Oh the old cliché……my kids. I took my first born to the Picture People three times his first year and thought it was too expensive (HA!) so I decided for his 1 year pictures I would do them. After all, I had a nice SLR and I could do it. Uh, no. So, after lots of rolls of film I got about 6 keepers. That year for Mother’s day (and also my birthday and anniversary) my husband bought me a Canon Digital Rebel XTi. I was awesome! Or so I thought. I took a simple online course on photography that summer and ended up taking pictures of a friend’s little girl. She was almost 2. Well, they gave me $100 and were about the pickiest people ever so I figured if they would pay me, so would others! So, I created a name (which I don’t use anymore), snagged a domain name, designed my own logo, and coded my own website in black and red. I totally put the cart before the horse but thank goodness I learned quickly and learned a lot and have been learning ever since!
What does your camera gear consist of?
Canon 5D
Canon 135 L f/2.0 L
Canon 85 f/1.8
Canon 50 f/1.8
Tamron 28-70 f/2.8
Radiopoppers
Vagabond II
3 Alien Bees (AB800)
10x20 strip box
AB giant soft box
AB Beauty Dish
What are the top 5 things in your studio you just can't live without?
Well, besides the obvious lights and camera……
Oh, there are SO many! Each session is so different and something goofy always happens. I’ve had a mom pretend to pole dance while holding my light for OCF, lent a client a bra when it became clear she was in need (wearing a sports bra with a tight tanktop, not good), lent a client some socks to stuff her prom dress because it was too loose in the bosom and she needed a lift, watching a client come out of a waterfall not once but twice on two separate occasions with soaking wet light colored clothing and a black thong, the day I was buried under a prom dress fluffing it around a stool and making a crack about her not wearing a thong and she said she was……well, let’s just say thong and vinyl stool do not make good friends.
How do you handle your workflow?
My workflow is pretty easy…..I import images into lightroom after each shoot, go through and mark my choices with a *, then I choose three for facebook usually the night of the shoot and process them and put them up. I tweak white balance and all that jazz in lightroom and export to psd to deal with in photoshop where I use MCP eye doctor and some phaunt actions to enhance as I see fit.
If you were on America 's Got Talent, what would your talent be?
Being a dork! Seriously, I just had some clients have a facebook wall chat about how goofy I was and I just can’t help but be silly and funny and a total goof!
You can visit her website at www.rfpstudio.com
