New Studio, upcoming!

June 29, 2009

I finally got the keys to the new studio! It’s going to be a little while before its completely cleaned up and ready to go, but I am still super excited!

Here’s a photo of the way it looks now.. all empty and bare!
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studio1
There is a large back room which is definitely not in usable condition in its current state. Since it will take lots of time any money to fix it up, I am going to work on it slowly, bit by bit, and keep business up front until it is ready to be seen!
It’s located just north of Woodstock, GA in a tiny historical square. It may be a little bit of a drive from downtown Atlanta (about 40 minutes), but its totally worth it!
I will share more photos once I get it looking presentable. I have a lot of work to do!

photoarchive
A super long time ago I did a personal project where I tried to re create Pulp Romance scenes from old comics. It was a lot of fun, but as I was still sort of new to photography back then, I am tempted to try this series again and totally nail it the second time around. But we did get a couple of interesting shots from the shoot and here are a couple of them:

The following photo was a composite of two photos. I took the legs and couple on the couch separately and put them together later. While messing around with the edit, I got this old skool effect mostly on accident. I decided to keep it because it reminded me of an old timey movie which I think is pretty cool!
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This photo was actually an outtake, but I kinda like it!
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This photo was also a composite. The image of the couple in the sunglasses was taken separately and put in to look kind of like a reflection. I then comic-ized it a bit more in the second edit.
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    Saige posted the following on June 15, 2009 at 4:17 pm.

    I must say…you are my HERO! There are 3 major reasons why- 1. You do UNIQUE senior photos. It’s possible you would understand me more if you looked at this link: http://hsproweb.hsphoto.com/SC/index.cfm?fuseaction=ThumbnailPage&eid=9034800&CFID=2445&CFTOKEN=81205B95-E787-C279-5F34103F0E01D53D&rand=15F35524-A1DE-1247-78348AA7B07A7CD5
    SEE! Now, just imagine an ENTIRE senior class getting pictures like those ( you know, that’s probably the reason you set this up, now I feel dumb). I have nothing against Mr.Ezell or his establishment, but it is covered in yawns. As soon as I saw the photos when I was first came to my highschool, I was like, “Oh God, this is my terrible fate.” But then there was light at the end of a dark tunnel -PIXELETTE! I personally am obssessed with photography as a hobby, and even looking at different pictures people take..I just love it! So when I saw your ad on Facebook, I seriously died and just about went to heaven! Fashion inspired senior pics- a lifesaver to many. I can’t wait for next year when I can do a shoot!
    2. Your editing skill is brilliant. I edit my own pictures and of course they wilt in comparison to yours( I painfully use Element 5.0, yeah it’s not brilliant, I take what I can get), but I will get there eventually, as soon as I can get an AMAZING DSLR + CS4. I love the above pictures, especially the very top, very seventies one.
    3. Your’re in Georgia! Never in a gajillion years would I expect such an awesome photographer to be based in GA. But it’s actually smart on your part because people here want what you’ve got.
    I know that this comment is a weird and pathetic essay, but I had to say thanks (even though I haven’t had a shoot yet, THANK YOU!) I actually have a question for you - where did you go to college? I am looking everywhere for a good art school so I figured I’d ask.
    -Saige
    (my blog sucks right now, so if you look at it…it just sucks)

    admin posted the following on June 15, 2009 at 4:40 pm.

    Hey there, Saige! Thanks for the awesome comments.

    I went to the Art Institute in Atlanta, but honestly, if SCAD had been in Atlanta at the time, I would’ve gone there. Their facilities are much much better. (I took a tour when I considered going back for my masters degree and I still kind of want to go!)

    erica posted the following on June 18, 2009 at 9:58 am.

    you are very talented and have such a different style. I absolutely love it!

    Lindze posted the following on July 29, 2009 at 6:47 pm.

    how did i not know about this!! Im so excited to see it finished finally! love it!

I am so behind on blogging my latest senior sessions! Bad Allison! I will try to catch up.
Megan was super fun to shoot because she was so full of energy, and look at that awesome hair! She looked amazing and made my job super easy. We went to downtown Douglasville where there were plenty of historic buildings to shoot around.

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    Janica posted the following on June 17, 2009 at 7:51 pm.

    Wow, Allison, I just checked out your blog for the first time and I’m pretty much in love with your stuff. These shots of Megan are particularly fun - such a gorgeous girl and your lighting rocks. Off to scroll through your archives!

    jennifer posted the following on June 17, 2009 at 9:30 pm.

    fab shots. your colour and lighting are amazing.

    Heather posted the following on June 19, 2009 at 9:37 am.

    These photos are great! What a pretty girl! Love your work!

This is a seriously sweet deal, so don’t miss out!

senior_3daysale21

Sessions will be limited. Session fee is due within 7 days of booking in order to hold your date.

Julia and I went to Sope Creek Park for her portraits, which, despite being about a billion degrees, turned out to be a beautiful location! Julia’s dress totally made her look like a fairy princess, I loved it!

