{National Association of Professional Children's Photographers - Featured Photographer}

I was completely flattered when the National Association of Professional Children's Photographers (NAPCP) contacted me last month to be their featured member.  They mentioned that Barb Uil of Jinky Art Photography was the prior months featured member and if I wasn't sure and wanted to be featured I should check out her interview.  What?  Um, really?  Me, after Barb?  I felt a little intimidated but was honored and of course excitedly said, 'yes'.  I'm proud to be a part of this organization - here's a link to their site.  To see this newsletter click here.  They have a new layout with 2 page, full bleed spreads - I love it!  Thanks for checking it out :)

Here's just a couple pages from the feature.

And Monthly Tips - you may have seen the first one from my 'Shop Talk' series.

{'Shop Talk' - Chromatic Aberration}

It's that time again!  Shop Talk!  I love doing this series and covering topics that I focus on in my images.  Today is all about 'Chromatic Aberration' and how to avoid/correct this annoying occurrence in Photoshop.  So what is Chromatic Aberration?   Chromatic Aberration is a distortion in color also called 'color fringing'.   It's a common problem that occurs when the lens can't bring together all the  color wavelengths into the same focal plane.  It's very common in high-contrast situations.   Most of us have seen this and it's a pain since it doesn't represent the true look of the photo.  But there's a way to correct it!   I'll explain it using the images below.  So the first image it's hard to see so I've blown up a portion of Brielle's 'high contrast' shirt so you can see where I have to correct the color dispersion.

In the blown up area, you can see more of the color aberration that I need to correct.

To correct this in photoshop go to 'Filter'- 'Distort' - 'Lens Correction'.   You'll find the sliders used to correct the distortion to the right.

Depending on the image you are correcting the sliders will need to be altered accordingly.  Make sure you blow your image up (200%+) to see the aberration problems so you can move the sliders according to the colors that need to be corrected on your image.

below:  correction made

Final Image with 'Chromatic Aberration' corrected.  It's a small change but makes the image look a little cleaner, minimizing color disruption.

I hope this was helpful.  I've been getting some topic suggestions from blog viewers.  Feel free to e-mail me at kara@karamayphotography.com with any suggestions you might want me to cover.  I'll try to get to them as I can. Thanks for viewing my Shop Talk post!

{Winter Session!}

So this is winter in Arizona .... sunny and in the high 60's to low 70's.  Crazy hu?  Okay some days are much colder than that and some days (like today) are much warmer 80 degrees.  I'm still wearing my boots and plan to until late February (fingers crossed) :)

I was lucky enough to photograph this beautiful family just days before moving to the Mid-West.  They're moving truck was packing up as I delivered the pictures!   Here's a little look into my session with this family.

{FaithWorks4You Back School/Fall}

Oh Faith, she is amazing!  She's a treasure in the handmade community.  She blows me away with her creative styles and retro-modern looks for little girls.  I'm absolutely smitten with this dress!  Oh and my  previous session (a snippet shown below) for Faith's back-to-school 'Brielle Dress'  was featured on I Lived 2 Click.  Check it out :)

Faith is getting a lot of attention - businesses and clothing mags are intrigued with her amazing style.   More to come! Below is her 1969 Retro Style V Shaped collar dress.  I love it!!

{Lil'pink boo}

Oh look who I got to photograph recently.  Isn't she precious?!  She's 8 1/2 months old and the most gentle little girl with the sweetest, calmest demeanor.  It was hot during our session, don't ever let anyone convince you that it's always a dry heat in Arizona.  In July and August (mostly August), it's 110ish with at least 50% humidity.  The positive?  We get some amazing thunderstorms (Monsoons) with amazing, moody clouds and sunsets.  I digress...so it was hot and this little girl wasn't phased by the sweat, heat, bugs, etc.  I was totally impressed!  Brittany & Larry (her mom and dad) were equally great in the heat - willing to help and happy to do what we needed to do for our session.   Oh did I mention this little cutie is walking!?!  Yea, it's true, she just started walking a couple of days ago and she showed me how well she can stand even on the uneven jungle of an area we were in.  She impressed me again :)  Here's a little peek at our fun session!

