Cueva Family

I have been working really hard on having a short time for processing the photographs after the shoot. Usually, my clients receive the finished product (except if book is included) within one week after the shoot.
So you people understand how much work goes in a shoot, I thought for once I'd make a list of my workflow AFTER the shoot...
1. upload the pictures to computer
2. make selection in bridge
3. edit selected pictures
4. create second folder with same pictures, make them small and add my logo (so clients can use it online with my logo and protect my work)
5. upload pictures to my online gallery/backup
6. upload pictures for printing
7. make photo DVD
8. create label for photo DVD
9. upload pictures for blog and actually blog them ;)
10. sometimes advertise on facebook (that's a small one, but i might as well add it!)
11. pick up prints
12. mail off the DVD with the prints and a letter
DONE ;)
So, if you ever hire a photographer, please remember that we invest a lot of work after the fact. We can't just charge you 50 bucks because what you see us do is only less than half the time we invest in an actual shoot. My average for post-picture taking work at home is about 2 hours per photo-shoot... sometimes more! Now if you think I'm a slow worker, come and watch me crank out those pictures ;)
With driving time, shooting and post shoot work, I count a total of 5 hours of work per shoot...
THANKS GOODNESS MY KIDS LEARNED TO PLAY ON THEIR OWN WELL. And thanks goodness for movies (sad to admit!!).

So, after all of this, here the Cueva Family! Proud to say I took the pictures Saturday and today, Monday, they are done and ready to ship tomorrow!

special promotion

Hello all,
PROMOTION TIME!

I offer a PORTRAIT sessions (no families or groups) including a photo-book of 20 pages (about 5x7 inches) for a special price of $120. 
Make it studio or outdoors, I'm up for almost anything!

THAT'S CHEAPER THAN ANY REGULAR PHOTO SESSION and includes a rad book.

I would like to get back into what I love the most, shooting one on one!
Think of who you would maybe like to give a book to for Christmas, Birthdays, special events.

Be fast, this is seriously a ONE TIME OFFER! Never done before and not to expect again in the near future. If you wanted to get your pictures taken, now is the time to forget about how shy you are and just give me a call or send me an email!

The photo-shoot will have to be done before the 15th of September, 2012. (Yes, that's in two weeks, because after that I'll be SWAMPED with christmas pics).

Take this opportunity and contact me!

aaand the winner is...

... WELL, let me first tell you that this has been really hard for me to decide. I got really different sugesstions. Here my favorites in no particular order:

Joanna via FB: I would love to have our family carwash/turned major water fight photographed. Its something we do together, and I would love to have the memory captured.

BPG: The first day of school in Mt Baldy! My school is one of a kind with an outdoor auditorium, creek, wildlife, and beautiful view of the mountains!

Alli:I think you should do a photo shoot with as many different hats as you can find! ... Or as many hair-dos as possible! So fun!

Heidi: Playing Twister

AAAnd the winner is:

BPG

I'm thinking of tying books together with a belt, hanging from the kids shoulders. Lunchboxes, maybe a Schultuete (the german in me), pencil behind ear, ... maybe a pathway where the child "walks to school"...

BPG, please contact me so we can set this up!

Thanks everyone for participating!

share a little

I follow all kinds of photography blogs... I like to look at different style's and see what they "come up with"... I've always been a picture junkie.

Two of the blogs I follow could hardly be different in type. One is real life photography and the other super fake, though pretending it's real life. Hard to explain and rude to put up links, cause who am I to judge?

Anyway, both have one thing in common. They charge a lot of money to share their "secrets". Why? WHAT ARE THE SECRETS?

Now don't get me wrong I have never been and don't wanna be a MENTOR and I do not have those secrets they are talking about, but I've studied photography and know some things some of you might not know...

HERE ARE MY "Secrets":

1st : if you wanna become a photographer, do NOT underestimate the importance of the technical knowledge. If you don't know (and I mean know) what ISO, shutter speed, aperture, white balance, manual setting, focusing, bulb... mean and how they play off each other, you are NOT READY. look it up online, there is nothing you can't learn, but you have to before you can take pictures properly.

2nd : Learn to see what you want to get from a picture BEFORE you take it.: learn lighting, do you want shadows in your pictures or do you want an even skin tone... do you want to add the "cool" lens flare or do you want it crisp and clean? Do you wanna use reflectors and flashes or just use the natural light?

3rd : you can fix a lot in photo shop, but it'll be suckie work and in the end it won't look perfect either. TAKE THE PICTURE RIGHT AT THE FIRST POINT. take time to adjust the camera. re-adjust during the whole shoot

4th : don't over-edit in photo shop. unless people want a funky style, they likely just want REALLY GOOD pictures, they wanna look their best with a natural flair to it.

5th : get inspired by others, but do NOT copy one to one. it just does not turn out natural, i think. make the pictures your own. and use the personalities of your clients to guide you.

6th : make realistic and fair prices. if you get to a point where you "weed out" you may wanna up-do your pricing...

7th : never stop learning. there is no way anyone knows all the in and outs about photography.

If you are interested in knowing a little more detail about one thing or the other, leave me a comment and i'll try to blog about it...

Thank you, my Max for being an example in sharing. What goes around, comes around. Good luck all of you and enjoy taking pictures weather for a profession or as a mom, dad, uncle, sister, ...

cravings

I'm CRAVING something new. Something I don't get to shoot all the time. Something fresh. I don't talk about a couch in the field new (maybe if you add to it), I talk about personality, beauty (whatever that means), I want a challenge, some "one on one" time (or maybe two). Gimme hippie, gimme ghetto (nothing nude!!), gimme retro, gimme wrinkles, gimme model, gimme organic, real, fake, rich, poor, drama, funny, serious, elaborate, simple ... I DON'T KNOW!

Send me your idea. Best idea wins a shoot (portrait or couple only... and the only thing i ask for is traveling fee, if further than 10miles from chino). I'll give you a whole MONTH to think about it.

Ideas to lydia@lydiatolman.com

Winner will be picked and notified September 1, 2011

Thanks!

Lydia

Back And Forth

It might come as a surprise to you, even as it comes to me, that I'm back on a blogspot to post my pictures after using a "professional" photo-blog.
Well, it turns out, the professional stuff was full of virus to a point where I HAD to delete my whole blog with ALL contents and start all over again.
Needless to say how frustrated I am about the years of work I put into the other blog just to loose it.
THAT IS WHY I decided to go back to what I consider the "old-school" semi-professional look ;)

I will try to blog ALL the old stuff again for your references and to archive some of my stuff, until I do that, please be patient with just a few posts, added whenever I have the time to!

Thanks to all who so loyally follow me even with all the changes and different blogs and websites I had to start and change!

Lydia.