Picture A Day - June 20, 2011 - Averyboo Arts

I bought a Groupon a looooong time ago for Averyboo Arts because 1) it had the name "Avery" in it, and 2) it looked like a fun place for my son - you go to their studios, they supply all the artsy stuff, and then clean up after your kid....what more could you ask for??  :)

So I FINALLY got around to making a reservation for Caydan and we went down there the other day over in the Bixby Knolls area of Long Beach.  Very cute little area with lots of fun shops - I had never been over there before but look forward to heading back for their First Friday events.

Caydan tried everything while he was there - he played dress up in a cute police uniform, built structures with Legos wearing a little construction hat, played with clay/play-doh type stuff, drew on the wall and floor with chalk, and painted with both watercolors and acrylic type paints.  We have another hour left to redeem on the Groupon so I think we'll head back soon...they do birthday parties there too which I'm contemplating as the price isn't bad at all. :)

Picture A Day - June 17, 2011

Today's picture was taken a few weeks ago when I was in Orlando, FL...we were sightseeing around the Disneyworld resort area and had taken the Disney bus to the Magic Kingdom so that we could take the boat to the Grand Floridian resort (one of my top choices for lodging if I was going as a romantic couple to Disneyworld) to just walk around.

As we were getting on the little boat, I looked over and saw this row of palm trees that just really screamed "FLORIDA" to me....so I snapped the below photo....we have tons of palm trees here in Southern California too....but Florida's palms are very distinctly "Florida" and just have a much more tropical feel to them.  Have I mentioned yet that I LOOOOVE Florida???  :)

Picture A Day - June 12, 2011 (Terranea Resort - Palos Verdes, CA)

I feel silly even calling these posts "Picture A Day" posts considering they're more like "Picture a Month" posts...or even Bi-Monthly....but I guess I'm just being stubborn and determined to someday get back on track doing these daily, lol. :)

Since I've been back from Florida, June Gloom has been in full effect here in Southern California.  It really sucks.  I've seen nothing but gray fog and clouds all week and have been so bummed.  Then today, the sun decided to show itself and I was so excited that I headed straight to the closest beach there was....which isn't really much of a beach, it's like a sandy plot of land with a rocky beach at the water's edge....but it's absolutely BEAUTIFUL here and one of my favorite places to go.

"Here" is the Terranea Resort.  A little hidden treasure of the South Bay.  It's a new resort on the cliffs of Palos Verdes, CA that has public walking trails and a public beach at the bottom of the cliffs.  There's this amazing cave down there too that I've never ventured very far into.

Here's two pictures I snapped today while we were hanging out on the sand.  My son is growing up to be such a handsome little man. :) :)

Picture A Day - March 17, 2011

So my current challenge that I'm facing as a photographer right now is color correction.  Between getting skin tones right and calibrating my monitors to the printer I'm using, this task has been taking me a good 6+ months of concentrated effort.  Everytime I feel like I got it down, I realize I don't.  I can't even explain to all of you how frustrating this can be. :(

On top of trying to correct it in Photoshop, when I post the pictures on Facebook or my blog, the colors change and fade usually.  I think it has to do with my soft-proofing settings in PS which allows me to view the picture how it will be printed with a specific vendor, not necessarily the best web viewing colors.

So for those clients who are used to me giving out the full-size digital images and are wondering why I'm not doing that any longer - this is why.  Your prints need to be printed with the specific printer that I'm calibrating my pictures to, otherwise the color is not going to come out as intended.

So throughout the color challenges, I'm not giving up and I'm still working at it...although it would be fab if I could just pay someone else to edit all my photos so that I could just focus on the actual photo taking!  Maybe one day when I'm a big name fashion photog (currently my ultimate goal) I can actually afford this. :)

For now - here's a pic of my son from last week being a ham as usual. :)

Picture A Day - March 13, 2011

I'm on a blogging roll! :) :)

This picture was taken of my son yesterday...we're still in Vegas and yesterday went over to the Town Square Mall which is an awesome and beautiful outdoor shopping area.  They have this super fun kids playground area that reminds me of Solvang with all these play houses and structures.  There's also this really cute maze-thing (what are those things called?  Like the corn mazes, but it's not corn...just tall bushes) that he loves to run through.  This pic below was taken in the maze. :)

Happy Daylight Savings Time!  This is my favorite time of year as I LOVE the sunlight!! :)

