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About Brandy

Brandy is a natural-light photographer specializing in babies, kids and family in Calgary, AB, Canada. As Fresh Sugar Photography goes into its 5th year of business, it is now expanding into boudoir sessions and more commercial work. Brandy has two children, Emma and Charlotte, and maintains her business/family balance by taking limited sessions a month.

Brandy's style is often described as modern and fresh, and she utilizes elements she find in the homes of her clients to create images on-location. Color is often a huge element to her work.

She shoots with a Nikon D3, and is an expert at creating amazing images from low-light situations. She routinely takes family sessions over the dark winter months in Canada and is never hampered by indoor work.

About Danna

Danna has been a professional photographer for the last 13 years, after graduating from Western Academy of Photography in Victoria, British Columbia. Her specialty is studio-lit portrait work, and her passion is newborn babies and their families. Also from Calgary, AB, Danna has 3 children: Kailan, Kolby and Etain.

Danna's work is timeless, focusing on the beauty of love and relationships. The majority of her work is in black and white, making it simple and classic.

Her main camera is a Canon 5D, and has just opened a new studio in the heart of Inglewood. With a small baby at home, she takes limited sessions on weekends only, and she regularly books months in advance, working year round.

My New Big Folio Site!

First off, I’d like to apologize for being away from Two Photogs for so long. Danna has been busy preparing for speaking at the Beyond Just Images conference in Banff next weekend, and I’ve been busy working on my new site!

I worked with Big Folio which just happens to be THE best website company I have worked with. I had originally hired a custom website designer, and that experience didn’t really work out. It left me a little bit broke, and a little bit disappointed in myself, because I felt like I had no idea what I wanted. I erroneously thought that custom website designer meant they would come up with the design for you – but you need to have ideas and know what you like – and I just wasn’t there. Yet.

When I saw Big Folio’s Artist Series, I knew exactly what I wanted. I loved the flexibility of the design – it reminds me of the ProPhoto Blog template that I also love, just because there are so many ways to customize it to make your site unique. I was thrilled because it was *like* a custom site, but already done, and at template prices.

I’m not sure where to start with the love, so I will just dive right in. I’ve used other templates for my website throughout the years, and either the design was lacking, the backend was confusing or the customer service was absolutely scary. With a Big Folio site, it’s basically idiot-proof. It tells you how to size your images, how to upload them (right through the site – no ftp’ing necessary), how to arrange them in the galleries (drag and drop, hurrah!) and pretty much how to change every aspect of your site. If you do have problems with figuring something out, support tickets are answered crazy fast. I don’t think I ever waited more than a few hours for an answer. Seriously.
If you’ve used some other companies, you know how unheard of this is.

One of the things I was most wary of was the fact that you have to host with them to have a site. I was happy with my hosting (GoDaddy) but I have to say that I have been equally happy with my hosting at Big Folio. They are so willing to help – it’s fantastic to be able to ask someone how to do something, or even have them do it for you!

After working with a custom designer, I am also now very appreciative of how affordable website templates truly are. My site has video included, tons of galleries and pages – all which are separate costs when going custom. Those costs add up fast, and it makes it harder to truly have your “dream” site. I might someday again try custom, but I will be sticking with Big Folio when that time comes. It’s a great company with amazing ideas and fantastic people.

Those fantastic people are offering readers a discount code: BFSAVE50 will save you $50 on a new site! Their prices are super reasonable, but not super cheap (meaning not every new photographer on the block will have the same site as you – a big plus!)

So go take a look at my new site: www.freshsugar.com and tell me what you think! If you get yourself a Big Folio site, let us know – we would LOVE to see what you’ve done with it!

Winner!

Congrats to Stacey Haslem, the latest winner of Ashley McNamara’s awesome actions!

We’re super excited about next week – we have an incredible giveaway and some great blog posts planned. :)

Happy Mother’s Day – Photoshop Giveaway!


We had such a great response to one of the prizes in the last challenge, that we asked if Ashley McNamara would generously donate another set of actions to give away to a lucky Two Photogs reader. We’re going to make it super simple to win – just head on over to her site and download her awesome free Vintage action, then come back here and leave a comment! One winner will be chosen randomly on Friday.

