2010 February

Vendor Feature | High Grove Estate | Fuquay-Varina, NC

February 9, 2010

A couple of months ago, Alin and I were invited to a food-tasting event at High Grove Estate in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina just 20 minutes away from Raleigh. It sits right next to Laurel Lake and is one of the most beautiful venues serving some of the tastiest foods I’ve ever had. What I love most are the people that run the place. We have Vicki, Maria, & Roxana. These women have some serious passion for what they do and take tremendous pride in their venue appearance and the service they provide to their clients. So when they had asked Alin and I to come setup our photography work for their brides to see, I was flattered & humbled that they would think I was good enough to show there. Here are some pictures I took of their venue, food-tasting and setups. If you are a bride and are interested in setting up an appointment with them, visit their website HERE or call 919.552.6154.

high-grove-001

high-grove-002

high-grove-003

high-grove-004

high-grove-005

high-grove-006

high-grove-007

high-grove-008

high-grove-009

high-grove-010

high-grove-011

high-grove-012

high-grove-013

high-grove-014

high-grove-015

high-grove-016

high-grove-017

high-grove-018

high-grove-019

high-grove-020

high-grove-021

high-grove-022

Posted Under: Vendor Feature 2 Comments

Recipe Mondays No. 10

February 8, 2010

So I’ve got kind of a special treat today (if you would call it that). I’ve been spending a lot of January and February working on some behind the scenes & business stuff, with no weddings and sessions at a minimum. I just really need to prepare for what’s happening starting March, where I will pretty much be hitting the ground running until the end of the year. So anyway, with all that said, I didn’t have any new sessions to use for a before & after Recipe Mondays post. And then I thought, wouldn’t it be interesting to go back to some of my very first weddings and see how I would have edited them if I had my Totally Rad Actions? So that’s what I did. From my archives, I pulled out the very first wedding I had ever shot on my own in October 2005. I was miserably sick at 4 months pregnant with my second, and I also shot in Portland, Oregon, raining all day of course, and charged around $900 for the job. It was for a sister of my friend’s husbands, in case you were wondering. And a VERY sweet family at thatBack then I was shooting in “Auto” mode with my trusty Nikon D70 and some kit lens. With VERY little knowledge of Photoshop, I edited & touched up most of these images with Photoshop’s “diffuse glow”. I didn’t know what else to do. Actions didn’t really exist back then. I thought I’d show you an original photo from the wedding, the way I edited back then, and how I would have edited it now -almost 5 years later.

The first image below is the original untouched image. The second one was edited with what looks like Photoshop’s “diffused glow” effect.
001-b-and-a-original

The original untouched image.
002-original

I lightened up the faces and some of the trees and slightly darkened his suit using TRA’s “Yin/Yang” tool.
003-yin-yang-trees-suit-faces

“Green with Envy” on the trees and gray/green stone.
004-green-with-envy-on-trees-and-stone

“Boutwell Magic Glasses” at 50 percent.
005-boutwell-magic-glasses-50-percent

“Select-o-Pop” on the stonework.
006-select-o-pop-on-stone

I used the noise reduction (skin) tool from Nik Software’s “Dfine 2.0 on their skin.
007-dfine-2-point-0-skin-noise-reduction

I rotated the image to straighten it, cropped and used the healing brush to rid of any distractions.
008-straighten-crop-and-healing-brush-clean-up

“Warm it up, Kris!” at 60% opacity.
009-warm-it-up-kris-at-60-percent

“Antique Tone” at 70%.
010-antique-tone-at-70-percent

And there you have it!
011-before-and-afters

What do you guys think?

Posted Under: Before and After 12 Comments

My heart hurts…

February 7, 2010

I was at Central Church tonight and as usual the choir blows me away. As I sing along with them, for some reason, I am getting flashbacks of Living Waters Church where our family used to attend when we lived in Phoenix before May 2008. I used to sing in the worship group with my brother Genaro. As I sang tonight along with the choir, my heart ached and my eyes stung with tears as I realized how much I missed singing with my brother. I still sing at home & definitely in the car. But it just isn’t the same when you are up there on the stage, and you are blessed with this gift to bless others. I miss it. I really do. I miss the routine of going to practice Thursday nights before church. I miss Andrew messin’ around on drums and pretending that he’s this rock star or something. I miss Paul playing piano like he’s from another planet. I miss Mikey playing the guitar, and having that permanent smirk on his face when he plays. I miss Laura and her strange humor -that I totally get. I miss Genaro belting out his vocals and me wondering how it is he hasn’t been discovered. I miss Alin being the soundboard guy and being directly in front of me when I was up there singing. I miss walking over the volleyball sand court to get into the church building. I miss Youth Nights on Thursday nights. I miss Pastor Doru’s preaching. I miss my brother Francois’ preaching. I miss how close every one of the members were to each other. I miss how everyone came together to help my family when we were in need and at the lowest of lows in our lives. I miss hearing about everyone’s mission trips to Romania & Moldova. I miss being around people who were non-judgmental and loved you no matter what. I miss how everyone came to my ugly Christmas sweater parties wearing ugly Christmas sweaters. I miss everything and everyone in that church.

I’ve been asked many times why I live in Charlotte away from EVERYONE I know and love. I love everything about Charlotte except that those people are not here. And as much as I say I love it here, and I truly do, I hurt because I wish I could pick up everyone from Phoenix and move them here. Then life would be perfect. But life isn’t supposed to be perfect. I know that. I’ll have to accept that. I toy with the idea every now and then of “what if we moved back?” But I know that if we did, I’d be miserable again. I hate the desert. I just could not spend the rest of my life living in the desert.

Anyway, if anyone from Living Waters is reading this (you know who you are), know that I love you all, I miss you terribly, and I will NEVER forget you and what you’ve done in my family’s lives. But especially mine. Thank you.

Posted Under: My Life 13 Comments