Picture A Day - March 9, 2011

My son and I have been staying in Las Vegas for the week, and yesterday decided to go take a walk down the strip to take some letter art photos for the growing number of orders I've had lately (thanks everyone!!).  We walked pretty far and then had to turn around and walk back....and unfortunately I didn't find a whole lot of good letter art pics, but I did find a few at least. :)

Anyways, on our journey we stopped at the Flamingo hotel to go check out the little sanctuary area in the back that they have....with koi fish, ducks, swans, and of course flamingos. :)

Caydan sat down on this little rocky area and insisted I take a photo of him there.  He's turning into such a ham and experienced model, lol.  It really is cute. :) :)

On another note...this is the last time you'll see him in this adorable sweater that I absolutely love....it got hot outside so I tied it around his waist, and somewhere along the strip it fell off and he didn't notice it....so we no longer have the sweater. :(

Here's his self-designed photograph. :)

Picture A Day - January 14, 2010

Yet another picture of my adorable little boy.  It sure is hard sometimes to get him to take a picture for me, but when he does - his smiles just light up my day.  I think this one is going to make it to my living room wall. :) :)

Late night post - Picture a Day - flowers at the Huntington

I've been posting lots of pics on my Facebook page (so if you're not a fan already, you should be because I post there way more than anywhere else!), and as I'd like this new year to result in lots more blog posts for me, I'm posting this one here at 10:56pm PST...so I'm getting it in before the day's end :)....even though I know I won't post the rest of the weekend.....I'm going to St. George, Utah tomorrow morning.....it'll be my first time setting foot in the state of Utah. :) :)

Well this pic below was one I took on an excursion to the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena, CA with my bestie, Jen from Haute Whimsy, and my son.  Lots of fun things to look at there, we didn't even get to see everything!!  We'll definitely be taking a return trip there in the future. :) :)

Have a great weekend everyone!!

"By the Light of the Moon"

Last night I was driving home around 10:30pm-ish and as I went around the corner before I reached my block, I looked over to the ocean on my right and saw this amazing view....the moon was lit in the shape of a large crescent, shining right above the ocean, which then left this gorgeous light trail over the water.  It was breathtaking.  I was then determined to capture that moment on my camera.

I drove home, ran up the stairs, got my camera ready, pulled out my brand new tripod that I hadn't even taken out of the box yet....couldn't figure out how to use it so tossed it on the couch and proceeded to tear apart my house looking for my old tripod.  Almost went back to the car thinking it was in there, but then spotted it on a shelf...got out the tripod and ran back down the stairs out to the back of the parking lot that looks out over the ocean....then I stood there fumbling with the tripod realizing I should have set it all up in the house where there was actually light so I could see what I was doing...but I knew that the moon's distance changes so rapidly sometimes and I had to get it just like it was....mind you, I also had my 4yr old son running after me through all of this commotion.

Finally, somehow in the dark I got it all set up and tested a couple of settings, then finally settled on one and started taking pictures.  I keep telling myself that I need to figure out if my camera came with a remote...I can't remember, and I don't know where it is if it did....but I need one.  When you take long exposure shots like this, the tiny bit of camera shake just from pushing the button will kill the image.  I did manage to get one shot that was pretty clear though....a bit grainy, but still focused.

So below is what the end result was...I did two different versions because I loooooved the purplish skies when I lightened it up....but then when I played around with it a bit, all of a sudden this darker image that highlighted the stars even more popped up on my screen and I loved it too....so I couldn't decide which to use, and ended up just going with both....

Which one do you like better??

These are both up for sale in my Etsy shop in case you're interested!

New Feature - Giveaway List!

NOTE: I'm constantly updating this post, so keep checking back!

Lately I've become wrapped up in this giveaway world....how could you not I guess??  For those of you unfamiliar with the blogging world, did you know that there are hundreds (if not more) of free giveaways on the internet?  You can win some pretty awesome things too....some are smaller like from people's Etsy shops, and some are major like laptops, and then there's everything in between.

Since I've been entering them left and right, I figured I'd start a list here so that I can share all these awesome giveaways with you.  I guess this lowers my odds of winning if you all enter, but in the end I hope that it increases some traffic to my blog, so I suppose I'll take the trade off. :)  Besides, I like to share exciting things that I come across!

With that said, make sure you share this blog post with your friends so they come visit too! :)

So here's a few to start off with, I'm not posting every single one because there's just too many, I'm just going to post the ones that I like.  I'll update this specific post with new ones, and then I'll note which ones are closed....every once in awhile I'll put up a new post altogether so it doesn't get too far down on my blog.

