Just dropped my boy off at school and thought I would get some of my updates up here before I start editing again.

Two weekends ago we went up to Saratoga for the 3rd Annual Adirondack Sports & Fitness Summer Expo.

They had a photobooth from www.saratogaphotobooth.com set up as a demo, where you could get FREE photos! It was so fun and I took full advantage:) I wanted a photo for my website of me with my camera so I used this as my chance. How cool to be able to rent one of these for a party! Oh and I was a bit worried about how I would look since I didn't plan on getting photos taken. The great thing is that is slightly overexposes-which is great for wrinkles:) Truly-I notice that I lean toward overexposing my portrait photos, and with all the editing I have been doing I have realized that the light fills out imperfections in the skin. I would like to say I new this and did it on purpose, but it was a chance discovery. I have a bit of shaky hand syndrome so I often have my aperture as open as I can -often at the lowest setting so that the shutter speed can be as fast as possible-eliminating some of the blur from hand shake.

This next photo my husband took last night after dinner when i was checking out the dancing with your inner child you tube video Deni linked to on her blog. I look a bit pissed off-but it really that I am nearsighted and didn't have my glasses on. Actually I was a bit annoyed since my son kept coming up under my arm to see too. I love him dearly but in the evening after dinner and a long day of being attentive to his 3 yr old needs and discussions I look forward to my husband taking over. Sometimes my son will get a kick out of being under my arms so to speak when I finally get on the computer at night and am no longer paying full attention to him. He is also encouraged when my husband gets a kick out of my slight annoyance and decides to take photos of it. My son is a real ham.

Speaking of cameras-I splurged and bought myself a new canon 40d and an 85mm canon lens a few weeks ago. The quality-is really really an upgrade from the rebel in terms of noise. The blotchy grain you get when your ISO is higher to compensate for lower light. The noise is nice to some degree in my fine art photographs but not so great when taking portraits. I did purchase noise ninja which is an amazing tool but it adds an extra step to editing and sometimes takes too much away from the photo, in terms of skin texture-especially with people who have freckles or with men with any type of beard scruff.

I have made big financial investments in my photography so this is a big part of why I have been so consumed trying to get my portrait business up and going. I have to pay off my camera and all the other investments I have made! All of the shoots I have done so far have been portfolio building=free sitting fees. Luckily it is starting to shift to paid shoots but I still have to get all the galleries up for the portfolio building models, and editing a bunch of photos at once is a lot different than editing a flower photo here and there. I have been exploring a lot about batch processing in photoshop. I really want to share all I have learned but I have to wait for a bit of free time, but I will get to it and share what I have learned.

With all this editing I have been focusing alot on balancing my time, being a good mom and wife at the same time.

My day goes something like this:

7:00 my husband wakes up and my son does soon after.
8:00 I crawl out of bed go downstairs and eat breakfast with my son on the couch and watch cartoons with him.
8:30- my husband gets ready to leave the house and my son and I get dressed brush our teeth etc.
9:00-9:30 I check in with my friends on the phone-see what the plans are for the day for them and us. Wed, Thur and Fri my son goes to school at 9:15. Monday and Tuesday we meet friends for playdates at around 10:00.
10:00-11:50 on school days I get home and start editing and doing business stuff
11:50-pack a snack to bring with me when picking up my son from school.
12:00-1:00 either run errands or wrap up from playdates.
1:00- get home play a bit and then put my son down for a nap.
1:30-3:30- often my son naps and I clean up the kitchen and house a bit. Do Do more business stuff, get dinner started.
3:30-my son gets up we have snack and then play either outside or go to see friends.
5:30 my son watches a show while I get dinner set.
6:00-6:30 my husband gets home we have dinner and play with my son.
7:00-7:30 my husband takes my son-I check email and then clean up from dinner. Or if I have a shoot it is usually around this time.
7:30-8:00 I do some computer stuff
8:00-8:30 spend time with husband and then off to bed at around 10 or 11. I am pooped.

hmm speaking of schedules ....I need to get to editing.