My Second Wedding

I have shot two weddings in my professional career. The first wedding was for one of my best friends and the second (this one) was for a friend of hers. So, in all honestly, I wouldn't call myself a wedding photographer. But, I have to admit, shooting weddings for people when it is their second (if not third) time down the aisle is a lot of FUN. I even made a joke about starting a photography business shooting the more mature, typically less stressful weddings, and calling it, "Second Time Down The Aisle."

Geri & Jeff

When Geri contacted me about shooting her small backyard wedding I was a bit apprehensive. But when she said she didn't want a traditional wedding photographer but one that would take a more fly-on-the-wall/journalistic approach, I was interested. She had remembered me from Lee's wedding and she thought I was cool. I'm not called cool very often so that was good. :)

Geri's attention to detail and casual approach to the wedding weekend was flawless. The ceremony was simple, emotional and honest. To me, the weekend became more of a blending of two families and Geri & Jeff made sure that everyone felt welcome. They also wanted everyone to have fun, serious fun, non-stop action fun and with the "kids" ranging from 10-27 that took a bit of creativity and they graciously pulled it off with the girls starting out with a trip to the spa and the boys blasting each other playing paintball.

Being a full weekend of shooting I asked my husband, who is also a photographer, to join me. I think our images blended nicely together in style.

Here is a glimpse of what we shot.

I forgot to add that it rained pretty much the whole weekend and the backyard wedding became an indoor wedding. But it didn't stop the fun. xxoCarolyn

Photoshop Fun

When I first started shooting pictures in high school, (I'm dating myself) Kodachrome and Tri-X were my two favorite 35mm films. Shooting for commercial clients with a Hasselblad, EPR and PLUS-X became my favorite 120mm films. This was my style. Good color, clean and simple. Photographer's styles are so diverse these days with the help of Photoshop actions and Lightroom presets. The digital camera shoots a RAW image (a negative) and the laptop is your lab. One image can create a variety of looks with a few adjustments. Pretty nice!! Thanks Adobe, Apple, and Nikon, I love you all.

Here's a few images I created over the weekend with my new MacBook Pro and Photoshop CC. A big upgrade from my old G5 & CS3. I wasn't happy with the actions included with the software so I watched several You Tube videos and worked up a few of my own.

Slight pastel colors-gradient map pastel and desaturation.

E6 to C41 cross processing- curves and color overlay.

Crazy colors-gradient map spectrums/saturation. Warhol would have loved this.

Layers-textures/sepia tones.

I created a promo with the pastel image and posted it on my Facebook page this morning.

Come find me!! xxo Carolyn Mc

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carolyn-McGovern-Photography/185438971498947?ref=hl

Are You My Mother?

Last May a cute family moved into my garden. The first thing I did was put a note on the backdoor to remind myself not to exit through the garden during their stay. After a little research on the internet, I thought, okay, this sounds pretty simple... Mom sits on the eggs until they hatch and then dad and mom both feed the babies. Wow!! Was I surprised to see how much work these two birds did to keep their four little ones alive. It was a feeding frenzy every fifteen minutes.

One day a little wren stopped by to check out the babies. I must admit I was a bit freaked out at first, but then she started to feed them as if they were her own. She had a nest nearby, but her babies didn't survive after hatching. We called her Nanny.

The day they flew away from the garden it was total chaos for about 20 minutes and then they were gone. It happened so fast. It took me about a week to stop looking out the little window that faced the nest. I really missed them.

They came back this past April and build a nest in the exact same spot. I was so excited to witness the whole process again, but we had a late freeze and shortly afterwards she abandoned the nest. I took down the nest after a few weeks hoping they would come back and rebuild but so far nothing. There were three little eggs.

Here are a few of my images from last year.

Post Valentine's Day

The flowers are dead, the chocolates have all been eaten, and the wine bottle has been recycled.... Still want to keep that spark alive?

Make it easy. Take it easy... Call Carolyn.

New Logo

Here's a look at my new logo/watermark created by my friend Julie Cravens of Cravens Creative. I can't wait to use it on all my upcoming promotional pieces.

Holiday Happiness

I have been so busy this holiday season and I am so grateful.  Thank you everyone!! Looking forward in working with all of my new clients (now friends) for the years to come!!

   

Kids+Pets+Summer=Fun Photo Shoots

Find me on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carolyn-McGovern-Photography/185438971498947?ref=hl

William

My friend Julie called, and said it's time to photograph her son Will for his high school graduation announcements... Really? How does this happen? Uggg... he is growing up way too fast. I remember when he was born!! Sigh... but here he is, all grown up and handsome.

Oh and, I took a few pictures of his kid sister along with the dogs, Huck and the other one, never can remember its name... somehow Huck always steals the show. 

Truth be told, this is my home away from home where I can cruise the frig for a snack, and always sleep on the couch if I don't want to make the long drive back to the country. Love my family of friends.

14 Years Of Love

I have a little history with Pam and her daughter. Years ago I shot some B&W images of the two of them with PolaPan Polaroid film and my Nikon FM2. Shooting this film was so much fun because you could process the film and see the images in a matter of minutes.

Now, 14 years later, shooting with my Nikon D700 lets me see images instantly. It's so much fun shooting creative portraits with the same people and exploring all of the artistic things we can do in photography. It's the history, creative process, and memories in images that really make me appreciate and love photography.