(Baby Sarah… awwwwh)

Two weeks ago, the Bishops had beautiful baby Sarah…. on the date scheduled for their baby shower!

So, we rescheduled to this past week.

I was only able to stay for a little while since it was the the day before all the photos were due for the university’s alumni magazine (me = on a deadline!)… and took pictures for only a few minutes since I was trying to eat lunch while playing with Kari, my friends’ daughter and my adopted niece. While these are really just snapshots, and originally never intended for my blog, I thought I’d share – baby showers are such a happy event, and I like happy.

Big thanks to Jayme for planning a wonderful event, and congrats to Jake & Natalie on their beautiful baby girl!

(One of the games was asking the guys to tie their shoe while having an inflated balloon between their chest and legs. Ha!)

(Another game was called “guess what candy bar is in the diaper.” It was all mashed up, and not delicious-looking at all. Glad I was able to skip out on that one.)

This is my last installment (well, for now at least) of my Architectural Artifacts photos…. and I think it might be my favorite yet!

For those new to my blog, or just stopping by, one of my wedding couples is getting married at this fabulous place next year, and after their description, I just had to see for myself the wonder of Architectural Artifacts.  And, since Casual Friday is all about sharing things I love (and I fell in love with it), here are the pictures!

The last two blogs of this series can be found here and here.

(Do you ever feel like you need an extra hand? Well, this is the place for you.)

(Doll heads for the horror movie maker)

(They might even be creepier in color)

(I love patterns)

Yesterday, Billy & Michelle got married!

I don’t want to gush too much here because it’s just a sneak peek, but it was a beautiful wedding for two wonderful people. I’m so happy for them! But, on to just a few pictures… I wish I could share more because I’ve already found several favorites, but the rest will come soon!

(Right before going into the church)

(Hitched! Don’t they look so happy?)

(Some fun at the reception)

Last week’s Casual Friday entry included several images from my visit to Architectural Artifacts. This week, I bring you part two of the three part series. Actually, I want to go back there with a film camera in hand, so there might even be a part four or five. Hey, it’s a cool place and it’s inside (said as I look at the window at the never ending snow).

Anyway, without any more ado, I bring you some very random photos.

(I adored the light that was coming in this stairwell. I can’t wait to do wedding photos here!)

The other day, I asked my readers if they had any questions that they would like me to address on my blog – since winter is “the slow season” in Chicago, I have a bit of extra time to blog things I otherwise wouldn’t. I was actually a bit surprised by the questions; they had more to do with photography details and business start-up than actual services, but hey, I said I’d answer anything! If you have a question for me, head on over to the blog post and ask away!

The first question I’m going to address is from my friend and client Thao:

“Hi, Tasha! Great post; thanks for asking us for suggestions! I would personally love to know how you began building up a steady client base, especially before you had a big portfolio. Did you rely on personal recommendations? What marketing tools did you use? What do you think made you stand out from other photographers?

I know how WE (Dan and I) found (and loved!) your work, but I’m curious to know if that was an anomaly or a part of your regular business strategy.”

A bit of background – when I first started portrait and wedding photography, I ran a special where I gave away a very limited number of free sessions as a portfolio builder. Thao was one of my first clients, and found me through some retweets about that special on Twitter. We had a fantastic engagement session together (still one of my favorite sessions to this date), and I’ll be shooting her wedding this June, and I couldn’t be more excited!

Thao herself is working on starting a paper design company, so I can see how apt this question is for her. Oh, and by the way, if you’re looking for some fabulous, classy, and creative work for invitations, save the dates, etc., check her out. Here’s one of her latest projects.

Ok, now on to the answer….

The first thing I did was create a portfolio and, at the same time, try to get my name out there. This is where those few free portrait/e-sessions came in. I know if you offer a quality product for free, word spreads like wildfire… and I also knew I couldn’t sell myself to paying clients in the near future without something to show them that I did indeed know how to work a camera and had a creative eye. Along the same lines, I also offered drastically reduced wedding packages for the first free months I was in business. I needed to get clients to me and create some buzz.

I don’t condone working for free or cheap on an ongoing basis – photography and other creative fields involve A LOT of hard work and you should always respect your work and charge what you are worth – but I don’t see anything wrong with offering specials on a short-term or limited basis to get people in the door. I mean, it’s worked for a lot of large businesses, right?

After that initial push, now that I had some sort of portfolio in order, I relied (and still do) heavily on social networking and word of mouth. I’m really lucky in the fact that I’ve been known in a photography capacity for years since I’m an established music photographer as well as a wedding/portrait photographer…. thus, when people think of me, the fact that I am a photographer is forefront in their mind. I get a lot of referrals from friends, or inquiries from people that know my music work and are now getting married. I also have fantastic clients who refer me to friends and family as well as on wedding boards. Chicago is an extremely saturated market and I think many, if not most, people in the area look for recommendations for photographers rather than just blindly Googling. As far as social networking, I try to put my photos out there and let them sell me… I post on Facebook, on my blog, I tweet often, I use Flickr…. I try to make it as easy as possible for people to find me.

In addition to working with social networking, I also really focus on customer service. I do my best to answer emails quickly and thoroughly. I try to go to my clients for consults and meetings instead of having them come to me. I listen to them when they talk about what they want in their photos, rather than just running blindly with my own ideas (although I also do incorporate my own style and thoughts). For wedding clients, I always always remember what a stressful, fun, and exciting day a wedding day is, so I do what I can to reduce the stress and capture the fun and excitement.

