Sandy Puc Hands-On Photography Workshop

As you probably know, I am always trying to learn more when it comes to the ins and outs of photography.  I go to classes in person and online all the time.  This past Saturday, I had another great class in Omaha.

I had to take mom to Omaha to catch a plane, so we left home at 4:00 a.m.  I had planned on going home earlier Friday night to get to bed early, but of course that didn't happen.  I got home about 10:00 like usual, ate supper and got to bed around 11:00 - up again by 3:30.  I had dropped mom off at the airport and drove all the way across Omaha to the La Vista Conference Center by 6:45.  As I pulled in the parking lot, I saw a big bus in front as though it had just gotten there.  I figured it was probably Sandy's bus and later I found out I was correct.  I thought about going in and offering to help setup, but I was tired and I had planned on taking a short nap in the car so that I would be awake enough during the day to actually soak in the knowledge.  I did just that and woke up about 8:15.  I went in and worked on some editing I had to do until class started at 10:00.  I felt kind of bad about not at least offering to help earlier since they were running behind and didn't get their registration table setup at all (which was supposed to be up by 9:00).  I don't know if they would have accepted help or not, but I could have at least offered.

I have attended several of Sandy Puc's tours before and they have always been very informative.  This tour was quite different from her others - not that it wasn't informative, but that it wasn't just her teaching us.  Sandy brought several other great photographers together to show us, hands-on, many different ways to get great portraits.



Brian DeMint's Booth
Taken with simple incandescent lights



The first photographer that I was with was Brian DeMint.  If you look at his work, you may wonder what he would teach a basic portrait photographer because his work is definitely... different.  However, he is a very funny speaker and has great fundamentals and ideas.  He uses a lot of things in ways they aren't meant to be used.  When he saw our first model come in with tattoos across her chest, he immediately knew he wanted her to model for him and how he wanted her made-up.  His wife does his makeup for him and they got their gothic model ready.

Brian DeMint's Booth
Taken with the exsame lights as the
other just positioned differently

One of the biggest things that I took away from Brian's booth was that it doesn't matter what you use to get the portrait, it's the end result that matters.  Although he had multi hundred dollar lights provided for him to use, we used 3 chicken warmer style lamps with regular incandescent bulbs in them to do our lighting.  This acutally worked really well because it is so much easier to control and move the lighting where you want and need it.  Do these portraits look like they were taken with $10 chicken lamps?  I've already incorporated this idea in to a portrait session I had Sunday - I didn't use chicken lamps, but I did use the general idea and it worked great.

Brian also gave us tips on working with and talking to the models.  Another setup he did later in the day was using some plexiglass he found somewhere in the hotel and making a 'rainy day' scene with it.  There are a few other things that he told us about that I plan on trying just to see what they do.

The second photographer that I was with for the day was Jordan Chan.  Jordan was teaching us about off camera flash and using them to overpower the sun.  He can take portraits in the middle of the day in blazing sun and still get an awesome exposure with beautiful background and sky color as well as a well lit subject.  This is something I just started figuring out how to do a few months ago and have got the general idea of - I first used it for individual / team ball portraits this summer.  Jordan showed us a much faster and easier way of doing what I have been doing, plus a few more tips.  He also showed me a setting on my camera that I didn't realize was there.

I didn't take any photos at Jordan's booth, although thinking back I should have just to have them.  I'm glad that I didn't skip his booth because it really helped me with one of the biggest techniques I've been working on the past few months.  Now it's just more practice, practice, practice!  Again, I have already implemented his technique in a second portrait session I had yesterday at the swimming pool.  Great color for the pool in the background while still having a well lit subject.

Travis Gadsby's Booth - Fundamentals
Taken with 1 light



The third and final photographer that I worked with was Travis Gadsby.  Travis is the owner of Silverlake Photo Accessories and also does portrait photography.  I'm guessing that he took most of the portraits on their site showing their products.  Travis's booth was on the fundamentals of lighting, posing, etc.

Travis Gadsby's Booth - Fundamentals
Taken with a main light, a reflector,
and a seperator light



We had a beautiful ballerina for our model at this booth when I got to it.  We started out taking portraits of her with just a single light.  We then added a reflector in the front and finally we added a seperator light on the opposite side in the back.

Having a ballerina for a model, we also got to have some fun learning how to catch jumps in mid air.  She was very patient and willing to jump over and over and over for each of us to get a chance and capturing her in mid air.

I believe all the backgrounds that were used on tour were provided by Travis with Silverlake Photo Accessories, so if you like the backgrounds you see, be sure to check out his page.

