The Holidays are upon us.  I just love this time of year, that probably stems from my mom’s love of Christmas.  She always went all out decorating the house and made a huge ordeal decorating the tree.  My mom, brother, and I would get all the ornaments out and decorate the tree (usually the day after Thanksgiving) while my dad put Christmas lights on the house.  We all knew that while my dad was putting lights up you didn’t talk to him.  He absolutely hated doing it and would b&m every-time he came into the house.  Needless to say, he was not in the best of moods, but it made my mom happy so he did it year after year.  By the time he finished, it would be nightfall.  We would then all have to step outside and ooh and ahhh at the masterpiece of Christmas lights that decorated our house. It was one of those Christmas traditions we grew into as a family.

When Ray and I got married in 2007, we realized that for Christmas (and other holidays) we would be creating our own traditions.  It wasn’t too difficult for us, since both of our families placed a huge importance on Christmas and it was a time to spend with family.  We both grew up with opening gifts in your pj’s so that is something we have kept.  My mom would always make the biggest breakfast on Christmas morning.  Ray’s family didn’t to that, they enjoyed eggnog (which my family never had).  It was those little things that were hard to get used to.  My first Christmas married to Ray we spent with his family (prior to that we had spent the holidays with our respective families and then met up later that day) since my parents had just moved to Arizona and my brother was in L.A.  It was tough because I missed that big breakfast, I missed my mom being OCD about the wrapping paper (she had a huge trash bag we would immediately have to put the wrapping paper in and the boxes would be neatly stacked in the corner, seriously).

I then realized that the traditions I grew up with would not be the exact same now that I was married.  Ray and I would need to create our own traditions.  One tradition we started when we first started dating was buying gifts for 2 children on the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree.  Those became the most important gifts for us to buy. They were put ahead of gifts for each other, for our families, etc.  We do have some of our traditions but we are also still  in the midst of creating our own(as with all traditions they don’t happen overnight).  We love hoping in the car and going to look at Christmas lights, we have a huge Christmas feast, we watch my favorite Christmas movie every year, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (it turned out to be one of Ray’s favorites too).

So to all of our newlywed couples, think about the traditions you want to start together.  Will it be going Caroling, adopting an angel, making cookies for Santa, etc?  Enjoy your first Holiday season as a married couple and this is your first year of creating your own traditions.

I shared a few sneak peaks of Chris and Chrystal’s engagement session at Lee Park in Dallas a couple of months ago, but now is a full post of their engagement pictures.  We showed up to Lee Park on Saturday morning as Arlington Hall was being prepped for a wedding.  Chandeliers were hung from the trees and as a photographer I get all giddy because how many times will you get to photograph a gorgeous couple next to trees with beautiful hanging chandeliers, not often.  So of course, I took full advantage of it.  Chrystal shared my vision too because she saw them and knew she wanted them in her engagement pictures.

It was so great taking pictures with them in Lee Park because they live so close they are always walking their dog there and this is where Chris proposed to Chrystal.  My favorite things for engagement sessions is to take pictures at places that are meaningful to the couple. I feel that makes the session more personal and the pictures will have even more meaning to the couple.

Chrystal and Chris also wanted to incorporate their dog into a few of their pictures (this is something I highly encourage).  He is the cutest dog and so full of energy (but in the best way)

So as I mentioned above, Lee Park is where Chris proposed to Chrystal; of course we had to reenact it.

I just love the lighting in this image below!!

I just have to say, I love Chrystal’s style.  Her shoes (which I love) are perfect with her stunning blue dress.  I can’t wait to see what shoes she picks for her wedding day, I know they will be killer.

Chris and Chrystal are getting married at the Stoneleigh in April.  Chrystal shared some of the decor she plans on having but you will have to wait for the pictures (it’s going to be amazing)

So I’m inspired to write this blog post based on what happened to me yesterday.  I was in the middle of editing pictures and my hard-drive crashed.  That blue screen of death popped up, yes yikes.  My husband and I tried frantically to get my computer to reboot but to no avail.  We then made the trek to Best Buy to see if my files could be recovered.  We are waiting to find out if that is possible.  You might be wondering at this point, why is she telling us this.  I’m writing this because even if my files cannot be retrieved, I have all of my RAW files backed up.  No one is going to lose their images from their wedding day.  Afterall, there are no redo’s.   I always make it a point to back up files for just this scenario.  You don’t think it will ever happen, but it does and you have to be prepared.

Any professional photographer will have their files backed up so even if that blue screen of death appears, nothing is lost.   This is something to consider when hiring a photographer for your wedding.  You need to ask them if they do back-up their files.  How do they back them up?  I have several external hard-drives and a proofing site that is also a back-up for me.  Nothing is ever permantly lost even if my computer dies on me.  I ask you to consider this when you have a friend photograph your wedding. Will they back-up the files?  The same can go for camera equipment, what if it fails during the wedding.  Do they have a back-up camera?  Karey and I do.  So if something happens we will just pull out the back-up camera and continue shooting.   Just like with my hard drive failing, everything is still ok.  So I advise you to ask any photographer that you meet with, what their back-up plans are.   After all, these are machines that will fail but again any professional accounts for that.  So this is my food for thought for the day.

So today for our wedding advice I wanted to talk about the difference between edited and retouched because they do mean two different things.

An edited image is corrected for color, contrast, saturation and exposure.  It’s just a few tweaks to make the image look better.  While a fully retouched image includes smoothing of the skin, lighting of the eyes, removal of stray hairs, removal of acne, reducing bags under the eyes, and in the case of the example below – fixing the chin.

We do promise to deliver edited images on a cd/dvd to our clients, really though most end up more like the enhanced image below.  When you order prints though us, they will be retouched so you get the best image possible.

So below I have included examples of the different stages of a photo.

This is Straight Out of Camera (SOOC).  That means nothing has been done to it and this is how the photo looks when it was taken.

This is the photo that is edited.  So the color is corrected, its is lightened just a little bit.  Enough where it really makes a difference.

So the image above is enhanced.  Our custom photo action is ran on it and the we pop the colors just a little bit more. 

This is a fully retouched image. The eyes are brightened, the skin is smoothed out and acne is removed.  Also, bags under the eyes are lightened, any stray hairs are removed, the chin is fixed, and the teeth are slightly whitened.

So hopefully this helps clarify what photographers mean when they use terms liked edited and retouched.  I know the terms can be confusing.  If you have any questions (hopefully we didn’t confuse you more) leave a comment or you can email us at kandsphoto at gmail dot com

So sorry that I am a little late with the sneak peak of Anthony’s and Kelly’s wedding.  I fell victim to the flu bug.  I am so excited to share this sneak peak as the Grand Hotel is one of my favorite venues and these two are so sweet.  I love how Anthony looks at Kelly with such a deep love and respect in his eyes. 

So enjoy this sneak peak.

I am just in love with Kelly’s wedding shoes!!!!

This is our last wedding of the year so stay tuned for full wedding posts (there are a lot).