Here are a couple of photos from our shoot:

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Krista was so much fun! I love it when I get to work with someone that is totally up for all my crazy ideas. She totally worked it. We went to Stone Mountain Park which is huuuuuuge! That place has tons of potential photo spots. I was a little overwhelmed by the possibilities, but we picked a couple and went with it. I did a mix of natural light and flash to get some different moods and effects. Even though the shoot was on Friday, I have only had a chance to edit a few, and here they are!

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    Erin Poltorak posted the following on April 21, 2009 at 4:41 pm.

    I love the one on the water! How fun!

Last week I traveled out to Lawrenceville, Georgia to take some senior portraits of adorable Vanessa. I had some technical issues, but managed to work through them without too much trouble! We took these at McDaniel’s Farm Park, a very cool park with tons of wooded trails and old historic farm houses. I had scouted the location the day before, started walking on the trails, and as usual, Georgia’s unpredictable weather left me walking for miles in the freezing cold! Luckily, it warmed up a bit the next day for our shoot. Vanessa was only sort of cold, she was a trooper!
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    Stephan posted the following on April 15, 2009 at 1:10 pm.

    Nice photo collection.

Ok I admit it. I am falling in love with this style. I spent some time trying to improve my techniques from last time and am having a good time fiddling with all the possibilities. So here’s my new batch of edits. Which of these do you think works best?

As an aside, I was asked if I would share the editing process for my future retouch updates. Yes, I promise I will! I just usually don’t keep track of what I do, and there’s a lot of back and forth fiddling involved so I don’t always remember my exact process. I will do my best to write down my steps and hopefully you can try these edits at home too.

Retro 70s style 2

    Saige posted the following on June 16, 2009 at 11:27 am.

    #2 is most definitely my favorite. The colors are so much more rich and deep. It har really good texture as well! I love the seventies effects.

Things I Love: 04.03.09

April 3, 2009

thingsilove

things i love 04-03-09

#1: This photo I found of the Duran Duran concert my buddy Lindze and I attended back in December. You can see us rockin out with our cameras in the front row. Definitely the best show of theirs I have seen (and I have seen quite a few!) Click on the link to see the photo all zoomed.
#2: These dinosaur stud earrings from Modcloth.com. This site is totally my favorite for unique fashion finds.
#3: The interface design and general themes in the video game Fallout 3. I am late on the boat, as this game has been out for a little while, but I just started playing it. Only a few hours in, I am mesmerized by the style of everything. It’s all post apocalyptic but has a retro 40s feel. It’s really a must see for game lovers and design lovers alike.
#4: My new lens: the Canon 50mm 1.4. It’s sooo nice and sharp. For the price, it’s a majorly good lens.
#5: Retro cartoons, in this case: Lady Lovelylocks. I was having a discussion with some online buddies about the awesome girlyness of this long forgotten cartoon of the 80s. I personally loved the nemesis Duchess Ravenwaves. I wanted to be her when I was a little girl.
#6: Thinkgeek.com’s April fool’s day items. They totally made me laugh. In particular, this sleeping bag that I really really wish was real!!

    Abra posted the following on April 5, 2009 at 11:27 pm.

    HO-LY CRAP!!!!!! I have not seen Lady Lovelilocks in forever. What a distant memory. I had a set of playing cards with all of them. And you are totally right. Dutchess Ravenwaves was my idol. That is hilarious.

    Newbie blog stalker and I just had to comment on that.

    Abra posted the following on April 5, 2009 at 11:34 pm.

    Okay just got a refresher course from your link as to how “evil” the Dutchess was so she was not my idol in personality as much as she was in style. She totally rocked more than Lady Lovelylocks. The dark hair and the cool gypsy inspired dress. Heck yeah. I’d take her look anyday. ;)

    Allison posted the following on April 6, 2009 at 7:14 am.

    Yes, it was definitely her looks more than anything else I coveted from Ravenwaves. She was sassy, too!

    Joey posted the following on July 14, 2009 at 8:55 pm.

    If the 50 1.4 can focus well in low light then I’m tossing my 1.8 in the circular file and ordering one tomorrow. I sent the thinkgeek crew emails begging them to make the taun tuan sleeping bag. the lightsaber zipper had to have been the best part.

retouchremix

Lo-fi photography is all the rage these days. Scene kids everywhere are scrounging up their old Polaroid and Lomo cameras and making lots and lots of photos that look like something you mom might’ve taken. But you don’t have to go out and pay top dollar for a vintage camera to get the effect. Plenty of people are creating this look with photoshop. There’s even a Flickr group dedicated to this art form.
This was my first attempt at trying to create the retro effect. I took two photos from an old set that I thought was not salvageable. The originals are slightly out of focus and the exposure is a bit off. I thought maybe an extreme retouch could save them. I am not so sure it did completely. But it was a fun exercise! The first photo is more saturated and contrasty (i totally made a new word) and the second is more muted. Which one do you think works best? Maybe they both fail? You decide!

Retouch Remix: Retro style edit 1

Retouch Remix: Retro style edit 2

    Stephanie H. posted the following on April 2, 2009 at 5:39 pm.

    I really like both but I think I dig the second one a bit more.

    I think they turned out really cool!