Want your giveaway featured?  I'm offering sponsored giveaway space as well - your giveaway will be listed here, but noted as a "Sponsored Giveaway", you will also be given space for a button on my sidebar through the length of your giveaway.  Currently selling the space for $5.00, get it while the price is hot!

And before the list, I wanted to share one of newer fine art prints because I just love how this turned out!  You can purchase any of my fine art prints on my Etsy site here: Blue Marbles

1. The Johns Family: Read and Share Bible for kids - ends Jan. 21

2. My Giveaway Today: Pillow Pets games - ends Jan. 24
3. Being Frugal and Making It Work: $65 CSN gift certificate - ends Feb. 2
4. Life with the Dietrick's: Month's supply of Popchips - ends Jan. 21
5. Living On Ashley's Allowance: $25 gift card to Victoria Secrets - ends Jan. 31
6. The Scent Peddler: Gold Canyon Baking Line candle - ends ??  (maybe Jan. 31?)
7. Brixton Street: $10 Amazon gift card - ends Feb. 9
8. Aubut Family: Hearthsong Spinning Seesaw - ends Jan. 26
9. Momma Told Me: Anybook Reader - ends Feb. 1
10. Black Nail Polish and Lip Gloss: Zoya Intimate Collection Nail Polish - ends Feb. 4
11. Misplaced Jersey Girl: $35 CSN gift certificate - ends Jan. 30
12. Living on Love and Giveaways: Kitchen Aid mixer - ends Feb. 28
13. 21. SweepStakesMania.com: Free $25 gift card to Walmart - ends Jan. 31
14. Just Another New Blog: $50 Babies R Us gift card - ends Jan. 24
15. Mimi Loves All 8: Face Candy Couture Eyeshadow - ends Jan. 18
16.

Picture A Day - Nov 26 2010 - Name this picture!

One of my blog readers, Warren B., recently inquired about another "Name this picture" post (like this one: http://averyjamesphotography.blogspot.com/2010/10/picture-day-oct-23-2010.html)....and I thought it was a great idea!  Especially since I couldn't figure out what to name the below image I recently took on a trip to Las Vegas.

It's currently up for sale on Etsy, along with other images, but as of now it's only called "Untitled".  Doesn't quite pull you in, does it?  :)

With that said - help me come up with a name for this image.  I'm not the best wordsmith, so naming my art pieces isn't really my area.  :)

"Untitled" on Etsy

Free Mini-Session Photoshoot and Fine Art Print Giveaway Contest!

There's two parts to this contest - one for a photo session, and one for a fine-art print.  Even if you're not local to the L.A. area you can enter to win a free fine-art print from AJP!

First, the free photo-session:

If you're in the L.A. area, or going to be anytime in the near future, you should definitely enter my giveaway for a free mini-session photoshoot!! :) :)  This is a great opportunity to get some updated family photos!

Deadline to enter is December 7, 2010.

You must become a fan of Avery James Photography on Facebook to enter....and for every friend that you refer, you get an extra chance to win.  If your referral wins, then you win too!

You can check out all the details here (Facebook link):

AJP Free Mini-Session Giveaway on Facebook

Part 2 (for anyone, anywhere in U.S.)

If you blog about this giveaway (note the free photo session AND the fine art print), you will be entered to win an 8x12 fine art print from my gallery.  You can see current prints in my Etsy shop, and I plan on adding more soon - so you can wait to redeem your prize if you don't see anything you like yet. :)

Please have your blog post link back directly to this post (Link: http://averyjamesphotography.blogspot.com/2010/11/free-mini-session-photoshoot-and-fine.html).  Then post the perma-link to your blog post about this giveaway in the comments.
And don't forget to include your email address!

Deadline to enter for the fine art print is also Dec. 7, 2010.  A winner will be chosen at random  and posted here as well as contacted via email.

This is the first blog-style giveaway I've done, so I hope I did it right.  Happy to answer any questions - crystal@averyjamesphotography.com  :)

And to leave you with a picture, here is a gorgeous sunset that I photographed about a month or two ago outside my home.  The sky was just absolutely amazing that day.  This, and other fine art images, are up for sale in my Etsy shop! :)

Picture A Day - Nov 16, 2010

I've already posted this pic on Facebook, but I never blogged about it...so it's a repeat for some, but not others. :)

I took this pic a couple of years ago at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.  I love that place!  My favorite animal amusement park (as opposed to the zoo or Sea World, etc.)....I just love the outdoorsy feel to the whole park and the trails, and most of all the Savannah area - it's breathtaking when you see it and all the animals just roaming around.  They have this "Sleep and Snore" program there where you can camp overnight in their tents (already set up, really nice tents).  They have different programs and activities for different groups, and so far my son has been too young for all of them...but I think he's almost at the age requirement.  Super pricey, but it sounds like so much fun! :)

This picture is also available for sale in my Etsy shop, where I've just lowered the price on all my fine art prints by about 35%!  

