High School Senior Session featuring Haley

This was my 1st senior session of the year and a GREAT one at that! Haley was a pleasure to work with! Not only is she gorgeous on the outside but on the inside too. She has a love for her dogs who she says is graduating with her this year as she has had them since she was in 1st grade!

Haley is a Senior at Shikellamy High School and plans on attending Bloomsburg University after graduation.
She shows a flare for fashion and her hair is something to be jealous of!

Thank you Haley for choosing me to be your photographer. I enjoyed photographing you on our day out and I wish you the very best after high school!

Before and After Edit

Hello world! This would be my first time sharing a before and after edit and I am pretty excited! I am pretty new to photoshop. I have been using Adobe Lightroom (which is totally awesome and a MUST HAVE) and Corel Paint Shop Pro X & X4.

In Lightroom, I cropped my image,  I reduced the noise, and cloned out the food residue on his face. I then transferred my image over to photoshop and duplicated my image. From there I used the patch tool for under his eyes. I dodged and burned his eyes to make them pop. I burned his lips and also the grass behind him. I added a selective color mask to my image {REDS> cyan +70%, magenta +8% , yellow -13%, and black -20%)

I am not the greatest at writing a tutorial and if you don't know how to use photoshop I encourage you to try!

Senior Guide

Today I wrote up a senior guide for an upcoming client. I hope you find these tips helpful! Next week I hope to share a few images from the session!


1. Get plenty of rest the night before your session! While I enjoy watching "The Walking Dead" on AMC - I'm sure you don't want to act like it for your session!

2. Make sure to have a fresh coat of paint on your nails/toenails or even a nice manicure/pedicure. There will be times where your hands may be close to your face and you don't want the focus to be chipped nail polish.

3. Clothing choices! I suggest picking everything out and trying it on a day or two before your session to have everything planned out ahead of time. Keep your clothing visually simple. Don't bring outfits with words or designs, stripes or pictures, except possibly your school logo. You want your face, eyes, and expression to command attention, not the words on your shirt. Solid colors are recommended for most or all outfits. Group your outfits together on hangers (including accessories). Make sure items are ironed and ready to go. Please make sure the colors of your undergarments do not show through your clothing. Have a strapless bra on hand in case. Again, trying your clothes on ahead of time should help you!

4. Accessorize! Accessories come in many forms and can change the entire look in a photo. Accessories that can be easily put on or taken off are great things to bring to your session. This includes jean jackets, cardigans, blazers, hats, necklaces, scarves, bracelets, purses, and shoes!

5. Apply your makeup normally. While it is tempting to glam it up for photos, you still want to look like you. Bring your makeup along with you for little touch ups

6. Go with a practiced hair style. There is nothing like a bad hair day and there is nothing worse than a bad hair day during a session. I suggest wearing your hair like you normally do day to day.

7. Practice facial expressions in a mirror or with a friend or family member. The goal is to appear natural and upbeat. Full body photos are taken too. Standing, sitting, or crouching in a relaxed manner are some options to try out.

8. Personalize your photos with props! This means if you are a book worm, in sports, dance, your pet etc. - bring what describes you!

9. If you become sick or ill - call me right away to reschedule!

Low Key Lighting.

Lately I've been fascinated by low key photography. The low lighting is so gorgeous on a subject.While I typically shoot with 2-3 lights in my studio, for my first low key shoot I used just one main light. My son is my wonderful model in the photos below.

We did his session around 7pm. I have a very large bay window in my studio that lets in a lot of light. I wanted to wait until it was pretty dark outside so my studio wouldn't be as bright. 

I love the shadows low key shows.

Sweet Mini Session!

Spring is ALMOST here in PA! I can almost feel it! What better way to break out of those old sweatpants than to have a mini session! Mini sessions are 30 minutes of fun! You will receive 10 digital images, a print release, and an online gallery!* If you are looking to take family portraits, I suggest an outdoor session! If you are looking to take milestone photos of your little one, now would be a perfect time!

*Mini sessions do not include newborn or high school senior sessions.

See my work over on Facebook or visit my webpage!
Amber Gardner Photography

Thank you and see you soon!
Amber Gardner

Angry Bird Birthday Party!

I feel really OLD! My oldest son just turned the big double digit 10 this month! I seriously don't know where the time went or what happened to my baby! We decided to just have something small at our new home (those pictures will come later). Our house hold goods arrived on Friday before the party so I busted my butt to try to at least get our downstairs situated for all to see.

My son wanted to have an Angry Birds party theme. If you have never played it that may be a good thing as it's a bit addicting. I found a great 'cake lady' to make my special boy a one of a kind Angry Bird's cake. He thought it was so awesome and I did too!

We had an "egg hunt" outside. If you know the game, you know the piggies steal the birds eggs (which is why they are "angry".) Everyone had fun doing that. Sorry I don't have any photos of the egg hunt and I was guiding kids around the yard. 

We also played "Angry Birds" outside! I took some old cardboard boxes we had lying around and wrapped them in craft paper from the dollar tree.  Then I just took a sharpie marker to draw wood lines on them. 

I need the piggies to be much bigger for outdoors, so we blew up green balloons 

and drew the pig faces on them. 

Totally loved it! And I cannot wait for the weather to make up its mind and bring SPRING weather here again! Then we can do it outside again!

Senior Rep - Coming Soon!

