Photos by Robin » photo talk http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog Blog Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:20:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Mini Session Talk | Minneapolis Photographer http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/mini-session-talk-minneapolis-photographer/ http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/mini-session-talk-minneapolis-photographer/#comments Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:03:40 +0000 Robin http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/?p=2858 Ok I spent a big portion of the day finalizing some mini session prep stuff – whew – these are a lot of work to plan and follow through on!  I’ve still been getting a lot of inquiries from people wanting to get in on some mini sessions before the holidays.

So…………..I’m throwing around the idea of opening up some more dates to CURRENT clients first, then if there are still spots left, they can go to new clients.  Current clients – please contact me for more information if you are interested.  Since I’ll have to push them into November and maybe even December, they may be structured slightly differently than my current minis. 

In the mean time and especially if you want an outdoor session, I do have some photography friends that are also doing some really great mini session specials!  Please feel free to contact them if you wish to set up an appointment! (and not sure if the slots are full, so hurry! :-) )  In no particular order, here they are:

Jennie Gaskins – http://jenniegaskins.blogspot.com/2010/09/i-have-gotten-quite-bit-of-emails-in.html - early bird minis on Wed 9/22!

Nichole Lee – http://nleephotography.com/blog/?p=870 - she has 3 different mini session dates available – locations vary depending on the date.  Sat 9/11 – Park, Sat 10/2 - urban, Sat 10/16 – park.

Molly Shields – http://www.mollyshieldsphotography.com/blog/?p=958 - Sun Oct 17th at the arboretum in Chaska.

Paula Charchenko & Kelly Jenne – not sure of times/dates/availability – feel free to contact them!  Paula – www.paulacharchenko.blogspot.com and Kelly – http://kjennephotos.blogspot.com/

Jessica Barker – http://jessicabarkerphotography.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/fall-mini-sessions-st-louis-park-photographer/

and since no post is complete w/out a photo – here’s the last 2 card designs in the tempate set I bought.  :-)

notice how this was a baby announcement… but it can totally be turned into a Christmas card!

]]> http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/mini-session-talk-minneapolis-photographer/feed/ 0 Puppy Love! | Minneapolis Pet Photographer http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/puppy-love-minneapolis-pet-photographer/ http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/puppy-love-minneapolis-pet-photographer/#comments Sun, 29 Aug 2010 02:32:53 +0000 Robin http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/?p=2792 My friend Jennie called last night saying she had a last-minute newborn session and wondered if I’d like to come along.  Newborn PUPPIES that is!  I said SURE!  Never done that before, so I’m always game for something new!  Claire and her friend Jacy came along too since they are both such animal-lovers!   These were taken at 9:30pm last night – all done in her awesome studio!

The puppies were ADORABLE!  They are a Bichon Frise/Shih Tzu mix – their mom called them “Teddy Bear” puppies.  They came all the way from WI (6 hr drive) for a party this weekend.  Since they were only 1 week old, the owners didn’t want to leave them behind – so they all made the trip over! 

Here’s proud mama – Kai – with her babies!  :-)  This is Kai’s first litter…she was very protective of them and needed to know where they were at all times!  :-) This shot was super hard to get!  They kept wanting to curl up into a big ball and tuck their heads into each other.  Jennie is so great at posing!  I loved assisting her!  :-) Claire and Jacy were in heaven!  awww!  It would be so fun to see what they look like in a few weeks!  Too bad they live so far away!  Thanks for having me over Jennie!  I’ll work with you any time I can!  :-)  

btw….I just want to say that this whole photography industry can be very competitive and catty.  It’s so nice to have someone like Jennie that is so NOT that way!  I really appreciate that about her (and many of my other photography friends!  You know who you are!  :-)   )

]]> http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/puppy-love-minneapolis-pet-photographer/feed/ 1 Slaves to Righteousness Part 2 | Minneapolis Talent Photographer http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/slaves-to-righteousness-minneapolis-talent-photographer-2/ http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/slaves-to-righteousness-minneapolis-talent-photographer-2/#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 22:35:15 +0000 Robin http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/?p=2764 OK so remember the band “Slaves to Righteousness” from a few months back?  My original intent was to do an outdoor session, but they wanted some photos right away for some website stuff so we were forced to do them indoors due to the weather. 

