Before….and After

I am going to start a monthly feature called, you guessed it, “Before and After”.   Sometimes we are tempted  to cut corners to save our pennies and I completely understand that. I try to use coupons, ONLY buy off the clearance rack and on sale items and am well known for my frugal style. Some might even call me a tightwad. There are some things that are so important that I would not cut corners too much on. Namely, for me those things have to do with memories, sentimentality of when my kids were little, and special events. For example, when our daughter got married, her dream wedding was a beach wedding. We went frugal and DIY all the way! (You wouldn’t believe it if I told you how much we paid for her perfect wedding dress!) It was a lot of work hauling all of that stuff from Missouri to Florida. She made her own cake, we all arranged the flowers, we rented the chairs and to save money set up the bamboo arbor ourselves and did all of the decorations for the reception. We cooked all of the food and even supplied our own ministers – by the way, the father of the bride AND the groom are both in the ministry so that was very special! The one thing we would not compromise on was the wedding photographer. We were so fortunate to be able to hire the fantastic Rae Leytham Photography. Wes and Rae both made the event so memorable and I can’t say enough good things about them. They were funny, relaxed and totally the perfect choice for us. I do not regret spending the money on the fantastic images we now have to cherish of the otherwise very frugal wedding. ANYWAY, enough about weddings.

I say all that just to lead into this. So many people have “nice” cameras and are more than willing to photograph your baby, child, family, senior and even wedding. However, they may not be fully knowledgeable of how their camera operates and what it is really capable of. And they may not use or even have the latest photo editing software. In my opinion, I would never photograph any event without touching up and editing each image purchased. The editing process can be time consuming when there are hundreds of images.  Of course, the less editing you have to do the better and usually means you have a good grasp of your camera equipment. That being said, when I am in a picture I want my skin softened and my teeth whitened. I want my blemishes removed and eyes brightened.  Some people like the more drastic and dramatic editing styles. My own style is to be more natural and classic, not following the latest fad style of the moment. I don’t think I want to look at my photos of my baby years from now and they are all washed out and hazy (vintage style) or tinted in some strange shade of blue or green. This is not to say I would never edit in those styles as you will see in a moment.

Before I go on forever, I wanted to post a couple of lovely senior girl before and after shots. One is more classic, the other is more dramatic – just to contradict what I just said I thought I’d throw it in. It is not my normal style.