photography

Spring is almost upon us. If your anything like me you just can’t wait to feel the warm sun on your face–birds chirping–my shutter clicking away. Spring in one of the most exciting times to get a portrait taken. Orchards are blooming, colors are beginning to pop and it’s a great excuse to get a great new pair of shoes!

The real question is–What color combinations are the best for spring? I mean, what dress should you get to go along with those shoes? Two very great questions, let’s break it down.

We’ll start with a question–did you know that Pantone releases a spring fashion color guide? They do! They even have designers suggest color combinations making it easy to select colors and combinations of color for your photo shoot wardrobe. There are a ton of colors to pick from and they have fun names too. Here’s a quick list along with their color:

• Tangerine Tango
• Solar Power
• Bellflower
• Cabaret
• Sodalite Blue
• Margarita
• Sweet Lilac
• Cockatoo
• Driftwood
• Starfish

Great colors for spring don’t you think? The designers have a few suggestion on mixing and matching that should make picking your outfit a snap. Here are just a few:

For an ultra-bold look try mixing Tangerine Tango & Bellflower with Cabaret. Combine Margarita, Sweet Lilac & Cockatoo for a great alternative or Margarita, Sweet Lilac & Driftwood for something more practical. The colors go on and on and on. If you’re interested in learning more check out their web site for a quick read.

Now I know you have ideas for what to wear, so there’s only one thing left to do–contact us and schedule your shoot!

Many of you may have noticed a couple of big changes here and it’s got you thinking–What do they mean and why are we changing?

Those are two very good questions. We’ve spent the last few months talking to our clients, and our potential clients, about what you would like to see when you visit our site. We got a ton of great feedback and ideas and we have gone through all of them and created a to-do list.

On the top of the list was glamour. Many of our customers said they wanted to see our portrait photography have it’s own site. It seemed overshadowed by Glamour and didn’t get the spotlight as much as you would have liked it to. We thought this was great feedback and we really wanted to deliver on this request. So we’ve build a new website–with it’s own URL–for all of our great glamour work. If you would like to visit just go to www.wortheverypicture.com and tell us what you think.

What does that mean for www.cnvstudios.com? From this point forward this website will be dedicated to our portrait and fine art photography. As well as some photography tips on how to take better photos at home. We’ll also be able to share more photos from our portrait sessions and give you great new tips on posing and picking out a wardrobe for your family sessions.

Does this mean it’s the end of all the changes? Not just yet. We will be redesigning this site to have a brighter, fun, and inspirational feel that will focus on great portraits and some of our newest fine art photography. We’ll also be simplifying our navigation and making it easier for you to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Thank you for all of your feedback as well as your patience as we make these changes and bring you a better experience!

Cameron & Jody VanAusdal

We hope that you have had the very best New Year’s holiday with your family!

Here at CnvStudios we thought that a new year should come with a new look. So today we rolled out a new look to our site. It’s bold and beautiful… We hope that you enjoy it!

In the upcoming months we will be sharing more photography, more often. We hope that you will join us as often as you can to see our further Misadventures in Photography! Thanks for being a fan!

This week I have another great set of photos to share. Kayzia was having a load of fun playing with her stuffed animals in the studio one day. She was a handful but I think we got some really great shots that day.

For those of you that are wondering I shot this with a simple two light setup. The key light was a large soft box just to the right of the camera. I used a low powered fill light at a 90 degree angle, left of camera.

I added the background and the photo frames in photoshop to create this great little montage. Have fun with your subjects and further more have fun with the treatment of their photos.

Until Next time!

Sometimes when you are working with children they can be a little difficult.

Wait… everytime that you work with children they can be difficult. Everytime!

So I suggest that you use that to your advantage. Have a little fun. Play a game or get creative with your angles and sight lines. 

In this series of shots I was trying to get a smile from this little guy. But no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t get him to smile. So I challenged him to make as many funny, sad, or serious faces as he could. He started to have some fun and I started to get the shots that I needed.

So next time you have a difficult subject, give it a try.

The photo for this week goes back to a shoot from 2008. I commited a couple of party fouls when I set up this shot. Huh?!?!?! How could that be?!?!?!

Well it was really quite easy. I opened the aperature a little too far, had my strobe too close, and my shutter too slow. It didn’t destroy the shot, it just over exposed it by one to two stops. But I really liked the shot so I couldn’t give up on it so soon. I loved the lines, she has some very beautiful lines. I liked the casual and effortless beauty of the pose.

So knowing that I had overexposed the shot all I needed to do was pull a superman and fly around the world and reverse time, set the proper settings for the camera, move the strobe back a little, and BAHM! Perfect photo! Since my cape is at the dry cleaners and my tights ride up something wicked, I figured I would have to settle with some simple Photoshop tricks.

I first changed the image to black and white. Then I added a levels adjustment layer and actually pulled up the brights in order to give the shot the high key look. Once I got that just about right, I simply added another levels adjustment layer and crushed the darks to get rid of some of the darker details. And thats how I got the shot that you see here.

See you next week with another photo of the week!
-Cameron

This weeks photo comes from a calendar that I recently finished. I really liked this shot for the month of March.

I learned a few things from this shoot that kind of surprised me.

First, it is kind of hard to keep your energy level up when shooting for a long period of time. It takes a minimum of 13 shots to make a calendar and shooting that in one day can be a challenge.

Second, It is a total blast! Working together to get 13 amazing shots is not only fun but challenging. Coming up with fresh ideas, and collaborating on a project that goes beyond a simple photo is the challenge. But it’s oh so rewarding when it all comes together, looks amazing, and delights my client!

So the next time you approach a shoot, or prepare to be photographed, think about the final product. Maybe a calendar will give you that unique keepsake or gift that makes you get noticed!

Thanks for reading my blog! See you next week with another photo.
-Cameron

Or as you may have noticed, a change is here.

I have been working feverishly on an all new site design over the last couple of weeks. I have decided to go with a lighter more fun version of the site. I have to tell you that this change is really exciting for me. It’s sparked a whole range of creative and fun ideas not only for photography but for a whole range of amazing projects that I would like to pursue. I am looking forward to sharing my newly found creativity (with my three loyal readers) as I finish up some of the photo projects.

Please feel free to leave me your feedback on the updates to the site and give me any suggestions on how I can continue to improve the site. And please visit more often as there will be more changes over the next couple of weeks as I finish up some new sections of the site.

Thanks!

Cameron