Overall, I was not disappointed at all with this educational day.  Sandy always puts on a great show and bringing all of these great photographers with her just made it that much better.  It's not too often that you find an affordable hands-on workshop - usually it's just sitting and listening.  I would definitely recommend this workshop to any aspiring photographers - it runs through October 19th.  The schedule can be found on Sandy Puc Tours, and it includes a stop in Kansas City on September 21st (just as close to us as Omaha was).  She has different photographers with her at different stops, so you may not get to learn from the same ones as I did, but I'm sure it would still be well worth the money.  If you do go, be sure to tell her I sent you. :)

To see a few more of the portraits I got during the workshop, be sure to check out my Facebook Photo Album.

School Portrait

On September 29th, we're offering 10 - 15 minute mini-sessions for school portraits.  We take the time to get several images for you to choose from on your choice of a background.  Instead of getting that "sit here, say cheese, < snap >, NEXT" school portrait, let me take the time to get that great smile you love.

Our session fee for this will be only $10 and portrait packages start at only $20.  It is by appointment, so call and schedule your appointment today!

If you are interested in a full Back-to-School portrait session, we are still offering those through September 14th.  For more information about those, check our Back to School Blog Post.

Cobblestone Rocks

This weekend is Cobblestone.  Two years ago, we had a photo area in the front of our store to go with the theme of Cobblestone, "Down on the Farm".  It didn't go over as well as we had hoped, so we didn't do anything last year - but we had several people ask us if we were going to or why we didn't.  So this year, we decided we are going to try it again - with a small twist.

This year's theme for Cobblestone is "Cobblestone Rocks".  We're creating a small 50's diner type set.  Two years ago, we charged a small session fee, took a full set of portraits and sold actual portrait size prints and packages.  This year, we're treating it more like a photo booth.

3 1/2" x 8 1/2"
Strip Example

This is our first attempt at the photo booth style, so we aren't sure if we're using the timer on our camera to take 3 pictures at 5 second intervals, or if we will actually take the pictures ourselves.  But what we're doing is just having the camera setup, taking 3 pictures and then printing them out as a 3 1/2" x 8 1/2" strip for you.  The cost is simply $6 and they'll be ready within 30 minutes.

Can you help us!!
We have our basic set almost ready, but we would love more "extras" if anyone has items they would let us borrow for the weekend.  We're looking for things like a neon clock or other neon wall art, an old 50's style table and/or stools and other things like this.  We would also love to get some clothes of all sizes including poodle skirts, leather jackets, etc.  If you would have anything that we use for the weekend, we will give you a free 3 1/2" x 8 1/2" strip.

I won't be at the studio at all times during Cobblestone because I do still plan on taking some candid photos, but we will be open most of the time.  If I'm not at the studio when you stop by, come back in a half hour or so and I'll probably be back.

Hope everyone has a fantastic time at Cobblestone this year!! 

* * * * *

Here's a list of the events going on....

Thursday, August 23rd
5:00 pm FC Fireman’s Youth Fishing Contest - 15 years and under; Stanton Lake

Friday, August 24th
6:00-10:00 pm Sam’s Amusement Carnival; Arm Bands
6:30 pm Hot Dog Eating Contest; Stage
8:00-12:00 pm DJ Mark Lowe; Stage
Co-Ed Kickball Tournament

Saturday, August 25th
7:00 am Fun Run - 1 mile, 5k & 10k Stanton Lake
9:00 am Frog Jump Contest; Stage
9:00 am Classic Car and Tractor Show; 18th & Stone
9:00 - 6:00 pm Flea Market/Craft Fair; Downtown
9:45 am Little Miss & Mr. Cobblestone Crowning; Stage
11:00 am Cobblestone Parade; 20th - 14th Harlan Street
1:00 - 3:00 pm “One Way Out” Band; Stage
1:00-11:00 pm Carnival Rides & Games; Downtown
2:00-4:00 pm RC Museum Exhibit Open; 14th Chase
1:30 pm Youth Dodge Ball Tourney; Prichard Auditorium
4:00 pm Singing Sensation Anne Crofford; Stage
8:00 pm “Page 2” Band; Stage

Sunday, August 26th
10:00 am Sunrise Service Northridge Church Stanton Lake
1:00 pm Little Tuggers Pedal Tractor Pull; Stage
1:00 - 5:00 pm Carnival Rides & Games; Arm Bands
1:00 - 6:00 pm Flea Market/Craft Fair; Downtown
2:00-4:00 pm RC Museum Exhibit Opens 14th & Chase
2:00 pm Falls City Idol; Stage
6:30 pm Area Fellowship of Churches Vesper Service St. Paul’s Lutheran 20th & Towle

Back to School

It's that dreaded time of year for the kids and that long awaited time for parents..... back to school.  This is a great time to update your child's portrait.

