Christmastime is upon us!

The Christmas season is quickly approaching! I have been in some serious denial about this fact. I am usually playing Christmas music by now... not sure what's going on with me this year!

Anyways, I am totally excited about pumping out pictures and Christmas cards and making cool new stuff. And I need your help!

That's right, I totally need your help... you see, I don't do this stuff for the money (ha!) I do it because it's so much fun! But I need YOU to want this stuff, otherwise I'm making fake Christmas cards to sit on my computer and take up space.

This is an example of a card that I just put together. I took this family's pictures over the summer, but I am more than happy to work on designing cards using any pictures. If you have pictures that you already like, I'd be more than happy to work one up for you!



Please email me at contact@amandaslakesphotography.com for information on pricing. Since I haven't done a whole lot of this, you'll be getting a really sweet deal ;)

storyboards and other such things

I realized recently that I have cards and storyboards as options on my website, but I have no examples of them!

My amazing friend Melissa is getting married in May and I had the privilege of taking her engagement photos. She was happy, Jim was happy, I was happy :)

As is customary in recent years, we decided that a "save the date" card would be forthcoming, so I designed one and the final product turned out cooler than I could have hoped.



In real life, they are actually much smaller than you see on your screen :) I printed two on a 5x7 and then we bought big sheets of magnet with stickyness (i know how official and professional that word is, that's why I used it). We put the cards on the magnet and then cut them apart, and they are sooo very cool. It's obviously not an entirely original idea, but it still looks great!

Then, I made a storyboard earlier in the summer for a family shoot I did at the beach. When I pulled it out of the packaging in all of it's 11x14 hugeness, I was completely blown away. Really, it is so different to see prints in real life than to look at them on a computer screen.



After Melissa saw this storyboard, she knew right away that she wanted one for herself. So I worked this one up.



I know not everyone is into this kind of thing, but for those who are, I want to make sure that you know what's available to you from me. My storyboard prices start at $45 for an 8x10 or 11x14 print. I personally think that these look best as 11x14... they can of course be made smaller or larger, but that is my personal preference.

It's a good size, not too small, not too large... just right ;) haha, enough with the goldilocks, I'm off to get my next post ready about Christmas cards!

to all 2 of my readers :)

I love you dearly. I do :)

I have a favor to ask of you though! I really really reeeeeeeaallllyyy want to get this blog out there into the blog'o'sphere.

If you already have me added into your reader, then THANKS!!! And if you haven't then would you pretty pretty please add me :)

I don't even know how I got all the readers I have on my notsoextraordinary blog... it just sorta happened!

Well that's about it, I have more pictures to put up this week. It's been such an amazing fall... and now that we're goin into winter I am more than apprehensive to see how this season pans out.

I am moving into the arena of indoor photography most recently. I have studio lights that I am bringing with me so that I can still do on-location stuff and am hoping to mainly do infant and maternity type pictures that way. Another idea I had was to do mini-sessions for Christmas cards.

I would probably set aside a day and schedule people to come to my house where I would set up a mini studio for the day... then take a family, or individual kid shots and fast-track them so that they could go out in time for Christmas. Would anyone be interested? haha is anyone reading this?

Just some thoughts, I might try to give some legs to that idea and ask around some past customers. Thanks for the add if you linked me :) I <3 bloggy love!

Sneak peek!

Can you believe this gorgeous lady has 7 kids?!



Unreal!

Sherrie is one of the most beautiful people I know, inside AND out! She loves the Lord and is committed to Him in every area of her life.

I can't wait to get the rest of her family pics up here for you to see :) This is just a sneak peek at the entire session. I took them on Friday and only have worked on the ones of her so far as she's sending a brochure to the printer THIS week for her ministry. You can check out her website here, byGraceministries.org.

More pictures to come soon!

Alicia aka the grossest girl EVER (Rochester, NY portrait photographer)

After doing pics up in the city with Traci, I was more than pumped to take my craziest and bestest friend up there.

