Gallery Feature

Today’s Gallery feature is by Tonya Joy on the Friend

Product Feature

Looking for something to spiff up those winter photos? Try these four different snow overlays by Heather Green. I used them on a photo of my nephew, Jackson recently who was playing in the snow and it added the perfect touch to the photo! These overlays are in transparent .png format, 5″x7″ inches in size and 300dpi. Just slide your 5×7 photo on a layer underneath, save and viola!

Texture Tuesdays 12.30.08

It’s Texture Tuesday! Be sure to click here to learn more, download our free action and visit the archives every Tuesday in case you miss one!

Click here to download your full resolution version.

Contest

Texture Tuesday 12.23.08

It’s Texture Tuesday! Be sure to click here to learn more, download our free action and visit the archives every Tuesday in case you miss one!

Click here to download your full resolution version.

Product Feature

I’m probably totally bias since these are my papers but I do love them and also love the name, Mistletoe Kisses! After the holidays are over and you have TONS of photos and you know you WILL – put together some albums and storyboards and use some of these papers to decorate them for that perfect holiday feeling! This set comes with 12 papers with .25 inches of bleed all around design for printing. These are all flattened .jpg files and are at 300dpi.

Wednesday’s Focus on a Designer- Holly McCaig

This weeks focus on a designer is on our very own Holly McCaig! I asked Holly a few questions and here were answers….

What is your favorite newer product that you designed in the store?
My business postcard – I’m working on new marketing pieces for 2009 and really just enjoy doing those the most!

What is your favorite older product in the store?
My eye sparkle action. The one thing I use all the time. LOVE what it does to help me enhance eyes.

How long have you been designing?
I think I’ve lost count! I went to school for design and print management so, probably officially since 1997 in some form or fashion.

Messy or clean workspace?
Messy is an understatement. Pit, hell hole, wreck. You name it!

Why do you love being a designer/photographer?
Because it allows me to do what I love and be creative as well as know that I can support myself all on my own now. I worked hard to get to this place in life. No one helped me. Something I feel accomplished for.

Describe your style?
In design, it’s definitely a shabby/worn feel. I love textures and depth. Colors are important to me too. They have to be just the right combination and I have to love it.

What’s the one place that you’ve always wanted to travel too to photograph that you haven’t yet?

Never underestimate what you can do. It’s hard to make it in this world and when you find what it is that you love, perfect it. Go for it. Live your life and your dreams!

You can check out all of Holly’s great products by going into her store here at Pink Ink Studios as well as her digital scrapbook designs by heading here!

Texture Tuesday 12.16.08

It’s Texture Tuesday! Be sure to click here to learn more, download our free action and visit the archives every Tuesday in case you miss one!

Click here to download your full resolution version.

Meet Jeff Cross

I’m excited for you to meet Jeff.  He has a really rad style of photography, and is a loyal Pink Ink Studios customer.

Your Name: Jeff Cross
Where You Live: Texarkana, Arkansas
Your Site Address or Blog Address: http://www.jeffcrossphoto.com

Type of Pictures You Take: I like to take portraits of people.  Be it Senior, Family, Fashion, Beauty, Promotional, whatever, I like shooting people… with a camera, not a gun!

Describe your style: I would describe my style as “ever changing”. I started doing photography in late 2007 and have been toying with a number of different looks and styles.  I am currently playing with a lot of off-camera strobes and learning about light and heavy post processing, using these tools and techniques to drill down my style…  Where will I end up?!  Who knows, but I’m enjoying the learning experience and the creative freedom!

Your Camera: I currently shoot with a Canon EOS 40D.

Your Favorite Camera Equipment: Hmmm… My favorite piece of equipment at the moment would have to be my PocketWizard Plus IIs. They give me a lot of freedom in strobe placement and allow me a lot more freedom to move about during a shoot.

If you could only use one lens what would it be? That’s a tough question… Do I get strobes or not?!  If I get the lights, I want the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L.  If not, give me my Canon EF 28mm f/1.8.  I know that’s two pieces of glass, but those are my choice for lenses for the different lighting situations… But, if I must choose only one, I’ll take the 28mm… It does well with or without the strobes.