Make sure you take a look to see all the awesome things you can do with her actions, and see some gorgeous photography to boot.
www.ashleymcnamara.com

Creating Dynamic Slideshows

We’ve asked our favorite videographer (she did all of our mentoring videos) to write up some tips and pointers for slideshows. We all know it’s a great way to build emotion for clients, but what is the best way to create these slideshows?

Shawna Toth from Small Wonder gives us some great tips:

Slideshows, montages, photo DVDs. Taking still images and turning them into a dynamic presentation. It is a great way to present edited photos to clients. There are a few things to consider before getting creative with your slideshow. The most important thing to keep in mind? Don’t get carried away with the graphics and transitions. The purpose of the photo slideshow is to showcase your images, not the capabilities of your editing software.

The Basics:

Make each image 5-8 seconds long.

Use 1-2 second dissolves almost all of the time.

Transitions: Just because they exist does not mean you should use them. The clock, blinds, the sawtooth…video editors refer to these as “cheesy wipes” for a reason. There can be a time and place for them, but generally, they take away from the images they are between.

Graphics: Again, not necessary, and probably do more harm than good. Unless there is information that must be conveyed to the client within the slideshow, stay away from words and graphic images on the screen.

Adding interest to your slideshow:

Add slight motion to the photos. A small amount in one direction will add to the slideshow without becoming distracting. If every image is panning and zooming, it can be too much. Movement on 2 out of 3 photos is more than enough.

Put 2 images side by side. This can work especially well for comparison purposes, if you have 2 portrait oriented photos that are similar but obviously different. ie: one is black and white, or the same pose but different facial expression.

Background colour can add to a slideshow. Go with black or white, and keep it simple. Texture, moving backgrounds and bright colours will make people look at the background, not the images.

Add a simple, sleek, small frame to each photo. Again, don’t go overboard with a thick, wood-grained frame. A thin white line over a black background will make the image stand out.

The purpose of your slideshow is to have your clients get a sense of the beautiful images you have created for them. Use the video format to enhance those images by keeping things simple, consistent and smooth.

So, when can you use those “cheesy” transitions and graphics? Next time someone asks you, as a favour, to take photos of their friend’s stagette, or make a montage of old photos for college graduation, go crazy! Or just send them to me…

Shawna Toth (Video Editor)

www.Small Wonder.ca

Toy Photography Challenge Winners!

This was a super hard decision. I loved the creativity and the dedication to sets that the photographers who entered our challenge displayed. It made me want to go out a little bit farther than my backyard next time. Thanks so much to everyone who decided to challenge themselves this month!

The winners were chosen completely subjectively – basically they were ones that I really liked the creative ideas that were behind them.

The first winner did an amazing job of capturing the feeling of being left out of a group. I love love love this photo.
Jamie from Ever After Photography wins a set of actions from Ashley McNamara! Jamie, please send me your email address!

And the other winner just tickled me with all of her fun ideas for the Scooby gang.
Congratulations Kayla Bate!, you win The Photo Book! Please send me your mailing address!

We have a surprise giveaway tomorrow, so check back to see how to win!

Prizes for the Toy Photography Challenge

I completely forgot to announce the prizes for our latest Inspiration Challenge last week! So as my apology, I will be extending our challenge to the end of the week. You have until Sunday night, and winners will be announced on Monday.

We have two fun prizes this time, first is The Photo Book. If you are new to photography or self-taught, you would be amazed to learn just how much you DON’T know about the history of photography. This book is full of amazing photos from incredible photographers from the mid-19th century to today. It’s a really neat book, so if you don’t have it already go shoot some toys so you can get it!

The second super awesome prize we have is a set of actions from the talented Ashley McNamara. If you’re not following her blog . . . well, I can’t even imagine that. That’s just crazy talk. Of course you are following her blog. How else would you get the best Photoshop tutorials around and see some amazing photography? Since you’re already following her, you must be really wishing you had her action set by now. She was generous enough to give away a set to a challenge winner here on Two Photogs, so wish no more!

To finish up this post, I’m including my attempt at toy photography from this past weekend. It was lots more fun, yet a bit harder than I expected. I think I’m kind of addicted though, because it was my daughter’s birthday on Saturday and I was eyeing up all her new toys, lol! Next attempt I will try to set up more elaborate scenes with more storytelling.






