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Photoshop Tutorials- Leveling the Horizon Tutorial – Ashley McNamara – Danville Photographer

It is tutorial time WHOHOO!

 Today I am going to teach a simple yet awesome technique to level a horizon. I am a camera tilter, always have been and always will be. The problem is that there is a time to tilt and a time to NOT tilt and the beach is a not to tilt sort of time. I like a nice level horizon so this is for all of you camera tilters out there.

Step 1: Open Image

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Step 2: Select the Ruler Tool. It is 20 tools down and you might have to right click to see it.

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Step 3: Once you have selected the ruler tool, draw a line across the horizon. This works on anything if you have a dresser, chair, wall. Whatever you want to straighten.

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Step 4: Once you have drawn your line select Image, Rotate Canvas, and Arbitrary. 

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Step 5: This is where the magic happens. The ruler tool calculated how much to rotate the image to make it straight. Once you click arbitrary the math is done for you so you can just click ok.

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Step 6: Now your image is straight but what about the extra canvas??

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Step 7:  You can do a couple of things to take care of the extra canvas caused from straightening your image. You can clone the white spots out or you can crop most of it out which is what I do.

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Step 8: Clone or patch any white areas that the crop tool didn’t take care of.

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Now you are all done. Super easy right?

Before:

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After:

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Family Photographer – Wynne Family – Ashley McNamara – Bay Area Photographer

It is official, In the last two weeks we have moved from San Diego to the Bay area. It was a long drive and I am still SWIMMING in boxes but things are falling into place. It has also been a really long time since I have lived in the bay and it was easy to get used to the sun in San Diego… buuuurrrr it’s cold here!

Before I left San Diego I took on a few last minute sessions with my good friend, Marie, who was dying to shoot on the beach. We went to my favorite spot with some of my favorite clients. I cannot wait to get back to San Diego for more sessions.

I feel like it has been forever since I have blogged!

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Newborn Photography on the Today Show – Ashley McNamara – Bay Area Photographer

I am sure you have seen the buzz around the Internet about the awesome segment on the Today Show about newborn photography. I was so excited to see something I am so passionate in take center stage, I appreciated all of the emails from clients asking me if I had seen it and telling me that the segment reminded them of me. I am super flattered. I am excited for the photographer profiled and this amazing publicity she received but I am also super excited to see child photographers in the limelight. If you have some time check it out.

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Family Photographer – Maddie – Ashley McNamara – Bay Area Photographer

This is Maddie and she is a MOVER, all Maddie wanted was “wa wa” that is water in big people speak.

After making funny voices, bopping myself on the head, and blowing bubbles didn’t work I decided that it was time to put on the fisheye and let Maddie enjoy some time in the water and I am glad I did because that is when Maddie loosened up, plus I ADORE fisheye pictures.

Ann, I know you’re excited!!! I hope you love them!

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This is right before she took a tumble into the water…

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Baby Photographer – Padraic – Ashley McNamara – Bay Area Photographer

You might recognize this little face from a few months back. Padraic is now 9 months old and is getting cuter by the second. I just love this age because they are so expressive but they are not moving around so basically that makes them PERFECT! 

Keep an eye out for Padraic in a couple of months! Awesome watching you grow, little guy.

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Photoshop Tutorials- Newborn Skin Tutorial – Ashley McNamara – Danville Photographer

This is supposed to be August’s tutorial but I was running a little late..

I posted on facebook asking what my next tutorial should be and I got an overwhelming response to cover newborns, topics I was asked to cover were how to get rid of baby acne and how neutralize yellow or red skin tones… which brings me to the reason my tutorial is late. I don’t have many issues with acne or skin tones I was having a lot of trouble finding a photograph to use for the tutorial and this got me thinking, “why don’t I have these issues?”

 #1 Exposure is VERY important. If you are not exposing correctly the skin imperfections/tone will be magnified.

 #2 I typically shoot within the first 5 days and babies start to get acne around day 10.

