MAGGIE HOLMES Photography and Scrapbooking Blog

sneak peek for the harris family

i can't get enough of this little one! she is just beautiful!! makes me kind of wish emmy jane was this tiny again! i have lots more to share from recent sessions... just trying to keep up with editing so i don't get too far behind!

oh, and by the way - happy halloween!!

 

Engagement Session

I shared a few images from this session already but I just can't get enough of them so I had to share a few more. They are the cutest couple and you could feel how in love they are and how excited they are for their big day! I can't wait to shoot their wedding! I am sure she will look gorgeous in her wedding gown!

There are a couple of funny stories from this shoot that I just have to share....

About a half hour into our shoot Brian had a big red and swollen bump on his forehead. It looked like a bug bite and felt like one but we weren't sure where it came from. He was a trooper and didn't pay much attention to it and I assured them that I could photoshop it out. Well, when I got home and started editing the images I could clearly see the culprit and the exact point at which the bump came about. I was editing away and then got to an image where there was something small and black in the exact spot on his forehead. I zoomed in on it and sure enough.... it was a mosquito perched right there just biting away!! The mosquito was on his forehead for quite a few pictures and then all of a sudden it was gone and in the next few pictures you could see the redness and swelling appear out of nowhere!! I was laughing so hard! Who new that I was documenting the process of a mosquito bite the entire time!!

Later in the shoot we were on these really cool railroad tracks and I was thinking to myself what a fun location it was and that I would definitely need to use this spot again. Well, we were on the part of the tracks that was a bridge so there was a big fence and then a smaller wire fence that went quite a ways until you were on more level ground and off the bridge. We were up on the bridge part and I had them all sitting down and was clicking away when we started to hear a train honking in the distance. We all paused for a second but then continued on as if nothing was happening. I guess we were all just not really thinking it could be a train -- duh! Then the honking got louder and closer and we started saying "is that a train coming?" We couldn't see the train because the tracks start to bend and curve right after the fence ends so you can't really see it approaching. As the sounds got closer I said we better get up and get off the tracks. Then as we were standing up we looked back and there was a train coming right around the bend full speed - coming straight for us!! Well, because of the fence and the fact that we were on the bridge, there was no where for us to go except to stand on the side of the tracks on the tiny little walkway between the fence and the tracks. We were smashed as close to the fence as possible holding on for dear life and screaming and laughing as the train was flying right past us about 6 inches from touching us!! It was CRAZY! I was holding onto my gigantic lens and camera for dear life and I can't believe that I wasn't more scared! It all happened so quickly that I don't think there was time to get scared! You could feel the wind and all the dust and debris flying at us and hitting us from the train. The train was super long with no end in sight and then after it had been flying past us for a bit, it started to slow down and came to a stop. We think there was something it had to stop for on the other side of the bridge. We waited until it was completely stopped and then we hurried as fast as we could along the side of the train off the bridge to the part where the fence ended and then we ran down the little cliff/hill and went under the bridge to continue our shoot!! It was quite an experience to say the least and I am just glad that we were all ok!! Needless to say I will definitely not be taking any families or small children to that location!! At least we got some great pictures though right??

Well, how is that for an exciting shoot! This is one that will definitely go down in the books as a shoot to remember!!

Holiday Photos

It's that time of year again where I am doing shoots almost on a daily basis.... reconnecting with familiar faces from last year and also meeting many new families too. It is a super busy time that I gear up for -- knowing that there will be many late nights editing photos, designing Christmas cards and filling print orders. But, it is so worth it! I love getting the opportunity to capture memories for each of my families and I love seeing how their cute little ones have grown and changed over the last year. 

I will try to share sneak peeks and previews as much as possible, but just know that if I go missing from my blog for a bit it is because I am shooting and editing... trying to keep up with it all! 

Here is a peek from a family shoot I did a couple of weeks ago. I absolutely LOVED that the girls were in this gorgeous pink and I was in love with mom's stylish belt! It was just that extra little pop of color that can make all the difference! As I was shooting I was thinking about how I could somehow get it off of her and sneak it into my camera bag.... but couldn't come up with a plan! :) I guess I will just have to go buy one! lol! 

A gorgeous and super stylish family at an equally gorgeous location! The spot with the pink flowers hanging down was made for them!! Don't you think?

LIttle Miracle

Mom and Dad waited a long time for this little guy and I am so happy that they finally got him!

He is adorably cute and extremely loved! Can you tell how happy they are? (And dad said he didn't even want to be in the pictures.... yeah right.... like we were going to let him get away with that silliness!!)

What do you think of my new green chair? I am in love!! I have been wanting something like this forever!! So you can bet that I will be hauling it around to lots of shoots this fall!

In fact, here are a couple of my little sweetie perched on it right out in front of my house! I love the chair but not as much as we love her! We all are still completely head over heels!! Will we ever not be???

Btw, all of these images were edited with my actions - mostly the sun kissed from my new COLOR MIX set. I am loving that one right now! Hope you are all having fun with it!

New Action Set

I am excited to release a new action set that I have been working on for a while now!

It is called my Color Mix Action Set and includes the following actions:

Urban

Sun Kissed

Antique

Urban Cross

Urban Cool

I have been using them for a while now for my personal photos and for my photo shoots and everyone is loving the new looks! Definitely play around with them because you can create even more looks by mixing the actions.

Here is a storyboard showing the original photo, the photo with each of the actions and then a few samples of layering the actions. (Click on it to view it larger.)

Making Memories is featuring my actions on their website this week so I wanted to offer a special discount to thank all of my readers and current customers! The normal price for this new action set will be $35 but for one week I am offering it at a discounted price of only $30! Be sure to check out the MM blog for a bunch of image samples. They have shown some really great photos and I love how they have used each of the actions to make them look even better! It is always fun for me to see my actions on others' photos!

In order to get the discounted price click on the link below and it will take you to PayPal where you can purchase the action set.

A big thank you to those that have already purchased them for your continued support! I have already received some emails from customers saying that they love them! I am so glad because I have worked really hard on them and it can be scary releasing something new. I know that for me they really cut down on my processing time and make things so much faster and easier when I am editing photos. I also love that I can get the exact same look on a bunch of photos, keeping my work consistent throughout a whole bunch of session images... rather than tweaking a photo and then trying to recreate that on a lot more images and ending up with inconsistencies! As with my other two action sets, these are made to run very quickly so you don't have to spend a ton of time running each action. We all know that time is valuable right?

Here are a few of the image samples so you can see them up close.

Original:

Urban:

Sun Kissed:

Urban Cross:

And here are a few images from a recent engagement session that I used these actions on:

Urban:

Urban Cool:

Antique:

(Please note that my action sets do not work with Photoshop Elements. They work with Photoshop 7, CS, CS2 and CS3. Because of the nature of the product, all purchases are nonrefundable.)

I will continue to share more images in the coming days. Feel free to email me if you have any questions on running the actions or if you are wondering if you have the right software!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!