keridoolittlephotography.com

Wedding season begins – CONGRATS to Cathi and Derek!!

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:49:12 +0000

Saturday was a gloomy day, which is my ABSOLUTE favorite weather to photograph in! The dark Denver skies make an amazing contrast against a white wedding dress. We all were just hoping the rain would stay away during pictures, which it did!!

Cathi and Derek were married at The Inn at Cherry Creek, which is a beautiful boutique hotel located in the center of the Cherry Creek shopping district. Cathi and Derek had some AMAZING hand-made items, such as a bouquet made from paper, felt coursages and boutonniers, books for the guests and map-wrapped centerpieces! The ceremony was beautiful and all the guest had such a fabulous time dancing the night away AND singing karaoke!

Thanks to Heather Lilly Photography for assisting me! And, thank you to Cathi and Derek for having me photograph your special day, we had a great time!!

Using Photoshop Subtly – Before/After

admin — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:29:36 +0000

When I first entered the world of Photography over 5 years ago, I was a MESS at Photoshop. I tended to over-saturate, over vignette, whiten eyes, etc. I hate to admit it, but I think I even did the occasional selective-coloring. I ran everything at 100% opacity and thought I was doing good. Thankfully, I belonged to an amazing photography forum who gave really good advice and photo critiques. Over the years I learned the better I am in-camera, the faster I will be in Photoshop. My latest tool is the Expo-Disk to assist with white balance. It really showed me that my LCD screen is a little off when in comes to WB on the back of my camera.

Anyhow, I wanted to show you my editing steps in this image I captured about a week ago and that just subtle adjustments is all that is needed to make this a great image.

1. Ran ProRetouch (TRA) at 40%…I still want to be able to see lines/pores in her face so she doesn’t look plastic.

2. Removed a stray hair with the clone tool that was a bit distracting.

3. Lighted up her face (at about 15% opacity) with Ying/Yang (TRA)

4. Used my dodge tool to run over her eyelashes one time to get them a tad darker.

5. Ran Oh Snap (TRA) at about 35% to give it a little more “pop”. HOWEVER, I need to make sure I don’t loose the details in her black jacket. They look pretty dark in this image, but on my computer, the details are still there.

6. Smart Sharpened, saved as JPEG. I also give my client a second, web-ready file of all their images.

Zion National Park + Vegas Vacation

admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:16:30 +0000

Before the wedding season kicks off this weekend, I thought it would be fun to have a little mini girls vacation before my days were consumed with editing. After a few exchanged emails, we decided to visit St. George, UT and visit Zion National Park. My two travel buddies were Rian and Bernie. Rian flew in from Spokane, Bernie drove down from Salt Lake and I came in from Denver. After the quick 2 hour drive, we arrived in St. George and stayed at Rian’s Aunts house. It was BEAUTIFUL weather!!! We spent the days sun-tanning, attending a rodeo, and hiking at Zion National Park. Zion was BEAUTIFUL and the pictures below don’t do it justice at all! I wouldn’t really consider myself a nature person (more of a city girl), but I was really quite impressed with it’s beauty and history! A must-see excursion if you are in the area!

And, because it is hard to carry my “big” camera around all the time, here is a little collage of my iPhone images from the weekend! Hope you all had a great weekend!!

Denver, CO Portrait Photographer – Elizabeth

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:48:51 +0000

I have been photographing Elizabeth for the past 2 year and I just love her energy and spirit she brings to both her business and personal life. I am honored to call her my friend! We had an amazing time taking some new business headshots for her, in fact, her mini session turned into 1.5 hours of shooting on a BEAUTIFUL evening in downtown Denver. Elizabeth is game for anything and everything and also lets me test out some of my new photography toys! I had such a fun time photographing you!!

Elizabeth is the author of Whole Living Blog, which gives you a TON of healthy and important information about eating right!

