Photography odds and ends

So the new business cards came this week and i LOVE them! Wow! So cool! I got the rounded corner ones and they just look so modern. I'm so excited to hand my first one out! I've totally decided to go with a blue and brown theme. I have always loved those colors together. So the cards are blue and brown (the website and blog are soon to follow with the color scheme). Each client gets there CDs/DVDs in a white box that will have my blue "michele schanker photography" label with a brown ribbon. I really think the little details make such a big difference. We are going to get a new computer with lightscribe. So instead of making CD labels from now on I think I'll move to the lighscribe method of labeling client CDs. Now I'm getting double sided round corner postcards made up.

Here's one side:


Here's the other:


In other news, Dave and I will be skiing for the next two weekends! Yipee! We are going to mammoth this weekend and Salt Lake City next weekend. I can't wait to be back on the snow! It's been over 2 weeks!!! We are even thinking about taking a mini vacation in March to Jackson Hole, WY. Apparently we can use our frequent flyer miles to go. So we may take a few days off of work and have a mini ski vacation. I truly wish winter would never end!

A little more pop

Just thought I'd post some before and after photos. I used some lightroom presets on these. What a difference.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Our Crazy Weather

We're having lots of rain and snow out here. We found this on yahoo today. This isn't very far from us at all!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080125/ap_on_re_us/california_storm

Photos from last year

So I really should be doing stuff around the house...painting, cleaning, etc... But instead I've been playing around with photos from last year when we went to go play in the snow near our house. Working on saturation and more color. Anyway here's a few of the things I've played around with today.



Kevin and Ashley - Don't know if you read this blog or not, but I played around with some of your photos too.

I wish it would snow already!

So for all our friends and family that don't live in Cali - we are totally getting hammered out here by storms. I really don't think it could rain much more than it already has. It just keeps on coming. And they say the third wave could be even worse. The frustrating thing is that it is 38 degrees (according to weather.com) so we're just getting rain. I'd really like some snow! Now the mountains are getting hammered with snow, which is great for skiing. But I'd really like it at my front door. Even just an inch or two. Well there is still hope. Dave just heard snow levels are dropping to 2000 feet and we live at 3000 feet. So we'll see.

Ads and Cards

Here's my new photography postcard

and business cards

that I mentioned in the previous post. If you got any recommendations for improvement, just let me know.

Photography updates and more photos

I posted photos form the birthday party I photographed on Saturday. Check them out!. I love shooting photojournalistically. So much fun! My new lens really helped. I was able to stand pretty far away and get photos that some people didn’t even know I took. Well at least until the flash went off! I managed to do pretty well with bouncing the flash to. I didn’t even use my new softbox this time around. I really was enjoying bouncing the flash of walls, ceilings, etc… I love photography so much. I do these shoots every so often and I truly have fun. It’s not even like a second job or anything. I just love it! It’s kinda like a challenge to me to (how to make things unique and interesting). So last night I ordered new business cards. These ones have my new email and website on them. They go right along with the theme of the website and I went with a blue and brown color scheme. I really like them, so I hope they turn out good. I’ve also designed some 4x6 photo advertisements. Now I just have to figure out where and how to advertise. I keep thinking this would be so much easier if we actually had kids. I’d know where to go. But since we don’t have kids I really don’t know where to go.

So our weather out here in the desert looks kinda wacky this week. We have 4 or 5 days with a chance or either rain or snow! Come on snow! How awesome would that be? We defiantly need the rain though. It was pretty chilly yesterday, about 46 with a wind chill.

So this weekend I think Dave and I are going to go down to Santa Anita. I want to try out the new lens at the horse track and Dave obviously wants to go see the races. I want to play around with panning with the horses and some slower shutter speeds. I’m hoping we’ll end up in Pasadena for dinner and shopping afterwards! And then on Sunday is the MD vs Duke basketball game at UMD! GO TERPS!

FEAR THE TURTLE!!!

All, I can say right now is WOW!!!!!!!!

Check out who handed UNC their first loss of the season!!! Yup, it was the MD Terps!!!! How Sweet! MD had the lead most of the game. They even had a 10 point lead at one point. It was a 6 point lead at half time. Down to a 2 point lead with less than 2 seconds to go. Tyler Hansborough missed the 3 pointer and MD wins!!! Wow!!! Oh and by the way the win was at UNC in Chapel Hill.

I'm on cloud nine right now. I love college basketball and I love the MD Terps! Overal one of the best teams in college basketball. They are either second or third overall in the NCAA in beating Number 1 ranked teams!

