Melissa Arlena Photography Blog http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:54:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 {Kelli & Andy} Wedding http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/kelli-andy-wedding/ http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/kelli-andy-wedding/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:53:40 +0000 melissa http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/?p=878 Here is the follow-up post with more photos of Kelli and Andy’s wedding!  It was fun being a guest at a wedding surrounded by friends, it gave us a chance to let loose and enjoy the open bar ;)   Bringing only one camera was fun as David and I passed it back and forth.  I’ll post a photo of each of us at the bottom!

]]> http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/kelli-andy-wedding/feed/ 0 {Kelli & Andy} Wedding at Waterford Receptions http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/kelli-andy-wedding-at-waterford-receptions/ http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/kelli-andy-wedding-at-waterford-receptions/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:31:29 +0000 melissa http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/?p=805 Yesterday our friends Kelli and Andy were married at Waterford Receptions in Springfield, Virginia! David and I originally were not going to be able to make their wedding but we were able to pull it off in the end and I am so happy we were able to share their day. I met Kelli the same weekend I met David, my husband on a whitewater rafting trip and she won me over immediately. She is super sweet and boisterous and has one of the most expressive faces I’ve ever seen. I’m so excited sitting here editing the images David and I captured because she was just gorgeous and they were so happy!! Here is a quick sneak peek of two of my favorite images so far. I love the first one because you can see just how excited she was when they were pronounced husband and wife, her expression is adorable!  The second image looks timeless and classic, to me it is a perfect wedding photograph.

  I’ll post more later this week here and on Facebook.

 KellyAndyBlog {Kelli & Andy} Wedding at Waterford Receptions

{Photographers Notes}

I used my Canon 5d with my 50mm 1.4 lens all night long.  I purposely left the flash and bigger lenses in the car so as not to step on the toes of the paid photographer.  My ISO was at 1600 all night long but I love the grainy quality it gives my black and white photos.  All images were processed in Lightroom. 

In the second image I managed to catch the flash of the photographer and while normally in a color image that can make things look pretty nasty due to the mixed lighting sources I loved how the couple had a spotlight on them.  I flagged the image as a keeper with the idea that in black and white it would be perfect!  I think I was right, they are illuminated beautifully and there is a wonderful vintage feel to the photograph.

]]> http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/kelli-andy-wedding-at-waterford-receptions/feed/ 0 Snow Days http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/snow-days/ http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/snow-days/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:58:13 +0000 melissa http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/?p=799 I have to say even though I was in Virginia for the blizzard of 96 this winter has brought more snow then I can ever remember having.  Two storms that dumped almost two feet both times!  I took my Holga out and snapped some photos and once I get them developed I’ll share any good ones I have.  This is my first experience with a Holga so I’m not sure I had everything right :)   Below are some photos of the girls in the snow!

]]> http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/snow-days/feed/ 1 Working on #14 http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/working-on-14/ http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/working-on-14/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:26:06 +0000 melissa http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/?p=795 I love snow days!  It brings back memories of sledding all day at my parents house and eating grilled cheese sandwiches with hot chocolate.  Mmmm I really want a grilled cheese sandwich now….  Anyway I’ve been working on some items on my 101 in 1001 list so I’ll be posting some updates to that soon.  Here is a quick preview of number #14, painting my master bedroom.  If you are stuck in your house for the weekend might as well make yourself useful!

Bedroom Makeover

So the before color was based off one of those sample/idea booklets they have with the paint chips.  Let’s just say as soon as I painted the room with it I didn’t really like it but I was too tired at that point to re paint.  I figured I’d wait until I had more inspiration and tackle that room at a later date.  Inspiration started striking this past summer when I was redecorating my living room and dining room and I started making some small changes.  I knew that changing the color would be the big change and it definitely has made a huge difference, the pictures above were both taken in the morning and you can see how much more the light bounces around with the lighter color.  My next project is to paint the furniture a creamy off white color.  With a three day weekend next weekend I’m hoping to get that project started then!

]]> http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/working-on-14/feed/ 0 {101 in 1001 List Ready!} http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/101-in-1001-list-ready/ http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/101-in-1001-list-ready/#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:34:13 +0000 melissa http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/?p=786  So after jotting down goals here and there I finally sat down and combined them all onto my list.  Then I realized I was short about 40 something goals.  So I stretched my brain some more and came up with another 20.  Then I ran out of ideas…..101 is a lot!  So I asked the google and looked at several photographers that have done these lists and that gave me some more ideas and I was able to expound off of those and complete the list.  They are in no particular order of importance and a few of them I’m already working on so I hope to have a couple checkmarks soon!  I’ll post each time I complete a goal and detail out what I did and provide photographs to document my progress. 