Easter 2012

admin — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 16:59:26 +0000

We started a new tradition this year…golf on Easter! It was a great idea! The weather was beautiful, the crowds were small and we got home in time to watch the end of the Masters. Pretty fabulous!!

Mark informed me this morning that I hadn’t posted pictures from our day, so I hopped on the computer this morning to add a few snaps from our outing last weekend. Ryland is driving the ball really far and Easton has a beautiful backswing!! Can’t wait to get these boys in a few lessons, they LOVE the game!

Toys – A Kidstage Production

admin — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 01:19:26 +0000

So, I forgot to post these awhile back, oops!! I know I talked about it a TON on Facebook, but never posted the images from Ryland’s acting debut. He was in a play called Toys (mimicked after Toy Story) and was the Corporal. He took his role VERY serious and practiced very hard!! I came nice and early to scout out the front row for our family and optimal picture-taking position.

He did a FANTASTIC job!! Got all his lines correct and we were all sooooo proud of him!! The family all sent their well wishes, which he got to open up on opening night of the play. The cutest part was we were all instructed to bring a pad of paper for autographs after the show. Ryland was determined to get his entire cast-mates signatures before he left. Also, big props to their teacher, Ms. Jeanne, for directing, she did a FABULOUS job!!

He is very excited for round-two of acting class!!

Take me out to the ballgame!

admin — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:48:11 +0000

Game 1 of the season…Ryland was soooooo excited!! His first REAL game where you get people out, strike out, hit home runs AND have an official score-keeper. Thankfully, they have some rules put into place, like a time-limit and amount of runs scored in an inning. It was so much fun to watch…and, um, the crowd? There were probably about 100 parents, relatives and friends watching the game, I felt like it was opening day for the Rockies.

I made the decision to take my 70-200mm lens, thanks to a handful of friends on Facebook! :-) Below are a few snaps…Ryland is #28 (Royal Blue team)…there is a mix of images of both teams. Looking forward to next weekend!

The cousins were in town!

admin — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:13:48 +0000

Well, SOME of the cousins (there are LOTS of them)! Two of my sisters, Kristin and Katie, and my mom, Jackie, came to Denver for their spring break. They got two nice days of 80+ degree weather and then in snowed in typical Denver fashion. But, that didn’t stop us from doing LOTS of activities!!

And, I just happened to have a camera laying around the house, so we took off on Sunday evening and took some quick pics of the kiddos. Enjoy!!!

Summer Cover – Rocky Mountain Bride Magazine

admin — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:43:14 +0000

I am THRILLED that Rocky Mountain Bride Magazine has chosen my image for their summer cover!! The beautiful Miss Hannah was so much fun to photograph!! Also, I couldn’t have done this alone…we had a FABULOUS team of super stars making the entire shoot a success:

Venue: The Wildlife Experience

Hair/Make-up: Rachael with Girls and Curls

Flowers: Swank Stems

Dresses: couture gowns from Little White Dress Bridal Shop

Hair Accessories: Girls and Curls Couture

Models: Hannah and Maddison

Without further adieu, here is the cover:

Boulder, CO Portrait Photographer…Steve and Susan

admin — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 16:29:42 +0000

I got an email from Susan several months ago about a photo shoot for her band. Susan is actually the sister-in-law of Sara, who I photographed last year, along with her husband, Jerry. Naturally, I was very excited to photograph some musicians, as I come from a big, musical family myself. Unfortunately, the stage usually gets the better of me, so I tend to listen more than sing. :-)

We met up in Boulder, CO and took some beautiful images of both Susan and Steve, who were an absolute blast to work with!! We even got a treat about half-way through the shoot…Steve and Susan gave us a private concert, which was AWESOME!!! You two are VERY talented!! Near the end of the shoot, we brought the kids out to take a few family shots, too.

Wanted to give a quick shout of thanks to Maria of Studio Sister Photography for coming along to help me out with lights and reflectors, which helped a ton since the un was behind the cloud most of the shoot. Thanks girl!