Art In Motion With Animoto

You may remember me expressing my love of Animoto before.  I love it.  
{Thank You Dr. Sheely for telling me about it 2 years ago!}


It's a quick and easy alternative to building your own videos.  I enjoy making videos in iMovie, which is fabulous, but I always struggle with adding the music.  I don't listen to music a lot and I don't have a library full of selections to add to my videos so that was the defining choice for me to choose Animoto.  They have a large library of music to choose from and if you have the Pro account the selection increases quite a bit.  No worries about violating copyright and all that legality stuff~


I have been wanting to incorporate video with my photo sessions for a while so I've been experimenting with Animoto again recently.  Here's a look at The Story of Zara that I created for my friend Sharon and her sweet baby girl.  I've titled my videos Art In Motion....because, that's exactly what it is!





If you're thinking of adding video to your photography business or just want a great program to make videos for fun, Animoto is the perfect place.  Check it out!  And be sure to share a link with me if you make your own videos...I want to see them!

Behind The Scenes Newborn Baby Zara

So I had the Ultimate Extreme Pleasure of being with my *bff* last week during the birth of her second child ~ Zara.  Isn't that the coolest name!


And even though I was super excited for Sharon, I have to be honest, I was more excited for me that I had a newborn to photograph!  I've never done an "official" newborn session before but I've been blog stalking some sites lately and studying posing and props so I've been waiting for this gal for a while so I could try out all my newfound knowledge.  Well let me warn you....IT'S HARD!  


Yes, babies are bendable and are supposed to sleep thru anything during those first days of life but my experience wasn't all smooth sailing~  No matter how hard I tried she kept curling her fingers and I couldn't get those knees to bend for anything!  But in between the feedings and cranky faces she posed like a dream  and now I'm positively in love with newborn photography.  And with Zara.  


Here's some lovliness...just 6 days new~

And for all you Behind the Scenes junkies, here's my humble set-up in my living room...

I feel compelled to tell you that I only used that little stool for a few body part shots while mom was safely holding baby...the rest of the time I used a mega huge ottoman to lay the baby on.  It just looks so tiny from this photograph!  


And for you hardcore Behind The Scenes junkies I made a video!  Yeahh!  
Here's a quick peek with me basically showing you the scene above while trying to keep a hungry newborn from screaming in my arms.  Ohh these models....quite the Divas!!


Enjoy~

Makin' It Work ~ Using 1 Studio Light

While Erin over at Texas Chicks Blogs & Pics is away partying with the Royals this week, I've been featured as a guest writer again on her site.


If you're like me and sometimes you find yourself in less-than-ideal shooting situations, you may be able to relate to my Makin' It Work series.  In case you missed the first post,  Makin' It Work ~ Using Window Light can be read HERE.  


Today's post ventures into the fascinating world of studio lighting where I tell all about my first attempt at using a softbox.  You'll see exactly how I created this image...

So don't waste another second and head over to Texas Chicks Blogs & Pics for my ramblings on

Makin' It Work ~ With 1 Studio Light