Ko'Olina, Hawaii and the new studio

I can't believe it has been over a week since my last blog.  I am trying this new idea of being consistant.. do you think it worked? ;)  What happened to at least 1 post every Monday?! 
Well any how I wanted to do a blog post so I thought I would go back to few weeks ago when I photographed a friend of mine and her family.  We live in Hawaii so when her family came in to visit naturally they decided to do their pictures outside at the beautiful Ko'Olina resort.   We were all exciting to watch the sunset in just take in the beauty of Hawaii.  The hubby and I snapped a few pictures as the kids played and we had a great time. Here are a few of my fav's
A couple of days ago I photographed in my new studio, and it was a ton of fun.  I had the cutest 4 month old on my white seamless backdrop propped up on a beanbag.  Well, being that he is 4 months and he is pretty strong so I decided that the bean bag was not going to work for to long.  I then remember one of my favorite photographers (Sandy Puc') that photographs mainly family portraits and babies, and we got to work using mom as a prop.  I think we captured some really cute ones of Kaleb and his family.  The portrait session is on the website but here are a couple of my fav's from the session.

I just love this shot that my hubby captured of Jody and Chris

 

Retouching Real People: Before

 

After

I just love his little toes and the way he is holding on to mommies hair

Retouching Real People

In the March issue of Photoshop User magazine one of my favorite instructor's Jane Conner-Ziser, is featured in an article on "Retouching Real People: A Master's Approach," and when I saw this title I got excited.  I have always retouched real people, making sure to keep each individual looking like themselves from the image being captured at the click of the shutter to the final print.  Each step along the way I am enhancing the eyes and touching up ever so slightly so that when you see your print you love it.  You get the feeling of, "I don't know why, but I love this print so much there is just something special about it but I cannot put my finger on it."  That is my favorite response to a final print.  My final prints keep you looking like you, but with a beautiful soft style of retouching.
Another favorite instructor of mine would have to be Katrin Eismann (Photoshop Diva).  A couple of years ago while I was at a weekend seminar I took a class that she was teaching and she said one thing that has stuck with me "The eyes are the windows to the soul."  This statement remains true throughout my retouching style.  Below is a before and after picture of a high school senior that I shot while living in Florida.