Well we got our chance for the outdoor session last night  and it was super super fun!!  My friend Jennie joined us and she was a huge help!  Thanks Jennie!  :-)

Shane (far right)  is our pastor’s son and this is his band.  They won “battle of the bands” to win a spot on stage at the MN State Fair, so congratulations guys!!  They are playing TONIGHT at 7pm so check them out if you get a chance!!  It’s a great opportunity for them!  they were totally willing to do anything we asked!   They look like they are running from crazed teenage girls or something!  ;-)   Sam the drummer Zach – lead vocals Shane – guitar & vocals  A shot of Jennie in action.  She was using a fisheye so can’t wait to see this image!  fun stuff! Here’s my shot!  (btw….used my 24-70 for the whole shoot)  I told them to pretend like they were fighting here…hehe! Once we started losing light a little bit (around 8pm) we worked w/ the strobes more.  I was using a vagabond II, alien bee 800 (set to 1/2 power), a 60″ shoot-through umbrella and pocket wizards to fire the light.  I like how it turned out!  yeah, this was before we lost the light obviously….but actually was only like 15 min before the shot above.  Just depends on how you do your camera settings.  :-) used a strobe on this shot too. Love these two!  Oh, and jumping was their idea!  They got some major air!  (and landed pretty hard so we only did it twice!)Thanks guys for having Jennie & I be your official band photographers!  haha!  It was a fun change of pace for both of us!  :-)  

btw…………..I posted a lot more photos on my Facebook “Photos By Robin” page.  Click “like” and become one of my FANS!  :-)

]]> http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/slaves-to-righteousness-minneapolis-talent-photographer-2/feed/ 5 Current and Former Clients – Please take my survey! :-) http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/current-and-former-clients-please-take-my-survey/ http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/current-and-former-clients-please-take-my-survey/#comments Tue, 06 Jul 2010 03:43:16 +0000 Robin http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/?p=2228 This is directed to my current and former clients.  I'd LOVE it if you could PLEASE take a few seconds and fill out my quick survey!  You don't have to log in or anything - just click on your answer and submit it.  And it's totally anonymous!  :-)


I have thought about this many times since I went into business and now I'm thinking about it again = do my clients order prints after they get their CDs?  I'm really curious!  I have been to some clients' homes and in some cases when I look around, I don't see any photos framed other than the 4x6" that came with their sessions!  sad!  I want to encourage my clients to print your photos!  :-)    If you have come to me in the last year, I have uploaded your gallery to zenfolio which is linked to www.mpix.com.  You can get SO many great products at VERY reasonable prices!  Not only can you get traditional prints, but you can also buy gallery-wrapped canvas, stand-outs, etc.  You can even get other stuff like t-shirts, mouse pads, you name it!  

Here is a photo I took of the screen where you can order stuff.   

"Value Prints" is where you can go to order 4x6 prints for 19 cents!  Under "small prints", a set of 4 wallets (cut w/ rounded corners) is 70 cents!  5x7's are $0.99!  But why stop at small prints?? - a 20x30 is only $24.99! (although I'd highly recommend you mount it + lustre finish - an extra $16.29 only - great deal!)  Anyway, check it out if you haven't already.  :-)

I'll also pass along this other great deal!  www.bhglifeinphotos.com - they have really cute "pre-designed" photo books - you basically upload your photos, drag & drop them in, add text and order!  But they are going out of business SOON so you'll have to hurry, but until they go out of business, the books are 50% off! - coupon code = LASTCHANCE

Another fun thing to do is make photo slide shows!  There are many programs you can use for this but if you are PC, you probably have Windows Movie Maker = FREE!  Otherwise, Pro Show Gold is pretty user-friendly.  Animoto is too (but it costs about $30/year for a subscription). 

Anyway, that's my little schpeel (sp?) to encourage people to make the most out of your photo CD!  You paid for it so might as well use it the way it was meant to be used, right?!  :-)

]]> http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/current-and-former-clients-please-take-my-survey/feed/ 2 Click and Chat Session(s)? | Minneapolis Photographer http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/click-and-chat-sessions-minneapolis-photographer/ http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/click-and-chat-sessions-minneapolis-photographer/#comments Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:12:36 +0000 Robin http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/?p=2173 I’ve been asked on several occasions if I would ever do a workshop. My answer has always been NO up to this point…. :-)   Heck, I still feel like I’m in the learning phase myself!  And I don’t claim to be much of a teacher!

