I would NEVER get a restraining order against you...

Who would I count on for my daily confidence boost!?! :-) Haha! Seriously... you all may feel like stalkers, but is it stalking if I enjoy it? ;-) I know that I've said it before, and I know that I say it a lot in emails to those of you that occassionally email me, but I really, really do mean it when I say that I'm so appreciative of your kind words. I seriously don't know what I've done to deserve such kind fans! YOU GUYS are the BEST! :-)

So... here I am back for more. I just can't leave the questions unanswered. First, though... Heather, yes! Use what you've got! You can really produce fantastic work with minimal equipment. Don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE to have the 85mm f/1.2L, but for now, I'll make the 1.8 work for me. Shoot with what you've got the way you'd shoot with what you want.

Monique - I wish I had a magic wand! I'd conjur me up a 5D & 85 1.2L if I did! :P Haha! No, really... thanks, though! You're always so kind to me!

Norwood - No, no... YOU'RE the best. You know it. Although, I definitely CAN'T say you're the best at blogging lately. Get to it, buddy. I know you've got TONS of OUTSTANDING weddings to blog. I LOVED the post processing on the most recent post. Amazing, as usual. Have you ever been told that everything you touch turns to gold? ;-)

D.Breezy - What's this "former friend" business? I'm kinda concerned about this... apparently YOU'VE never been told that everything Michael touches turns to gold. Including friendships. So, let's have a better attitude, now, okay? No, but really... thanks man! And, yeah... I checked out your blog after you left the comment here. That's too funny! (You're another one that's not doing too well with maintaining the blog. You've been doing better lately... I'll give you that.) I do have to say, though, that I'm slightly mad at you. Thanks for posting the word game. I've spent atleast an hour of my life playing that STUPID game. I'll never get that time back. Plus, I think the scoring is faulty & needs a serious overhaul. I love how you can answer four billion CORRECTLY and never get past vocab level 40, but the second you answer one, ONE incorrectly, it knocks you down to level 39. Then, it takes atleast, like, four correct answers to get you BACK to 40. Sheesh. Let's work this out, people... make it a little more fair maybe?

Tracey - Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoy my blogs. I feel pretty sure that I embarass my husband now and again with my unashamed lame-ness on here. I feel justified now. ;-) My husband thanks you. Haha!

Mom - Am I infiltrating your vocabulary? ROCK on!!! :-) I'll expect to hear it in everyday conversation when you get home in FIVE MONTHS! Can you believe it!?! Only five months to go... Are you feeling any better? I'll have Halloween pictures to share with you tomorrow! I know you'll be eager to see them! Love you! (Oh, by the way... if you got a blog, I could make your name a really cute pink link, too!)

Jess - You're SO welcome! I think part of the magic with the 85 1.8 is that the longer focal length makes the depth of field a little more shallow, too, than say the 50 1.8 or 30 1.4. Plus, if you can pull your subject WAY away from your background, whatever that may be, you get really nice bokeh. I LOVE to have a big open area behind my subject with that lens... :-) (By the way, do you have a blog or website? I get an error message when I try your blogger profile, and I'd love to link to you!)

Mishelle - Wow! That's such a huge compliment! You are too sweet for saying that! See what I mean... you guys are my daily boost of confidence!!! :-) And, like Jess, do you have a blog or website I could link to?

Ariana - You crack me up! :-) Thanks so much, and YEAH!!! Bump that 85 up your list! Haha! Okay... wasn't I just telling Heather to work the equipment she's got? Well, I think EVERYONE should own the 85. Okay, okay... well, I think it's so integral to MY shooting style, atleast. I can see that it's not perfect for everyone, but for me it is! I love, LOVE that thing! And, thanks SO much for the info on the Blurb blog books! I would have never known until after the fact, and I would have been REALLY irritated! Thanks for saving me some frustration. That's a bummer, but I'd rather know now than when I was anxiously awaiting their delivery, you know? I still want to have my blog printed into books for the girls, so I'm gonna have to look at other options. I could put it together myself with a whole TON of work. That may be my only option... we'll see. Thanks again, though!

Bobbi Jo - Hey there! Okay... I'm gonna answer your questions the best I can, but I may have to come back with a bit more info on the duotone one, okay? :-)

1. Do I do custom WB? Honestly... no. Haha! I'm just too stinkin' lazy. I really, truly am. I shoot on auto WB about 95% of the time. Seriously. I do chimp (gasp! Yes, I admit it) periodically throughout a shoot, and if I see that my white balance is obviously wonky, I'll adjust it. But, that's pretty infrequently. I did set my color temperature manually the other day when I was doing some preschool pictures & using my flash. The white balance was ALL wrong, so I just adjusted the color temperature accordingly.

