Organizing your photos  {Barbara LeGere  |   Austin Photographer}

"One day!!"  One day I will organize these photos.  One day I will back up these photos.  One day I will print these photos.  Start TODAY! 

Don't look back, just start a system today.  Implement it for everything in the future.  Don't worry about where you've been.  A year from now you will be sooo glad you did.

Here's my system.  It's not perfect.  It's redundant.  And, it may not be for you, but perhaps it will inspire you to develop your own system. 

1)  UPLOAD by DATE to ONE spot
When I upload my photos, they ALL go to C->Pictures.  If there's an image on my harddrive, it's there.  Within that folder, I set my Canon software to upload all the pictures into folders by date.  Now, I don't have to think about it, I don't do anything but plug in the camera.  And, viola! They are just there in nice sequential order.  (I once had a Nikon point&shoot camera and couldn't figure out how to do this, but I'm sure there's a way.)   After that, I might add a description to the label, but never touch the date. 
I.E. "2011_10_10" becomes "2011_10_10 Genny turns 1", just so I know where the important events are.

2)  COPY into MONTH folders
Now comes the slightly more wasteful step, but it works for me.  I HATE deleting photos.  Always have, always will.  So, instead, I create a folder for each year and a folder for each month within that.  So, I'll go through a day of photos and COPY just my very favorites and place them into the month folder. 

The photos in my 'month folders' are my favorites - the ones I will share with my family on Shutterfly (cringe) and ultimately make my photobooks from. 

3)  MOVE the 'day folders' into 'RAW YEAR' folder
Once I have finished building entire month's worth of favorite images, I move all the 'day folder' photos into a folder called 'RAW 2010' (or whatever the year is).  So, now I don't have to look at the 'day folders' anymore.  I just have a nice neat tidy month's worth of favorite photos.  I rarely need to go back into the 'raw photos'. 

4)  UPLOAD to SHARE site
I upload the month's photos to my share page on Shutterfly and then I'm done. 

Side note:  I started a share page on Shutterfly when my first daughter was born.  Now, I'm stuck with it because ALL our monthly images are there (five year's worth).  I love going back and looking at them.  While Shutterfly's quality is OK, I prefer my own professional printer.  But, Shutterfly is now my 3rd back-up for personal images, so I can't complain - they are storing my images for FREE!  If you'd like to see my share page, please send me an email and I'll send you a link.

5)  CREATE a YEAR Photobook
At year's end, it is so simple to create a photobook of the year.  I have all my favorites from the year by month.  I can create it using any photobook site like shutterfly or my publisher etc.  (This year I get to try out my new professional software...whoop!)

It sounds way more complicated than it is. 

I can't stress enough to start a system today and stick with it. 

and because this is a photography blog...here's one from yesterday: my littlest one's just-up-from-nap look

Austin Drumming  |  Barbara LeGere Austin Musician Photography

Amazing drummer, OK amazing musician.  He represents Longo Drums http://www.longodrums.com/home.html  and you can check him out on the local music scene  http://www.reverbnation.com/graylegeredrums .  You'll be glad you did!

Before and After  {Barbara LeGere Photography |  Portrait Photographer}

With the new year, I decided you should be more in control of your images.  Yeah for you!  So, you get to select which three images you will receive in full size high-resolution jpgs - instead of me.  You pick which three you would like to be able to enlarge, print and mount.  You pick which three I pay attention to and edit (and remove stray hairs and snoogies from), instead of me.  Nine times out of ten, I select the same images you would from a session, but every once in a while, I don't.  So, now, you will select which three get the attention.  I also feel that you should get to keep and use all the images from your session, so you still receive those in a smaller format to print for your personal use. 

You can see more information about the new pricing here.

Some images need very little retouching.  Maybe just highlights and shadows touched up a bit, or a bit of sharpening to the eyes.  But some need a little more TLC or even an artistic treatment.  To give you an idea of some of my prior work, here are a few 'before and afters':

Removal of stray hair and a touch of selective sharpening:

Warming and smoothing skin:

Improving contrast, sharpening the eyes and art texture treatment:

 



And, sometimes people walk in the background...can you believe it?



Selected sharpening, warming and removal of pole in the background:

Conversion to a rich black and white worked great for this image:

 Thanks for checking out Barbara LeGere Photography.  See you from behind the lens soon!

Brand New Boy  {Austin Newborn Photographer  |  Barbara LeGere}

A friend of mine won a session from me through our children's preschool silent auction.  It was a win for all of us!  While she has two darling girls, her spur of the moment idea was a newborn session for her brand new baby boy.  And, what a splendid idea it was!  His favorite spot was clearly the swaddle, just like any brand new baby.  So, we "decorated" him ET style and had a few good giggles doing it.  Can't wait to watch this precious baby boy grow up.  Thank you for the opportunity to capture him while he still sits still.

They just moved into a new house.  (Gasp!  Can you believe trying to move with two kids AND preggers?)  I think this wall is begging for one of these portraits right over the chair.:)

Just Us!  {Austin Child Photographer}

After the Christmas card rush, it was refreshing to host a shoot at a favorite park without anyone there at all except us and the peacocks!  Having the entire place to ourselves was perfect because these two boys are on the move!  Watch out world, here they come!  Thank you for the opportunity to capture the love in your family! 

From the Archive {Austin Photography}

I am finally getting to sort through my own images (more on that later)!  I found these images of my daughter thoroughly enjoying a bounce house.  It had white walls, a white ceiling - white everywhere!  A flash's dream room!  We both had a blast!

The 'MR' Family  {Barbara LeGere  |  Austin Children Photographer}

These two children are two of the most well behaved children ever.  'How are you eldest of the three MR children?'  'Great!  And, let me tell you about the math I'm doing in school!'  Really?  What child talks numbers as an introduction? 

And, because they are so nice mannered, they smiled each and every time I put the camera to my eye.  Typically, I spend an entire session trying to get children to smile, but after a number of safe (and beautiful) shots... I finally caught them laughing!!!  (pic 2) 

Baby MR is a doll too, but he may break the well-mannered disposition tradition (but not the super sweet part!) because he likes to go, go go!  Thank you for the opportunity to capture your beautiful family!  And, happy first birthday baby MR!

And, check out my new assistants!!

Reunion  {Barbara LeGere | Austin Family Photographer}

Twenty-one years ago, 'M' was adopted by an loving family who took care of him when his birth mother was not able.  But now, 'M' is (almost) all grown up and reunited with his fun-loving birth mom and her two sassy daughters and they are all loving it!  So, it's a very happy new beginning.  I am so thrilled to get to capture this reunited family!

The following image makes you think that big sister adores little sister.  And she does, except that one time when she decided her baby sister needed a haircut.  A really, really short haircut.

This is 'M' and his cute girlfriend (aka great assistant!).

I said they were sassy!:)