Kayla & Edson The Cumming Fair Engagement Photographer

Kayla & Edson The Cumming Fair Engagement Photographer

As I was going through some of my work, I realized I hadn’t yet added any of these images, just goes to show I was so busy it didn’t get put on my “to do” list. So as we were meeting with Kayla & Edson talking about their wedding and also some other photo shoots we had done or were about to do, we came up with yet another photo shoot idea because the thought hadn’t occurred to them until we talked… he had proposed to her at the top of the ferris wheel at The Cumming Fair, so we all agreed, we had to do another photo shoot and go to the fair, we didn’t have a lot of time that evening, but we got some great shots and I always want to do some photos at the fair anyway… so we did it.  We had a great time and they had fun with all of the people who were asking them what they were filming and shooting for since it was both of us shooting/filming them, the story they came up with was it was some reality show for MTV or something like that, people certainly were curious who they were since they had a photographer and video guy following them everywhere they went.   You can see more of their engagement photos in their gallery on my site You will also see some from the first engagement session we did earlier in the year, some with the green screen. Thanks for looking!

April & Shawn’s Engagement Photo Session – Amicalola Falls Dawsonville GA

April & Shawn’s Engagement Photo Session – Amicalola Falls Dawsonville GA

by sherijohnson

I let Shawn take a few photos of April, he really enjoyed doing that.

April and Shawn chose Amicalola Falls in Dawsonville, GA for their engagement photo session with me. If you would like to see more photos from this session, feel free to visittheir gallery on my website.

Photo Retouching

I often get requests when preparing images for enlargements to make people look a little better than life if you know what I mean, well I am one of those people too. I like to smooth things over and look my best in my pictures too, so I will use a my own photo to show what is possible and you can judge for yourself. You know all the magazines airbrush or photoshop their models, celebrities and so on. To view these examples in a larger size, go to this gallery.

simple retouch

Retouch example - the next level

Tony Gonzalez Shop With A Jock 2010

This time last night we were at the Walmart in Cumming, GA taking photos of the kids shopping with the football players from the Atlanta Falcons team.  The Atlanta Union Mission sent out around 50 children and Walmart gave each child a $100 Gift Card to spend on anything they wanted.  Several of the kids came to check out with new bikes and all kinds of fun stuff.  They really enjoyed shopping.  Us grown ups had fun too.  I was contacted about providing each of the kids with a photo from the event to take home with them.  I had some awesome help, which was much needed especially when the kids came to check out with much enthusiasm.  I quickly noticed a lot of Walmart shoppers buying footballs to collect autographs.  :)  I shared some of the photos on facebook and I noticed Tony Gonzalez added one of them to his own album on the page.

more photos from the event: http://www.sherijohnsonphotography.net/Events/Tony-Gonzalez-Shop-with-a-Jock/15069505_DafQF

How Did You Get Here?

When people find out about my interest in photography, they have lots of questions about how I got started. So I figured this would be a good time to kick off the blog and tell a story, a true story.

Back in 1987 I had a beautiful blue eyed baby girl. She had the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen. I bet what I am about to say some other parents will relate to if this ever happened to them. I always wanted to take pictures of my little baby girl, but the sad part was the camera that I had at the time was not able to get in close and take pictures of her in focus. It was not able to do close-up pictures at all, so I missed so many valuable memories that I couldn't capture day to day. I got so mad over this that I made it my goal in life to remedy this situation as quickly as I could. She was born in February that year and by October 1987 I had gotten my very first 35mm SLR camera. This changed my life! So I may not have the newborn pictures, but from about the time I got this new camera till now I have pretty much documented her life in pictures.

Say "Hi!" to Christin. :)

So I took this new interest very seriously. I didn't just get the camera, I made it my "job" to study photography. I went to the library and took home as many photography books that they would let me check out at a time and I read them all. Then I would take them back and get more. At the time I was working from home babysitting for other parents. Then when I needed to go out and get another job, I got hired as a photographer by a national portrait company. I actually have worked for that same company (in a different division) again after I relocated. The experience I gained working for them allowed me to learn more about shooting portraits of babies, children, families and everything in between. I still did my creative photography every chance I got.

In the late 80's to early 90's I took a photography course that helped me to gain even further understanding and forced me to do assignments and of course get my work assessed and critiqued. During the early 90's I started learning and practicing hand-coloring of B&W images and doing retouching.

Over the years people have asked me why I wasn't doing photography as a business and the honest answer to that is that I knew I wanted to, but I just wasn't ready to pursue it. What changed? Well, about 6 years ago I met my husband. He happens to be a disc jockey and has been for over 30 years. About 3 years ago I also started doing weddings, events and parties, playing music and emceeing. I have gotten so comfortable with the timelines and details of weddings that I just knew it will be that much easier for me to transition into photographing them. I came to the realization that this could be the fruition of my life dream. More than anything I want to travel, see new places, experience new things and photograph it all. I have been heard saying my life dream is to "travel with my camera in my hand" many times over the years. As I have done more studying about doing wedding photography and I came to the topic of destination weddings....I got excited. I won't say that is where I intend to start, however, I know eventually that time will come and I will be more than ready for it. In the meantime, I am so much looking forward to providing wedding photography for the Atlanta, GA market.

Remember that cute baby up there?
This is one of my favorite images I have done of her.

Even though my website is not completed yet, no time like the present to get it out there on the web http://www.sherijohnsonphotography.com/