Adrienne Brand Photography

Amanda , originally uploaded by PhotoGraphicGirl . Clearly you'll know you've been doing a little too much color correcting when you walk outside for lunch and the world looks too blue. During my leadership as the organizer of the Long Island Photography Meetup, I heard a lot of photographers say, "I don't worry about the white balance, I just fix it later in Camera Raw / Lightroom / Photoshop. At the time I thought, "Oh, ok that's cool." But after one brief, nerve wracking lesson with a professional shooter friend of mine, I'm now leaning toward, "That's so NOT the way to think." The other day an awesome photographer friend of mine said, "Stop being lazy." I'm not sure if he realized he said it, because it was in the middle of some other juicy tidbits of knowledge that he was imparting upon me, but it stuck. It stuck because I knew he was right. I was being lazy. And up until that point I was being lazy about white balance...

Scary Skeleton Went BUMP in the Night! , originally uploaded by PhotoGraphicGirl . I'm realizing that some shots that I may have missed were possible simply because I kept the camera poised and ready. Have you ever thought, "OMG I would have HAD that if I didn't chimp!" And yet we can't go through life with our cameras on our eyeballs or we'll miss most of it. Life, that is. The best we can do is pay attention WHEN we're out shooting, and unless you're improving your skills, don't glutton yourself with chimping what you know was probably a great shot until after the session is completely over.

After photographing another family, I'll admit that shooting groups is a lot harder than most of you would believe. Remember those annoying photographers who would practically shout at you to move your head this way or that, or to "Put your arm down, move it a bit to the right, no, that's too far - go back, now tilt your head to the right..." Well, it turns out that they were the GOOD photographers.  And I thought they were just the ANNOYING photographers. Shots like the one here are actually easier to take because you don't have to herd several people at the same time. All eyes on the camera, all hair in place, all arms and hands properly situated. It's like juggling 40 balls in the air because while you're choosing placement, positioning and verbally trying to soothe the client, you're also trying to set aperture, shutter speed, then focus and SHOOT! SHOOT! SHOOT! before anyone budges. And believe me, with more than one or two people, ...

Hi Adrienne, I am delighted to let you know that your submitted photo has been selected for inclusion in the newly released eleventh edition of our Schmap New York Guide: Brighton Beach www.schmap.com/newyork/sights_water/p=16848/i=16848_39.jpg If you use an iPhone or iPod touch, then this same link will take you directly to your photo in the iPhone version of our guide. On a desktop computer, you can still see exactly how your photo is displayed and credited in the iPhone version of our guide at: Brighton Beach www.schmap.com/?m=iphone#uid=newyork&sid=sights_water&p=16848&i=16848_39 Thanks so much for letting us include your photo - please enjoy the guide! Best regards, Amanda Brooks Editor, Schmap Guides   NO Amanda, thank YOU!! ~ Adrienne

I find it amazing that my 3.5-year-old tolerates me shooting him constantly. When he begs to go outside because the other children are riding their bicycles, I make a deal with him, "If you let Mama shoot you, you can go outside and ride bikes." "Okay!" We both jumped to get our equipment: him - his retro red and white tricycle with tassel handlebars, and me - my Nikon D80 with 70-200 f/2.8.  We both hustled outside before the sun when down - a great time to photograph children. He rode like he hadn't just told me he was "so tired, Mama," circling the courtyard until he couldn't take it anymore, grabbing for the tag in his shirt and popping in his thumb, all while trying to maintain peddling speed. After 20 minutes of his on-and-off tag grabbing, I said, "Peanut, we should go in - you're exhausted." His tricycle hit the grass and he looked at me in frustration and said, "Mama, this is no time to be taking photos, please pus...

I'm definitely learning that the best time to shoot almost anything is at sunrise or sunset, and with children on the beach it's no exception. Why?  Well, as a busy parent, you know that your child is probably  running around all day - whether it be playing, socializing or running errands with you. Obviously you wouldn't want your child to be anything else than themselves, but a relaxed subject is much easier for a photographers to shoot than a nervous, overly-energetic one who hasn't "gotten their sillies out" yet. This shot is approximately 6 PM. After a good half-hour of letting the little girl play in the sand, I started shooting. By then she was relaxed and the sun was positioning itself in a better angle, with richer light The angle of the sun is very important It's amazing that the majority of newer shooters hang-tough to the 10 A.M til noon hours. With harsh shadows and bright glare, it's no wonder that many would-be great shots become ...

Have you heard of Pictage ? As per pictage.com , they're " the most comprehensive business enabler for professional photographers." They offer services across the board, from managing workflow, promoting and selling your work, to connecting with your community. With so many services out there, I'd like to hear your thoughts...