To show our thanks to all our amazing fans, we are giving away 7 of our everything pure sets! That is all of our photoshop actions that we offer! (except the designer sets) We are giving away 7 of them! If you win and don’t use Photoshop, you can choose our new lightroom preset collection!

To enter make sure that you are a fan of our page and leave a comment letting us know how long you have been a photographer and what your goal for your photography business is this year!

Share this giveaway with your fans!

Thank you for an amazing 2 1/2 years!

Crystal and Rachel

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Enter PASS.

Suddenly, we looked SO cool.

We just finished shooting a wedding in Hawaii, and PASS is going to be an integral part of our image delivery. Even though there are thousands of miles between us and our bride, she will have access to her images as soon as they are ready for delivery. But not only that. We LOVE using PASS for our album creation process. Our couples can look at their images in PASS and then choose and star their favorite images. We can then just download that whole folder and get the exact images that our client wants, no problem. No questions, no confusion over image numbers. We are ready to go as soon as our clients have picked their images. PASS saves us so much time. We love it.

So, here’s the deal. We know the new PASS is in Beta. So WHY on earth are we being so mean here? Are we just rubbing your nose in the awesomeness of PASS? NO! No we are not!!

Kevin Sturm has seen HOW excited all of our fans are to get in on the new beta version of PASS and try it out and he has very very kindly offered an invite to ALL of the Pure fans who want it. Are we kidding? NO! We are not! He gave us a link that EVERYONE can use to get an invite.

CLICK HERE

and get hooked up with the new PASS, and then when you are hooked up, you will ALSO have 3 invites to share with friends who are in awe of you and your amazing image-delivery system. Can you believe that? We are so so excited. ureactions

So, click the link, get hooked up with some PASS goodness. Its THAT easy. Maybe fan PASS, just to say thanks for their awesome generosity though, right?

What are you waiting for? Get PASSing!

Ahhhhh, what would we do without PASS?

PASS was by far one of the best decisions we made for our photography business last year.

It revolutionized how we gave our clients their images. After many problems with DVD’s going corrupt or computers not reading the DVDs we were giving out, we felt like we needed more options. More professional options. That is when we found PASS.

It worked out perfectly for us. Our wedding clients still get a USB with all of their images, but we also use PASS for wedding clients and portrait clients.

The new PASS that is being released is even more amazing then the original PASS!

Right now it is on an invite only basis, since it is still in BETA. We were lucky enough to be given 15 extra invites for our fans.

When your clients see their PASS site, they will see multiple options. One menu is on the left, and one is on the right and so much social media integration it will blow your mind (and get you into lots of potential client’s feeds!) So much marketing potential.

I love that there is a Download All button right there on the left, making the client experience easy and streamlined, if you have activated downloads for that client.

Once they are viewing their images, if they click to view one bigger, they will see this menu to the left. Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, email, all kinds of social integration. They can also choose to download images one at a time if they want. (This is especially awesome for those wedding guests that would love to download just an image you took of them at the reception instead of the entire wedding!)

Once you PASS your event to your clients you can watch the stats on the event! You can log into your software and click on the event and then select the globe to see the reach your photos have experienced.

You can also control if your clients have access to download their images. Our wedding clients don’t have access to download their wedding day images until the album is delivered. (They are allowed access to download engagement photos and bridals/day before sessions before the album is delivered).
I upload them and unclick the download button. Then it takes 2 second to activate it once their album and USB drive is delivered.
You can also password protect those galleries for clients who want a bit of privacy, like boudoir or birth photography.

Also what I am most excited about is that print fulfillment is coming this spring. Clients will be able to order professional prints right from PASS.

We also use PASS for clients to pick their images for their albums. They star their favorite images and it saves them as favorites, and I can view their favorites. It allows me to download the folder of favorites instead of having to dig through all my images and match up pictures. That saves a lot of time, and time is money.

Also once you add your client as a VIP, it is easy to send them a fast email or Facebook message letting them know that their gallery is ready!

Also the online backup of your images is such a huge relief for photographers.

These are just a FEW of the amazing features of PASS. Right now while they are still in BETA testing, it is invite only, but soon it will be open to everyone!

Oh wait, I forgot the BEST part of the new PASS! It is now FREE!!! You can no longer say you can’t afford to use PASS! You can upgrade your PASS event for more features, but if you haven’t built up your prices to cover the $29 upgrade cost, you can still use PASS for free!

How do you enter to be one of the lucky 15 to get an invite before PASS goes live to the public?

Make sure that you like PURE on Facebook and also that you like PASS on Facebook!

Then leave a comment here on the blog, telling me how PASS would revolutionize your business and why you want to try PASS. Also leave me a way to contact you in case you win!

I will randomly pick 15 individuals to get an invite to try out the new PASS.

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But now the big question….

How do you safely travel with your gear and also protect your clients images while traveling? You don’t get to drive from your house to the wedding, and throw everything into your trunk, nor do you get to drive straight home after the wedding, and download your images.

Well, here is how WE travel with ours.

Tomorrow we head out to shoot an amazing wedding in Honolulu. We couldn’t be any more excited then we are, but also every time we travel with our gear, we get nervous.

(photos taken with our cell phones)

We have our two carry-on rolling camera bags that holds the majority of our gear. (Yes, I know a lens cap was missing. I took the lens off of my camera and replaced it with the 50mm 1.2 as I was using the 16-35mm, to fit it into my camera bag to take the photo, and forgot to put the lens cap back on)

Between Rachel and I, we check 4 pieces of luggage. 2 of them have 4 lightstands, large diffuser panels, chargers for the AA eneloop batteries and other photography related items. The other 2 pieces of luggage are obviously personal items, like clothes and such.

The gear above may look like it is overkill, but I promise you it is not. We are paid to get the shots no matter what, even if we don’t know the lighting situation we are going into. We also are paid to make sure that our clients’ images get home safe.

Now imagine that you are boarding a plane and find out that they can not accommodate your rolling bag with all your camera gear. They are asking kindly for you to check your bag. First don’t freak… because after this blog post you are prepared!

In my personal item that they allow you to carry on (usually a very large purse or backpack), I have my wallet, my ipad and other things necessary to travel on the plane. I also have a couple of tshirts. However, we also have either our Shoot Sac on us, or another bag of some kind stuffed into the bottom. Usually they are asking you to check your bag because there is not enough room for your suitcase in the overhead bin. (Reason #1 to check into your flight as early as you are allowed–to get a better boarding position and lower the risk).

I then quietly inform the flight attendant of what is inside my bag, and ask if there is any way they can make it work. If they say no, I then proceed to remove my 2nd bag or Shoot Sac, and start stuffing cameras and lenses in that bag. I will not let my gear go under the plane and out of my sight.

So I put as many lenses as I can in my Shoot Sac, and then the rest of the lenses or cameras and memory cards in my purse/backpack. I will stick a flash or two in my pockets if need be. I will then give them my nearly-empty bag.

I can then almost always find a spot for my backpack in the overhead bins.

I just refuse to let them take all that gear under the plane where it is out of my sight and control.

We have insurance on our gear (and also insurance on us as a business) through Package Choice, but by the time I land and realize that my gear was either broken, or stolen and I file a claim, I won’t have my replacement gear before the wedding or shoot that I was hired to shoot. I try to take every single precaution necessary.

So what do we do to protect the images we shoot? Obviously we can’t run home and back up immediately, and we need to run the gauntlet of packing and unpacking and airline travel between the wedding shoot and getting home to download. So, I bring my laptop and we each have external hard drives that are made for traveling (they have little hard cases they sit inside) and we download immediately to each of these each evening. (That way Rachel has a backup of Crystal’s images and Crystal has a backup of Rachels images) (This external hard drive also sits in our carry on bag). We also bring a TON of memory. Over 260GB worth of cards. So we shoot to these cards and we do NOT reformat or erase ANY. Plus, we shoot Canon 5D Mark IIIs and we shoot to two cards, so there is a back up inside the camera, as well. So, we have at least 4 backups of every image. Two externals, the original cards, and the back-up cards that stay inside the cameras. We travel with these in separate bags. So we are as insured as possible against corruption of data, loss of images, etc.

And finally, we bring all of this so that we can easily tackle any situation possible. If something breaks, it’s ok. We have multiple back-ups. If the situation is not what we anticipated, it’s ok, we have as many options as possible to come up with a good answer. It might seem like overkill to some, but we’re paid to capture this once-in-a-lifetime day, and we take it very very seriously, and we don’t accept or offer any excuses for ourselves.

P.S.
On top of all of our gear, we also bring a 2nd shooter. (Yes there are already two of us, but we shoot as a team, not 1st and 2nd shooter, so we bring a 2nd shooter to help out at most weddings, so we can team shoot. That will be explained in another post.)

Our seconds also come with their gear.

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The piece that they get to hold forever tangibly in their hands after their weddings.

We wanted an album that was simple, and classic, yet timeless.

Enter Flori Color USA

We absolutely fell in love with their vintage collection.  This album here is their Boutique Collection in the vintage album cover options.

It comes with a hard sturdy box, and the album itself. The box is wrapped in the fabric that you choose for the album, and also has their name engraved.

The engraving of the names is timeless and classic.

There are multiple colors to choose from for the Vintage collection, but my personal favorite is the light and dark grey.

They are made in Portugal and are amazing quality. Their color is spot on, and the quality of the albums and the box that it comes in, is just top notch. Once you get signed up for an account, you will also notice that the price is amazing!

Do know that they do currently have a minimum order requirement to ship to the US.  I believe it is $250 right now.

Now enjoy the photos!!!!

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This stunning metal antique camera decoration sits in Crystal’s home office and serves as an amazing conversation piece and gives her office a sense of who she is and what she loves.

So we wanted to offer one of these amazing decorative cameras to a lucky fan.  I know there are certainly friends on our page who would love to have one of these adoring their office or studio.  To enter is simple just follow the steps in the Rafflecopter below.

Please note:  This is not a real, functioning camera.

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Also remember that our Newest action set Follow your Art Tapestry is on sale right now! Just follow THIS link! 30% off through Monday the 4th of Feb. All of our actions are also on sale! No code is needed. You just need to add your action choice to your shopping cart and then the discount will come off automatically.

Since we love you and are here to help, we made some little cheat sheets for y’all. We will write up some more extensive shortcut notes, but for now, just knowing how to access the tools on your tool palette can be SO helpful! If you want to keep this forever, please feel free to click on the image you want (Photoshop or Elements) and then right click and save.

Hey! And while you’re at it, share the love with your friends by clicking Share.

Dawn Davis graciously and amazingly offered not only 1 free spot, but changed it to 5 free spots!

