peaches n’ sunshine

Happy Tuesday.

“God, goals, growing + glowing”

First of all, thank you so much for enjoying my work! I take a lot of time to put effort into everything I share, it’s really nice to hear that you like it :). Second, photography/videography is AWESOME and it’s rewarding when you get the positive feedback but, no matter how good, you’ll always have that one person that maybe doesn’t like your work as much as you thought they would. My advice is to not let that get to you. Although I should not be one to talk because I overthink my existence after this happens (yes it has totally happened to me), I have to remind myself that it’s a lesson and take the negativity to a positive level. As humans we set aside the good things and focus on that ONE negative thing but, just use it as motivation to do and be better. Always, always keep learning and creating. My photos have evolved, A LOT lol. They still are & will continue to!

I started off in 7th grade when my dad bought my mom a DSLR camera for her birthday and it slowly but surely became mine, ha. I used it every day. My little brother became my model and then my little sister and eventually Julianna too. That’s when I decided to take senior portraits. I fell in love with making people love themselves! I currently take senior & family portraits, but I would love to eventually get more into weddings/couple & engagment. I love love lol. I’m such a sucker for a good love story.

My first editing program was PicMonkey, HAHA. I always had an eye for angles and what to shoot, how to shoot but it is the editing that I really struggled with for a while. My creativity was never the problem. Saturation, hue, contrast, exposure, shadows, sharpening + more…all of it can be tricky as heck. But eventually once you play around it’ll all fall into place. Practice, practice, practice. Grab your girlfriends and have a full day of shooting. I cannot tell you the amount of dress-up I’ve played from high school until now with girlfriends & couples! Seriously, fill your trunk with half your closet and scout locations! Just drive and stop when something catches your eye. That’s your creative mindset kicking in.

That DSLR I mentioned? The Canon Rebel t3i, I actually still use it (yes I do like it! I just don’t recommend it for professional photos) because I have yet to save up for my dream camera but, I make it work for now. My lenses are the 55mm + the 300mm. They came with it. I actually had a high school friend’s brother who is now a dad message me asking what camera he should get for his wife. They were brand new parents & he wanted something for baby’s first steps, crawling, etc., but something that would last through the start of dance recitals and little league too. I recommended the newst version of the Rebels (t6i at the time, now it’s the t7i) to him.

I also have my hand-held Sony a6000 that I bought for travelling/on-the-go and I LOVE it. The only downfall is that the screen doesn’t swivel upward for videos taken in ‘selfie’ mode (like the one on my Insta). I’m actually planning to sell it soon because of that. It’s a lot more difficult than you think due to the lack of that ‘selfie’ feature.

I self-taught myself to use my DSLR camera lol. I wish I could be like ‘oh yeah, i watched a million tutorials on youtube’ or ‘my mom showed me’…nope. Practice! Lots of it. My photos are n o t h i n g near perfect but, a lot of that has to do with the fact that I don’t have the correct camera/lenses yet. Soon enough, soon enough.

Editing photos came with time, like I mentioned. I did take a photography class in high school but, we used Nikon cameras (I am personally not a fan of them). They were so different from the Canon. I grew up with Canon so it is what I prefer. The photography class didn’t do much of anything for me, actually no benefit to my photography skills I have now. It was Photoshop related things, way too much might I add, and that’s not what I was interested in. Lighting and color adjustments are what I like best! I currently use Lightroom CC to edit photos. Best decision/investment I’ve made in my career as an amateur photographer, hands down. I love it so much! My current love is Tezza (@tezzamb) & Jaci Marie (@jacimariesmith) presets (both Instagram bloggers that I’m obsessed with). I hope to create/sell my own presets one day! I also use my iPhone as a camera almost all the time (my last 3 photos on instagram were with my iPhone!) I don’t always have a camera on me so my iPhone works JUST as well. I use the free Lightroom app on there to edit too. VSCO was my love for a while but I actually don’t even have the app on my phone anymore! Once I used Lightroom there was no going back. RIP VSCO.

s/o to you for getting through this, i’m not an expert but I strive to be one day. I hope this helped answer any photo/editing related questions! If I did not answer something you were wondering, DM me or leave a comment.