{Confession Time} Look Ma! No Hands!

Yes friends, I have a confession to make... what is that, you may I have only shot in RAW once before {well, now twice before} in my adventures as a photographer.

But I'm finally taking the plunge and going completely to RAW for the forseable future- I think this will be an amazing opportunity for growth in my photography and my editing... and I'm scared but excited!

I liken photography to learning how to ride a bike... with "Auto Settings" on {these would be the training wheels} it's easy to get a semi-decent shot, and you don't have to worry too much about under/over exposure and you have successfully preserved the memory. But when you take the camera off "Auto" and turn it to manual, you can begin to tell your camera what you would like it to do, how you would like it to capture the memory, and how you want to save it so you can really preserve the feeling of the moment later {this would be like learning how to ride your bike with no hands, or learning how to do tricks with it}. Anyone can ride a bike, but can they ride a bike off a jump with no hands?
Just like anyone can point a camera and shoot, can they really manipulate the camera to catch the emotion in a grooms face when they're seeing their bride for the first time as she walks down the isle? Enough to move the viewer of the photo and allow them to feel that emotion?

This is why I'm moving solely to RAW. To try and take that emotion to the next level. Look ma! No Hands!

100 Fan Celebration Contest!!!

We've done it! With your help we have 100 Facebook fans!

To celebrate, I'm giving away a free session {1-2 hours of shooting and a free disc with print release of 30 of your favorite images!!}

To enter, go to my celebration note on Facebook and Share it on your wall! Then leave a comment below the note! Yep that's all!

Contest ends at 9:30pm MST Friday, February 4th!! Must be in the Missoula area or willing to travel for the session! Session time can be used any available time in the next 6 months!

1 Winner will be randomly chosen from the comments below the note and announced by Saturday at Noon! Good luck!!

My Beautiful Home!

This is a series of photos I took on Friday evening and made into a panorama... I LOVE Missoula!
{click on the photo to get the full effect!}

Lunar Eclipse

So I braved the cold and sat outside for 45 minutes last night from 12-12:45am... I think my camera will kill me if I take it out in the cold again... however, I did get some pretty cool shots, this was SUPER exciting because I'd never really gotten moon shots before!

The Potters {Take One}

Eric and I have had the blessing and honor of gaining many beautiful friendships over the last few years. One of those blessings has been the Potters. Jesse and Stacy just had baby Boaz in September, and I couldn't WAIT to take photos of their little family. We were just waiting on Boaz... ;) but he finally broke a smile! :) So I got to break out the camera!

Here's {take one} of the Potters beautiful little fam. (We'll be taking some indoor photos next)

Checkout this AMAZING giveaway!

Below is the link to a pretty great giveaway from Morgan Kervin, easily one of my most favorite photogs! She's celebrating her 25th and to do it she's got quite the giveaway package! All you photographers out there check it out!!

http://morgankervin.blogspot.com/2010/12/its-birthday-giveaway.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FsXeK+%28Welcome+to+my+blog%21%29

Sneak Peek {All in the Family}

I had the pleasure of shooting for an old friend of mine when she was in town before Thanksgiving. Here's a sneak peek of what we did!