Some of my goals are very important to me such as 6,10,21 and 24.  Some that I’m currently working on are 4, 16 and 7.  If I’ve duplicated any of my goals please let me know, I’ve re read my list but after awhile things start to blend together.  Also if you are working on your own 101 in 1001 please post a comment with a link to your list.  I’d love to read what others are working on!

101 in 1001 Project- Completion Date will be October 23,2012!
 
101 Goals
 
1. Blog once a day for a month
2. Delete old RAW photos from laptop and organize all photos into better filing system
3. Put together a Thank You gift for clients
4. Lose 20lbs and keep it off
5. Have professional portraits taken of me for blog and marketing
6. Take photos of both sets of my grandparents
7. Create client packets for weddings
8. Update sample albums
9. Update wedding contract
10. Pay off debt
11. Book 20 weddings per season
12. Blog about the cool new products out there to display photographs
13. Paint spare bedroom henceforth known as home gym/overflow room
14. Paint master bedroom walls and furniture
15. Finish kitchen cabinet wine cubbies and trim
16. Clean out studio of un-used equipment and stuff (Currently selling my 85 1.8 and my 100mm macro 2.8 Canon lenses.  Email me if you are intrested!)
17. Test out slideshow software and audio fusion idea
18. Set workout schedule and stick to it
19. Improve product packaging
20. Enter my photographs in competitions
21. Shoot with film again
22. Write business procedures and policies into a handbook for future employee reference
23. Hang my fine art landscapes in a coffee shop or downtown store
24. Take more trips with my husband and my dogs
25. Reward myself once I accomplish 10 and 11 with the Canon 50 1.2L
26. Hang out with my brother and sister more
27. Actually attend meetups for some of the different groups I belong to
28. Knock out 5 more classes towards my Fine Arts Degree
29. Attend WPPI in Vegas
30. Have a photo safari with old photography classmates Roni and Ashley
31. Start doing projection sales
32. Print Inspire Guide as book
33. Connect and network with local wedding vendors
34. Create dream shoot with local wedding vendors that I can photograph
35. Work on Facebook pages and learn how to integrate my blog and website with FB
36. 2nd shoot a wedding with Jessica Claire or Melissa Jill
37. Attend a workshop by Jessica Claire, Jose Villa, Melissa Jill or Chenin Boutwell
38. Improve my cooking so my husband doesn’t worry that he might die when I cook
39. Send out anniversary cards to past clients
40. Get my work published in a bridal magazine or an online blog such as Style Me Pretty
41. Improve post wedding workflow to get 25 previews up in 1 week
42. Improve album design and turnaround to complete within 1 month of wedding
43. Start pre-designing albums
44. Write down all the ideas running around my head for my business and put together plan to implement them
45. Finish my business plan
46. Create marketing plan and schedule to implement it
47. Take family portrait for my mother of the family
48. Take family portrait for my mother in law of the family
49. Print an album of my wedding for my mother and mother in law
50. Stop being such a baby about turning 30 this year
51. Grow grass in our front yard
52. Put a new deck and front portch on our house
53. Make weddings and portrait sites more cohesive with each other
54. Hire associate photographer to shoot more weddings
55. Lay hardwood floors in the bedroom
56. Take photos of my parents
57. Take photos of my sister and brother
58. Have my own Rock the Dress session
59. Have new photos taken of my husband and I
60. Cap my portrait bookings to 5 a week
61. Setup office schedule for shooting days vs office days
62. Find office space to share with another vendor for client meetings
63. Volunteer at church
64. Take a class with my husband in something fun
65. Visit Italy
66. Go snowtubing
67. Focus more on each thing on my do list and stop getting distracted halfway through
68. Speed up my editing time or look into outsourcing basic edits
69. Shoot a destination wedding or at least a wedding in another state!
70. Set aside time for personal Fine Art projects, set theme and deadlines to accomplish each project
71. Refresh website pictures every quarter with new stuff
72. Work on racing project for my husband’s crew
73. Participate in Project 52
74. Befriend local photographers and meetup to talk photography stuff and take photos walks
75. Spend more time playing with my girls and get back to our daily walk schedule
76. Attend church regularly- no excuses
77. Clean out closet of items that don’t fit or that I don’t wear, purge at least 25%
78. Finish the stained glass frame for my wedding invitation
79. Purge office of junk and make better use of space
80. Print out personal photos and use the scrapbooking supplies I’ve been given
81. Become more involved in local charity organizations
82. Burn dvd of all the photos I’ve taken over the years of my husbands family and give to my mother in law
83. Learn more about using my flash off camera, check out One Light DVD
84. Keep more fresh flowers around the house, they make me smile!
85. Add more canvas gallery wraps to my living room
86. Work on holiday card designs early, tie in with marketing plan
87. Second shoot with more local photographers to build up local network
88. Create a system for keywording photos when importing to lightroom to make things easier to find later
89. Teach a local Mom’s group how to take better photos of their kids
90. Incorporate film images with wedding coverage
91. Take a cruise
92. Start getting a massage the day after shooting a wedding
93. Improve my blog and website content for portraits and weddings
94. Clean out my email inbox and setup rules for incoming mail to separate ads from actual clients
95. Photograph a wedding in Charleston, SC
96. Photograph more seniors and possibly start senior rep program
97. Add 5d Mark II to my gear and try out video for simple fusion ideas
98. Do a Boudoir shoot with a client
100. 2 years from now update my website and blog to a single custom site
101. Start a Friday Favorites blog post.
So there are my goals, if you can help me accomplish any of them please leave a comment below!
~Melissa Arlena
Flowers 8 of 8 {101 in 1001 List Ready!}

