Workshops Announced!

Wow, What a great response to my last post! and I didn't think anyone read this blog. I am almost full of photo shoot bookings on the Cayman days...I still have some room in Florida and Jamaica, and due to overwhelming response, I will open a photographer's workshop and a model's weekend in Jamaica and Florida. Please email me at photobarb@aol.com for details and dates.



I am one of those people who doesn't keep any photographic secrets...I really feel that if you and I were standing right next to each other shooting, even if I told you every single thing that I know, we would each take totally different photographs. Plus, when I was starting out, I wanted a mentor so badly, and everyone just guarded their secrets so closely that I had to learn it all the hard way. I used to feel very inferior, because I pretty much gerry-rigged everything with fishing line and and eyelash curler, until I noticed that everyone else gerry-rigs too! Maybe not with an eyelash curler, but fishing line is a universal must in the photographic world. Who knew? My mentor, the goddess Marilyn Sholin, http://www.marilynsholin.com/, has always been ultra generous in sharing her secrets, and I can only hope to give back as well as she has.



So for those and many more words of wisdom, come on over to my workshops. No, really, I have been giving workshops for 11 years, and my specialty, beside spilling all of my secrets in plain, easy to understand language, is working with you individually to help you achieve your goals, no matter where you are at in your photographic or modeling process. I'm starting to get excited about this!

Location Portraits and Weddings

This is kind of an aside, but If you are interested in having an exceptional portrait experience, I will be shooting on location on the following dates and would love for you to be a part of it.

May 13-30 Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Bahamas.

June 15-July 15 Watercolor, Seaside, Rosemary Beach, Pensacola, Destin, San Destin Florida.

I am also available for small groups of clients who live in the same geographical area and would like me to create one of a kind portraits for each of them. I have taken and painted portraits here, in Arizona, and my clients have shown their friends and relatives, who wanted to book me, but they were far away. I must admit, this wasn't my idea...after her shoot, one of my good clients, and friend, Lori Goodnight, of Houston, Texas, who has a winter home out here, kind of shyly suggested that 5 of her closest friends and family would be interested in having me out to shoot for them. We had such a fun time! The shoots were fun and free and amazing, and everyone, including me, had a great time. I left feeling like I made a great group of friends out there. And I'm now addicted to sweet tea.

Take a look at my website, http://www.barbstitzer.com for an idea of what we could do together.

Please let me know if you would like me to be a part of your memories this spring and summer. I would love to be there for you.

Barbara Stitzer Photography...Photographs for the Way You Live.: Oh Famous Me!

Barbara Stitzer Photography...Photographs for the Way You Live.: Oh Famous Me!

Oh Famous Me!

Yes, I feel very famous today. I have been asked to be the lead photog for a brand new magazine! Woo Hoo! I'll let you know more as I learn more. Here is something I shot of my hubby and little girl at her daddy daughter dance. I wonder if she knows that he looks at her with that much love?

Penny, the Amazing Weiner Dog!

I had the distinct pleasure of shooting Penny, the amazing wonder dog. She was so cute and tiny, and, even though I had a daucshund when I was a little girl, I hadn't realized or remembered the range of emotions that could come over one tiny puppy's face during one shoot! She went from sweet and excited, to crazy for her cookies, to mad as heck that she was getting teased with the cookie and back again in mere seconds. I love that dog!

Pushing the Limits

Ok, I admit it, I am curious about the whole You Tube craze. So I went on and clicked around, and, you know what? Ninety nine percent of it is pure drek. Big surprise, huh? But one thing led to another, and I got pointed to this extremely cool video where they morphed a girl from being about 500 pounds into a super model in photoshop. It's truly extraordinary. You have to check it out. http://www.errachidia.org/sport/video-weight-1-AFwFOH6h4lo.html. I don't have anyone who needs that kind of complete morph, but I was thinking about people, like, um, me, who are working on it and would love a bit of motivation to see what they will look like when they achieve their goal and lose the weight. Lisabeth was the perfect candidate. She is starting a website as, not a psychic, really, but a spiritual guide, has a very warm and loving presence, but wasn't up for taking pictures because she's on her way to her goal. She wanted to look professional, but open and easy to talk to. Photoshop has a pucker tool that works wonders, but I am a Painter fan, so I worked it with Painter.

These are, of course, on green screen, as this shot had to be worked in with two other shots and then put on a mystical type of background, but Lisabeth loved them.

Do you Have to Go to College to Be a Photographer?

Hmmm...I get this question so often. I guess that the answer is Yes and No. Yes because you simply have to go to college. It's essential for your life experience, it will give you more to pull from as an artist, and it allows you the most magical time where you're an adult but you still have parents to lean of if need be. And if, at some point in the future, you'd rather have a professional job with no guess work or people judging your heart and soul simply because they can, you can go out and get one tomorrow. However, as an artist, I truly don't think that getting an art degree qualifies you do anything but teach the ideas of someone elses art, which probably wouldn't be what you want to do. People can suggest ideas, but you have to have it inside you as well, otherwise you're just copying what they're doing instead of being your own person. I would reccommend getting a degree in business while taking art classes from working pros or, better yet, interning for those pros and getting paid to learn and see the true action, as opposed to the theory. Photographers and artists can be pretty secretive about their...ummm, secrets, but when they have someone working for them, helping them, the walls just come on down.

Speaking of walls coming down and learning on the job, meet the delightful Ron and his SIX pugs. He wanted a photo for his sweet wife for his anniversary. We had a great time, but if you really think you're going to get a human being and six dogs all perfectly positioned and virtually smiling (see little Portia with her tongue hanging out...I love that dog!) you will love the swampland in Florida I have for a Great Price. Anyway, each and every puppy spent the shoot burping, farting, squirming, sneezing, eating, biting, humping, jumping, and basically dancing the watusi...anything but sitting on Ron's lap and looking at me. What do you do? I tried my typical mating calls, kitty cat sounds, and arsenal of cool but strange noises. Nothing worked. But this man was counting on me to make his wife's anniversary present. So I dove in cut, pasted, positioned, rotated, distorted, torqued, and skewed within an inch of the 243 frames I took. I had 47 teeny tiny layers on this bad boy. 156 mgs. Ouch. My computer was screaming for mercy. One thought to those loyal photographers out there who email me every time I post with tons of questions...here's a question for you...you have this digital accomplishment of epic proportions...something that you pulled off that has you jumping all around at three a.m. What do you tell the client about alllllllll those layers? Allllll those precision cuts and pastes? The only answer? Not a word. They don't care. Do you REALLY care how you receive cell service, or are you just glad as heck that you do? My point exactly. By theway, he ordered two, this one and one with just the dogs, 20x30 Gallery Wraps both. And his wife LOVED them. YAY!