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AveryJamesPhoto

Picture A Day - Nov 15, 2010

So yesterday I had a wonderful day with a friend and her husband that I haven't seen in months....maybe closer to a year actually if I really thought about it!  She moved up to the Calabasas, CA. area awhile back and as it's about an hour drive from me, I hadn't yet made it up there to visit with my crazy schedule.  But yesterday, after months in the making, I finally made the drive with my son to go visit.

We had a wonderful time...went hiking in the Santa Monica mountains...extremely hot out and dry, but a fun walk nonetheless.  We made it to the visitor center where my son got to check out all the stuffed animals (not toys, the real kind, lol.), make animal tracks in dirt, and touch skeletons and snake skin.  We all also learned that a mountain lion is also known as a "cougar", NOT a "jaguar" as I kept saying, lol.

After our hike back to the car we were all famished and low on blood sugar...made it back to their house for some delicious turkey sandwiches.  Then we headed out towards the Malibu/Zuma beach area with a pit stop at the Coffee Bean....which was located in this fabulous little shopping area with a park in the middle....and this hilarious statue nestled next to the playground that I just couldn't get over the prominent "cheeks", lol.

But that's not today's photo, even though it's pretty funny...that was just a camera phone snapshot.

Today's photo is of my son while we watched the sunset at the beach...I think we were somewhere in between Malibu and Zuma.  It was hard to get a good clear shot because everytime I went to take a picture, someone else was standing right behind him taking their pictures....seriously, there's millions of miles of beach and they kept picking the spot right where I was taking a pic!  That's how my luck works typically though....

So here is the picture...I had a bunch of different ones, but I loved this one because he just looks so darn happy.  He was being a goofball when I took it, but it looks like complete joy in the final product. :)

Picture A Day - Nov 7, 2010 - Happy [belated] Halloween!

A little late, but I just had time to put this little pic together the other night (bottom)...was having fun playing around with this digital scrapbooking stuff. :)

So our Halloween consisted of first going to find this little Halloween carnival in Palos Verdes...which I assumed I knew where it was and went straight there...we saw tents set up and lots of people so we parked and got out, then upon walking around realized - 'duh, we're at a Farmers Market'...so we shopped around a bit while we were there and discovered this DELICIOUS flatbread dip with feta cheese, sun dried tomatoes, and a bunch of spices and oil....so we bought one and it is YUMMMMYY....

Then I actually looked up the address to find the carnival (first step next time) and headed that way (complete opposite direction).  It was a small carnival with little crafts and games for the kids.  They also had a pumpkin race which we watched for a bit, but none of the pumpkins made it very far unfortunately.

Afterwards we ate lunch at In n Out (yummmmmm, animal fries!) and then headed to Riviera Village in Redondo Beach for some practice trick-or-treating, lol.  They have the street blocked off and all the shops give out candy...that place gets packed with tons of cute trick or treaters, and lots of dressed up dogs too.

While we waited for it to get dark, we went to Del Amo mall to walk around and found that some of the stores there were giving out candy as well. 

Then finally it was about that time, so we headed over to Candy Cane Lane (the local neighborhood that gets all decked out for Christmas....they also do it pretty big for Halloween, although not as big) for the official trick or treat.  My sister and her friend joined us as well.  This place is like an amusement park because it's so crowded!!  I love the atmosphere though....tons of decorations, most residents sit outside with their little campfire things burning, and hand out candy at the sidewalk.  There are literally lines at most houses, 15-20 people deep sometimes....it's insane.  But you can't deny the excited feeling in the air of all the little kids.  It's a great spot (that is quickly becoming overrun unfortunately).

20 blocks later we were all exhausted....so we called it a night and went home with our treasures. :)

And that's all she wrote, have a great Sunday everyone! :)

 

Scrapbooking images from: 

http://www.computerscrapbook.com/

http://freedigitalscrapbooking.com/

Picture A Day - Oct 23, 2010

So I wanted to experiment a little this morning....something different....which is why I LOVE being mostly caught up on my editing because I don't have to feel guilty about taking some time to work on some personal items just for fun.

This is another image I took on my Santa Monica, CA. Glow Fest excursion (although I didn't really take many pics of the actual Glow Fest even though that was my intention...I just couldn't do much without having a tripod with me)...