Your detail shot lens: I don’t guess I have a “detail shot” lens… I don’t do macro but during most of my shoots, I try to shoot at a higher aperture so I can retain a lot of detail in the photo for my post work… The lens that stays on my camera for 98.736% of my shoots is the Canon 17-40mm lens, so I guess that’s the one!

How do you stay motivated? I look at a lot of different people’s work everyday, all day.  I love to see the creative expression each and every photographer brings to the table.  Every time I look at a photo that is WAY better than what I am doing, it always motivates me to try harder and to learn more.  Seeing someone else’s work proves to me that it is achievable and not unrealistic… I mean, they shoot with a camera like I do, post process on a machine like I do… So, watching other photographers truly motivates me to push myself and try new things.

How long have you been a photographer? I have been shooting since around September of 2007, I think…

If not a photographer, then…. If I can’t starve doing photography, I’d like to starve as a teacher.  I thoroughly enjoy learning about anything and everything and would like to pour what little bit I have acquired in my 31 years into someone else and watch them surpass me in every way and be successful!

Favorite photography add-on product? I don’t really do story boards or albums.  my most asked for “specialty product” is a gallery wrapped canvas. Normally at 11″x14″.  I love gallery wrapped canvas prints and obviously a lot of my clients do, too!

Your go-to camera shop? B&H (www.bhphotovideo.com) is where I do 98% of my photography related shopping. They’re competitive, have almost everything I ever look for in stock, and haven’t let me down yet.

Standby pose (the one everyone tends to want from you)? The pose that I have had more often than not, is the whole “I’ve got my back to you and I’m looking off into the distance” pose.  I get that a lot on family shoots, children, and occasionally on couples.  It makes for a cool mood shot if it is executed well and the post makes it more dramatic.  If you just look at it through the lens though, people would wonder why you were shooting someone’s back side.

What makes your job so much easier? My job is a lot easier when I’m working with an individual who is not afraid of the camera, likes to have fun, and already has some ideas of their own to bring to the table.  I have been so impressed with some of the ideas my clients have brought up during a shoot.

Which album company do you recommend? I don’t really have a record player or buy CDs anymore… I like to buy my music from iTunes… And, I don’t print albums!

If you could choose anyone to do a photoshoot of you/your family, who would your choose? Man, this is a toughy… I admire so many photographers and retouchers that I would want them all on the scene for my big shoot! But, I’d probably want August Bradley to do a shoot of me… If anyone can make me look good, it would be him!  His work is truly inspiring!

Magazine Must Have. Digital Pro Photo.  I love getting this mag and seeing who they have interviewed in the issue.  I don’t check it out for the “buy this gear” or “take your photos like this” articles.  I read it to see what the featured photographers are doing, to see their work, and to see who’s out there that we never hear about on a daily basis.

Guilty Pleasure: Wine! I love wine… I am a true to the word wine-o.  I love trying new wines and trying to learn about all the things that goes into making wine A better than wine B.  It’s not just price, believe it or not.  There are some very good wines out there for $10-$15 a bottle! Good stuff!

My weakness is…I guess I would have to say my weakness is organization.  I have a bad habit of overloading myself, which in turn, overwhelms myself.  If I could have a personal assistant keeping an eye on me and my duties at all time, I would probably be a lot more productive. I’m real bad about hitting all 1.7 million projects a little bit at a time and never seem to get one done as quickly as I would like… This is definitely a weakness that plagues me, frustrates me, and often causes me to pass up opportunities to avoid unnecessary stress and anxiety.

My strength is…My ability to learn and quickly move from one type of task to another.  I often take on projects without ever having done something similar because I am confident that I can learn to do what is being asked and execute.

What Do You Do When You First Wake Up? I hit the showers.  I have to be at my day job by 8:15am and I get up around 7:30-7:45am… When I get up I am hustling!