The 5 winners are

Steph Stanger

Jamie Stanavige

Cortnie Buck Smith

Liz DeGraffenried Rowley

Megan Kathleen Weber

Email us at support@purephotoshopactions.com

For those of you that didn’t win, Bob is such an amazing teacher, and photographer. One of the photographers that I look up to and admire not only his work, but how they run their business and just the kind of people they are. Their openness encouraged me when I was down, and I have learned from them, the kind of photographer/business women/christian that I want to be.

You should sign up for this course!!!!

It is normally $69, but with THIS LINK, you can get 25% off, making the course only $52. There is no code needed.

Seriously for the amount of information that you will learn, it is almost like stealing the information from them. For the time, and money they put into it, and the content, it is worth WAY MORE then the $69 …. and especially worth more then the $52 while it is on sale!

Bob is such an amazing teacher, and photographer.  One of the photographers that I look up to and admire not only his work, but how they run their business and just the kind of people they are.  Their openness encouraged me when I was down, and I have learned from them, the kind of photographer/business women/christian that I want to be.

I was able to check out this class for them, to see if it was something that our pure fans would love.  Within 10 minutes of logging in, I was giddy.  I just knew you guys would LOVE it!!!  So much material is packed into this course, and the price is just ridiculously low!

It is normally $69, but with THIS LINK, you can get 25% off, making the course only $52.   There is no code needed.

But not only that… not only did they create a code for the pure fans… they are giving away a free spot into the class!

So here is how this needs to go down.

This giveaway will run for 24 hours.  Make sure that you like our pages and Bob and Dawns page most importantly!  They are so close to 10,000 fans.  Lets push them over that edge!!!!   Make sure to leave a blog comment!!!!

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Because of this, we need to take all necessary precautions to protect this asset.  Our gear is not cheap.

I have known photographers who have had gear stolen at weddings, or shoots.  They turn their back for just a couple seconds, and it is gone.  Gear has been stolen out of cars and houses.

What happens if your gear gets stolen?

First you need to have Insurance.  If you are taking photographs for anyone, you need to have insurance.  I am sorry but this is not negotiable.

Do not think it can’t happen to you.  That you won’t get sued, because you are shooting for free, or only charging $50 or that your gear won’t get stolen.

There will also come times that in order to shoot at a specific location your clients want, the venue will require proof of insurance.  It has happened to us and it may happen to you at some point as you grow in your photography career.

We use Package Choice. We love them.

When you do get insurance, they will ask for some of this information.  So it is good to have on hand and ready.

Also I take photos of all my gear with the serial number showing.  I keep those for my records.  That way there is never any dispute that the gear was in my possession.

It is also good to register all of your gear!  If you are Canon go HERE. If you are Nikon go HERE.

If your gear is stolen, trying to frantically file a police report and trying to gather all the information about your gear is not something you want to worry about.

I have a spreadsheet that I created that lists the Make/Model/Date Purchased/Price Purchased for/ and most importantly the serial number of my gear.

I have uploaded this for you to have for free.   Start the new year off right!

Even if you are just a mom with a camera, you never know if your camera will get stolen or lost and this is a good resource to have. 

To find where your serial numbers are located on your gear, you can Google “Where is my serial number located on such and such lens or such and such camera”.  I have uploaded a couple of photos of my gear, and where the serial numbers were located to give you an idea.  I only shoot Canon, so I am not sure if Nikon is the same.

To use this download the zip file by clicking on the spreadsheet above or by clicking HERE. This will take you to a page that looks like this.

Click on the words “Pure Photography Gear Spreadsheet” in Yellow.  This will open the download box for the zip file.  Like this. Save the file and then unzip the folder.  There are instructions inside of the folder on how to edit the spreadsheet.  There are many ways to use the spreadsheet, but I included directions for a free and easy way using Google Docs.

I am sure that there are many other ways to keep track of your serial numbers and your camera gear.   This is just one of the many ways.  It works for me, and if it isn’t broke don’t fix it.   I love spreadsheets, and use them for everything!  From balancing our checkbook to all the bills for our house and when they are due and payments made, to photography expenses, keeping track of millage and all kinds of stuff.  If you find this helpful, maybe we will share our other spreadsheets in the future.

Law 101: Protecting Your Art
Rachel Brenke, Esq

With the onslaught of social media and digital files/products comes the true reality that ethics and law are not always followed. In fact, while ignorance is no excuse, often the masses are misinformed as to what is allowed in the digital age. The most prominent issues photographers face include the illegal downloading (or screen capture) of unpurchased photographs for print, sharing of digital items, stealing of photographs to pad portfolio and posting of another’s work as an example to clients.

What if I want to share someone else’s picture for inspiration?

There has been a recent trend where photographers have taken to sharing photographs of photographers that inspire them to demonstrate to the clients their vision for an upcoming session. This has been done through sharing on social media sites including pinning on Pinterest. There is a grey area of danger in this sharing as it is misleading to the client, often done without permission of photographer, and many times the proper credit is not attributed. When in doubt, don’t share it. When in doubt, don’t pin it.
All photographers should look to others that provide inspiration, but if you’d like to collect an inspiration board of other photographers ensure it is specifically labeled as separate from your own work and/or create another profile.

What can I do to protect myself?

Stealing is such a nasty word but that is what it is. Whenever clients download files from the website without permission it is stealing. Whenever a photographer claims another’s work as their own it is stealing. There are a few different ways to protect yourself. Sometimes it is simply a grey area of sharing a photograph, even with appropriate credit, or another photographer using the same business name or tag line. There are several options for protecting yourself and your business.

One option is that of a trademark or copyright. Trademarking is the act of identifying and distinguishing the source of goods of one party from that of another (i.e. words, phrases, designs, symbols, etc.). Copyright is the protection an artist has over “original works of authorship”. Both of these are tools to protect yourself, however, must be distinguished to understand whether you are protected or need to take action. Ownership of copyright for a photograph is created at the time the photograph is created. Trademarking is not acquired until submitted formally through the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Link to Trademark Office: http://www.uspto.gov/
Copyright is typically done for photographs (although no formal process required) while trademarking is typically done to reserve your company name, logo, catch phrase or slogan.

The second option is to embed copyright in your photograph/product. This can be done in the processing program of choice. The following pictures are how to embed copyright/ownership information into the photograph. This will sometimes work to prevent labs from printing these files outside the guidelines embedded in the photograph’s data.

#1 Open Picture
#2 File > File Info
#3 Enter Info
#4 Click OK

The third option is to watermark your photographs. Simply placing a watermark on the photograph may deter some individuals. This option, by itself, does not fully protect you nor keep others from stealing. Just as social media is in every house, editing programs are increasingly common, making the tools to remove a watermark readily accessible.

The fourth option is to include your information and copyright information on picture captions whenever uploaded to the Internet. This, again, isn’t full protection but may deter or remind individuals of the copyright laws.

The final option, which is primarily for clients, is to provide a Copyright Informational Card with their order as a gentle reminder of copyright laws and your reproduction guidelines.

What if they continue to violate my copyright?

The most simple answer, ask them to stop. Many times clients are unaware their actions violate your policies and copyright, despite being outlined in the signed photography agreement. Citing the appropriate copyright law and policies in a politely written communication will often encourage someone to cease their actions, especially if they were “unaware” that what they are doing is wrong. If this communication fails to achieve this a formal writing of a Cease and Desist letter may be required. These can be written informally by simply citing the actions, citing the appropriate copyright laws, demanding they quit these actions, providing consequences for failure to comply, and institute a deadline. An alternative is to utilize an attorney drafted Cease and Desist form and/or hire an attorney.

Cease and Desist

No matter the method of protection you choose, be true to yourself and your business. Inform others, inform yourself. This does you, others and the photography industry a great service.

Rachel Brenke

Rachel Brenke is a photographer, lawyer, business consultant and social media marketing strategist based out of El Paso, Texas.  She has helped over a thousand photographers start up, market and maintain their businesses through online eWorkshops, 1:1 consulting and the free resources on her blog. She also has contracts for photographers that were designed for photographers by a photographer and attorney!

Snag your free copy her free Legal Lens eBook by Rachel Brenke.

Note: These legal tips are based on United States legal principles. Please seek out advice for your country.

The winner is Lacey Main.

You have 7 days to contact us and we will get you in touch with Jo Totes.

Thank you to everyone who entered.

What will we include?

–There will be three shoots in the two days. Two will be evening, golden-light shoots, where one night Pure will take the reigns and show how they get the shot in their ideal conditions. The next night Tiffany from Follow Your Art will show what her ideal shoot looks light. But you know what? Then we will also be showing an indoor natural light session, so you can find the light even when you are indoors. Light is the basis of photography. Learn to master it and love it and let it guide your style.

–We will be doing a critique session where we can all learn in a safe, anonymous environment, but where we can all learn and grow. We’re really excited about this.

–A section on RAW edits and Photoshop editing and workflow, as well as image management from start to finish in a session.

–You’ll see us in action as we work with models and pose and coach them.

–Classroom portions, where we will be covering a lot of the technical aspects and where questions can be asked, so that each time we go out to shoot, you will have new skills to try out. We also ask that participants watch us for the first half of each shoot, so they can see how we work and what a session looks like for us. We feel this is a critical part of the learning process as well.

–We will be providing breakfast, lunch, and snacks for both days. Dinner with the group is optional on both nights, but the fun will certainly continue. There will also be an optional meet-and-greet dinner on Thursday evening.

–Our swag bag will contain a lot of great swag, but the most valuable part will be the Everything Bundle from Pure (which includes all of the original Pure actions), as well as the Follow Your Art Sets 1 and the upcoming 2! That is a HUGE value right there. $560 just for those alone.

–Access to an online Facebook group that will begin after registration and continue after the workshop where all of the participants can build and continue their relationships and where Crystal, Rachel and Tiffany will pop in to answer questions. This is also where we will let you know information about the workshop as the date gets closer.

What will NOT be included:

–This is not a beginner workshop. We will not be covering how to shoot in manual. You need to understand your camera and how to use manual mode. This will be important for keeping up.

–This is not a business workshop so we will not be covering business questions, in-depth.

–While we will make every effort to shoot outdoors for the outdoor shoots, we recognize that we also will be in Utah, so we reserve the right to move those to indoor locations, as needed, but we will still provide excellent instruction and explanation.

So if you are ready to learn and grow and expand your style and understanding of light, this is going to be a GREAT workshop. We don’t offer many workshops, due to heavy shooting schedules and busy work schedules with the Pure Actions for Photographers. So when we do a workshop, we give it our all and we are so excited to teach in a close, personal way. Tiffany is a seasoned mentor and workshop teacher with an amazing shooting style. We think that participants will very much enjoy this experience.

To reserve your spot, there is a $750 deposit. If you book in the first 24 hours, you can save $250. So that would make the final price $1250 for both days with three instructors. After the first day, the price goes up to $1500.