But I'm having a hard time coming up with a creative name for this piece....any ideas?????

UPDATE: Thanks to reader, "Warren Baldwin" who suggested this fabulous name - this photo is now called "Rotation".  Thanks Warren!

It's also available for sale in my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/AveryJamesPhoto?ref=top_trail

Picture A Day - Oct 20, 2010 (and business update)

uhmm...maybe I should title this "Picture a Week...maybe a Month" instead...??  The last week or so I've been rotating the projects I'm working on since there's so many, and the Picture a Day just didn't happen in that time....even though I had a great picture to share!  Oh well...I'll do what I can with posting and we'll see how it turns out. :) :)

I've also been making a LOT of changes in my business...I'll do a more official post about it later, but just a couple things here:

1. I will no longer be shooting any more events, including weddings... (gasp!)...I know...'what is this girl thinking??'...Well, there's a long list of reasons for it, but the bottom line is - I just don't want to.  I don't enjoy it, and I don't want to grow to hate my business...so I need to focus on things that I do enjoy...even if it means a big pay cut :(

2. I will also no longer be doing any fundraiser mini-sessions (another gasp!)...again, a big income-generator for me, but I just don't enjoy doing it...it doesn't mesh with my photography style and is very stressful and time consuming.

And those are the main two changes for now...I'll be having some pricing changes and process changes coming very soon as well (so book your session now if you want to get in at the current rates!!!)...forthcoming soon.

I also spent all morning rebuilding my e-mail subscription database...I lost everything when I transitioned to my new Mac awhile back and just haven't had time to redo it til now...but I'm POSITIVE that I've left some subscribers off the new list, I just didn't have all of the old names that I did on my old list...I'll be sending out an email update soon and will post something here, so if you don't get it, then you're not on my list....if you'd like to be, just let me know! :)

OK - so on to my picture for the day...I was going through some old pictures yesterday and came across a set of pics that I forgot I even took...it was from almost two years ago when I took my son to the beach and there were a bunch of sailboats just out cruising around.  A beautiful sight.  I happened to have brought my camera with me and took the opportunity to snap some pics...below is the final product of one of them....

I also decided to put this print up for sale on my Etsy shop in case anyone is interested! :)

Etsy: Blue Marbles - $25.00 8x10 (larger sizes available)

Jump! Picture A Day Restart - Oct 17, 2010

I've been doing so good lately with my blog posting, trying to do at least one photo-related post a day....I figured that I would take this opportunity to try and get back on track with my Picture A Day project I started months ago that I kept up for about a week (not surprising at all)....

With that said, below is another photo of my little one, taken back in March 2010....I was working on my action photography....not so great then, but as of about 2 weeks ago I actually finally mastered it I think....OK, "mastered" is really not the right word to use, but I think I got the hang of it now.

Since I've started doing my photography full-time (left my day-job a little over a month ago), I've had so much more time to actually learn things!!  I finally figured out how to REALLY use my flash the other day...still much more to learn, but I got the jist of it outside of the Auto mode.  I'm learning a lot more about post-processing my images, I finally updated my website portfolio which I haven't done in about a year!  (See here: Avery James Photography Portfolio), I've had a little more time to put some thought into my marketing and design materials (although I haven't actually done anything yet), and most importantly - I've had much more time to spend with my son....which was ALWAYS the end goal in this whole career choice from Day 1.  I've got a long ways to go in my journey, but I can say with confidence that I'm on the right path.  :)

Happy Thursday everyone :)

Picture a Day - June 2, 2010

Here is today's picture...I got home and Dan (my fiance) had gotten me this pretty, giant cupcake for my birthday today!  So I wanted to take a picture of it as I figured it was very fitting for today's pic. :)  And I also decided to throw this into my stock photo site on istockphoto.com...so I took out the background on the one version. :)

P.S. Just a little hint, but Jen and I (my bestest friend since high school) have been scheming most of today about a new business venture (what's new!)...it overlaps with this photography business, but will be officially under a new company name...although I think I will likely post here as well as the new biz blog...it's VERY exciting and much different than what you've been seeing here....I can't divulge everything yet as we're still planning, but we're hoping to have a couple of pictures to show over the weekend as we'll be taking our first stab at this new venture on Saturday. :) :)  More to come!! :)

Picture a Day - June 1, 2010

I haven't posted my pic a day in awhile (surprise surprise!), so I'm posting one that I took last weekend....of my little boy looking all cute and stuff. :) :)