2. Do I shoot with a flash outside? No, I've never been able to get that to work for me. I know that a lot of people swear by it, and I know that it has some advantages, but I'm no pro with my flash. Plus, I just prefer natural light. In fact, I'll bump my ISO way up before I'll pull out my flash. It's just my preferance. My biggest secret (and, it's not much of a secret honestly) is to find the right light outside. The photos in the last two blog posts were taken at completely different times of day... Maya's were taken between 1pm - 3pm. The ones of little miss K were taken between 5pm - 6:30ish. But, I think both shoots captured a lot of light in their eyes (probably Maya's more than miss K... there are a couple shots I could have repositioned to get more light in the eyes.) With both of them, though, I feel like it's just a matter of watching your light. After that shoot of Maya, I feel a lot less intimidated about midday shoots. Now, there are advantages to using fill flash outdoors, that's for sure. For example, using a fill flash can help you maintain a more even exposure between the subject & the background, especially if the background is really bright. I, however, am okay with a bright background in my style of shooting. :-) (That was wordy & probably didn't make much sense... sorry! Haha!)

3. What is the duotone layer that I speak of? Okay, let me start by saying that I use Photoshop CS2. I'm not familiar enough with other versions to know how far back the duotone feauture goes. Having said that, you need to be working on a duplicate file because you'll need to blend the duotone with the original. You can do that buy going to image>duplicate. You can find duotone in Photoshop by going to image>mode>duotone. However, you first have to change the mode to grayscale. So, what I should have said was go to image>mode>grayscale. Then, go to image>mode>duotone. From there, I always make the first color a darker color, and the second color a really light color but a similar shade. So, for instance, one of my FAVORITE times to use duotone (which is honestly not often) is when I've got a stormy sky. In a picture like that, to further the feel of the photograph, I'd like to play up the dark, gloomy, dramatic feeling with duotone. So, in this instance, I'd choose a dark, dark gray with a hint of blue as my first color. Then, for my second color, I'd choose the palest blue I can find. Say okay. Drag the duotone file that you just did over onto the original full color file. Set the blending mode to soft light (or play around and see if you find something you like better... soft light is generally the safe choice, though.) You'll see the difference immediately. I so *hope* that makes sense! Ha!

Candy - Thanks so much! That's funny that you were thinking about a Q&A! Here ya go, girl! :-) So, about my favorite indoor lens... for now, I think it's the Sigma 3omm f/1.4. I LOVE that it allows me to shoot in fairly low light, for one thing. Plus, it's pretty stinkin' sharp. Now, some copies can be soft, but Sigma will recalibrate it for you for nothing, and it comes back nice & sharp! Honestly, indoor, outdoor, wherever... this lens is my second fave lens after the 85. :-)

Anne Marie - You know, I don't really pay much attention to my catchlights anymore during the shoot. When I was really getting started, that's one of the things that I paid a lot of attention to. I'd see catchlights everywhere, in everyone's eyes whereas before I started getting into photography, I NEVER noticed it! Ha! But, I guess that I've just trained my eye to see where there's good light and with that comes the catchlights. I would strongly suggest, though, paying attention to catchlights if it's something you want to improve. That way, you start to see how certain light hits your subject, you know? It'll become second nature soon enough. :-) I do know that it's ideal to have your catchlights in a certain place, but I'm just not too worried about that. In fact, a lot of people toss pictures with no catchlights at all. I, personally, think that's a little extreme. Yes, it's ideal to have them there. Yes, it will step up the photograph A LOT & bring the eyes to life, but, hey... I'm not tossing a memory, a moment because of the lack of catchlights. (I'm a pack rat when it comes to pictures, can you tell? You should *see* my hard drive(s.) Eek!) Anyway... I'm in central Texas, and I shoot down at a local park. It's down by the old town square which has SOOO much charm! So, I usually start out at the park & then head downtown to all my favorite locations. :-) You'd probably laugh if you saw some of these places in context. They look pretty pathetic, but they make for AWESOME backgrounds! At least for my tastes... :-)

So, yeah... I think that's everyone! Thanks again, guys! I'll have some pictures of the girls all dressed up either late Halloween night or Thursday night. Also, I've got some fairly exciting things in the works. I've got to get some details worked out, but soon enough... :-)

Take care!