Here is an example of working on number 84!

]]> http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/101-in-1001-list-ready/feed/ 5 Still Working on the 101 in 1001 http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/still-working-on-the-101-in-1001/ http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/still-working-on-the-101-in-1001/#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:11:12 +0000 melissa http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/?p=719 Just wanted to say I’m still working on the 101 in 1001 list, I’m up to 66 things.  I keep bouncing between personal goals and professional goals so my list might look a little hodge podge.  Here are 5 of my goals so far.  These really are in no particular order besides what order they popped into my head.

1. Blog once a day for a month
2. Delete old RAW photos from laptop
3. Organize all photos into better filing system
4. Lose 20lbs and keep it off
5. Have professional portraits taken of me for blog and marketing

If you have your own 101 list please post a comment and a link,  I’d love to see your goals!

]]> http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/still-working-on-the-101-in-1001/feed/ 0 Steak and Cake http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/steak-and-cake/ http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/steak-and-cake/#comments Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:11:56 +0000 melissa http://sweetsimplicityphotography.com/blog/?p=92 Weird title I know but I wanted to share our anniversary dinner pictures because it was soo yummy!  The cake was made by yours truly and was awesome until we left it out on the table where it was warm for a couple hours and the icing started to melt off.  It was delicious and we ate it anyway :)   The recipe was from Betty Crocker and can be found here.  I followed the user comments and used cream cheese and lemon icing mixed together.  It was so sweet and tangy, mmmmm. 

Anniversary 1 of 21 Steak and Cake

For dinner my wonderful husband made Steak Diane!  It was a first try and it was excellent and the presentation was awesome.  I felt like I was at a 5 star restaurant!

Anniversary 2 of 2 Steak and Cake

So just wanted to follow-up and share a quick pic of my beautiful cake and my fabulour dinner!  Check back later today for a posting about our Love Stories special we are currently running.  Gift certificates are available also for these sessions!

]]> http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/steak-and-cake/feed/ 0 Imaging USA 2010 http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/imaging-usa-2010/ http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/imaging-usa-2010/#comments Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:59:43 +0000 melissa http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/?p=714 So after a whirlwind week in Nashville, TN for the PPA conference Imaging USA I’m finally sitting down to review all my notes and ideas.  I’m also still working on my 101 in 1001 list and tonight is my Mommy’s 50th bday so we are headed out the door soon to celebrate.  I could use a vacation from my vacation at this point! 

I had a packed schedule for classes at Imaging, up and in class by 7am and then back to the hotel room about 8pm that night.  It made for long days and lots of information.  I love these conferences because of the new ideas that are shared and that starts my brain churning on how I can incorporate some of those ideas into my business.  There is a big push in photography regarding Fusion which is mixing video and stills.  I’m not really interested in becoming a videographer but there were some neat ideas to take from that and I’m excited to try them out this year! 

I wanted to share my experience about one of the classes I attended, this speaker was hands down the guy I loved the most and got the best information out of.  Even my husband enjoyed his class and it gave us some great ideas to improve our wedding photography!  It was…….Jerry Ghionis!  I had heard Jerry’s name before but never really looked at his work.  He was amazing, I loved that he showed how he walked into normal homes and found little nooks to make amazing photos.  He has a great product called PicPockets that are little cards with great information regarding several topics.  I picked up his ordinary to extraordinary series and action reaction cards.  I highly recommend them to other photographers, they are great to study and help you look beyond the plain jane areas and really create something amazing.  He also runs the I.C.E Society which is something I plan to look into further.  At his show he packed the house, there were photographers lining the walls, sitting on the floor even sitting on tables at the back of the room.  If you follow me on facebook you probably saw my status update that I was sitting next to Jesh De Rox, Jeff Rodgers, Tamara Lackey and Steve and Jen Bebb!!!  Some of the top photographers in the industry at the moment!  I tried to explain to my husband my excitement by comparing it to him sitting next to NASCAR drivers.  He looked at me like I was crazy!

