Fall Fashion Finds {Central New York Photographer}

Posted on September 23, 2009 by Kim Hill

Yesterday I was out browsing the mall looking for pajamas and slippers for the kids.  Unfortunately, it must be too early for slippers cuz none of the stores had anything other than a few stray ones from last season.  Time to keep looking.

The shopping trip wasn't a complete loss, though.  While I was there, I saw some terrific outfits at The Gap which would look great for family portraits.  Since I'm often asked "what should we wear" to the session, I thought this might help you out.  This autumn color scheme would work so well for those outdoor sessions now that the leaves are starting to change colors.  Don't ya think?

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Other color schemes that work well together are red, black and gray; blue, beige and chocolate; red, white and blue; cranberry, gray and white; black, gray and white; or even plum, gray and pink. 

The easiest way to put together your outfits is to first pick your main neutral color.  Neutral colors are black, brown, blue, gray and white.  Next, decide what color you want as your eye-catcher and build the outfits from there.

I'll try to put together a few more outfit ideas in different color schemes and post them over the coming weeks.  🙂

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Wanna win some cool photography tools? {Resources 4 Photographers}

Posted on September 22, 2009 by Kim Hill

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Guess who’s products are being featured at Prop Insanity today?  Yes, that’s right.  MINE!!!  🙂  Hop on over there and sign up for a chance to win one of a prize.  🙂  Hurry!!!

I’m also very excited to announce that the Resources 4 Photographers website is now live.  This is where you can find tutorials for the products I create, as well as a few general processing tips and tricks all using Photoshop.  And if you are a really busy photographer with no time to do your own post-processing, you may want to consider hiring out that type of work.  A small sample of the work I’ve done is shown HERE and you are welcome to download the retouching price list.

And when you get done there, feel free to take a moment to browse the Resources 4 Photographers section of the shop at A Cherry on Top to see all the other tools available for photographers which will help make the most of your creativity.  🙂

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First Day of School {Central New York Photographer}

Posted on September 8, 2009 by Kim Hill

First day of school is today.  Woohoo!!!!  I can't tell you how excited I am.  Probably more than the boys.  LOL

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So David nearly missed the bus because it came 15 minutes earlier than our scheduled time.  So we quickly hopped in the car and I sped down the road to catch up to the bus at the end of a neighboring street.  The bus driver said they made some changes to the route this morning which is why she was so early.  Unfortunately, we are the 3rd stop for pickup and one of the last stops for drop-off.  So my kids are going to be on the bus F-O-R-E-V-E-R…..seriously, almost 2 hours more time added to their day and we only live 5 minutes from the school.  I'm seriously considering picking them up at the end of the day so that they can avoid being on the bus for so long.

Anyway, Christopher is half-day afternoon kindergarten.  He is beyond excited.  So excited that he stumbled down the stairs this morning and immediately got dressed.  His bus doesn't come til after lunch.  Ha!  SO we've got a few hours before he goes.  Then I'm going to get some work done.  Still have lots of photos to proof from last week's senior session.

Hope you have a terrific Tuesday.

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Weekend Highlights {Central New York Photographer}

Posted on September 6, 2009 by Kim Hill

On Thursday, I took the boys to my parents’ cottage up near the Adirondacks.  We had the most beautiful weather and were able to swim, sail, fish, fly kites, kayak, hike, and have smores at the campfire.  It was a perfect way to end the summer.  The only two downers were Christopher getting a bad rash from the neoprene life jacket and my Blackberry fell in the lake.  Got the phone airing out right now and will be picking up some drying packets from the boat shop tomorrow.  Wish me luck that it works.

Anyway, here are just a few pics.  Hope you had a fabulous holiday weekend!!

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Posted in Family Photos | 1 Comment

Urban Senior {Central New York Photographer}

Posted on September 2, 2009 by Kim Hill

This afternoon I had a great time hanging out with "R" as we walked around the university area for his senior session.  There are so many amazing locations for shooting up there that I think I'll be going back again soon.  Here's just a quick look at a few . . . more to come sometime next week. 

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Posted in Photography - General, Senior Portraits | Tagged , , , | 25 Comments

Reading to his brother {Central New York Photographer}

Posted on August 31, 2009 by Kim Hill

Okay, so I know this is very snap-shotty……

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but sometimes you just have to grab the shot no matter what.  This is one of those times and I'd like to share the story behind this with you.

Today, while I was taking a shower, my oldest came running into the bathroom and said that his brother had fallen off the bed and was hurt.  There I stood with shampoo in my hair not quite ready to be jumping out of the shower.  So I asked if he was bleeding – he wasn't.  Then I told him to have his brother sit on the bed and go grab him an ice pack for the sore ankle.  While he did that, I quickly rinsed my hair and hopped out of the shower.

As I hustled down the hall wrapped in just a towel, I overheard my oldest reading a Dr. Seuss book.  I thought to myself, "wow, is he actually reading out loud to his brother?"  So I tiptoed quietly the rest of the way and peaked in to see just that.  He was reading to his brother!!  Now many may think this is no big deal.  However, this is something we've encouraged him to do for about a year now.  He's a very good reader, even when reading aloud which can require some extra skills to actually make the story interesting.  Well, whenever we've asked him to read aloud in the past, he has shook his head and refused.  Yet this morning, he did it.  And he did it because he brother was hurt and wanted to listen to a story.  Isn't that the sweetest?

So don't always worry about whether the background is perfect or if the clothing is all matchy-matchy.  Sometimes you just have to seize the moment so that you can reflect back on it for years to come.

Posted in Family Photos | 10 Comments

And the winners are . . .