Custom Blog Buttons – for photographers


I worked with the talented Tiffany from On The Spot Studio last week and she came up with THE cutest custom blog buttons for me.

I’m absolutely in love with them, they are adorable! She is so great to work with, and came up with something I loved right away.
She has a special on these – they are $40 until May, when the price goes up to $75. Her blog says that they are only available to past logo clients, but she will do them for new clients as well. You can check mine out on my blog.

She’s also generously offering a 10% discount on her design work for Two Photog readers. Her prices are already very reasonable, so this is really a great deal. Use code 2P10 at checkout to redeem. If you get some custom blog buttons, make sure you come back and show them to us!

Brand New Inspiration Challenge – Toy Photography

After being away from business for a week to attend WPPI, it’s taken us a while to catch up with work things. We’re now ready to post our latest Inspiration Challenge, and we are SO excited about this one!

When we found this blog a couple of months ago, we were immediately engaged. What a cool idea, to take pictures of TOYS!
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/40-brilliant-creative-examples-of-toy-figure-photography/

As moms, we have plenty of toys around the house just waiting to play subject in a creative portrait. Toys are small enough to be shot indoors or out, and it’s a lot easier to create complex sets for them with the simplest of items.

If you want more inspiration, take a look through Flickr – it’s chock full of amazing toy photography.
Here’s just a few groups we found that sparked our interest:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/danbo-love/pool/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/travellingtoys/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/secretlifeoftoys/

We’ll be announcing the prizes for this challenge next week, and the winners will be announced on April 20th. Contest closes at 5pm ET April 19th. Blog your photos and then come back here and post the link in the comments section.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with – enjoy this challenge and get creative!

Got Moo?

I know most of you have probably already heard about Moo.com and may have even used them for business cards. But the way to use Moo’s products don’t just end at business cards, people are using the stickers and cards in so many unique ways. They’ve just put out an AWESOME idea book to showcase just some of the ways people are using Moo.

I’ve been using Moo for some cool uses of my own for the past year. Because my business name is not my actual name, I need to find ways for people to associate my own name with Fresh Sugar Photography. One of the ways I do it is with a Moo sticker on the bag of each print. I signed my name using my Wacom and made it into a cute little sticker. This way I am letting my clients know that they have purchased one-of-a-kind artwork, and I am also keeping my own name in their minds, as well as my business name.

I use the Moo MiniCards as a way to incorporate new faces into my portfolio. I made “you’ve been spotted” cards to give out anytime I see a child or family that I would love to photograph. They are cute and fun, and a less-creepy way of saying “Are you a model?”.

I also ordered sets of cards for myself and Danna before WPPI. At $19.99 for 100 cute little cards, it was the perfect solution for small run needs. The cards are seriously yummy, so thick and sturdy – you won’t believe them until you see them. Plus, you can have 100 different images on 100 different cards. So cool!

So if all of this hasn’t convinced you to give Moo a try, then how about a discount on your first order? Moo is generously giving our readers 15% off their first Moo order. Use code 2RB2CK at checkout, and anxiously await your order! You’ll love their packaging too, totally cute!

What’s Up With Us

We’ve been major slackers on the blog front, but that’s because we’ve been working so hard behind the scenes!

We have a ton of blog posts coming up in the next couple of weeks, tackling things like competition and jealousy, cool ways to use Moo.com and an Inspiration Challenge that I am so personally excited about that I can’t stop thinking about it!

We’re also working on another side project (I know, like we aren’t busy enough), mentoring some amazing women (with more to come next week!), and gearing up for a very busy spring season in our portrait businesses.

Another thing we wanted to let everyone know is that the next round of mentoring is now sold out. We might be doing another in May, so if you are interested, please let us know by emailing me at brandy@twophotogs.com and asking to be put on the waiting list.
Our waiting list gets first dibs on the mentoring spots, which is why they sell out so quickly.

So look forward to the next couple of weeks where we will have a new project announced, a new Inspiration Challenge, new posts about cool things, and even some new partnerships with some awesome companies and blogs!