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Hi there! Welcome to the Millie Holloman Photography blog. Our company has just one name, but we’re an entire team of crazy, creative, passionate, professional photographers. We’re based all over North Carolina (Wilmington, Raleigh, & Charlotte), but we work all over the world. What do we shoot? In one word: Love. Wedding Love. Baby Love. Family Love. Love of details. Love of design. Love of nature. And this blog? Well, it showcases the images, the people, and the stuff we want to share, both professionally and personally. So what are you waiting for? Come on in and look around.
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There is never really a great time to have something go wrong but there can be a worse day for something to happen! Today was definitely not a GOOD Monday, it sucked. Ever had one of those days where nothing quite went your way? Well that was my day today... The office phones died this morning which meant that no one could call in but we could call out. So if you tried calling the office today, no worries, we have not gone anywhere and our phones work now so try again tomorrow. It was actually probably a blessing that the phones did not work because I would not have been a joy to talk to, here is why...
My most favorite 5D ever broke this weekend, it just died. No reason, it just had a very long life full of hundreds of thousands of images and decided it was done working. I hate this because this is my baby... of course, I have backup cameras, the very same ones but none of them handle quite like this one. Other photographers laugh when I say this but it is true! Now I am on a mission to get another 5D and quick! I have one being overnighted tonight because I have a full week of shooting, every day for the next 9 days, non-stop and I have to have a backup. For those of you who are photographers out there and don't have a back up, get one NOW! You are crazy to be shooting weddings or anything without an extra camera of the same caliber just in case. Now my camera is on it's way to Canon to see if they can revive it so we can have one last rendezvous before another 5D becomes my favorite. Wish her well, she's been good to me! |
| If that was not enough to put me in a funk my editor shipped me a hard drive full of a week's worth of edits and when I plugged the drive in it said, "this disc can not be read by this computer" I ran to another computer, and another, still no success. Yes, that is the drive below, in my garbage can. Another good thing, I have back ups of the files, just not the edits. What are the chances it would die on the way here?! Anyway, there is a week's worth of work in the trash can which I will have to start over on. I am SOOOOO glad we believe in having back ups of back ups around here! |
| Now to top things off, I had to have a super hard conversation today that I totally wanted to avoid having but it is one of those things that is never going to be good to discuss so you might as well just do it and get it over with! |
So brides out there looking for a photographer, always ask them this:
Do you have a backup camera and do you backup all images right away? WE DO and boy and I ever glad this week! It could be worse.
Tomorrow will be better!
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| When Moira emailed to let us know that she and Dan were expecting a second child, I got really excited. I photographed Cian when he was born a couple of years ago, so I was looking forward to heading back over to their home to welcome Declan and get some shots of the little guy. When I first stepped in the door, Cian announced that I should come see his "big boy" room so I decided to grab a couple of shots of him in his new room that he was so excited about. |
| Then we tried to get some shots of the boys together but Declan was not too crazy about that idea... |
| So we waited a little bit for him to fall asleep then we set off on our mission to get a shot of him all bundled up and sleeping. I took a similar shot of Cian when he was a little tot and Moira wanted to be able to hang them side by side. |
| Declan liked hanging out in his room... |
| Towards the end of the session, he finally conceded to lay with Cian in his big boy bed for a shot! |
| Cian is such a trip! He calls candy "Santa Fruit" and I think by the time I got this shot he was on a sugar high from all of the Santa Fruit he has been rewarded with for doing so good. Candy always works! |
| A quick shot of the new and improved Post Family... |
| Moira stealing a quick kiss from her little snuggly... he is so adorable! |
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| I had a BLAST with Christy and Brian at their engagement shoot. They were willing to do just about anything and it totally paid off. I'm so excited for their wedding now! This image was one of the first images of the entire session. Right away, it was like "YES" this is gonna be a good one! |
| Christy and Brian told me they lived in the small town of New Philadelphia, Ohio. It was a wonderful surprise to find that there were so many great places to shoot within just a few blocks of their home. One of the first things we did was ride on the vintage carousel. The man that was running the carousel made it a point to tell me that he had gotten married on the carousel 21 years ago! How sweet!!! |
| The next few images were taken in the dugout of a local baseball field. This is particularly sentimental to Brian as he is a former baseball coach. |
| After shooting for a little while, Christy and Brian took a short break and shared a chocolate milkshake. I saw the light shining in behind them and quickly snapped this one... |
| ...and then I took the same photo facing the other direction. :) |
| Remember when I said that Christy and Brian were up for anything? These next two pictures totally prove that. They climbed down into a stinky stairwell for this one. |
| Then they kissed in front of a packed restaurant for this one! |
| I just love the shadows here created by the setting sun. It looks so moody and romantic to me. |
| One of the last places we visited was Brian's current work site. I love that these images can't be taken by anyone else because in a short time it will be a finished building! Original location. Check. |
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It is that time again... FAQ's from photographers. I love seeing all of the fun questions and hope my answers are of help to many of you! If you have a question for me, leave it here, and I will do my best to answer it here on the blog.
Q: Hi Millie... I love your work!!!! Just a couple questions about post processing.... I love how your end result looks so natural. I was wondering what your post processing workflow is like? Do you have any great tips you have learned? Do you ever use actions? Also, would you post a straight out of the camera photo along with a pp version?? Thanks! - Jaclyn
A:Thanks for the challenge to be willing to put my raw work on the web Jaclyn! I remember the first time I ever saw the raw work of a photographer I admire and realizing that their images looked just like mine in terms of color quality straight out of the camera. I guess I somehow though her camera had the ability to make every image look better than mine before any retouch. Not so! My post processing is super simple. We shoot a lot and I have had to develop a way to get through all of the work and still give it the MHP quality that our clients have come to love and expect. With that said, I would be glad to give you some information on our workflow and a more complete explanation will be in the Get It Together Kit, which will be for sale within the next couple of months (at least that's the plan).