Posted on August 7, 2009 by Kim Hill

Good morning!  I’ve drawn the names of the winners this morning.  Tried out my new webcam, but couldn’t get the audio to function properly and had to use a trial version of movie conversion software which is why there’s a watermark in the center of the video.  Oy!

Anyway, the first three names drawn are for the actions and the last three names drawn are for the grunge overlays.  I will be in touch with the winners directly by email with info on how to get the prize.

Even if you didn’t win, you can still visit my section of the shop at Pink Ink Studios to pick up some of these fun products.  Here are some links for you:

PS Elements actions are RIGHT HERE and are generally compatible in versions 3 through 7 (unless otherwise noted in the description) as well as all of the pro versions of photoshop.

Pro Photo actions are RIGHT HERE (scroll down a bit) and are generally compatible with PS 7, CS, CS2, CS3 and CS4 unless otherwise noted in the description.

And now for the video drawing of the winners (gosh, I hope this works)  DOWNLOAD MOVIE

Posted in Photography - General, Resources 4 Photographers | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Wanna win all my actions? Bonus drawing for artistic grunge overlays, too!!

Posted on August 6, 2009 by Kim Hill

All of my pro photo and PSE actions will be arriving in the shop at Pink Ink Studios on Friday!!  And you could be one of the lucky ones who win the entire lot of them.  Simply post a comment on the blog and be sure to include a link back so I can contact you if you are the winner.  I will draw from a hat and 3 people will get them ALL.   Be sure to post before 9 am eastern time on Friday, August 7th in order to be included int he drawing.

Wanna know what all is included?

Over 60 individual PSE Actions including: overexposed fix, underexposed fix, sharpen image, bright burst, color burst, dreamy, light desaturation, sepia tone, B&W, chocolate brown, pencil drawing B&W, pencil drawing color, barely brown, barely pink edge fade, faux lomo, add flash, beautify, motion blur slide, basic painting, radient glow, soft glow, basic color correction, brighten eyes, whiter teeth, color isolation, paint with light, pop-out, bleached out, grunge B&W, grunge color, white bleach, black insider border, black outside border, white inside border, white outside border, color cast fix, espresso, lithographic print, fashion cool, fashion warm, fashion soft, gallery landscape, gallery portrait, gallery simple, make-up artist, expose-it, negative-positive, color saturation, resize 5×7, resize 8×10, sharp art, luminous boost, colorific, old holga camera, texturize, aged & faded, eye sparkle, whiter high key, canvas trim, and vintage haze.

Over 85 Pro Photo actions including: set of 3 high contrast B&W, glamour shots, 2 color corrections, chocolate brown, lab sharpening, luminosity, color booster, light desaturation, unsharp mask, basic color correction, brighten eyes, whiter teeth, photo border black, photo border white, 2 sticker actions, color isolation, paint with light, pop-out, comic book art, cross process color, grunge B&W, grunge color, orton effect, ertel effect, 2 bleached actions, color intensity, illuminate, oh those eyes, artistic edge, old film grain, aged perfection, infrared B&W, 2 color adjusters, extreme color punch, intense sunlight, sunny days, dodge/burn, polaroid transfer, shadow details, Hollywood B&W, Hollywood drama, Hollywood vintage, gallery vignette, porcelain, USM color boost, eye-defined, retro, inset photo, aging with style, edge sharpen, edge darken, hint of blue, urban edge, super curve, retro 1970, color pop, whiter high key, black & white, mellowed out, skin brightener, vintage effect, colorific, old holga camera, post-process pop, wash-out, brighten shadows, fading glory, color-WOW, high saturation,  faux HDR, Velvia, grunged up, aged & faded, and vintage haze.

BONUS!!!  I will draw an additional 3 names to win all of my artistic grunge overlays on Friday.  There are 16 sets, each of which includes four 6×9 grungey overlays to texturize your images.  This is a total of 64 overlays!!!

Both drawings will be held on Friday, August 7th at 9 am.  So be sure you get your name in and include aa link back so I can contact you if you are one of the lucky winners!!!

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Posted in Photography - General, Resources 4 Photographers | Tagged , , , | 106 Comments

Complimentary 16×20 Mounted Portrait

Posted on August 5, 2009 by Kim Hill

Bookings for the fall are underway.  First available session time is the week of September 14th.  Now is the time to get your senior portrait session scheduled as the yearbook deadline is drawing near.  Also, it’s time to consider portraits for the holidays.

First NEW CLIENT to retain Photos by Kim Hill for a fall session will receive a FREE 16×20 mounted wall portrait with purchase of any collection.  Tell your friends about this special and be sure they tell me that YOU referred them.  I will then give YOU a complimentary 16×20 mounted wall portrait too, which will be redeemable at your next paid session.

The fine print…..
– complimentary print is not redeemable for cash;
– only new client and referring client are eligible to receive complimentary print;
– retainer of $200 due at time of booking (will be applied toward collection purchase);
– collection purchase of $300 or more required;
– session must take place September 14 through 19, 2009;
– complimentary print may be used for any session type including Studio Session, Expressive Session, Nouveau Session, and Seductively You session.
– first-come, first-serve

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Contracts, Forms, Templates & More

Posted on August 2, 2009 by Kim Hill

More new products in the shop geared specifically for the professional photographer.  This week I have added monochromatic background papers, Preschool starter Forms and Senior Rep Program forms.  Take a look:

Senior Rep Program
SENIOR REP PROGRAM

Preschool Starter Package
PRESCHOOL PROGRAM

Monochromatic Bundled Paper Pack Set
MONOCHROMATIC BACKGROUNDS or you can purchase the individual paper packs HERE.

 

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