what would you do?

I've been dying to go to Oregon. Also I want it to be summer. So if I could get a day with Kara, in Oregon, during summer, with cute dresses, at Powells and the ocean. Mmmmh. Yeah thats sounding pretty good right about now.

What's an ideology you live by?
If you're not going to try and change anything - stop complaining

What's one of your best memories?
Hhhmm. Haha. I'm not sure how old I was, probably 10 or 11. Kara had all this old (cheap) make-up, mostly eye shadow and blush, that she didn't want so my sister and I decided to mix it all together, it made this pink-purple-brown-ish color. Then we proceded to cover our faces in it. More like cake our faces in it actually. It was amazing! We looked ridiculous and it took forever to get off our faces. Kara thought we were idiots. Which discribes a lot of things that happened between Kara, Sara and I. 

Is there a piece of advice that has always stuck with you?

When I was 15 my dad gave wrote this in a letter to me. It's really one of the only pieces of advice that was made 'just for me' which probably is why its my favorite. :)

“Seek out opportunities to learn, to see new things, to travel a bit, and to grow. Take appropriate risks - be careful when needed but be carefree when you can. Remember that good friends come from being a good friend. Remember that you get out of life what you put into it. Remember to sing and dance at every suitable opportunity. Be brave and strong and cute - and you’ll have it made.”

Best Disney movie?

Straight up Disney? Probably The Lion King or Aladdin. But. If I could throw Pixar Movies in there, then my answer is automatically Finding Nemo. I'm not sure why I love it so much. It is the best.

Isn't she lovely? AND she's flying to New York on Saturday! My Spring Break starts tomorrow and we have a lot of touristy New York shenanigans planned. I can't wait!

 

good morning.

Some photos from my last semester black and white film class. The assignment was sequence. I'm working on a mini-class that I'm debuting on Friday. Chunkier posts coming soon! <3

 

Black and white

I thought I'd start sharing some of my work from first semester. I've been feeling sort of disgruntled and uninspired in regard to my black and white photography class. I mean, I've loved and appreciated learning to develop and print my own photos because it's such a dying art. I just feel really bored with black and white and want to do color and digital. I had drama with my film camera all semester and then it broke and then I about lost it, but was able to pull out this little series of a corner of trash and junk on campus that I actually like.

Thanks for looking!

darian...

Today my friend Darian and I went on a photo adventure + out to Starbucks for coffee and chit-chat(notice a trend in my outtings? guess there isn't much else to do in idaho. haha!). I grew up in a neighborhood near this canal and I passed it when my sister and I were driving a few days ago. The water is all gone during the winter and I thought it'd be a neat place to take photos so Darian and I went out there.

The patches of remaining water had frozen over and it was the prettiest thing! The ice was about 5 inches thick(no water underneath so it was quite safe) and so lovely to glide around on. Plus Darian is not hard to photograph, haha.

It's my party and I can cry if I want to.

I've had this shoot in my photoshoot idea book for well over a year. I was waiting for the perfect combination of equipment and model. This summer, I finally had both. Last Wednesday night before I left  I was finally able to get the shoot together with my friend Kaitlyn. I think this is my favorite shoot in forever.

I also used a bunch of the amazing Totally Rad Actions on these. They've gotten me really excited about editing and taking photos. Purchase them if you can, they'll blow your mind. 

Thanks for looking!

Kaitlyn and I met in our Acting class second semester and became fast friends. She is one of the funniest, prettiest, and Jesus-lovin' girls I know. We had a great time that night walking and talking that night. I'm sad we only became friends this last year, but it's been wonderful to know her.

Plus, I love that she has a gap in her front teeth(just like me!). I think gaps are sooo pretty. I don't think I'm ever going to "fix" mine.

And here's one we took as a joke "Senior picture".