The trick to processing is not to overdo it! Don't throw too many actions or too many changes onto one image which results in a fake look.
We shoot RAW and we use actions to massage the pretty out! - (pretty much exclusivly Totally Rad Actions as sold by the amazing Boutwell duo. (Get some action here)
Here is an example of each step we go through to get an image at it's final edit...
This is an image from yesterday's wedding. This image is more underexposed than I typically shoot, the moment was happening quickly and I was pressed for time. An advantage of shooting RAW is that I am able to make easy adjustment to my exposure as you see in step 2 (RAW adjustment). I then open the image in photoshop to pop my colors, bringing out my blue sky and some of those great colors we see on this little California Roadster golf cart. |
| Resulting in this final product... |
Q: Here's a question for next time, bridal shoots. I love the idea of doing bridal shoots beforehand but how do you sell your brides on the idea of wearing their dress beforehand? Do they need to get it cleaned? - Robin Dini
A: Hey Robin! Great to hear from you and I hope I can make it up to CT for a visit before too long! My brides typically are concerned about their dress to some degree before their wedding day but I ALWAYS tell them that I care about their dress too. Even when I put them in crazy poses and locations, we make precautions to be sure the dress does not get messed up, especially if we are shooting before the wedding day. This might mean placing a sheet under the bottom or a plastic bag to keep the dress from hitting the ground. My brides really trust me and that is totally the key to getting someone to do what you need them to do to get the shot. Our brides know our style and they like it, after all... that is why they hired us so they are willing to do what it takes to get the shot.
Q: Hi Millie, could you share with us the settings that you use for your 5d? IE: Picture style? It would be great to know how you get such great results form this amazing camera? Thanks! - Rick
A: Well Rick, I shoot RAW so picture style does not play a factor in my settings. Picture style is important for JPG shooters who are looking for their camera to do the work for them in making color adjustment. I prefer to do the work myself in photoshop or Bridge later so I use Faithful (0,0,0,0). If you take your camera, reset it to it's original settings, cut the beep off, the iso expansion on, and turn it to manual, and cut on your back focus, then you would be shooting with the same camera settings as me. The key for me is the lenses and shooting manual... hope that helps!
Q: Hi Millie: In Nov 2006 you wrote an article on going to the hospital and recording the newborns first hours. Are you still doing that? I didn't see any ..wanted some ideas..my grandchild will be born in June.- Patty
Congratulations on your grandchild Patty! The little one may already be here and if so I hope you are having fun being a doting grandmother right now instead of reading this post, kids are so much fun! I continue to document families welcoming their little ones into the world and all of the joy and excitement that comes with it, however, a larger portion of our business is weddings so we do not photograph a lot of births. You can find my most recent slideshow where I photographed the birth of Elizabeth (our studio manager's little one) by clicking here. |
Q: Hi Millie, I know I have asked a question before, so I hope this is okay. I am just in awe of your work and your God-given talent! This question is sort of on the lines of Jaclyn and Rick's questions...well, partly. Your skin tones look so natural but the other colors are so vibrant. You said you hardly ever touch the faces and that you nail the exposure in RAW. How do you saturate the color without touching the faces and without having to make much adjustment in RAW? The Picture Style in the 5d can sort of do it but ACR reads the files differently, so I often have to do a lot of alterations to get a good look for both color and even exposure (it changes it!) How do you do it? - Kristen Buchmann
A: Hi Kristen! You can ask as many questions as you want, keep em' coming! As you can see from the example above, when you are shooting in manual, you can miss an exposure by a bit if a moment happens really quickly or the lighting situation changes quickly! This is why I love RAW. I was able to bring the image in and adjust for their skin tones and still keep those nice colors in the image that I want to bring out. If there is a circumstance where I have underexposed by a lot to get the richer colors, then I will typically just go into photoshop and lighten the skin so it becomes creamier!
I adjust using actions which create layers. Each layer is masked so that the adjustment does not show up. I then take my brush and paint to reveal the layer I want the adjustment to appear in. This helps me to pop the color around the subject without touching their skin, keeping those creamy skin tones I love! I know that is a deep answer and it might be hard to understand but I would suggest doing some research on layers and masks to get a deeper understanding of this process. Hope that helps!
The above image was more to show you how an underexposed image can be edited and the color can be popped... the below image is a better example of nailing the exposure and then lightening the skin slightly, if needed at all... (there is not a lot of difference in this image out of camera, RAW or photoshop) |
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| You have already seen the rehearsal dinner, preparation and ceremony from Shannon & Rich's wedding. Now for my favorite part... just the two of them! |
| Le Kliff was full of so many amazing places to shoot but one of my favorite was most definitely the small beach off of a lower kliff complete with two little beach huts and the perfect sunset! |
| When I asked Shannon if she would be willing to climb down a steep set of stairs and get some shots closer to the water she said "sure", kicked off her shoes, picked up her dress and started towards the water like it was nothing. Of course, Nancy, being the most awesome maid of honor lended a helping hand... |
| Just what we wanted, beautiful view + water + rocks + sunset + veil + wind = perfection! |
| Le Kilff was full of great details... |
| Shannon and Rich have some of the sweetest friends ever! I think everyone wanted to give a toast... they laughed and... |
| embarrassed one another.... (funny story, Rich told on Mike at his own wedding years ago while giving a toast. He let out a secret that Mike had never told his parents in front of everyone so it was payback... I will spare you the details but it was hilarious!) |
| Rich's expression when he realized what Mike was up to... |
| At the very end of the night Shannon & Rich shared a first dance... |
| Then to close out the evening... tequila! |
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