Just before school starts, or immediately after, kids are really excited about going back to school.  They have their favorite new outfit they're going to wear that first day, a new backpack, and maybe even some cool new school supplies.  This can be conveyed in the best school portrait you've ever had!  We have the perfect session for this.  Bring in their favorite new outfit or two, their new backpack and maybe a few of cool new folders or pencils, etc.  We'll capture this moment for you like you've never had it before.

You know that the school will soon be offering their same ole-same ole 'sit here and smile' portrait.  While you're here getting these great back-to-school portraits, we'll get a much better standard portrait for you as well.  Instead of just saying "sit here, say cheese, < snap >, NEXT", we take the time to get that great smile you love.  We have a few standard backgrounds, or we can use some that aren't so standard.

Now's the time to get those back-to-school portraits.  Contact us today to schedule your appointment!

Session Fee: $25
1 package of your favorite standard portrait: $40
1 8x10
2 5x7
4 4x6
8 wallets

All additional portraits are at our regular prices.

Keeping a Balance

Ok... I admit, I'm a bit of a workaholic.  I suppose running your own business, or 2, or 3.. you have to be.  I don't mind it most of the time, but it is so true that you have to keep a balance in your life - even if you do love your work.

Family Portrait taken in 2009 by
Lindsay Ernst Photography

I still technically live at home with my parents and little brothers.  I am home from around 9:30 at night until 7:30 in the morning and on probably a little more than half the Sundays.  I do have a full kitchen at my store, as well as a room with a hide-a-bed... so I can crash at work from time to time as well.  I do love that hour or so of a night that I get to talk with mom & dad and that 45 minutes or so of a morning cooking breakfast and beith with my brothers.  Even though it's such a small time, it still keeps me connected.  Plus, mom stops at the store for her break and lunch and usually the whole family comes to the store to pick her up after work - so I see them throughout the day, most days, as well.

I actually love the setup this way.  I look at it as getting the chance to help raise kids without having to deal with them all the time.  My brothers are both adopted, one from China in 2006 and one from Guatemala in 2008.  We are also fostering a 5 month old girl right now which we have had since she was 3 days old.  With having my own business, it does give me the chance to be there when I'm needed to pick them up from school, drop them off at the babysitter or a game or even sometimes watch them at my store.  To keep a real balance, I probably should be "home" more with them... but that's the nice thing about them being brothers instead of sons - I don't fell that I have to be.

Block Party - photo borrowed
from Sandy Schwarting

Other than those times with my family, most of my time is spent by myself, with my employees or with customers.  I very seldom actually go out just for fun.  I'm not a real social person.  I don't drink, so bars don't enthuse me.  I don't like the loud music of bands or djs.  I do volunteer and try to help out with Chamber of Commerce events and things like that - but that's almost more work related.  The one thing that I do enjoy as "friends" is the block that my store is on usually has a get-together once a month, we started it about a year ago.  We usually just go out for dinner at a restaurant or something like that - about a dozen of us.  It's little things like that which I think really help keep a little more balance in life.  Not only family, but friends as well.

I know my life is very different from most people.  How do you keep up the balance in your life?  Work enough to make a living, spend time with your family and still have time for friends.  Any thoughts out there?

My hard drive died... what to do.....

You're working away on your computer, listening to the music you've purchased through itunes, editing the pictures you took at your family reunion a few weeks ago.  All of a sudden, everythiung goes quiet and a blue screen pops up.  Stupid computer, you just lost the last 15 minutes of work that you hadn't saved!

You restart your computer, and it comes up saying insert boot disk.  What?!?  Surprise, you lost more than just the last 15 minutes of work.... your hard drive just died and you lost everything.

This happened to me today... well... kind of.  It was actually one of my data drives that died instead of my main hard drive, so when I rebooted it still came back up, but that particular drive was missing from my computer.

The biggest difference between what "actually" happened to me and what would have probably happened to you.... is I didn't lose anything important.  Anything really important, I backup and backup again!  And some, I even backup again... and again.