Random Photos

I have a new toy! My 70-200 F/2.8 lens.


Check out Dave's long hair!


And here is our cat, Clyde! He was having fun posing for me.



My new favorite photography website: www.opensourcephoto.com

Skiing...quite possibly the best sport ever!

Yeah, so Mammoth was amazing. Of course, what isn't amazing after 10 feet of snow! We spent two glorious days on the slopes. The weather was beautiful, the snow was great, and the condo (although not truly ski in/ski out, more like ski in only) was pretty sweet. We had a great weekend! Dave and I skied so much. Both mornings we were on the lift at 8:40 and were off the slopes at 4:10! With only half hour lunch breaks. Talk about lots of runs! Sunday we pushed it hard. I'd say I pushed Dave pretty hard, but that's not really true. Normally I go to trails where he can take a blue run while I take a black run and then we meet up. But yesterday he wanted to ski with me. Which pretty much meant he skied blacks most of the day, even some of the ones at the very top! Go Dave! He did great, and I was so proud of him. I spent a lot of Sunday working on my mogul skiing. It's getting there slowly but surely. Once I get the hang of it maybe I'll have the confidence for those double blacks!

I truly love skiing so much. It's something that I just can't live with out. I think I went through huge skiing withdrawls while living in Florida. I feel like I'm making up for lost time! It is something I can really see myself doing 20- 30 years from now (s long as the knees hold up). I've gotten so fast in the last few years. It's amazing how much my confidence and ability has increased. At one point we were coming down and Dave was trying to follow my tracks. afterwards he said to me " wow, you go fast!". Sometimes I find it amazing that I even feel comfortable at those speeds, but its fun!

Next ski trip is in 3 weeks...Salt Lake City!

On a complete side note (for all amateur Photogs, like me)...Have you ever tried getting prints on metallic paper? I totally recommend it! I just got 6 prints that I ordered from MPIX...all I can say is WOW! They are great. Give it a try!

Tahoe Photos

Just downloaded tahoe photos from my point and shoot camera. Here's just a few from skiing and New Years Eve.

New Years at Jake's on the Lake

Acting silly at Squaw Valley

Making Smores at Squaw Resort

Brenda and Mark on top of SquawDave and I on Squaw

Friday and waiting

Today seems like a day of waiting. I am so excited about two things, but I have to wait for each of them. I'm sticking around the house today until my new camera lens (the 70-200 f/2.8) gets here. Its being shipped with signature required, so I'm waiting for that to come. Then I have to wait til this evening to leave to go to mammoth. I really can't wait to be on the slopes tomorrow!!! We booked a ski in/ski out condo by Eagle Express. So I am so excited about skiing for the next two days. Mmammoth received 8-10 feet of snow in about 5 days. So talk about some nice powder! Yeah!!!! I am such a die hard skier. I really hope we get the opportunity to one day live in Denver and be so close to major ski resorts. Although I think I would really miss Mammoth, because I love it there. It almost feels like a 2nd home or something. In other news, my new photography website is coming along. I've made some smaller purchases that will help me out on photoshoots and the new lens will help me shoot from further away. I've been booked for a birthday party next weekend.

New Website

I have started my new website for my photojournalistic lifestyle portrait photography.

The new site is www.micheleschankerphotography.com

We have some things that need to be fixed (such as the blinking of the images as you change pages). But take a look and leave me your feedback and improvements. It's a work in progress (just started last night) so I'd like to see what people think.

As far as I know it is having problems with IE though. I don't know how to resolve this. But it should work fine in Firefox.

1st Ski Trip of the 07-08 Season!

We just returned from our New Years trip to Lake Tahoe. What a blast! We skied at both Northstar and Squaw. I loved Squaw and would go back in a heartbeat. I really didn't find Northstar to challenging, but it was fun skiing fast the entire day! Squaw was just amazing, and we found some great powder. I skied really well for it being the beginning of the season. Although I really do need to work on my moguls! I stink at Moguls! One day I'll get it figured out!

Besides skiing we took a day trip into Reno to visit some of the casinos. We also did sled riding at our resort, ice skated at Squaw Resort on New Years eve, and enjoyed smores at the the fire pits at squaw. We had a great time and hit the hot tub just about every night. I really didn't take many photos, but here are a few.

Stop at Mono Lake on the way home.

North Lake Tahoe - Tahoe City

Click here for more photos!

Looks like the Sierras are going to get hammered this week with up to 5 feet of snow! I think Dave and I will be on the slopes again real soon!