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Bay Area Photographer – Ashley McNamara

Poor neglected blog, Living in the bay is a little weird. There is a ton of rain here!  I have been spoiled by the constant sunshine in San Diego and have only had to rescheduled one shoot due to rain in the four years I lived there. Since moving here I have had to reschedule four! It’s a learning process.

On that note, I have been getting a lot of inquiries where the first question is always, “where are you located?” I want to take a moment to clear up some confusion. I am located in the Bay Area, However, I also service San Diego. I know it is a little confusing but I spend most of my time in the Bay and I fly to San Diego every 3 months for shoots.

To get things rolling in the bay area I am offering a special (check out the flyer below).  This is for bay area clients only. To book your  session email ashley@ashleymcnamara.com

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Our fabulous new mini accordion albums. Aren’t they adorable!?

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Last but not least, as promised, there will be another giveaway next week from Yubo Lunch boxes. Topher has been using his lunchbox for the last 2 weeks and I am not kidding when I say they are freaking awesome!

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Photoshop Tutorials – How to get rid of tint – Ashley McNamara – San Francisco Photographer

Photoshop tutorial time!

I was processing photos from my last session and I was having a tint issue. This is an issue I see a lot.. especially with white shirts. Sometimes it’s a blue tint, sometimes it’s a yellow tint, and sometimes it’s red.. whatever the case.. it isn’t cute so I thought I would make a tutorial on how to fix it.  I hope I didn’t go to fast.

Like always, if you have any questions or just want to show some love leave a comment in the comment box below and I will answer you the best I can.

For more tutorials go to the categories tab at the top of the blog and click on “photoshop tutorials”

Child Photographer – Erika – Ashley McNamara – Danville – Photographer

Whew.. I have completed my first Bay Area shoot and boy am I relieved. As I was driving to Danville the sky was cloudy and off in the distance were some really ugly storm clouds and I thought for sure that this shoot was going to be a bust but there was no way I was letting a little rain ruin this shoot for me… I was going to have some fun in spite of it!

As it turns out this Bay Area fogginess makes for the most perfect soft light. Here I was.. worried sick about change, I didn’t have my sunny San Diego sky, I didn’t have my normal locations, and I didn’t have the pier!  Here I was worried about the quality of light and all of this time spent worrying, I missed out on some pretty awesome stuff. I shot in one square blog about 3 mins from my house.. In San Diego it would have been at least 25mins of driving to get all of these cool textures. They say change is good, I think they’re right.

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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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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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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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Baby Photographer – Ashley McNamara – San Diego Photographer

When Qi emiled me to book a session for her 3 month old to celebrate her first 100 days I was super excited! I don’t know what was in the water last year but there are nothing but boys being born around here lately and it was really fun to have a change of pace.  Not only is this little miss adorable but she  is a chunker and there is nothing cuter than a baby roll.

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San Diego Wedding Photographer – Shastina and Tony – Ashley McNamara San Diego Photographer

I love weddings.. It’s hard and my feet still hurt but I love it.

This is a wedding I shot with my fabulous friend Desiree Hayes. I always love shooting with Desiree because I know we are going to have a blast and I also know that when I am shooting with Desiree the couples are going to be fun.

Shastina and Tony tied he knot July 11, 2009 at  the Elfin Forest Estates in San Ellijo Hills and it was BEA-utiful!  Beautiful views and awesome details.

Studio 158 in Escondido did an awesome job on everyone’s hair..

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Flowers done by Anna Keck (One Perfect Day) oneperfectday.sd@gmail.com

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Shastina and Tony love music and they used their love for music as a theme for their wedding.. it was super cool! Here are a few of the details.

[note the records under the plates.. genius]

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The reception was also at the Elfin Forest Estates and there was a casino set up inside.  The groom suggested taking a picture of the wedding party at the poker table.. LOVE the result!

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PPA Fresh Blog Contest – Ashley McNamara – San Diego Photographer

Voting began today and I am all fired up!! Take a minute to place your vote!! There is some scrolling involved but remember… You love me that much, right?  ;)

I am some where around page 5 but it keeps moving.. or you can just type in entry 0093 at the top :)

http://www.ppmag.com/fresh-blog-09/

 

 

Carlie – Ashley McNamara – San Diego Child Photographer

It isn’t often enough that I photograph kids older than two so this was a cool change of pace. Enjoy your sneak peek, Carlie!

 

I couldn’t decide which one to post so I will just post them both. 

 

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