New 12x12 Templates for Brides and Grooms

I am so excited to offer these beautiful 12x12 books to my brides and brides to be! They are so beautiful and can also be converted to 10x10 books if you would like. Please email me about pricing if you are interested at stefanimariephotography@hotmail.com

This is a fabulous way to display all your wedding photos and show off to family and friends your special day

Rocky Mountain Cheerleaders ~ Meridian

Where does time go? I have been reminded this month how fast time has slipped away. I just had my 10 year class reunion, both of my kids will start school this year, my husband is turning the big "30" in the next few weeks and I am not too far behind him... and then this photoshoot was just another fresh reminder that I no longer am a teen. These girls were so young, so beautiful, so talented... and although a lot of them cannot wait to grow up and begin their lives... I want to just tell them to enjoy every minute of it while they have it.

My mom would say how fast time would go by and I remembered thinking it didn't go by fast enough! I couldn't wait to drive, date, move out, get a job, make my own money, rules and life decisions. But what I didn't realize is that I would one day miss living a simpler life. Football games, school dances, friends, spending my hard earned money on "clothes!" and not bills!!

Thank you girls for letting me share this small time with you and to be able to capture your youth. Enjoy it, live it and love it because don't worry... soon enough you will be old like me! It really does go by fast!!

And check out this lucky man who was getting his Senior Pictures taken by another photographer! He did not hesitate even for a moment to get this picture taken with these hotties! LOL!

If you are an upcoming Senior and need pictures taken I am offering a Senior Ambassador Program. Click here for more information or email me at stefanimariephotography@hotmail.com. It is a great way to save money and earn free print credits!

Trying something new...

I discovered this really cool blogging header for free at MCP Actions. I actually downloaded it a few months ago and just now uploading it to photoshop. It is really cool and only took 30 seconds to insert photos. I wish I knew how to create these quicky headers like this!

This family session was taken earlier today. Daddy leaves for Afghanistan on Monday for 6 months. It would be so hard to be a mommy with two young boys and daddy being so far away. It makes you appreciate the little things in life that you take for granted.  I thank all the military folks who fight for my freedom and for all the military husbands and wives who are separated from their families while their spouses are fighting for our country. Thanks for all you do!

One day I will photograph them on their 50th Anniversary!

Sometimes a couple is just meant to be. This is one of those couples. Their wedding was picture perfect. They said their own vows, he teared up as he said his I Do's, they laughed, kissed, held hands and never left each other's sight the entire wedding. As a photographer you appreciate the tender candid moments and so many of these pictures during the wedding were just moments captured of this couple.

Here are just a few of the photos of the wedding!



If you are in need of a wedding photographer please email me at stefanimariephotography@hotmail.com.

Why is it important to do things right from the beginning?

Because later after a wedding shoot and you have over 700 images to sort through... you don't want to have to fix every image later! LOL!

I have been asked a lot lately how to control the Depth of Field in your photos and how to create a nice "Bokeh" (blurry) background. A lot has to do with aperature and also the type of lens you are using. Here is an image taken yesterday during a wedding ceremony. This image was left untouched by photoshop... straight out of the camera.
I used my Nikon D80   ~   Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens   ~   ISO set to 800   ~    focus was on the diamonds

Here is the image after I did a noise reduction in photoshop and then sharpened only the rings. I then did a soft focus on the image. Not a big difference.

Now here I used some textures that I got from http://www.lovethatshot.com/. I used the Verona texture and then erased the texture from around the rings so that focus is primarily on the rings.

Very simple edit and took me less then 5 minutes to complete.

.Fix-It Friday #64 • Photo Editing Fun!

It's fix it Friday at http://www.iheartfaces.com/ . Every week you get the opportunity to fix a photo. Here is my version.

ORIGINAL                                                             MY VERSION

and because everyone likes a splash of color in B&W or the classic B&W here are a few more

Happy Friday!

Love That Shot - Blossom Workshop ~ Exercise One

As a photographer you know that it is a never ending journey of knowledge. Technology, lenses, cameras, software...etc. It is always changing and you are always learning new things. I am stepping outside my creative box this week and taking a "Blossom Workshop" at http://www.lovethatshot.com./ I have always loved looking at photos of flowers but never have I really taken the time to photograph them myself. I wish I had planned this exercise a little better but I was limited on time. After a long day of work yesterday I headed out of my house to get some pictures of some flowers (it was 8:45 at night) and the sun was fading fast. I had only about 15 minutes of shooting time available before I was out of light.

The idea of this workshop is to step out of "AUTO" mode in your camera and to start using your camera to it's fullest potential. You will be amazed at how simple it is once you learn how to do it. I am a hands on person and this workshop is great cause they give you step by step instructions on how to set your camera and include visuals too for those (like me) who need to see something to know what to do. But the great thing about this workshop is that it doesn't just apply to "Flowers" you can take this knowledge with you when photographing your kids or animals.

Here was my first exercise
Practice taking photos with these settings. (These were settings given to you in the workshop... visit them at www.lovethatshot.com to find out more!)  Then experiment with your aperture. Try a variety of aperture settings. Take note of what the camera decides to set for the shutter speed and ISO. Observing this is the first step to understanding how shooting in Manual mode works.

Here are my photos taken and I left them SOOC (Straight out of the camera) so you can see my settings. Keep in mind that since these were taken at night my settings may be different then someone shooting in the early morning or later afternoon. Later I will try some different textures that are available for free at http://www.lovethatshot.com/

Also the flowers were starting to wilt.... so when photographing flowers try to find some that are in full bloom. Since I was limited on time I had to settle with wilted flowers. I am going to retry this weekend to find some better looking flowers to photograph.

CAMERA- Nikon D90     Lens: Nikkor 50mm f1.8     Photos taken in Aperature Priority Mode

ISO 400    f/2.8

Notice in this photo my depth of field was off on the front of the blooms (be careful with that when shooting with the 50mm lens. It is an easy thing to do.)

ISO 400    f/1.8 (Probably should have shot in f2.8 here instead)

This flower was all alone.... It was just crying to be photographed

ISO 400   f/1.8

And just so you can see how important it is to use your aperature on your camera this is the difference on depth of field

ISO 400    f/5

Same photo only I changed my aperature 1 stop (notice the background starts to blur (or what photographers call bokeh)

ISO 400   f/4

Again same photo only I changed the aperature (notice the depth of field is even more shallow)(Also please note I change my ISO up to 640 because by this poing the sun was almost set... under normal situations I would have left it) ISO controls how much light your camera allows in... the highter the ISO the more "noise" your photos will have. I always try to shoot between ISO 100-400 if possible.

ISO 640 f/2.8

And finally using my 50mm to it's lowest aperature (notice the bokeh in the background)

ISO 640 f/1.8

I think for this photo the 2.8 is my favorite. With larger flowers the DOF was better at 2.8 range.

Want to learn how to achieve a great bokeh? Visit http://www.lovethatshot.com/ to learn how. It is a great workshop!

Also this is linked up to in the Photo Fridays!