That would leave a balance of $500 due a month before the workshop. It would leave a balance of $750 if booked after the first 24 hours.

A few important notes:

–The closest airport is the Salt Lake International airport and it is only a few miles from our studio downtown, where the workshop will be held.

–The workshop will be at our studio in downtown Salt Lake City, so most hotels in the downtown area will just be minutes from the workshop.

–You are responsible for all travel and transportation and accommodations.

–The deposit is non-refundable and if you cannot attend, you will be responsible to sell your seat.

It is giveaway time!!!! This is the 6th day!!

Make sure that you join our mailing list.

You will want to enter every day to have a chance at the drawings every day.

Valued at over $400, this will give you all of our actions except the designer sets!

Here is where you enter It might take a few to load… hang tight.

Winner will be announced on our blog every day, and the next giveaway started. You have until 430PM MST on 12-5-12 to enter. Next giveaway will start right after that.

If you are having problems getting entered here, you can try on our fb page HERE

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The winners are Cassilynn Bell Post and Dulce Jimenez

You have 7 days to contact us at support@purephotoshopactions.com and let us know if you need Photoshop or elements.

Thanks guys!!

Crystal

A place to keep out my sample albums and have clients look at them and oohh and ahhh. A dream right?

Well my 3 yr old happens to think so too lol.

Her dream however, is different then mine. Her dream is to paint the house in marker. To add her touch of art. This time she finally found her way to my sample albums.

This particular album has a fabric cover. So when I saw this art work, I thought all was lost. A few people suggested I try baby wipes, and I can not believe the difference.

I had huggies wipes on hand, and with a little elbow grease it came out. I am still in awe.

So yeah…. if you have kids, and albums, make sure that you have some baby wipes on hand. You never know when they will want to add their art to your art.

PS don’t mind the cell phone photos lol

It is important that you have a tripod for this, as we will be working with longer exposures. You will also need a camera where you can control the exposure, like a DSLR or a bridge point and shoot.

Now, in a semi-dim room with candles or Christmas lights lit, position the tripod where you would like it. Now we fiddle with the exposure. My usual starting place is f/16, ISO 200, shutter speed 15 seconds–see why we need the tripod? I also will put my camera on a 2 second delay, so when I hit the shutter, it isn’t affected by any movement of the camera when i push the button.

(If you do not own a tripod, you can also set your camera on a table or s chair or the arm of a couch. Just make sure that wherever you place it, it will remain 100% still, and is also 100% safe!)

The critical part here is the f/16. (Go higher if you want or can! Mine were shot at F22) You need to be able to close your aperture as tightly as it will go or very close. (Some lenses can close up to f/32, some only go to f/16. The point is to close it up tight.) Fiddle with your shutter speed and ISO to get the right balance of light, but keep your aperture closed. Depending on your camera, you may have to have a longer shutter speed, if your camera can not handle higher ISO’s well. It is the high aperture that gets you the star burst, so this is pretty much non-negotiable.

Another key point is to use the self-timer. Even if you have your camera on a tripod, when you hit the shutter button, there will be just a tiny bit of shake or movement. If you use the 2 second self timer, that allows you to press the shutter and move your hand away from the camera, so nothing is touching it while the camera is taking the picture.

Below is a pull back shot of the tree lights, with the up close shot being above. (In this small size, the full shot won’t have the same punch with the lights as it would in a larger image.)

My settings for the image above.

It is giveaway time!!!! This is the 6th day!!

Make sure that you join our mailing list.

You will want to enter every day to have a chance at the drawings every day.

Valued at over $400, this will give you all of our actions except the designer sets!

Here is where you enter It might take a few to load… hang tight.

Winner will be announced on our blog every day, and the next giveaway started. You have until 830PM MST on 11-28-12 to enter. Next giveaway will start right after that.

If you are having problems getting entered here, you can try on our fb page HERE

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also remember that we have a sale going on right now!!!! Ends tonight!!!! Let your friends know!!! Everything is 40% off in our store!!! No discount code is needed. We don’t do this large of a sale normally, so make sure that you grab your action set while it is on sale! Just click the image to be taken to our store!

Starting next year the number of sales we have will drop dramatically. So if you have been on the fence, make sure that you grab some actions now.

You have 7 days to email us at support@purephotoshopactions and let us know if you need photoshop or elements.

Congrats!!!

We are SO so excited to be able to offer our fans a chance to win a Jo-Tote of their choice. These are such stylish options for carrying your gear. They are very secure and well-padded, to keep your gear safe. They are roomy enough for a camera with a lens attached, a few lenses, and a flash, and even an iPad, which is super convenient. And they are stylish enough not to look like a boring old camera bag. You WILL be getting compliments on your bag when you carry one. Believe me.

I know a lot of you guys are thinking that this bag is not for you, but hey, think about the points you’ll be getting with your significant other when you give this awesome bag for Christmas. Right? Absolutely. I am pretty sure a cute camera bag is on a lot of lists this Christmas.

The above bag is the Gracie. I have this one in Magenta and every time I use it, I get comments on how cute it is. But I LOVE the new mint color! It is so understated and classic. (They also have the Missy bag, which is DARLING, in mint too. Such a fun new color.)

Now, I (this is Rachel writing this blog) am a pretty practical person. So one of my favorite parts of using the Jo-Totes bag is not immediately obvious, but I really think it is important. This bag doesn’t look like a camera bag. So, when I take it to Disneyland or a soccer game, or the kids’ school, it doesn’t look like I am carrying thousands of dollars worth of equipment with me. It doesn’t scream “Steal ME! I have a LOT of valuable gear in me!” And really, I appreciate that. Of course, I keep it close to me, but I don’t think it is as much of a target as if I had a very obvious gear bag hanging out in my stroller at Disneyland.

Ok, enough my my chit-chat. You want to know how to win, right? Well, it’s simple. Use our Rafflecopter below and get points for all of the entries you complete. (Some are optional, but you get entries for doing them.) Any entries left as a blog comment or on our Facebook page won’t be counted. Sorry. Please enter via the Rafflecopter. The giveaway will run for a week, and please note that this giveaway is not endorsed or sponsored by Facebook in any way!

Ok….ready, set, ENTER!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

It is giveaway time!!!! This is the 5th day!!

Make sure that you join our mailing list. That is different this time then last giveaway and gives you TONS of entries if you do (we often will send out special discount codes not advertised on our page just to our subscribers).

You will want to enter every day to have a chance at the drawings every day.

Valued at over $400, this will give you all of our actions except the designer sets!

Then you can use the amazing 40% off sale we are having right now to pick up those designer sets!

Also if the winner that is chosen, has purchased any actions during this sale, those will be refunded! You can’t go wrong!!

Here is where you enter It might take a few to load… hang tight.

Winner will be announced on our blog every day, and the next giveaway started. You have until 830PM MST on 11-28-12 to enter. Next giveaway will start right after that.

If you are having problems getting entered here, you can try on our fb page HERE

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also remember that we have a sale going on right now!!!! Ends tonight!!!! Let your friends know!!! Everything is 40% off in our store!!! No discount code is needed. We don’t do this large of a sale normally, so make sure that you grab your action set while it is on sale! Just click the image to be taken to our store!

Starting next year the number of sales we have will drop dramatically. So if you have been on the fence, make sure that you grab some actions now.

Email us at support@purephotoshopactions.com and let us know if you need photoshop or elements. You have 7 days to email us to claim your prize.

You have 7 days to email us and let us know that you won and if you need photoshop or elements.

Thank you to everyone who signed up to win!

It is giveaway time!!!! This is the 3rd day!!

For the next 3 days, we will be giving away 7 Everything Pure Bundle Sets! That is one every day! You can enter the contest each time, and have a chance to win!!!

Make sure that you join our mailing list. That is different this time then last giveaway and gives you TONS of entries if you do (we often will send out special discount codes not advertised on our page just to our subscribers).

You will want to enter every day to have a chance at the drawings every day.

Valued at over $400, this will give you all of our actions except the designer sets!

Then you can use the amazing 40% off sale we are having right now to pick up those designer sets!

Also if the winner that is chosen, has purchased any actions during this sale, those will be refunded! You can’t go wrong!!

Here is where you enter It might take a few to load… hang tight.

Winner will be announced on our blog every day, and the next giveaway started. You have until 830PM MST on 11-26-12 to enter. Next giveaway will start right after that.

If you are having problems getting entered here, you can try on our fb page HERE

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also remember that we have a sale going on right now!!!! Let your friends know!!! Everything is 40% off in our store!!! No discount code is needed. We don’t do this large of a sale normally, so make sure that you grab your action set while it is on sale! Just click the image to be taken to our store!

It is giveaway time!!!! This is the 3rd day!!

For the next 6 days, we will be giving away 7 Everything Pure Bundle Sets! That is one every day! You can enter the contest each time, and have a chance to win!!!

Make sure that you join our mailing list. That is different this time then last giveaway and gives you TONS of entries if you do (we often will send out special discount codes not advertised on our page just to our subscribers).

You will want to enter every day to have a chance at the drawings every day.

Valued at over $400, this will give you all of our actions except the designer sets!

Then you can use the amazing 40% off sale we are having right now to pick up those designer sets!

Also if the winner that is chosen, has purchased any actions during this sale, those will be refunded! You can’t go wrong!!

Here is where you enter It might take a few to load… hang tight.

Winner will be announced on our blog every day, and the next giveaway started. You have until 830PM MST on 11-24-12 to enter. Next giveaway will start right after that.

If you are having problems getting entered here, you can try on our fb page HERE

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also remember that we have a sale going on right now!!!! Let your friends know!!! Everything is 40% off in our store!!! No discount code is needed. We don’t do this large of a sale normally, so make sure that you grab your action set while it is on sale! Just click the image to be taken to our store!

You have 7 days to let us know if you need Photoshop or elements for your everything set. Email us at support@purephotoshopactions.com

Thank you to everyone for entering. Day 3 is starting now.

It is giveaway time!!!! This is the 2nd day!!

For the next 6 days, we will be giving away 7 Everything Pure Bundle Sets! That is one every day! You can enter the contest each time, and have a chance to win!!!

Make sure that you join our mailing list. That is different this time then last giveaway and gives you TONS of entries if you do (we often will send out special discount codes not advertised on our page just to our subscribers).

You will want to enter every day to have a chance at the drawings every day.

Valued at over $400, this will give you all of our actions except the designer sets!

Then you can use the amazing 40% off sale we are having right now to pick up those designer sets!

Also if the winner that is chosen, has purchased any actions during this sale, those will be refunded! You can’t go wrong!!

Here is where you enter It might take a few to load… hang tight.