Unfortunately for us, the light was low by the time we got up there. Here's a visual. Alicia in 3.5 inch heels running down Scio street.

We literally were running from place to place trying to get in enough pictures to make the hike up there worth it!


At first when I looked at this shot in the camera I was kinda thinking... yaaaaaah... i'm not sure about that one. But seriously, it came out so good! I LOVE the realness of it! it's so her!


It's funny, I've been learning not to delete as I go. Because often I have found that photos I think will be awful turn out really great! you can't trust a 2 inch LCD apparently :)



This shot turned out so great. I love the pose, the wall, what she's wearing... yah, I just love it.



Then this one is the same wall as before, I was just at a different angle. What was sooo hilarious though is that while I was trying to take this one, there was this guy walking down the street giving us this creepfest weirdo smile. I actually got a shot of him in the background turned around looking at us and smiling... I don't think it's THAT weird to be taking pictures on the street!


Can we just talk for a moment about the colors in this shot? I love, love, LOVE bright colors, and they just do amazing things in pictures!



My favorite kind of picture to take are close-ups. I just love face shots. In fact, I constantly am forcing myself to back up and take more in!

Tomorrow I have a session with a family of 9 and she has specifically requested face shots. I am stoked about this and I know I am going to be able to rock it!


We had to have one for the scrapbooks :) I don't even think we could gather together all the pictures alicia and I have over the last 5 years.

Speaking of the last 5 years, that reminds me of an amusing story... the one that led to these pictures in the first place.

Five years ago September 2003, Alicia and I were mere freshmen at EBI and were moving into our respective dorms. I remember walking two doors down and striking up a conversation with her whereupon I saw a picture that was taken at the studio I then currently worked at. So I commented on it and we began to talk about photos and photography.

We then moved back to my room where I showed her some of my work... and I believe it was at that point that i became labeled as "alicia's favorite photographer."

Fast forward to last wednesday. The day before these pictures were taken. Alicia decided it was time to tell me a secret she had been keeping for years.

Apparently, our friendship was her "investment." She basically figured if she shmoozed me enough and stayed friends with me long enough... eventually she would get free pictures from me.

The gist of the conversation was her informing me that she was, "cashing in on her 5 year investment." LOL!

too bad we're still friends. I guess her plan didn't work as well as she thought HAHAHA!

Traci aka Lola (Rochester NY portrait photographer)

So I have known Traci literally for years. However, we only became friends about a year ago. We both belonged to the same community group that met weekly and were also taking a gym class at community college with the same teacher.

I seriously love this girl. I am super comfortable around her, so I asked if I could take her pictures just so that I could scout out cool new places and not feel under pressure.



We trekked up to downtown Roc and took these along East mostly. There are a TON of awesome spots up there!





I think my very favorite part about shooting her was that she is an amazing poser. I have a hard time giving direction as far as posing goes. I usually want people to look more "natural" than posed, so I hesitate to give too much direction as I want them to be comfortable. However, every single time she heard the shutter she changed position or facial expression. It was amazing! All I had to do was keep taking pictures! ... maybe I should hire her to come along with me and get other people to do the same ;)


If anyone is interested in doing pics like these in a more urban setting, email me at contact@amandaslakesphotography.com!

Sydney, Claudia and Andy (Rochester, NY children and family photographer)

I promised more from this shoot... and so here are more :)



I was very excited to do this one. These are the three kids that I take care of... you see, I'm more like a superhero photographer this way... like the kind that has a regular job during the day and then at night... yep, that's me.

Anyways, I psyched the kids up as much as I could for this shoot and made them promise not to tell their parents. I even worked in a few bribes as they were taking this very seriously... "if you don't stop it right now, i'm going to tell your mom about the pictures today!" hahaha, i'm so mean, I know.







Pretty much the entire time I was taking these headshots of just Sydney, I was just blown away with how beautiful she is. I was looking through the lens and literally turning around every couple shots mouthing to my mom, "oh my goodness!" she is just so unbelievably beautiful.