{I'll be looking for 2014 High School Seniors soon!}

Valentines Day box

I was so excited to help my son work on his Valentine's day box for school this year! Since my husband has been in the Army, that meant not being around for all of the holidays. I found a picture on Pinterest to show my son. He loved the idea and of course we had to make it!

Here are the boxes that we used for this project. Other supplies were scissors, glue, tape, 2 (12x12) black scrapbook paper, 2 (12x12) purple scrapbook paper, 1 wine cork cut into 4 round pieces, and 1 white paint pen.

 

I didn't take pictures of all the steps since I was a little busy helping my son at the time.

I did take one of him helping out though.

 

 

You can see how we cut the cereal box on the long side. We pasted the purple paper on the outside of our cereal box and the black paper on the inside (cutting it to size) and also more purple along the sides of the box. On the inside we used the 2 macaroni boxes to hold the weight of our last black paper as the "bottom screen/hand controls". The above picture is my son cutting a slit out to put in valentines.

 

After we had everything together, my son was totally happy over his final product! I am so happy that I was able to help him out this year with something for school. If you are unsure by looking at my 'iphone' picture, we made his Valentine's Day box a replica of his 3DSXL!

 

 

 

 

 

Valentine's Day Cards

Hello again!

  I am not sure if you are aware, but I am addicted to Pinterest! For my stepdaughters class this year we decided that we were going to make our own Valentine's cards for her classroom. Yesterday was a perfect day to take pictures outdoors as it was snowing outside. Here is what I did for her.

 

I took her outside and picked out a pose for her to do.

I love how you can see in the photo that it was still snowing outside.

 

Later in the evening I started editing.

 

I edit all of my images in Lightroom 3.

I brightened the exposure, cropped, and cloned out the pool and deck in the background.

 

After I have my photo looking to my taste I did my final edit in Corel Paintshop ProX4

 

 

 

  She absolutely loves the cards that she will be handing out this year. I printed them out in wallet size which is perfect for Valentine cards to hand out. I think that I saw some little envelopes at Target that I'm going to pick up tomorrow. We are going to add the Sweetart lollipops to her cards too. I can't wait to hear how her class likes them

 

 

On my next post, I will be sharing what my son and I made for his classroom!

Back to Civilian life. Now what?

Hello and welcome to my first blog post! Let me tell you my life story. Just kidding... or am I? My name is Amber and I have been an Army wife for almost 6 years. I married my best friend in April 2007 and we've had an interesting journey ever since. Well I say interesting, you may say boring.

Here's us on April 14, 2007

 

The first place the Army sent us was Fort Carson, CO. I met so many amazing women in that first move out of my small town in Pennsylvania.

My family and I went through 2 long deployments. However thanks to some social media like Facebook and Skype, keeping in contact was easy. After a year long deployment there is nothing better than knowing that your soldier is home and you get the first hug and kiss all over again.

(2009)
Welcome home banner I made from a full (or queen) sized sheet.
Painted on it with the phrase:
"Welcome Home SPC GARDNER
I hope you slept on the plane!"

It was displayed on the overpass before the bus brought him to be welcomed in Fort Carson, CO.

 

This was the moment after a 15 month long deployment we were once again united.

I still cry a little when I see it because I can still feel all of the excitement and relief. (2009)

 

 

Here we are in 2010. This time I am 5 months pregnant and he is getting ready

to leave to serve his second tour to Iraq.

 

 

Our son Brayden (the bun in the oven in the image above).

Skype was such a wonderful tool to have during this deployment. Daddy

still got to see his little guy grow!

 

 

March 2011

My husband was able to come home a day after I had Brayden (June 2010) for his R&R.

He spent 2 short weeks with us before heading back over to continue his tour.

This was the first time they were together since birth!

 

 

The next place the Army sent us was Baumholder, Germany! You heard me. GERMANY! I never thought that I would leave the states, but it happened! Germany was one of my greatest experiences!

 

Our home in Baumholder, Germany 2011-2012

In Germany is where I found myself knowing what I wanted to do with my career. It took me a long time to discover that my passion for photos is what truely made me happy in life. I had the chance to photograph places I only hope I'll get to see again. I met so many people and other photographers who have inspired me and still inpsire me.

 

Downtown Baumholder, Germany

 

 

Took me a while to figure out what "ausfahrt" meant when reading signs in Germany.

I don't have a picture of the "ausfahrt" sign, but it means "EXIT" and you see it everywhere.

 

 

One other 'perk' of Germany was driving on the autobahn. I have to say Germans know how to drive!When I came back to the states I would get mad at people who 'hung out' in the left lane and didn't get over for people who were actually driving there to pass a car!

 

After just a short year later of living in Germany, we were sent to our final duty station Fort Belvoir, Va. This is the place I took everything seriously. I named my business. I got an EIN (tax ID). I started a webpage and met another great group of other photographers. I even had my own in home studio!

 

Our home in Fort Belvoir, VA.

My husband is now medically discharged from the Army. We bought our first home in Pennsylvania and we move in just a couple weeks! I know my life doesn't sound that exciting, but being a military wife was my job. I am now a Veteran's Wife! There's no more Army to tell us what to do or where to go. No more opportunities to see the world unless we say so. It's kind of scary. So now what? Now we concentrate on being a family (and finding jobs)!

I am looking forward to what the future holds for my family and my business! I hope to see many more smiles in the future!