Winner will be announced on our blog every day, and the next giveaway started. You have until 2pm MST on 11-22-12 to enter. Next giveaway will start right after that.

If you are having problems getting entered here, you can try on our fb page HERE

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also remember that we have a sale going on right now!!!! Let your friends know!!! Everything is 40% off in our store!!! No discount code is needed. We don’t do this large of a sale normally, so make sure that you grab your action set while it is on sale! Just click the image to be taken to our store!

You have 7 days to contact and let us know if you want photoshop or elements for your action set!!

It is giveaway time!!!!

For the next week, we will be giving away 7 Everything Pure Bundle Sets! That is one every day! You can enter the contest each time, and have a chance to win!!!

You will want to enter every day to have a chance at the drawings every day.

Valued at over $400, this will give you all of our actions except the designer sets!

Then you can use the amazing 40% off sale we are having right now to pick up those designer sets!

Also if the winner that is chosen, has purchased any actions during this sale, those will be refunded! You can’t go wrong!!

Here is where you enter It might take a few to load… hang tight.

Winner will be announced on our blog every day, and the next giveaway started. You have until 5pm MST on 11-23-12 to enter. Next giveaway will start right after that.

If you are having problems getting entered here, you can try on our fb page HERE

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also remember that we have a sale going on right now!!!! Let your friends know!!! Everything is 40% off in our store!!! No discount code is needed. We don’t do this large of a sale normally, so make sure that you grab your action set while it is on sale! Just click the image to be taken to our store!

Wow.

We really liked their bags. They are very different from many on the market and have a very very luxurious feeling. They look great, and we’ve gotten compliments on the bag wherever we take it. It is sturdy and weather proof and has protected our lenses well. (I’ve used it as a lens bag at weddings for the last few months and I really like it. Easy to use, and I like that I can also snap it shut, so it feels safer.) The giveaway was also one of the very biggest, entry-wise, that we’ve ever had.

So, when Copper River wanted to do another giveaway, we agreed happily.

I just wanted to give an update on the bag I’ve been using, because, I always want to know how things hold up. I have been really pleased with the bag. It’s held up great to a lot of travel (it’s even been to the rainforest!) and with the great quality of leather, it looks even nicer than it did on the first day I saw the bag. In fact, when we were travelling this summer, I brought a big huge bag as my carry-on for the airplane. It was so cumbersome for when we were walking around during/after workshops and when not shooting at the weddings, I decided to use the Copper River bag I had brought along as my purse. It worked so nicely and everyone complimented my gorgeous bag. So, it’s not just a camera bag, folks.

But then, at the same time, my husband has stated that he would not mind carrying the bag around, because it doesn’t look too girly. So, that’s nice. It’s stylish and chic, but gender-neutral. Love it.

I took a picture to give an idea of what the 14 inch Manhattan bag can carry. (This is the bag we’ll be giving away this time!) I have my 5D Mark III, a 24-70 2.8 L lens, a 70-200 2.8 L is ii lens (both lenses are BIG), and a 580 exii flash, and if you look in the interior pocket, I also have an iPad. Everything fit easily and securely. The dividers are strong and protective. Overall, this is a very well-made bag that gives a great and distinct look.

How do you enter? Oh it is easy peasy! Use this fabulous Rafflecopter and make sure you do the required steps (there are only 3), and then do as many extras as you want to get extra entries. This giveaway is not endorsed or promoted by Facebook in any way. (But I bet they wish it was!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

FOLLOW US HERE

So to celebrate we are having our first instagram contest!!! Win an action set of your choice! (excludes designer sets)

Show us where your “magic” happens! Where would you be using your new action set?

We will pick 2 random winners on Monday the 22nd of October.

Upload your photo to your instagram feed and use the hash tag #pureactions when you type your description so we can find your photo!!

Show us your “space”. Big or small… Fancy or not… We love to see where you create your art!

This is where my magic happens.

It is something that I look forward to doing. However, I didn’t cook for the longest time. With having just moved, things have been crazy and hectic.

We are finally coming up for air, after a crazy couple of weeks, and a couple of weeks of eating out. If I don’t see another fast food restaurant again, I won’t cry lol.

However, with that said, some days I don’t have tons of time to dedicate to a huge meal. Today was one of those days. After spending all day cleaning and unpacking the basement, everyone was hungry, and I looked at the time, and it was 530. Ooops!

After looking at what I had in my fridge and pantry, I opted for Grilled Cheese. BLAH!!!! Such a boring meal. My kids love it though!

As I was getting all the ingredients together, I saw I had some avocado and tomatoes. That is when I decided to make some adult grilled cheese. I knew my kids wouldn’t eat it, so I made them the traditional grilled cheese, but made us this amazingness lol.

It is super simple!!!

My ingredients.

I prefer shredded cheese. I don’t know why, as it is messier lol but we use it on a lot of other things, so it is what we have in the house.

1) Mozzarella and Mild Cheddar.
2) Tomatoes
3) Avacodos
4) Onions
5) Grandma Sycamore Bread
6) Butter

1) I get all the ingredients cut and ready to go.

2) First I butter both sides of the bread.

3) Then I cook the onions in a little bit of butter in my itty bitty pan haha. I love it! We love onions in this house, but hate raw onions. So this eliminates the raw taste

4) Then I turn the other burner onto medium heat, and place the bread down and add some cheddar and mozzarella cheese and the onions on top. I let that melt a bit and brown the bread.

5) Then I pull open the bread and add the tomatoes and avocados and another thing layer of mozzarella cheese and cheddar cheese. I put the top back on and cook it for a few more minutes until that layer of cheese is melted.

6) I then cook some Tomato soup and then enjoy my sandwich!!! Mmmmmmmmmm I want another one lol

Now by no means am I a chef. Quiet the opposite. I am however, a mom of busy kids, always looking for yummy recipes that fulfill their needs and wants and also are yummy for us. I hope you don’t mind me sharing this, and I would love to share more recipes if you guys like this.

and please… by all means.. Pin this

we have been looking for something to give our clients as a gift after the wedding and engagement session that was

fun
quirky
semi nerdy like us
and still photography related.

We could never find anything that perfectly fit the bill.

UNTIL……

Yes… I squealed out loud when I found these online. I just seriously died a little bit inside when I got them today!!!!

I cant NOT wait to incorporate these into our business!

We have plans to give these to our clients after their engagement session with the viewer and reel, and after their wedding, they will get a new reel with 7 of their wedding images.
They come in a cute little white box which is perfect for our branding and we can brand the inside with our colored tissue paper.

Sigh… my heart is happy and content now lol. ♥

You can find out about the viewer and reels and where I got them HERE

BUT!!!!!

Guess what? Expoimaging is so amazing that you are all winners, because even if you didn’t win, you get to use the code PUREROGUE12 to get 20% off at http://www.expoimaging.com/all_products.php good thru the weekend.

We are THRILLED with this. (We’ll be stocking up on more light benders and diffusion panels.)

This code ends–Midnight, Sunday, August 5th.

Thank you all!!

We love light.

We love natural light. We love flash. We love making flash look like the perfect natural light. And because we love light so much, we ADORE Expoimaging’s Rogue Flash products. They are amazing. You can go totally 100% dramatic with snoots and grids, or you can just add that kiss of hair light with their gels or add a little diffused light with their flash benders and diffusion panels.

And because we love these products SO much, we are thrilled to be able to bring this amazing giveaway to you. Expoimaging is giving away a Rogue Portrait Kit – $149.95 value. The Rogue Portrait Lighting Kit contains:

1 x Rogue Large FlashBender Reflector
1 x Rogue Large Diffusion Panel
1 x Rogue Bounce Card / Flag
1 x Rogue Universal Gel Kit
1 x Rogue 3-in-1 Honeycomb Grid

This is a TON of good stuff to help you take your portraits and images to the next level.

So how do you enter? It is SO easy. Just like Expoimaging, like Pure, follow us both on Twitter, and tell us why you’d love this kit. Simple, simple, simple. Please use the Rafflecopter below to enter, that is where the winner will be chosen from!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Have you heard of Copper River Bag Co.?

We were so excited to learn of their bags. I just got mine the other day and when I opened it, I was really awestruck at how well-made this bag is. I mean, I expected it would be well-made, since it has a 100 year warranty. (Yep, that is one HUNDRED years, not a typo.)

The bag is weather-proof and with the camera inserts, it is incredibly sturdy. The insert is not super spongey, but it is solid. If weight is put on the top of the bag, it doesn’t give at all. The leather is thick and supple and soft, and it feels very smooth to the touch. All of the hardware have such a pleasant heft to them. They feel very solid.

They kind of sit at this fun junction of vintage style and rugged construction, which is a unique thing. Also, stylish camera bags tend to be targeted to women, but this bag reminds me of all of my professors (male and female) during my days at university. It’s so classic in the styling that I can see it being something that gets handed down and enjoyed for many years to come.

I have the 14 inch Voyager with the shoulder strap and it easily fits a Canon 5D Mark III, 70-200 2.8 L is (all covered by the protector), and 24-70 2.8 L. It can fit an iPad in the exterior or interior pocket too.

Ok, have I sold you on this great bag? Well, guess what? The Copper River Bag Co. has graciously allowed us to give one away to our friends! So you too can get a 14 inch Voyager bag with a shoulder strap!

Please do not enter in the comment, but instead use the RaffleCopter below. You can earn an entry by liking Copper River on Facebook, and by following them on Twitter and on Tumblr, as well as by mentioning what Copper River Bag is your favorite and what about it appeals most to you, liking this blog post, sharing this blog post, and pinning this blog post on Pinterest using this handy pin-it button. Easy-peasy? You bet!!

Please note that this giveaway is not endorsed or sponsored in any way by Facebook.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Say you do a session for $100 with a cd of all the images. AWESOME right??? You just made $100 bucks right??!! Score!!!!
Lets break down that $100. Say you shoot 4 of these sessions in one month.

$100 received for session

$30 off the top put aside for taxes

leaves $70.

The cost for your website is $16 a month (Through portfoliositez). If you shot 4 sessions that month that is on average $4 a session to pay for it.

You are down to $66.

If you get insurance (to protect yourself and your clients) at an average of $40 a month over 4 sessions That is $10 a session.

You are down to $56

The cost for the CD and case $1.00

You are down to $55

10% towards new gear savings and replacements like batteries and such $10.00

You are down to $45

$4 for gas to and from your session

You are down to $41.00

Ok so there are more expenses, (say if you have to hire a babysitter to watch your kids or if your spouse has to leave work so you can shoot, and other things.. the cost to get a business license, Photoshop.. those kind of goodies.) but let us leave it here for simplicity. You have now made $41.00 from that session. Great!!
Lets break this down by the time you invested into the session

1.5 hours in emails and session prep. Contract signing and emailing back and forth with the client in regards to pricing and location and answering questions. Prepping your gear and getting everything ready.