This little guy is a good friends baby, who is 10 days old. Which provided the perfect picture for the tutorial. I know most of you were hoping for some big secret but there isn’t one. The key is exposure and getting in there early if you do those two things then you should not have any issues but if you do here are a couple of things you can do to fix it. If you are a seasoned professional this video probably isn’t for you but feel free to take a peek just to hear how silly I sound!  You have no idea how much I dislike hearing myself on video!

 

If you have comments or questions feel free to leave them in the comment box. I appreciate it and hope this is helpful for all of you that are just starting out.

Baby Photographer – Little Ren – Ashley McNamara – Bay Area Photographer

I have said it time and time again but I am going to say it again.. THIS is why I love shooting on location.

The Porter house was awesome! Super retro, I just love capturing everyone’s unique style.  The best thing is that they were up for all of my silly ideas as long as it was “not posey” which I think is great because lifestyle is my favorite way to shoot. The focus of this shoot was little Ren who is 8 weeks old and he is quite possibly the cutest 8 week old I have ever seen.

Jennifer and Brian enjoy your sneak peek!

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Event Photographer – Ava’s Bash – Ashley McNamara – Danville Photographer

Ava is officially ONE!  This year went by so quick… it seems like just yesterday I was taking Ava’s newborn photos!

Sunday was the big bash and I was sooo excited because Orousha always has the best parties with help from Sam her fabulous coordinator. I always wonder how Orousha will top the last party but she always comes through. I am secretly hoping her next baby is a boy just to see what she does at his first birthday.

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San Francisco – Bay Area Photographer – We are excited to announce…

We are expanding!

Starting October 1, Ashley McNamara Photography will be serving the San Francisco Bay area. What does this mean, exactly? Well, our home base will be in Danville/San Ramon, and we will be traveling to San Diego for sessions once each quarter. So no need to worry, we are still going to be working with our AMAZING clients here in San Diego, but we will be adding some new cool peeps in San Francisco!

In anticipation of the big change, we are offering a super special promotion to our loyal San Diego friends. A complete session and set of images on CD for ONLY $600!! That is half-price, folks, so you don’t want to miss it. We have only a handful of dates available, between Sept 1-15, so call now to reserve your spot.

If you have had a session with Ashley in the past 24 months, and would like to purchase your digital negatives on CD before the move, please contact us at 650.533.9961. For a limited time, past session CD negatives are only $450.

growth is good for the soul,  we are embracing the changes, and looking forward to the new opportunities coming our way! We hope you will join us!!

Because no post is complete without a picture, here is one big kiss.

 

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Child Photographer – Zavi and Jakai – Ashley McNamara – San Diego Photographer

It has been a long and busy couple of months and I have been not so patiently waiting to process pictures from my trip to Raleigh, NC 

I was there for my good friend Marie Cox  who was going into surgery to have a hysterectomy.. CANCER SUCKS!  I wanted to be  there to help out, entertain the kids, and eat boberry biscuits ummmmmmm biscuits.. Did I just type that? 

While I was there I took some pictures of Marie’s awesome albeit big headed children minus the oldest Tayvonne who wouldn’t dare be photographed, I’ll get you next time Tay.. I was there for 5 days [I think] and I took 1600 pictures 90% of them were of Zavia that girl is my muse.. I love her. 

Here are some pictures from my trip and this is what  3000 in a plane looks like..

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Jakai, I miss your cute and cuddly self.

Within the first 5 seconds I was in the door Jakai was hanging on my leg and every morning he would sit in my lap and play with my hair.

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Zavia, I miss your sweet dance moves.

Zavia is a self proclaimed diva. While Jakai was fixing my hair, Zavia was listening to music on my laptop or begging me to take video of her dancing… err… I mean make music videos.

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Raleigh was a good time.. I did a couple of shoots while I was there  one with the awesome Heather Love and had some super BBQ at The Pit [check it out] with my friend Gretchen Mathison, thanks everyone for showing me an awesome time and thanks Marie for letting me crash your house.

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