When It Rains… it pours?!  I love it when it rains.  I love the mood that is created when it is dark, dreary, and rainy…  It soothes me…

Who Do You Love? I love Candyce and her son Eli. They make me feel whole and I enjoy them being a part of my life and having the opportunity to be a part of theirs.

Favorite Pink Ink Product… I’m going to have to say… Andie’s Must Have Actions for Photoshop.  I use bits and pieces of these in my work quite frequently.

Do You Read Your Horoscope? Not anymore… I used to read it as I was glancing over the paper just for something to read.  I mean, the horoscopes are on the same page as the comics in our gazette… Why not?! Now I don’t read the paper so there’s no more horoscope reading.

Blog Addiction… Yes!  I do have a blog addiction.  I read a number of blogs about a number of different topics.  I guess one I keep an eye on more than others is the Strobist.com blog.  Good stuff there and always an opportunity to learn… Now, if I could only shoot and practice as much as I am able to read…

Tattoos… 14… Arms, legs, back, and ribs… More to come… Stay tuned! I love my tattoos… Would I do it all over again?!  Probably not.  My interests change way too often.  I love the pieces I do have, though.  I will be getting more.  I think when the mortician checks me out on the table he’ll be able to see what my feelings were, likes and dislikes were, and what not, just from the ink I have on my body… Some of my pieces have deep meaning to me, like my ribs for instance.  On the left side I have the Kanji symbol for love… On the right, the Kanji symbol for pain…

MAC or PC… Mac!!! Being a Unix/Linux/FreeBSD fan for quite sometime, I was excited to see that Mac was built on FreeBSD and the Mach kernel.  Once I learned that, I bought one and have never gone back.  I use my 13″ MacBook for everything!

80′s Music… Anything by Michael Jackson.  I may not agree with the man off the stage or outside the studio, but this guy is truly the “King of Pop”!

What’s on your iPod? It may be easier to tell you what is NOT on my iPod… That would be Country… Well, maybe a few songs here and there.  I have everything from Jazz, Ambient Electronica, Rap, Pop, Rock, Heavy Metal, Contemporary Christian, Praise & Worship… I even have an hour long song of white noise!  Whoo! Exciting!!! Honestly, I have no idea… I have 11,173 songs, or 32.1 days worth of music if played back to back to back, totaling 58.09GB. (Source: iTunes)

Morning or Night? Night, for sure!  If I could sleep all day and work all night, I would love it!

My friends say… “Why do you sit behind a desk all day?” “Why aren’t you out doing photography for a living?!” When I ask them who’s going to step up and inject some capital into my pockets, all I hear is crickets and the whisper of the wind.

Travel Dreams… I’d want to go all over this planet if everything wasn’t so tense abroad.  I’d love to visit Italy, Germany, Georgia, Brazil, Turkey, just about anywhere… I’d honestly be content with just traveling the US.  Our country is so beautiful and full of wonderful places to see and experience.

On my day off… What’s that?!  When I’m not doing the day job and don’t have any scheduled shoots, I’ll be kicking it around the house at the computer, shooting up to Hot Springs, Arkansas, just whatever… I am very easily entertained… Sometimes, I just look in the mirror and laugh at myself for hours! Wait a second…

One of your top 100 to do before you die? Man, that’s deep… I want to make a difference in as many people’s lives as I can. I want to impact people’s lives in some way that it can be a positive experience in their life.  I just want to make them laugh!  I want them to feel the love that all humans have been called to share between one another… I don’t care if they remember me or not. You have no idea how many times I have been referred to as “that bald guy” or, even simpler, “that guy”.  People may not remember me on a personal level, but I hope they can remember the experience of being around me and the freedom they were able to walk in if even for a brief moment. I’ve been called to love people and treat them as myself. I want to do that to the best of my ability until the day I die…

Favorite homemade meal? Yes… I’m pretty sure I have one! I like everything (and it shows)! I love to eat meals that are slaved over for hours, where days went into the preperation and planning, but honestly, I am so content with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a bag of Baked Lays Sour Cream and Onion… I think that is my favorite meal of all time, for sure!

December Contest

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