1 hour in travel round trip. (30 minutes each way) (my sessions are on an average 25 to 30 minutes from my house)

2 hours shooting your session.

.5 hours downloading your images and organizing them and putting your gear away.

3 hours editing your session.

.5 hours prepping your cd and packaging it and mailing it.
1 hour sharing and posting your session on facebook and marketing the session in hopes to get new clients

You have now spent at least 9.5 hours into your session.
If you take $41 and divide it by 9.5 hours you are making $4.31 an hour for the session. If you count the cost for a babysitter for your kids or if your session is farther or if you take longer to edit or if you shoot longer, or if your insurance costs more (mine is nearly $75 a month), or if you only shoot 1 or 2 sessions that month, you are making even less money.

Is that $4.31 worth being away from your kids? Worth the time and trouble?!! Now…. I am not saying you can start a business and charge hundreds and thousands of dollars. Everyone has to “pay their dues”. That is why the government allows you to claim a loss for the first 3 years! But please be a business woman/man. Know that it is a real business, and that you are not actually making $100 from that shoot.

Please understand that photography is a real job…. and not a quick way to make a quick buck. Please please please value your time, and your families time!!! If you don’t, who will?!!!

I think that there is some confusion about the point I was trying to make.

I am NOT wanting nor trying to belittle anyone at all. I am not trying to say that you shouldn’t do photography for $4 an hour or $5 or for $100 and hour or whatever the amount is. Only you know how much you need to be taking home to make creating a business worth it to you.

My purpose of the status was to break down some of the normal costs of running a legitimate and legal business. We will always champion paying taxes, and having all your legalities–taxes, licenses, and insurance. I know that some expenses may be more or less then others, and some may shoot more or less than others. You may not shoot just 4 sessions a month, or you may only shoot 1 session.

In the end MY numbers don’t matter, it is YOUR numbers that matter. My point is that YOU need to really know what you are bringing in. You need to know your profits and your losses. It is part of running a business.

We’re not making a value judgement on your bottom line. We are simply saying that as responsible business owners, you need to know it.

How do you figure out what you need to charge?

Figure out your expenses.

You need to determine your fixed costs first. What are your expenses that you pay out irregardless of how many shoots you have or don’t have. Everything from insurance, to gas to gear replacement, to marketing and products.

Your fixed costs drop more and more per session you do.

Then determine your variable costs. Things that occur with each session. Gas, wear and tear, CD, albums. etc.

Now determine how many days a month you want to shoot. Is it 1 time, 4 times or 10?? This number is completely personal and you decide how much you want to be gone and out shooting. Everyone has a comfort level.

Now you need to decide how much you want to make a month! What is that “Ahhhhhhhhh, this is so worth it” number for you? Is it taking home $500 profit or $1000 profit? Does it need to be $5000? Do you need to be the income provider for your family?

Now that you know how much you want to make a month PROFIT, and you know how many days you want to shoot

Ok so now you know how much you need to actually make a month in order to TAKE HOME your desired pay.

The next step is to sit down and evaluate how many times you want to actually shoot. Is it 3 times a month? Is it 10 times a month? This number will show you how much you need to charge per session in order to make your desired take home pay.

Now I understand that not everyone can charge $1000 or $500 for a session. My post was not to belittle anyone that charges $100 for a session. My post was meant for you to look at your expenses. Just because a client writes you a check for $100 does NOT mean that you just made $100.

In the end, if we hang out our shingle and charge, then we are business women and business men. It is our responsibility to run our business in a profitable manner. How much profit you make is a personal decision and completely up to you.

But let me reiterate that you need to have a very solid understanding of your gear and how to get great photographs before you start charging clients. You need to have all the legal paperwork in place to run a business. You need to know your craft. It takes time–a lot of time and a LOT of hard work–to get your business off the ground. It is NOT easy. You don’t just pick up a camera start a Facebook page and become a professional photographer. There is so much work, time and money that goes into it. We just worry sometimes people forget the time and money that is invested in starting and running a legitimate business.

But remember: Your time and your art has worth.

And because every post is better with a picture…

We have a trick for that. (We shared it in our jpeg2RAW podcast, but we are going to quickly do a visual tutorial.)

PEZ dispensers.

You fit them into your hot shoe and say “Look at Mickey!” (Or whoever happens to be residing in your hot shoe.)

First you need a Pez dispenser.

Then you will need to trim off a bit of the rounded edges at the top of half of the bottom part. (See, aren’t you glad I’m showing images here?)

If you leave those rounded edges on, it won’t fit into the hot shoe, which defeats the whole purpose. So using a pair of sharp scissors, carefully trim off that overlapping edge.

One it is snipped, it is ready to go!

Insert it into your hot shoe!

Don’t really set your camera like this often. I am just showing where it goes.

Ta da! It gives everyone (even the adults) somewhere to focus to get those always-wanted-everyone-looking-and-smiling pictures! Easy peasy, rice and cheesy!

Joanna Watson Donahue

Please email Jo Totes at jototes@gmail.com to claim your prize.

Thank you to everyone who entered to win these amazing bags! We just love their bags so much!!!!

Well, we do too! Sure, when we go to a wedding and have to schlep around 50 lbs of gear, we have huge, ugly suitcases with rollers. But what about going to a quick family shoot? What about going to the park with the kids? What about going to an amusement park? WHO wants to drag 50 lbs of gear AND a suitcase that looks like they’re moving in? So, this is where we LOVE our Jo-Totes. In fact, I (Rachel) am going to Disneyland in about a month and I just ordered a new, adorable magenta Gracie bag from Jo-Totes to take. Why? Well for a lot of reasons. 1) I look stylin’. 2) It holds my SLR safely, along with a spare lens (because I HAVE to have a good wide angle and a decent zoom, right?) and at least a flash and I have room to spare. 3) (And this is important–) It does not LOOK like a camera bag. If you turn around, most likely people will not say, “Hmm, I bet that has thousands of dollars of camera equipment in it.” And really, that is important. The last thing I want is to be targeted for my gear. This cute bag is very helpful in this. So yes, we just love Jo-Totes!

And ya know what that means, right?

TIME FOR A GIVEAWAY!

Jo-Totes has very graciously offered to do a giveaway with us. They have launched two new styles and they are SO CUTE. In fact, like I said, I just ordered the magenta Gracie.

Hee hee, see how cute that is?? Oh gosh, I love it.

And then they have their new Georgia satchels. They are adorable and stylish. (I am sure I could find a reason to order one of these cuties too.)

The Gracie bag is larger than the Georgia satchel. It has seven pockets as well as a large main compartment. One of the interior pockets is large enough to hold an iPad. It is: 13″ x 13.25″ x 4.74″

The Georgia satchel has two open front pockets, a zippered back pocket, and two interior zipped pockets. One of the interior pockets is also large enough to hold an iPad.

So, below we have our Rafflecopter. Each point you complete (like Jo-Totes, like us, share this, etc.) gets you an separate entry. So the more you complete, the more chances you have to win an adorable bag of your choice! It is just that simple. Please note that this giveaway is not sponsored or endorsed by Facebook at all. This giveaway will close on the 10th of May and the winner will be announced shortly thereafter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Our clients LOVE this wall grouping, because they can show off lots of their favorite images, and they can do it in a really unique way. The lines are clean though, so it looks pulled together and classic, not cluttered.

The templates come black and white damask and with your choice of letters to make any words you wish. But you can also quickly and easily change the colors of the damask.

Damask Letter Templates for Photoshop or Elements $20 normally
During the limited time release it will be 40% off!! The code that you need to enter is “damask”.

here they are along with their comments that I found in the comments after their number was selected.

You have 1 week to email us at support@purephotoshopactions to claim your prize. If we don’t hear from you, another winner will be chosen!!! Thank you so much to everyone for entering!!!

But it can take some doing. Even with our actions (which are awesome, we think) fixing really wonky white balance can be tedious at best.

So what can you do to free yourself from hours of drudgery in Photoshop?

Custom White Balance.

And to be specific, use an Expodisc.

Now we are not being paid or compensated in any way by Expodisc, but it is a product we use ourselves and love. So we wanted to pass this information along to all of those who follow us. But really, WHY would a company that sells actions tell you how to get away with using your actions less? Because we really believe that the cleaner of straight-out-of-camera image you start with, the more the actions can help you achieve your artistic dream, rather than just try and put band-aids on image boo-boos. And we are all about that. We really and truly want your images to be the best they can be in the quickest time possible.

But here is the thing. Read the instructions to the ExpoDisc when you get it. I’ll even give the summary here, just in case. The ExpoDisc is NOT a gray card. Instead is acts more like an incident light colorimeter. So rather than standing where you will be shooting from and taking a CWB shot towards your subject, you will stand BY your subject and point your camera with the ExpoDisc attached at your light source. And then use this as your Custom White Balance setting. It will neutralize the color casts of the light and give you clean, neutral color, which means you images will look like what you saw as you shot them. Skin tones won’t be a maddening process anymore. Now you can just add a little extra warmth or haze or color, a little contrast or pop and boom. Done. You can attend to artistically editing your images, rather than having to go image by image and get the tones normal. Doesn’t that sound fun? (And profitable, since you will not be spending so much time fixing issues.)

We wish EVERYONE could win the giveaway, but for those who don’t, HERE is the link to the ExpoDisc for those who want to purchase one. You dont need one for every lens you have. Just get a big one that will cover any lens and hold it over the lens, snap the shot and then put it away until the light changes. And that’s that!

Do you see that Image above? The top was taken with my white balance set to auto. The bottom was taken with a custom white balance set using my neutral expodisc.

Ok

So now what?

How do you enter this amazingness that we call a giveaway you ask?!!

We have a new nifty little entry form to enter our giveaway! We are NO longer doing comments as your entry form! (PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ON THE BLOG POST) Please use the form below! Each point that you get, equals one entry. You can do some of the entries more then once for more entries!
Do all of the following steps through the entry app below.

—-Make sure you are a fan of Pure Photoshop Actions first. Because we love you and want to have the chance to interact!

—-Then make sure you share the giveaway on any of your social media outlets. (leave the link to where you shared in the form below)

—-Want another entry? Then post this giveaway on your Pinterest account. We made it easy peasy with the pin it button right here. It will take 2 seconds to pin Then below in the form you will post the link to your Pinterest where you shared the giveaway.

This giveaway will end Saturday April, 7th, 2012! (Seriously can you believe it is already almost April???)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

All to often, we get caught up in how awful we are, because we compare our work to someone’s else. We are not taking into account how long that photographer has been practicing, the sweat, the tears, the gear, the experience or anything into account when we compare our work to theirs. We simply dismiss ourselves as good photographers, because we are not as good as someone else.