Then there's miss Claudia. She is a character. Although she was most excited about doing these pictures, she gave me the hardest time... I would expect nothing less though. She has a super creative eye and i think that it just boiled down to the two of us clashing with ideas :)

But let me tell you what, when this girl turns it on, she is on. So beautiful...



This is Andy, and since I spend more time with him than any other person at this point in my life, he is my little buddy. I love his faces, and his quirky little habits... although some of them drive me nuts.

This particular picture I wasn't able to set-up or shoot until I convinced him that I was able to make him look like a BIG STRONG MAN. I mean really, could it be any other way?





Here are some more of the faces/antics I got to capture... notice the lack of shirt. That was the other thing I had to do if he was going to let me take his picture. He HAD to have his shirt off because how else was anyone going to see his BIG STRONG MUSCLES?



And this, this is the muscle shot. Look at those guns ;)

Tim and gumdrop mountain (Rochester, NY Portrait Photographer)

Like I was saying in the previous post I hadn't done any "just guy" shoots in a few years... and I got two in one week. I was only slightly stressed out... umm, ok maybe a lot.

But it all ended up ok in the end... After we recovered from Tim climbing up the side of a cliff (heretofore known as Gum-Drop Mountain) we finished his shoot up at Linear Park in Penfield.

There's this cool bridge there which I thought was really cool... but we never found it. We ended up trekking along the side of this embankment trying to find the thing, but apparently were going in the opposite direction.

It was, though, one of the most fun shoots I've done. I laughed WAY too much, how can that be a bad thing?



Anyways, while I was taking pictures, another friend of mine had come along with us and took my pictures... Yah, of me laying on the ground like a stinkin army crawler trying to get this shot. I'm saving myself the humiliation and not posting that ;)





This hangar was seriously one of the main reasons I wanted to go to this park. I love distressed buildings and backgrounds. It's kind of cool how something that looks like a piece of junk translates so much differently into a picture.

Bryan's Senior Pics (Rochester, NY Senior Photographer)

Bryan was the first senior guy I have photographed since my brother's and his friends when they were seniors... 4 years ago!

Needless to say, I was pretty nervous going into this shoot. I did my homework though and felt confident to do a good job. So here are a few I picked out for you to look at. The entire set has been posted at the online gallery on my website, but I am just trying to catch up on the last few shoots here :)





This is seriously one of my favorite shots ever. I love love love the more artistic shots that showcase something that is actually still life while including a person in the picture. If people didn't care so much about actually being seen in their pictures, I would TOTALLY do this all the time LOL!



This is great too... I had a girl earlier in the summer who also wanted pictures taken while she was reading her Bible. I seriously love using unique props... it makes pictures so much more interesting and... well, UNIQUE ;)



A field of soy beans... yep, that's what those are. They have such a cool texture and I just love the color here. It was really hard light to shoot in and we had to do this shot a couple times over to get the right exposure and the color to be so vibrant. It was totally worth it though!

Welcome to the blog!

Thank you for coming to visit me at my new photo blog! I am so excited to finally be stepping out in this way in the blog world.

I have been a blogger for about a year now, but a photographer for much longer. My undiscovered dream of creating my own business is finally becoming a reality and I am so excited about being able to continuously share my work with you!

This blog will be for the purpose of keeping up with clients and allowing them to preview their pictures, be real about who I am and what I do, and keeping my creativity flowing.

I hope that you enjoy visiting this blog. It is my intent to update multiple times throughout the week. For me, one of my biggest inspirations getting started in this business has been through reading other photographer's photo blogs.

I love getting comments and feedback :) I try to respond to everyone who communicates with me through the blog and I would love to hear from you!

The last thing I want to do on this post is share some pictures! That is after all, the point ;)



There are more of these, but I wanted to just share what I have time for now :) There will be more later!