All of my business documents, financial files, music and photos are always backed up.  First, I configure my hard drive to be in a mirrored RAID system.  Any change I make is automatically made to the 2nd hard drive.  If one fails, I get a notice that the RAID system has a problem and I replace the bad hard drive.  It repairs the RAID system and I'm right back where I was.  Never down at all.

All of these files are backed up again using an online backup service.  I currently use (and our parent company, KawreS SuperStore sells) Carbonite.  It backs up all of my files automatically whenever a change is made.  It also keeps "versions" of the files, so if I change the file and a few days later realize I need the old version, I can get it back.

Finally, my photos... the heart of my business... are backed up again.  I back up all of my photos to an external hard drive and store it at home.  It is much faster to get the 44GB of swim meet pictures back from USB hard drive than it is to download them from Carbonite.  After 6 months or so, I back all the photos up to a second external hard drive which I keep at the store and take them off of my computer's hard drive.  These will also be deleted from Carbonite, but I have already sold all that will probably be sold.  But in case the customer does want more, I have them backed up at home and at the store... if there's a fire or one of the hard drives go bad, I still have another backup to get them from.

So, what do you do to backup your important information?  Shouldn't you at least be using an online backup like Carbonite?  For $60 per year, in my opinion, it's definitely cheap peace of mind and you don't even have to remember to do it - it's automatic.  After the fact, you can send your hard drive off to be 'recovered', but that usually has a minimum price of around $1,000.  If you're interested in an online backup subscription, let us know and we can answer your questions and we would appreciate the opportunity to sell it to you - it's the same price through us or directly through them.


So, what actually happened to me?  I did lose one of my data drives.  It stored all my mp3s and my survelliance camera videos as well as a few basic files.  My mp3s are backed up (both on an external hard drive and on Carbonite) and I'll copy them back over when I replace the hard drive.  The few files are backed up on Carbonite and I've already downloaded them to another location.  My survelliance videos.... well... they're lost.  I don't back them up because they aren't that important.  So, if you shoplifted in the last few days and we didn't catch it - congratulations.  But that's the only thing I lost... old survelliance videos. 

What would you lose if your hard drive crashed right now?

Summer Time Fun Photo Contest

It's summer and the heat is making sure we know it. What do you do for fun in the summer? We're having a photo contest this summer for fun!



How do you enter?
Submit a photo showing us what you do for fun in the summer by e-mailing it to SummerTimeFun@Natural-Beauty.com. The subject of your e-mail will be the "title" of the picture and the body of the e-mail will be the "description" of the photo.  Neither one is actually required.  It will show up on our flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/natural-beautyphotography/ in just a few minutes.


Why use Flickr?
Most photographers do this type of contest through facebook, why aren't we doing that? It is against facebook policy to run a promotion using facebook's like, etc. as an entry mechanism. I know of a photographer who lost their facebook page - and therefore lost all of their followers as well. I don't want to take the chance of losing all of my followers. However, this doesn't mean that you can't post a link to the picture on your facebook page for all of your friends to go vote!

Facebook Page Guidelines - Section E. v. "You must not use Facebook features or functionality, such as the Like button, as a voting mechanism for a promotion."


What will you win?
We are giving away 2 individual sessions with this contest. These can be in studio or on location and are for the person or one of the people who are in the photo.


How do you win?
1) The first winner will win by having the most comments on their photo. Simply share a link to your photo on our flickr page with all of your friends and ask them to leave a comment. Only one comment per user will be counted.  The photo with the most unique comments will receive a free portrait session. Don't have a flickr account? No worries, you can log in using your facebook account.

2) The second winner will be chosen by me and a few facebook friends who aren't from around here (and therefore don't know who anyone is). This winner will be chosen for creativity, uniqueness and staying with the theme of the contest.


When can you enter?
The contest starts NOW! It will go through 5:00 p.m. Central Time Wednesday, July 18th. We will announce the winners around 5:00 p.m. on Friday, July 20th.


Bonus Money!!
Go ahead and have portraits taken now. If you have portaits taken before July 18th and you win, we will give you your session fee PLUS an extra $25 in credit towards your portrait order!


A great idea for a session right now is a pool session. Beat the heat and get portraits you can't get any other time of year. We'll come to the pool and get great portraits, often you can't even tell they're taken at the pool. We have the ability to get some really fun underwater portraits as well.

Get your favorite Summer Time Fun photo sent in now and contact us to setup your portrait appointment today!
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Natural-Beauty Phtoography
1515 Stone St.
Falls City, NE  68355
(402) 245-3700
1-888-652-9737
Cheetahs@Natural-Beauty.com