Remember, that we all start somewhere. With that said, never stop learning… and never stop trying! Look at the pictures you took today, and figure out what you can do to improve your craft next time. Look at where you were last year, to see just in fact how far you have come on your journey.

“The only photographer you should compare yourself to, is the one that you used to be”

If you want you can download these posters. I have one that is white, and one that is green (I mean that is our branding colors lol)

PLEASE…. all we ask is that you don’t claim this to be your own, and that you share this with other photographers. We can all use that boost and reminder!!!

Click HERE to download the green version

Pin It

Click HERE to download the white version

Pin It

Congrats! You have 1 week to email us at support@purephotoshopactions.com to claim your prize! Thank you to everyone who entered! Our next giveaway will be starting soon, and it will be an amazing one!!!! You won’t want to miss it!

Donna Wallace

Heather Schults

You are the 2 winners of the Canon 70-200mm lens CUPS!!

You have a week to claim your prize.

Please email us at support@purephotoshopactions.com with your address that you want your cup sent to!

Thank you to everyone who entered!!!

This promotion was in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. We hereby release Facebook of any liability. Winner(s) will be posted on our blog within 48 hours after the giveaway ends. If you have any additional questions – feel free to send us an email! Support@purephotoshopactions.com

I have a bulky luggage type of camera bag. While I LOVE it, and it is big enough for all of my gear, there are times that I won’t use all of that gear, and I don’t want to look like I am moving out of my house. I am sure that the neighbors think funny things, when once a week at least, they seem me walking out of my house, with a piece of luggage, throwing it in my car and driving off in a hurry.

There are times I just want to carry a cute bag. I mean, I may be a photographer, but I am also a woman!!! I want style people!!!

That my friends is where Jo Totes comes in! When I found their bags last year, I was IN LOVE! SERIOUSLY… it was love at first sight. I quickly bought a bag and have never regretted it for one second. Not only are their bags just down right amazingly gorgeous, but the price point for these bags is amazing! I thought for sure it was a typo!

They continue to come out with amazing new designs, and I just want to own every single one of them! But… my husband would freak!!! lol. So instead, I want to share that love with our fans!

So we are giving away one of these gorgeous little numbers!!!!

With her slim design, numerous pockets, and choice of either cross-body or shoulder strap, Betsy is the perfect bag for both photo shoots and day trips.

Details
Exterior material: soft, top quality faux leather in dark brown
Interior fabric: seafoam green cotton
Protective foam sewn into the lining of all four sides and the bottom of the bag
Three adjustable interior pads
Removable shoulder strap
Removable and adjustable cross-body strap
Removable shoulder pad
Main compartment closes with a zipper
Exterior: zippered front flap; large zippered back pocket (will fit an iPad); two front pockets with hidden magnetic closures
Size: 11″ high x 15.5″ wide x 4″ deep

BUT WAIT… THAT’S NOT ALL. I mean come on people, you need something to put IN the bag, right?!!!

If you enter now, we will include for no additional cost a nifty little lens to go INSIDE of this nifty little bag! Yep… you read that right. Enter now and you will be entered for a chance to win the camera bag WITH a lens!

(cheesy right hahaha. I know, that is how we role!)

What lens is that you may ask?

THE CANON 50MM 1.4.

This little lens, packs a big punch. It is an amazing lens! The perfect focal length for portraits and newborns. The 1.4 gives you that super sought after blurry buttery background. The 1.4 also allows you to shoot in lower light!

Details
Focal length: 50mm
Maximum aperture: f/1.4L
Lens construction: 7 elements in 6 groups
Angle of view: 46 degrees
Focus adjustment: Overall linear extension system with USM
Closest focusing distance: 1.5 feet
Filter size: 58mm
Dimensions: 2.9 inches in diameter and 2 inches long
Weight: 10.2 ounces

Ok

So now what?

How do you enter this amazingness that we call a giveaway you ask?!!

We have a new nifty little entry form to enter our giveaway! We are NO longer doing comments as your entry form! (PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ON THE BLOG POST) Please use the form below! Each point that you get, equals one entry. You can do some of the entries more then once for more entries!
Do all of the following steps through the entry app below.

—-Make sure you are a fan of Pure Photoshop Actions first. Because we love you and want to have the chance to interact!

—-Make sure you are a fan of Jo Totes! Because seriously, you will want to drool over their bags!

—-Then make sure you share the giveaway on any of your social media outlets. (leave the link to where you shared in the form below)

—-Want another entry? Then post this giveaway on your Pinterest account. We made it easy peasy with the pin it button right here. It will take 2 seconds to pin Then below in the form you will post the link to your Pinterest where you shared the giveaway.
Pin It

This giveaway will end Wednesday February 15th, 2012.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The gorgeous background and frame used in the picture above is from the amazing Sassy Designs. We love her stuff, check her out.

What better embodies those 3 categories then a Canon 70-200 lens CUP!!! Can you imagine walking into a coffee shop handing over this cup and having them look at you like you are mad!!! Or do what I did, and call your husbands name and throw it to him, and purposely miss, and then say “Oh my gosh I can’t believe you didn’t catch that”. The look on his face was priceless! The look is priceless when people see you drinking from it! It is a GREAT conversation piece!

We are giving away 2 of these nifty little buggers! I mean I know I can’t be the only photographer out there that think these are the coolest thing ever! lol

How do you enter?

We have a new nifty little entry form to enter our giveaway! We are NO longer doing comments as your entry form! (PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ON THE BLOG POST) Please use the form below! Each point that you get, equals one entry. You can do some of the entries more then once for more entries!

—-Make sure you are a fan of Pure Photoshop Actions first. Because we love you and want to have the chance to interact!

—-Then make sure you share the giveaway on your social media outlet. (leave the link to where you shared in the form below)

—-Want another entry? Then post this giveaway on your Pinterest account. We made it easy peasy with the pin it button right here. It will take 2 seconds to pin Then below in the form you will post the link to your Pinterest where you shared the giveaway.
Pin It

Contest ends February 2nd 2012!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The gorgeous background and frame used in the picture above is from the amazing Sassy Designs. We love her stuff, check her out.

Morgan

An email has been sent, and you have 1 week to claim your prize!

Thank you to everyone who entered… and keep and eye out for our next giveaway!!!

The answer to life, the universe and everything is 42.

Ok, now you know all that you need to about that. But, in answering emails in our inbox, we have noticed that there was a lot of interest in us, Crystal and Rachel. We’re a little perplexed by it, but we figured we’d write up a little blog post answering lots of emails about us and the ways we do things.

Who are we?

We’re Crystal and Rachel. We’re both photographers in Utah who specialize in weddings and portrait sessions. We shoot both natural light, as well as studio light and also off-camera flash. We just love light and we’re light-junkies, so we shoot any kind that we can.

What do we shoot with?

We both shoot Canon. Crystal started with a Nikon d70, but then moved over to a Canon XSi, and then moved to a 40D, and is currently shooting a 5D Mark II with a 60D backup. Rachel started with a Canon XT and used that baby for quite awhile, before deciding to move to a 5D Mark II. She currently shoots 2 5D Mark IIs.

Update for Jan 2013:  We now both shoot 5D Mark IIIs.  They are our main cameras and back-up.

Crystal would call herself a prime girl. She LOVES her 50 1.2 L lens, it is almost always on her camera. The bokeh and speed of focus on that lens is insane. Her second favorite is probably her 135 2.0 L. The sharpness and bokeh on that lens is divine.

Update:  Crystal’s 135 2.0 is her new favorite.

Rachel likes the dramatic ends of the spectrum. Her favorite lens is her 70-200 2.8 L is ii. She even uses this lens at family sessions at 200 mm. She loves the fact she can use that combo to get great bokeh, but still get a family of 8 in tack sharp focus. Her second favorite lens is probably the 16-35 2.8 L, because she loves the look of 16 mm on a full-frame camera. Lots of storytelling drama!

Update:  Rachel STILL loves the 70-200 2.8 L ii, but now uses her 85 1.2 more.

In our combined bags we have 2 of each of the following lenses: 24-70 2.8 L, 70-200 2.8 L is ii, 50 1.2 L, 85 1.2 L, 16-35 2.8 L, 135 2.0 L, 100 mm L macro, and then we have a lonely 24 mm 3.5 L tilt-shift lens. We have 3 5d Mark iis between us and 4 flashes. (2 580 ex ii and 2 430 ex iis) We also have 3 video lights that we use too. We have Radio Poppers for our flashes. We also keep Pez dispensers for kids (and adults who need candy therapy) in our bags too. We have collapsable Gary Fongs, and Mennon White Balance lens caps, as well as Lastolite EZ Balance card. As you can see, we really believe in setting custom white balances.

Update:  The 5D Mark IIIs are not great with custom WB.  We’re hoping and praying for a firmware update that fixes this situation.  So for now we shoot Kelvin mostly.

How do we like working as a partnership?

We LOVE it. We feel like it keeps us fresh and sharp in our skills, as we each help the other constantly to learn and grow. We are able to dissect the session afterwards and figure out what really worked for us and why and what we felt did not work and how to avoid that situation again in the future. Another great benefit is when something goes pear-shaped, we are able to quickly brainstorm our way through solutions and keep each other calm. We have personalities that are similar enough to get along really well, but different enough that we each have strengths that help the other. Crystal is crazy creative and sees a very broad picture and keeps us innovative and interesting. Rachel is detail-oriented and likes to know the technicals and dot the Is and cross the Ts. When we work together, we feel that it helps us be dynamic and different, both in our Pure Photography and Design and in with Pure Photoshop Actions. And one of the best parts is that we are both easy-going enough that we just don’t fight. Even when the stress level is high, we still coast along happily. (I think the fact we’ve been a partnership for almost 3 years and have not fought it pretty cool. Better track record than even with our husbands! ) So, short? Partnership? Two-thumbs up!

Who do we like to use for X, Y, and Z?

Some of our favorite vendors:

Prints? Color Inc., Millers, and Bay Photo.

Update:  We also like MpixPro.

Albums? Graphi Studios, KISS Wedding Books, and Bay Photo.

Canvases? Pro DPI, Canvas on Demand Pro, and Pixel2Canvas.

Business cards? Moo

What lighting do we use?

We love natural light, for sure. But we also love to bend and tweak and enhance where we can and when it looks right. So we have 4 speedlights (2 580 ex ii and 2 430 exii) and we use Radio Poppers for them. We like to gel them when we shoot outdoors to give a nice, subtle hairlight that we can control. Indoors we use Alien Bees (we have an 800 and a 400, currently.) We have A Paul C. Buff 60×30 softbox and a Wescott 50×50 umbrella-mount softbox. If we use the Alien Bees outdoors (and it is becoming rarer, since we started using Radio Poppers), then we bring our beauty dish and a Vagabond II power pack. But that is a pretty heavy set up, so we tend to just use the speedlights. When we first started with wireless OCF, we used Cactus triggers by Gadget Infinity. They are a great way to economically start out with wireless triggers and off-camera light.

