Laura Vegas

part two of the Q&A session. this one is about photography.

what kind of camera do you have? what lenses do you use?
i have a post HERE, from almost two years ago. it's all about my camera, what lenses i own and use, and what i keep my camera settings on. part of me feels like i should do an updated post about this. but nothing has changed. i still have the same camera and lenses. i still keep my camera on the same settings and shoot the same way. i still havn't taken the time to learn more about the technical aspects. and i still edit the exact same way. part of me thinks that isn't a good thing. that i should be wanting to expand my knowledge and advance myself. but part of me is totally cool with it. because overall, i don't take bad pics. lol!

who are your favorite photographers? your favorite photography blogs or websites?
just making a short list of ones that first come to mind. i'm sure there are more, but these are on my daily list. there are so many informative and pretty sites, it's just a matter of finding them. and weeding through them. like the 2peas photography message board. i listed it, because there's some good info there. i just don't have the time to weed through it for what i want to know. i'm more a picture person. i like to check blogs for pretty photos, and read the everystuff that goes behind them. which is why karen russell and erin cobb are top on my list :) 

karen russell (all time favorite)
erin cobb
maggie holmes
megan cristello
two peas photography message board 
pioneer woman

how do you organize your photo files on your computer?
i store all my photos on my external hard drives. i have two different ones, both from western digital. i can't find the exact link, but they're basically just like THIS ONE. they both fit in the palm of my hand, and are so easy to use. my first one holds about 4 years with of digital photos, plus some random extras from previous years (that i wasn't digital, but other family members were). i filled up my first external at the end of 2008, so then i stared my new one with 2009. i also have a third external hard drive that i use to backup my external's. does that make sense? lol! i don't do cd's or use any online sites. just my externals, and then an external to back those up.

kind of hard to read this, but just click on it to see it larger. this shows you all the folders that are on the first external hard drive. i keep seperate folders for family photos and for daycare photos. so there's a family 2007 folder, a daycare 2007 folder, a family 2008 folder, a daycare 2008 folder, etc. then i have yearly folders for any photo shoots i do, and inside each one is the seperate photo shoots. i also keep folders for school and sports. let's take a peek inside the "2008 family pics" folder.

this shows all the folders within that "2008 family pics" folder. i have a seperate folder for each month. i also keep seperate folders for any specific events or outings. like alyssa's birthday party, sarah's birthday party, christmas, my trip to utah, easter, our trip to the cabin, etc.

if we look in the "golfing" folder, this is what you'd see. and this is exactly how all my other folders are organized. i usually have 2-3 photos for each image. so i have my original photo, the edited photo, and sometimes a resized photo (which i would use for blogging and online stuff). i simply add a "_edit" to the edited versions, and a "_edit_resize" to the resized versions of the edits. if i happen to do some photos in black and white, then i add a "_edit_black&white" to the file name. and i keep them all together in the folders. i used to delete my resized photos, after blogging them or sharing them. but it never fails, at some point i want the resized photo again for something and have to do it all over again. so now, i just save them all.

photo collage tutorials?
check back later this week 😉