Newborns and Cropping in the Can

This past week has been really hectic but so much fun. We received a free night stay at a hotel and we decided to head to Moody Gardens and check it out. Since we got a night alone, Evie stayed with Nana and went shopping. 

I wanted to pack light (camera wise) so I packed up my camera with my 50mm lens. There are 3 pyramids at Moody Gardens and each one represents a different environment, Rainforest, Ocean and Discover (full of bones and a life size operation game). I could have kicked myself for not bringing my macro lens because the flowers and butterflies were just gorgeous. I did get some really nice pics of all of the ineradicable things there, so I am not too bummed about it. I really need to buy my shootsac to help carry around my lenses and camera more easily. Here are some images I captured.

After the relaxing night out I headed home a little early to get ready for my newborn shoot. This was my first newborn shoot since my daughter so I was very excited. I think the biggest problem I had when shooting my daughter when she was a newborn was being super tired and also editing. I kid you not when I say I use to spend HOURS editing ONE PICTURE. I know you are laughing and hopefully saying you did this too. I was just snapping away and not trying my best to edit in the can. I would come home upload the pics, then crop them down, then try to remove background stuff, and then change exposures before I even got to the real editing. I was SO CRAZY! I have cut down on my editing from hours (mortified to even say that) to minutes. I take the time to make sure my exposure is right, I double check the background to make sure I am not getting any eye sores and I crop my picture in the can. Once I see the image in my head I crop the picture to not only save time by not having to crop later but also saves the integrity of my image. Cropping your image can make you lose resolution of your images. Most parents want a blown up picture of their pride and joy to hang up on the wall. If you take away the resolution you may not get the quality you would have if you would have cropped in camera. If you are not careful, you may not be able to blow up that image to the size you want to (I know from doing this myself to my favorite picture of my daughter. I put it below). 

So I am happy to say coming home and being able to edit the pics in one night is such a HUGE time saver and a lot less of a hassle! Here are a few of the pics I took. I posted a SOOC and an after too so you can see how I didn't have to crop at all!