Update:  We’re back to loving on our Cactus triggers.  They might be cheap, but dang they just always work.  No fuss, no mess.

What software do we use to edit our photos?

We both use Adobe Photoshop CS5. We’ve used lots of different versions through the years (and have most of them–and Elements versions–loaded onto our computers to test each action set in.) We love the flexibility and power that the full version of Photoshop has. We realize there is a steep pricetag at the outset, but the upgrade cost is really pretty reasonable. Rachel started with Elements (Elements 5, when it first came out, back in the day), and moved up .

Update:  We use CS6 now.

Are we Mac or PC?

We both started out as PC, but have both recently migrated to Mac. We are not anti-PC at all. Running a pretty fast PC never tripped us up too much, but we love our Macs. We won’t get into a discussion of which is best or not, because they both have their uses. But we felt that since we worked with customers who used both platforms, we needed to be familiar and proficient in each.

What do we recommend for shooting weddings?

We get this question a lot. We know it is not feasible to rush out and drop $10K on gear. So at the very least we would say that having the 24-70 and 70-200 (or lenses that cover that range) lenses would be critical. This way you can cover the wedding without being too far back or too close up to “get the shot.” We also recommend at least 1 flash and the knowledge of how to use it, because wedding lighting can need supplementation. And finally, we feel strongly that you have a back-up camera, because you can’t leave in the middle if your camera has a fault. We also recommend shooting on a lot of smaller cards (we like 4 GB) as opposed to one really large card, since if the card goes corrupt in-camera, you only lose a small portion of the images, rather than the whole wedding.

These are just some of the questions we are routinely asked. As we think of more, we will come up with more blog posts to help people understand how and why we do what we do. We don’t claim to be the experts or have THE answer, but rather, we just find that this way works for us and for our personalities!

Be sure to enter our current ongoing giveaway of a Wacom tablet and watch for our giveaway next month of an iMac!!!

That is where the Wacom Bamboo Tablet comes in. Once you get past the learning curve, you will find that you are editing much faster, and more precise then before. I don’t know how I ever edited with a mouse!

So this weeks giveaway is a Wacom Bamboo Create Tablet!
Pen input
1,024 pressure levels
Multi-Touch input
Four programmable ExpressKeys
Wireless compatible
2x working space

It is an amazing tool to have at your disposal!

How do you enter?

We have a new nifty little entry form to enter our giveaway! We are NO longer doing comments as your entry form! (PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT ON THE BLOG POST) Please use the form below! Each point that you get, equals one entry. You can do some of the entries more then once for more entries!

—-Make sure you are a fan of Pure Photoshop Actions first. Because we love you and want to have the chance to interact!

—-Then make sure you share the giveaway on your social media outlet. (leave the link to where you shared in the form below)

—-Want another entry? Then post this giveaway on your Pinterest account. We made it easy peasy with the pin it button right here. It will take 2 seconds to pin Then below in the form you will post the link to your Pinterest where you shared the giveaway.
Pin It

This giveaway will end Sunday January 15th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The gorgeous background and frame used in the picture above is from the amazing Sassy Designs. We love her stuff, check her out.

Shoot us an email at support@purephotoshopactions.com from the email that you provided us during the giveaway….. and we will get you all set up with your New Canon T2i.

As with all giveaways, you have a week from today to claim your prize!

Thank you to everyone who entered. We got a much larger response then we expected, and are looking at the next camera that we can give away!!!! Thank you for your understanding and patience as we figure out how to best work our giveaways!

We’re also tabulating the winner for the giveaway of the camera too. (We are expecting a winner tomorrow! It is just taking a bit to get everyone into Excel.) But while we were having a fun night, we figured we’d do a quick giveaway for Photoshop Elements 10 and a set of actions of the winner’s choosing, just so everyone can share in the fun. (Hey, when you’re with friends, even waiting for paint to dry is fun!)

How do you enter?

You know the drill!

—-Make sure you are a fan of Pure Photoshop Actions first. Because we love you and want to have the chance to interact!

—-Then post here that you entered and that you shared this giveaway with whatever social network you use. (leave the link to where you shared)

—-Make SURE that you leave us a way to contact you, because nothing pains us more than drawing a winner and then having to redraw because we have no way to contact the first winner. Don’t let this happen to you.

—-Want another entry? Then post this giveaway on your Pinterest account.

—-Post a second entry with your info again once you enter on Pinterest, if you choose to do so. We made it easy peasy with the pin it button right here. It will take 2 seconds to pin
Pin It

This giveaway will end Tues. Jan. 10th.

The gorgeous background and frame used in the picture above is from the amazing Sassy Designs. We love her stuff, check her out.

As always, this giveaway is in no way sponsored or endorsed by Facebook or Adobe.

I think it is important to ALWAYS remember where you started!

I also think its important to never think that you have “arrived”.

The image on the left was the very first wedding I (Crystal) shot. The image on the right, was from a wedding we shot last month.

There were so many times that I wanted to quit photography, and I even did for about 6 months. I just felt like maybe I wasn’t meant to be a photographer, but during that 6 months, I felt like something was missing. so back to photography I went.

Now, 3 1/2 years later since I got back into photography and only 2 1/2 years later since Rachel and I started shooting together , when I think I haven’t made progress, and I get down on myself because of all of the amazing photographers out there, I look at this side by side image, and remind myself that while I may have a long ways to go, I have come so far!

The point that I am trying to get at… is that it does not happen overnight.

Questioning yourself is completely normal, but DO NOT EVER EVER give up!! You are an amazing photographer, and in 3 1/2 years, you will be an even more amazing photographer!

Photography takes lots of hard work, and lots and lots of practice. You never stop learning, and growing, and you have to constantly challenge yourself. But please, for the love of everything, have faith in yourself!!! Even when others tear you down (and believe me I got tore down tons for that image and told I should not be a photographer), I knew that when I had the camera in my hands, something in me felt complete.

I practiced and practiced and had to remind myself that if I was going to get any good, it would take time! I still have tons to learn, and I am constantly learning something new everyday, and pushing the boundaries of what I think is possible for me to do.
YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!!!! HAVE FAITH IN YOURSELF!!!!!!

We’ve been having such fun with these last few giveaways that we thought we would up the ante a little.

The New Year is here and we know a lot of people set goals for what they want to learn, do, accomplish and become as 2012 moves forward. Learning new skills and honing the ones we already possess are top goals for many people and photography is often right up there with skills to learn and improve. And you know us. We’re people-pleasers. We love to help.

So, we want to give away a camera.

Yeah, that’s right. We would like to help you up your photography game with a Canon T2i DSLR camera. Why are we giving away Canon? Because we shoot Canon and love Canon to pieces and this is a sweet little camera. Amazing still images at 18 MP, HD video, impressive noise handling and a lot of bells and whistles. This camera will be a boon to someone looking to learn or improve in their photography. The winner will get a Canon T2i camera body and the 18-55 3.5-5.6 is lens. Not too shabby!

How do you enter?

You know the drill!

—-Make sure you are a fan of Pure Photoshop Actions first. Because we love you and want to have the chance to interact!

—-Then post here that you entered and that you shared this giveaway with whatever social network you use. (leave the link to where you shared)

—-Make SURE that you leave us a way to contact you, because nothing pains us more than drawing a winner and then having to redraw because we have no way to contact the first winner. Don’t let this happen to you.

—-Want another entry? Then post this giveaway on your Pinterest account.

—-Post a second entry with your info again once you enter on Pinterest, if you choose to do so. We made it easy peasy with the pin it button right here. It will take 2 seconds to pin
Pin It

This giveaway will end Saturday, January 8th.

The gorgeous background and frame used in the picture above is from the amazing Sassy Designs. We love her stuff, check her out.

As always, this giveaway is in no way sponsored or endorsed by Facebook or Canon.

We’ve been having such fun with these last few giveaways that we thought we would up the ante a little.

The New Year is here and we know a lot of people set goals for what they want to learn, do, accomplish and become as 2012 moves forward. Learning new skills and honing the ones we already possess are top goals for many people and photography is often right up there with skills to learn and improve. And you know us. We’re people-pleasers. We love to help.

So, we want to give away a camera.

Yeah, that’s right. We would like to help you up your photography game with a Canon T2i DSLR camera. Why are we giving away Canon? Because we shoot Canon and love Canon to pieces and this is a sweet little camera. Amazing still images at 18 MP, HD video, impressive noise handling and a lot of bells and whistles. This camera will be a boon to someone looking to learn or improve in their photography. The winner will get a Canon T2i camera body and the 18-55 3.5-5.6 is lens. Not too shabby!

How do you enter?

You know the drill!

—-Make sure you are a fan of Pure Photoshop Actions first. Because we love you and want to have the chance to interact!

—-Then post here that you entered and that you shared this giveaway with whatever social network you use. (leave the link to where you shared)

—-Make SURE that you leave us a way to contact you, because nothing pains us more than drawing a winner and then having to redraw because we have no way to contact the first winner. Don’t let this happen to you.

—-Want another entry? Then post this giveaway on your Pinterest account.

—-Post a second entry with your info again once you enter on Pinterest, if you choose to do so. We made it easy peasy with the pin it button right here. It will take 2 seconds to pin
Pin It

This giveaway will end Saturday, January 8th.

The gorgeous background and frame used in the picture above is from the amazing Sassy Designs. We love her stuff, check her out.

As always, this giveaway is in no way sponsored or endorsed by Facebook or Canon.

The New Year is here and we know a lot of people set goals for what they want to learn, do, accomplish and become as 2012 moves forward. Learning new skills and honing the ones we already possess are top goals for many people and photography is often right up there with skills to learn and improve. And you know us. We’re people-pleasers. We love to help.

So, we want to give away a camera.

Yeah, that’s right. We would like to help you up your photography game with a Canon T2i DSLR camera. Why are we giving away Canon? Because we shoot Canon and love Canon to pieces and this is a sweet little camera. Amazing still images at 18 MP, HD video, impressive noise handling and a lot of bells and whistles. This camera will be a boon to someone looking to learn or improve in their photography. The winner will get a Canon T2i camera body and the 18-55 3.5-5.6 is lens. Not too shabby!

How do you enter?

You know the drill!

—-Make sure you are a fan of Pure Photoshop Actions first. Because we love you and want to have the chance to interact!