I think my attention to my customers is one thing that sets me apart from others, and the other thing is my background. As mentioned, I come from a music photography background, which lets me be very comfortable with low lighting and fast movement (such as a reception at a wedding). I also work at a university where I do portraits and events on a regular basis. Between music photography and my university job, I am shooting every single day, even if I don’t have any business related portrait or wedding shoots. Sometimes I have several shoots in one day. I’m practiced, I’m used to different styles of photography, and very few things can throw me for a loop. I also am used to working with different locations and different people. I think aside from all those factors contributing to my confidence level, it also gives me a different viewpoint or “eye.” I like to think I’m great at telling stories with my photos, whether it is a concert, a portrait, an event, or a wedding.

Ultimately, I think as long as you’re dedicated, passionate, professional, and look for every opportunity to get your name out there, you’ll succeed. If you’re excited about your work, others will be too.

With it being winter in Chicago, things are a bit slower since most of the city becomes hibernating bears during the winter (or wait, is that just me?), so it’s a good time to get caught up on things – making samples, doing lots of consults, etc. It’s also a good time to do some blogging that I otherwise wouldn’t get to do. So, my question is this…. is there anything that you want to know about? It doesn’t have to center around my business (although it can), and it can have anything to do with the details of photography (processing, gear, how-to, etc), products, what to expect at photoshoots, questions about wedding/portrait shoots, or even any personal questions about me (but maybe not TOO personal!).

I have a few ideas myself, but I would rather answer any burning questions that anyone has!

Last weekend, I stopped into Architectural Artifacts, an 80,000 sq foot warehouse full of, well, artifacts. I discovered it because one of my clients chose it for their wedding, and after hearing about it I was so curious that I just had to stop by. I’m so glad I did. I was only able to walk around for a little while, and there are still areas I didn’t have the chance to explore… I need to go back. I also took so many pictures there that I have to do several posts about it, so check back next week!

For those curious, these were all taken with a Canon 5D2 and the Canon 35mm f/1.4L.

Thanks Angie & Jim for telling me about this place, I can’t wait for your wedding!

(I could have taken pictures of these slides all day!)

(there were toilet paper holders ALL up and down the walls, it was a-mazing)

I want to start doing before & after posts every few weeks or so… I personally find them interesting, and I know other photographers do too. I think that it’s also good for my clients to see some of the work that happens AFTER the shoot.

I had a before & after post up earlier this week, but I took it down… so this is a retake. This particular photo is from one of the first portrait sessions I did. Sonja is a friend of mine, and we had so much fun with this shoot. It was around sunset, and the light was beautiful in color, but it was being filtered through trees (we were in a forest preserve), so I had to work to avoid “hot spots” where the light was coming through full-force, but also not underexpose too much for the areas of the photos that were in shade.

This is the original, or RAW image:

I always shoot in RAW, meaning that the camera does not alter the photo at all. Cameras, when shooting in JPG, tend to change the image slightly to make it more pleasing – it will sharpen the image, add saturation, add contrast, etc. Since every photo is different, I prefer to make my own decisions when it comes to photo tweaking (for this reason, I also always shoot in manual…call me a control freak), so by shooting in RAW, the camera doesn’t change anything… I change everything I want to in Lightroom and/or Photoshop.

I purposely underexposed this photo slightly as to avoid as many blown highlights as a I could and to also keep detail in the background. I knew that I could underexpose part of the picture, but later bring it back up in Photoshop.

This is the edited photo:

For this edit, I started in Lightroom and changed exposure, contrast, and white balance so that I had a good starting point. I also used the recovery slider to get back some of my highlights, and use the fill light slider to bring up some of the darker areas that I originally had to underexpose.

I then opened it in Photoshop, where I used a few actions to give it more of a “sunset glow” and to even out the skin tones a bit. Specifically, I used Redleaf’s Groovy & Foxy actions (at full opacity), and then their new Lightleak action, but I tweaked it so all the adjustments in the action, aside from the action coloring of the leak, were turned off. I finished off with one of my actions at 50% opacity, which is a vignetting action, but it creates a yellow/red toned vignette, instead of a black vignette.

Casual Fridays are supposed to be about things I love – whether it is a picture of something I love, or a picture I love, or a photo taken with a piece of gear I love. But, I’m breaking the mold this week.

I don’t love snow.

I grew up in Southern California. When I lived there, I loved snow, because that meant I was on vacation. Now… not so much. HOWEVER…. I do love some of the things that come with snow. I love snow days (sadly, we didn’t get any time off work for this round of snow), I love cute boots that must be worn because the snow is so high, and I LOVE snow cream. Before this week, I had never had snow cream, but now I’m in love. Unfortunately, I ate it all before I could take a picture of it. It’s like ice cream, but cheaper and healthier!

Here’s how to make it:

You Need:

A big bowl of clean snow (about a gallon)
1/4 cup of sugar
1/2 to 1 cup of milk
A teaspoon of vanilla extract

Mix the snow, vanilla and sugar up, then stir/mix in the milk till it comes together.

(We’re obviously not having any outdoor picnics for a while)

This was quite possibly one of my favorite portrait sessions to date. Ruti found a fantastic little art gallery in the city – the staircase and the detailing that it had was so phenomenal, I wanted to live there! As I mentioned in the sneak peek of these photos, Ruti is a very talented classical pianist, so we got some shots of her playing the piano as well as some portraits. It was also a treat to have a private concert with a classical, professional pianist playing. Have I mentioned that I love my job?

I gravitated to using window light as my main source of light for the portraits because both the setting and Ruti are very elegant, and I think the soft quality of the window light really exemplified the elegance. Besides, I just really love window light.

I hope, dear readers, that you enjoy the photos – there are a lot of them. I couldn’t help it.