However, I would not be opposed to “hanging out” with people that are relatively new to digital SLR photography and would like to practice and learn about post-processing & Photoshop. I’m thinking of *maybe* doing a “Click and Chat Session” in January? Here’s some of my initial thoughts & ideas for that:

  • limit it to 5-6 people
  • we would practice on EACH OTHER – so everyone would at least get some fresh headshots!
  • after we take some photos, I’d teach some live post-processing on Photoshop
  • we’d talk photography!
  • we’d eat! Of course we’d have to EAT! :-)
  • the session would probably last around 4-6 hours? Cost??? to be determined based on interest….but no more than $200.

Anyway, I’m trying out this new polling thing…if you have a sec, can you click your answer?  You don’t need to log in or anything – just click it.  I want to see how this works!  Thank you!  Oh, and if you said YES and are serious, leave a quick comment so I can contact you if I decide to go forward with it.  :-)


]]> http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/click-and-chat-sessions-minneapolis-photographer/feed/ 14 Playing around with other photogs http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/playing-around-with-other-photogs/ http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/playing-around-with-other-photogs/#comments Sat, 26 Jun 2010 01:34:26 +0000 Robin http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/?p=2137 My friend and fellow photog, Jennie Gaskins, got together last night to scope out some locations and try out my Vagabond II and strobes outside!  I promised I wouldn’t post a ton of these though since neither of us was really feeling too fresh & photo-ready!  Me especially!  (Jennie looks beautiful no matter what!)  :-) The one on the left here I actually just used ambient light.  But all the others were w/ my Alien Bee 800 and a 60″ shoot-through umbrella.  Still need to practice, but I can see where this would be very fun – especially earlier in the evening.  We were doing this at like 9:15-9:30pm!  Then today I went to visit Shelley’s new studio in NE Minneapolis!  OK….L.O.V.E. it!!!!!!!  omg….major studio envy here!  We met up with another fellow photog, Molly Shields, and had a fun time shooting each other and exploring in & around the building!  Thanks for the fun exploring & shooting girls!  :-)

]]> http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/playing-around-with-other-photogs/feed/ 0 We’re baaacck! http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/were-baaacck-2/ http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/were-baaacck-2/#comments Wed, 23 Jun 2010 04:11:39 +0000 Robin http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/?p=2086 We just got back into town today from our good ol’ fashioned family vacation in the Black Hills of SD!  Scott has been bugging me to do this for years so we finally just did it.  I have to admit I was totally NOT looking forward to driving like 1600+ miles with the family, but it actually turned out to be very fun!  Here’s a parting shot – taken w/ my fisheye lens on the back of our mini van before we pulled out of the driveway!

We drove to Moorhead and dropped the dog off with Scott’s parents, then drove to Sioux Falls & stayed at a hotel w/ a little waterpark.  Then we got up in the morning and drove to Mitchell to see the World’s Only Corn Palace!  Then we went to Wall Drug (of course!) and continued on to Hill City to the Crooked Creek Resort where we stayed the rest of the time.  I thought that it would be fun to do something other than just hotels w/ pools and since I was planning the trip, I rented us a cabin!  I honestly wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but everyone agreed it was a great choice!  :-)

Anyway, here’s a collage of photos from our adventures – these are mostly taken w/ Scott’s iPhone (hipstamatic & shake-it apps).

 and another collage… (used the free action “lomo” here)  

I think my favorite thing was Bear Country.  I was totally thinking we’d maybe see like 1-2 bears WAY up far in the woods….but NO!  There were a TON of them up CLOSE!!  In fact, they said to not even roll down the windows…yeah, they were CLOSE so not a problem!  eek!  (oh, and the kids got some sex-ed since it’s apparently mating season!  haha!)  Anyway, when you are on vacation, don’t you just hate it when you want a family picture, but you are afraid to have someone handle your $4,500+ camera/lens?  Yeah….I am always nervous about that!  So I had my little point & shoot for a lot of the “family” shots – which was great until the rechargeable battery ran out!  Oops!  forgot the recharger!  But the photo in the middle I had someone take who I saw carrying around an SLR…and the far right is a self-portrait in the fun-mirrors at Reptile Gardens.Of course I wanted one last family shot outside our cabin right before we left, so I pulled out the handy dandy tri-pod!  btw for this photo (and almost all the other ones on our trip!) I just used “P” or program mode and a FLASH (GASP!)  Whatever, right?  I actually really like this one w/ the sun flare & all. 