{Confessions of a Prop Junkie Interview}

I'm so flattered to be featured on Confessions of a Prop Junkie's blog!  What a fun interview with some unique questions :) Thank you Tabitha for asking me to be a part of your cool blog.  Check out how I achieve my before and after, shown below.  Also I show a little bit of my prop stash, my favorite shooting locations, what other fun little tid-bits.

Just a teeny-peek at my prop stash (it's a crazy mess lol).

Where I love to shoot :)

{Lemonade and Lenses - Eye Candy Session} Where the Wild Things Are feature!

Have you heard of Lemonade and Lenses?  It's new!  Two talented photographers, Lexi Vornberg  (Lexi Vornberg Photography) and Gina Weathersby (Kiwi Street Studios) are the creators of this fun new blog.   Recently, Lexi contacted me to see if they could feature my 'Where the Wild Things Are' photo shoot in their 'Eye Candy Session' segment.  I was flattered.  That was such a fun session to shoot and it's one of my favorites.   Their site if full of lots of eye candy in the short amount of time that it's been live.   Check them out :)  Thanks again Lexi for the fun feature.

{Back to School} FaithWorks4U!

I have to admit, I'm not ready for summer to end.  It's been so busy with swimming, camps, and late summer night movies.   I just don't feel like we've accomplished all the 'summertime' things that I wanted to - like more campfires with s'mores (it's a bit hot in AZ to do this but we've done it a hand full of times over the past month - I just want a few more), a lemonade stand, swimming in a creek or swimming hole and exploring small towns - like quirky/artful, Bisbee, AZ.   So we're going to try to cram those activities into the next 2 weeks since the end is fast approaching.

In thinking about back-to-school, Faith has some recent designs she's releasing just in time for school.  This is one of her most recent designs - more to come...  It's getting me, as well as Brielle, excited to start the school year.  Dare I say, I'm  in love --with this dress!  I want it in my size and I want it in every color for Brielle ;o).  I can't express how much I love Faith's work.  She has created her own style with a modern twist on retro-vintage designs.  They are simple and classic, yet fun and hip.   And I love them.  Faith and I have been working together for a while and I'm so thankful that she shares her amazing creations with me.    Here's a link to her shop - FaithWorks4U and her Facebook Fan page where you can hear about her latest promotions & new design releases.  :)

Funny little blopper of Brielle with the apples.

{Vintage Crown}

I posted this image along with a few others on Facebook and have had many, many e-mails asking me where I got the crown Brielle is holding {above} and wearing {below}.  I feel so lucky to be able to photograph this beautiful vintage crown for  TFJ Designs.    Brielle loves it and keeps it next to her on her nightstand.  When she first saw it she squealed then covered her mouth and finally said in a whisper, 'Is this a 'real' crown?'  Do I get to wear it?  We stood in the dinning room looking in the mirror as she tried it on.  I wish I had my camera then...it was priceless seeing her expression.  She didn't want to take it off, so I secured it to her head with bobbypins.  And during the session, she had so many ideas - so we went with them...she danced with lace, caught ladybugs and she wanted me to get a ladybug to put on the crown so I could take a picture of the ladybug with the crown (that one didn't work out since all the ladybugs flew off the crown and back onto her dress or on her arms).  After the session she kept the crown on until bedtime.  I love that she's sooo in love with this crown.  You can find it at TFJ Designs and the price....amazing for such a pretty vintage styled crown.  Thank you so much again Tabitha, you have such an eye for pretty things.... I love all the goodies you sell in your store!!

{boy, oh boy}

It's summer!!  And summer is  getting  hot here in the desert.  But I was lucky to have this great client withstand some of the warm summer sizzle recently.  And their little cutie who just turned one was a joy to photograph.  He was so good natured and like all my little clients his age, loved the rocks and dirt.  Yes, getting 'dirty' is a part of our session and thankfully these parents were fine with that.   I really enjoyed meeting and photographing this beautiful family.    Check out a few images from our session :)