—-Then post here that you entered and that you shared this giveaway with whatever social network you use. (leave the link to where you shared)

—-Make SURE that you leave us a way to contact you, because nothing pains us more than drawing a winner and then having to redraw because we have no way to contact the first winner. Don’t let this happen to you.

—-Want another entry? Then post this giveaway on your Pinterest account.

—-Post a second entry with your info again once you enter on Pinterest, if you choose to do so. We made it easy peasy with the pin it button right here. It will take 2 seconds to pin
Pin It

This giveaway will end Saturday, January 8th.

The gorgeous background and frame used in the picture above is from the amazing Sassy Designs. We love her stuff, check her out.

As always, this giveaway is in no way sponsored or endorsed by Facebook or Canon.

Yay Gregory!

And if you did not win this giveaway, please don’t let it stop you from calibrating your monitor. It is one of the best things you can do for your business. Even if you are not in business and just print your family photos, but you edit them at all, monitor calibration will make life so much easier and better.

I really want to write this blog post in the spirit of being helpful, but I think there is a fine line I will be treading as I go along. I don’t want it to be overwhelming either.

But I think sometimes the path to a business that is set up legally is just not clear. I want to point out important points of starting a business. I don’t claim that it is the exhaustive list of everything, but it is a good place to start and some food for thought.

Why is it important to set things up legally and safely? I mean, wouldn’t it just be more profitable to take a little money under the table, shoot without insurance and no business license? As you are starting, it might really seem so. But, the biggest problem is with just ONE big issue (someone getting hurt, a lawsuit, getting audited, a problematic client, etc.) your family income could be in serious jeopardy. I know that sounds scary. But it doesn’t have to be.

As you start your business, you need to take care to cover your legal bases.

1) You Need a Business License. Check with your city/county/state and see what the requirements are. Usually there is a fee, but it is usually pretty nominal. This allows you to legally operate a business. You’d hate to get slapped with a fee for operating without a license. And sadly, I’ve heard of competitors turning in each other to their city for operating without a license. It can get nasty out there. Also, if you are intending to have clients come to your home for a shoot, make sure that your city allows for that. Some have zoning that is prohibitive of that. Also, if you have HOAs or condo associations, make sure this plan is in compliance with those.

2) You Need Insurance. Sometimes when I mention insurance to prospective pros, there is a moment of shock. They cannot imagine why they need insurance. 1) Covering your gear. As you get more and more gear, the less likely you would be to be able to cover it if it was stolen, damaged, etc. Your home owners’ insurance may very well stop covering your gear once you start using it to make money too. So be aware. 2) Covering you in the instance of legal troubles. If a client is hurt on a shoot, you may be found liable. If you damage a precious Ming vase at a wedding, you could be responsible. In those instances, liability insurance will cover you. You are also covered in the event that you are unable to fulfill your end of the contract. (Say your card goes corrupt at a wedding and you cannot deliver the images and you are sued.) If you never use insurance, you are lucky, but in the chance you need it, it will be a life-saver.

3) You Need Contracts If you are going into business, cover yourself legally. Weddings, sessions, model releases, all of these help you spell out your responsibilities to your client and your client’s responsibility to you. When will you be paid? When will images be delivered? How long do you have to edit? What happens if something goes wrong? How close to the wedding can they cancel? If they cancel, can you keep their retainer? How is this handled? Your contracts will spell this out and prevent arguing and confusion. PPA is a great source for all of your legal documents. Which leads to…

4) Consider Joining Professional Associations PPA, WPPI, and many other associations will provide education, legal help, networking, tips, and other important perks for their members. Consider joining.

5) You Need Back Up Gear Once you start a business, you need to determine what your obligation to your client is. If you are shooting their wedding “My camera just stopped working” is not an acceptable excuse. It is your responsibility to have those bases covered. A back up camera body, flash, lenses, and plenty of memory cards is the minimum of back up that you need. Most people who have shot a wedding will let you know that anything can and usually does happen. Making sure that you are covered legally (and that your client’s big event is not left to chance) is very important. Even if you are shooting sessions and not weddings, it looks much more professional to be backed up, rather than having to say, “Um, gosh, we’re going to have to reschedule because my camera’s broken.”

6) You Need Adequate Image Back-Up–If your data does not exist in two places, it doesn’t exist. It’s a popular saying, but it’s true. If you are just downloading to your computer, you will eventually lose those files. It is just a question of when. Data does not last forever. Make sure that you are backing up to external hard drives and ideally off-site in the event of a natural disaster that destroys your home/office. SmugMug Pro allows you to upload all of your images and it is a very economical option. But Mosy, etc. are great options.

7) You Need to Pay Taxes In your first year or so, you might not make enough to actually be assessed taxes. But it is important to file your taxes, keep track of receipts, mileage, and other business expenses. Staying current on taxes will prevent fines, audits, and other unpleasant issues. Also look at if you have to charge sales tax. Some states only collect on goods (i.e. prints, canvases, albums), while some collect on services (i.e. session fees) as well. Be sure to know which your state assesses taxes on, because ignorance of the tax laws is not considered an excuse and no one wants to end up with a surprise tax bill that is larger than they anticipated. Also, be aware that counties and cities might assess taxes, often on your assets. (Camera, lenses, studio, etc.)

Whew.

I know that is a lot to think about, but when you are thinking about going into business, these are critical. You might think, “Oh, I don’t plan to charge much, so surely people won’t sue me or expect much of me.” The reality is, as soon as people hand over money, they feel like they have hired you and they have expectations of you. Money changes things. No one thinks they will get into trouble or be sued. If you have these protections in place, it can keep your dream from becoming a nightmare and keep photography fun and exciting.

I hope this post helps even one person who is planning on pursuing the thrilling business of photography!

What?

You have never resolved to make sure that your color is completely accurate? Oh well, you really need to.

And we’re here to make that resolution one that will actually be kept! Wahoo!

Color Management is something that a lot of people don’t even realize is an issue until they have a problem, but we are here to alert you to the issue BEFORE you have a mishap. Most computer monitors arrive from the factory in a rather imperfect color state. Most PC monitors are BLUE. They make every image look cool and dark or overly bright and icky. The contrast is often off too.

This image for example. Same exact image. However I would assume if I was on my non calibrated monitor, that my image was over exposed and needed a lot of warming. However if I darkened the image and warmed it up, the actual image would end up being entirely too dark and warm. Since the image on the left, is properly exposed and warm enough. 2 completely different edits!

Mac computers are a little closer. They have their factory default monitor setting. Which is still off. Then they have a setting called Mac Calibrated which you can choose in your settings, which is closer, but not spot on. And this is all when the monitor is NEW! As monitors age, their colors and contrast can shift and change, adding even more confusion to the mix.

What does that mean to a photographer? Well, nothing–if you never edit an image. (Or arguably, never even look at images online.) But if you are planning to edit images and learn from other photographers about how to get color, contrast, and exposure right, then it is critical. And if you plan to make a business of photography, then I would argue that it is actually your obligation to be calibrated correctly. After all, no one wants a blind-folded surgeon. Why would someone want a photographer that has no idea what their final product ACTUALLY looks like?

If you computer screen is making all of your images really cool and blue, then you might reasonably think the images needed a great deal of color help and warm the images until they looked correct on the uncalibrated screen. The problem is the images in reality might not have been so blue, so all of the warming you added might now make these images print really really orange/yellow, which is just as bad as super cyan/blue. So, this is where calibration software comes comes in SO handy.

So, we will be giving away one copy of i1 Display 2 software with the amazing calibration device to a lucky person.

(If you happen to be running Mac OSX Lion, let us know, and we can hook you up with the correct software. Other Mac OSX are fine.) This fabulous software is something you can run every few weeks to get your computer to the right color, and it only takes a few minutes. You hang the device on your monitor and it measures the light and color output and contrast from your screen and matches them to standards and then sets your monitor properly. (When you see your correctly adjusted screen, it will be shock the first time. Believe me.) Most pro labs and pro album makers like Color Inc., Miller’s, Graphi Studios, Bay Photo, Pro DPI, etc. use the same calibration standards and so the images you send them will look exactly the same as your screen when they are delivered to your doorstep. This is also a great argument for using a pro lab and not somewhere like Walmart or Walgreens, etc., where your images might not come out right even IF you are calibrated.

So, how do you win this amazing, labor-saving, face-saving device? Simple!

—–First, make sure that you are a fan of Pure Photoshop Actions. Because, hey, we want to get to know you!

—–Then share this giveaway with your social media friends (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc.)! That’s an entry.

—–If you want a SECOND entry, then pin this giveaway on Pinterest. (Sorry, Pinterest is like crack to us, so we want to be on there so much we will give you a second chance to win just for helping us feel all warm and fuzzy and Pinterestingly awesome. We figure it’s cheaper than therapy, right?) And make sure that you post what you’ve done below. (If you pin on Pinterest, make a second post.)

In your post, please give us a way to contact you. Nothing makes us sadder than when “Joe” is randomly selected and we have no way to find “Joe” and we need to pick someone that we can actually contact. So make sure you help us with that.

This giveaway will go until January 1st. And please note that this giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook.

Please email us at support@purephotoshopactions.com to claim your prize.

Thank you to everyone for entering! you are all amazing! We are getting ready to start our next giveaway so stay tuned!!!

As with all giveaways, you have a week from today to claim your prize!

We really do.

We really REALLY do.

We are so excited that our new Purely Studio set is almost done. (We are going to launch it in just a few hours! We are just getting our cart and website ready.) But, in the meantime, to tide you all over, we want to share some cheer, since it IS Christmas and Chanukah! One of the biggest questions we get on the page, aside from action/Photoshop questions would be questions on lighting. One of the biggest keys to our studio lighting and even some of our outdoor lighting is getting our flash off camera. So we wanted to help someone get started with getting their flash off of their camera.

So, we will be giving away a Canon 430 EXii flash and a set of Cactus triggers v2. This is how we started with seeing light off of our camera. If you shoot Nikon or another brand, you can still use the 430 exii off camera with the triggers. Learning to envision the way light will fall, based on where the light source is placed is so critical to growing in photography. And it leads to super cool pictures too.

This is a fabulous flash that can help you learn everything from fill flash, to bounced flash, to off-camera light.

Look at the easy drama you can create with simply moving the flash off of the camera. This image was created by simply moving the flash BEHIND the subjects. Easy as that.

And these little triggers are the key to easily getting your light off of your camera. Wireless radio triggers. We started with these Cactus v.2 triggers by Gadget Infinity. They helped us know if we liked lighting off-camera (we did) and they helped us really understand our flashes before we moved on to different triggers. (We currently use Radio Poppers, however we used these for almost 2 years.) We love them so.

HERE IS EXACTLY WHAT WE ARE GIVING AWAY