That’s the short version of our fun-filled family vacation!   It feels good to be home!   :-)

]]> http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/were-baaacck-2/feed/ 4 Good Neighbors http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/good-neighbors/ http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/good-neighbors/#comments Thu, 17 Jun 2010 04:18:14 +0000 Robin http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/?p=2077 Here’s some photos of some of our neighbors – taken last Friday night at Aaron & Kori’s!  (used the Hipstamatic and Shake It iPhone apps!)  :-)   Let me just say our neighborhood is the BEST!  We just love hanging out with our neighbors!  They are all awesome!  :-) OK, FUNNY story behind these next photos!  Jon & Fred went fishing.  Jon caught a HUGE walleye and Fred tried to take a photo of it with his iPhone.  Well, guess what, it was pitch black and NO flash on the iPhone, so the photos were pitch black.  They e-mailed the iPhone photos to Scott to see if I could “photoshop” them to get the picture back.  I took one look at them and said it was hopeless!  There was nothing to work with! 

So Scott came up with the idea of pasting Jon’s face on a woman’s body (he wanted me to find an old woman holding a little fish).  I couldn’t find that, so I stuck him on Jacob’s body – from like 2003!  haha!  Then I did find 2 guys with an actual walleye and stuck Fred’s face on there too (Fred is from our Halloween party in 2008! and Jon is from our Ugly Holiday Sweater party) 

OMG I laughed sooooo hard when I was doing this – I had tears!  haha!   

So Scott sent Jon & Fred the files back – saying that I was able to work my photoshop magic on them.  Jon’s only response was “Jackass!” and Fred said he laughed so hard he almost peed himself.   

I guess you had to be there!  haha!  :-)

]]> http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/good-neighbors/feed/ 3 Fellow Photographer Promotions http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/fellow-photographer-promotions-2/ http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/fellow-photographer-promotions-2/#comments Sun, 13 Jun 2010 03:37:28 +0000 Robin http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/?p=2025 Do you have a newborn girl OR a 6-8 month old little girl who is sitting up well?  How about a FREE session!?  My friend Shelley is still looking for a few more models for that.  Check out her blog for information on that!

Since no blog post is any good without a photo, here’s the neighbor kids playing in the empty lot next door.  They have quite the fort over there!

]]> http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/fellow-photographer-promotions-2/feed/ 0 Possibly the coolest thing ever! | Minneapolis Photographer http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/possibly-the-coolest-thing-ever-minneapolis-photographer/ http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/possibly-the-coolest-thing-ever-minneapolis-photographer/#comments Sat, 05 Jun 2010 21:26:34 +0000 Robin http://www.photosbyrobin.com/blog/?p=1938 OK I am in LOVE with this app that I saw on this blog (btw…Bobbi & Mike are just the COOLEST photographers ever!  I would love to do a session with them some day!  sigh!) 

Anyway, it’s called “Hipstamatic” and you can find out a bunch about it from this awesome blog.  And to get it for your iPhone just buy it from the app store ($1.99!!!  what a deal!!)  They also have a tiltshift app (but haven’t tried that yet!)

Here’s some random photos from our day today – we went out to eat at Q-Fanatic in Champlin - if you haven’t tried it, you really should!  Yummy!

Here’s what I LOVE about this!  With my photography, I find that I over-think EVERYTHING I shoot!  To the point of it not even being fun any more!  Is the lighting right?  What’s my aperture?  Shutter speed?  What ISO should I use?  Focal points or no?  White balance?  blaa blaa!  Yes, obviously when someone is paying me to take their photos I need to be constantly thinking of all of that and much more! 

But sometimes it’s just nice not to think and have it be OK to take crappy photos!  ya know?  There’s NO THINKING! (except if you want to switch out your “lens”, “film” and “flash”) plus no editing! - they instantly look cool without it!  Plus the frames are already added on! 

The only bad thing is they are only like 100kb (SUPER small!  i.e. not  print quality at all!)  But still fun!

Another use I found for it is to use as overlays on my regular photos!  I took a picture of our garage floor and overlaid it on these photos.  Then I took the outer frame and selected only that and laid it over the photos again.  Kinda cool!  Before I did that, I used Pioneer Woman “seventies” and “sunshine”. Just thought I’d share.  Can’t wait to take it on our family trip to SD!  I want to document our whole trip like that! 

Oh, the other bad thing is the only iPhone we have is hubby’s work phone!  :-(   So…………..I just might have to run out and buy an old iPhone and just use it as a camera?) 

I bet ya anything though that someone will come out soon w/ a digital camera that already has fun/cool options like this – but at higher quality.  I HOPE so anyway!  It’s so fun!  :-)

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