Anyway here is a quick pic David took of me in the hotel room during the conference.

MG 0938 Imaging USA 2010 

]]> http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/imaging-usa-2010/feed/ 0 One and a half year Anniversary http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/one-and-a-half-year-anniversary/ http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/one-and-a-half-year-anniversary/#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 03:32:30 +0000 melissa http://sweetsimplicityphotography.com/blog/?p=77 So tomorrow my husband and I are celebrating our one and a half year anniversary! No we are not a crazy couple that celebrates every six month mark but we didn’t get to celebrate our one year anniversary together so we postponed it to the 18 month mark. I plan to go home tonight and whip up a delicious recreation of our wedding cake, lemon cake with raspberry filling!!! I’m very excited that I will get to serve it on a family heirloom that was a wedding gift from my Great Aunt. It was passed down to her and she has passed it along to me.

Below is one of my favorite photos from our wedding, our photographer David Ng caught the perfect moment and I love the antique post processing he did on it. What I love even more is to look beyond my husband and myself and see the expressions on the faces of our family as we had our first dance. We were definitely not a couple that were expected to do anything special for our dance but we blew them all away I think!

IMG 2685 One and a half year Anniversary

IMG 2684 One and a half year Anniversary

We danced to Sh-Boom from the Cars Soundtrack, remember the scene where they test out the new road for the first time and the 50’s bee bop song is played? Well that was our song! Why did we pick that you are probably wondering! Well when the movie first came out I remembered hearing that song from something else and started singing along to it and my husband thought I was crazy. Months later when he was in Iraq and the dvd came out I sent it over to him and he said that scene always made him think of me. So he suggested we use that song and when he told me why I can honestly say I melted :)   So we did a little swing number to Sh-Boom and laughed the whole way through it as we forgot the steps!  We took lessons from a wonderful place called Strictly Ballroom in Fredericksburg, Virginia.  They were great teachers we were just bad students!

Ladies I can tell you that with all the details surrounding the wedding and the wedding day itself I have one memory that I will cherish above all others.  Two days before the wedding when we had a houseful of guests and no private moments to ourselves we snuck away to the dock by the lake in our neighborhood to practice our dance.  We didn’t tell anyone where we were going or what we were doing we just hopped in the truck and left!  We blared our song out the truck speakers and practiced our swing dance next to the lake in the warm summer evening.  I’m sure the fisherman were a little confused as to what we were up to but for me that was the pefect moment of our wedding!  Just the two of us laughing and having fun together, exactly how I want to spend the rest of my life with my husband. 

Two more of my favorite images from our wedding!  I am reminded looking at these that it is not always about the best lighting or the most beautiful backdrop that make a stunning photograph;  it is the story behind the photograph that make it a brides favorite.

IMG 2915 One and a half year Anniversary

I love this photo because he and his best man had ditched their  jackets and we were just having fun!

IMG 2953 One and a half year Anniversary

 

Photo Credit to David Ng of David Ng Photography!

]]> http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/one-and-a-half-year-anniversary/feed/ 0 Chloe http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/chloe/ http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/chloe/#comments Sat, 02 Jan 2010 01:20:44 +0000 melissa http://melissaarlenaphotography.com/Blog/?p=704 So 3 weeks ago I stopped in Petsmart to pick up cat food and while waiting at the checkout line I was drawn to the kitties from Last Chance Animal Rescue. I told myself I was just going to look, I had a cat and even though I had lost a cat that I had had for 13 years the previous year I wasn’t looking to replace him. They were just cute and I wanted to look…..until I saw the glass container with orange kittens. I swear the week before David had just been saying he wanted a fat orange cat so I walked down for a closer look and there nestled in the middle of two orange kittens was a Torti. Torti is short for Tortoiseshell, which is a cat that looks like Halloween in my opinion. Seriously they look like they started out black and then someone flicked orange and cream paint over them in crazy patterns. They are the coolest colored cats I’ve ever seen!!! My mom has a Torti Celtic and I thought Celtic had the coolest coloring ever so when I saw Chloe it was love at first sight! She was sleeping but she was soooo cute!!! Being that I was pretty sure David would have a cow if I met him with a kitten I did the responsible adult thing and waited. I met him at his truck and in my best six year old voice said I want Chloe and I promise to take really really good care of her and love her and hug her. I think I sounded more like that girl from Rugrats that kills animals with her love!! Anyway after an hour or two of subtle hints he finally gave in and we went to look at her again. Two hours later she was meeting her new family!

Thank goodness she has tons of personality and has no problems standing up to her big sisters. She has several nicknames such as Dog, Horse, new kitty and psycho kitty. She chases everything and runs around meowing just because she can. Finally this weekend I caught her just laying around and got some sweet shots of her. So check out Chloe below or psycho cat as I lovingly call her!

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