Who am I? Cheryl Johnson; wife, mother, photographer, teacher and freelance designer for Future Publications. I work from my Studio in Essex or on location and although I do commercial work my true passion is for family portraiture and weddings.
This blog is my online diary for both my personal and professional life, and features images from my personal albums and features images from recent client sessions. I love what I do!
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At the bottom of the page you can find links to the archives, a search, my personal links, and recent posts. I love comments, so don't be bashful!
You know how they say never work with children and animals …………
I say why not ! This 18 month old terrier was much easier to work with than some of the 18 month old two legged terrors I have worked with before 
That said the two legged variety don’t generally dive head first into the grossest smelling pond I’ve ever sniffed ! On the plus side Biscuit did like to strike a pose for the camera - good girl 
This is my fave
In case you didn’t know I’m a Canon girl and I use two EOS 5D’s but I am not so patiently awaiting the release of the Mk II, hopefully this will be in the next few months.
I shoot RAW usually on SanDisk Extreme III compact flash - can’t believe how much the cost of memory has gone down (first 1GB card I ever bought was over £200).
Workflow - I download my card straight into Aperture 2
Here I would correct any exposure or white balance issues & crop images. I also rate the images 1-5* and delete the obvious shockers. Next I export the jpeg images to a folder on my desktop in readiness for a little
photoshop tlc. I then back them up on a remote hard drive.
This is where I will edit my images - I like highly saturated images so this is where I will bump up the colours, fix any skin blemishes/eye bags by using the clone tool or use portraiture plug-in for those that need a little more help
I absolutely love using actions - they save so much time especially when I am proofing 200+ images
If you’ve never used them before check out these links.
There are some great free actions available
I use a mixture of several different ones
Natasha Whiteley I just love her Photolicious collection and the great thing with these is they are available for PS or Elements
Itty Bitty for lush colour
more recently I’ve fallen in love with Totally Rad they add a different slant, bit of a retro vintage feel. This shot of Theo was a bit blah straight out of the camera but I used their old skool action to give it a little action CPR
Final step is to sharpen and resize for either uploading to server for a client slideshow or blogging.
I will say photoshop is an amazing piece of kit and I wouldn’t be without it but it cannot make crummy images great, you need to get it right in the camera and then enhance it afterwards
Check out Shimelle’s site - she’s having a sale of her online scrapbooking classes - they are great value for money normally but it would be madness not to make the most of this opportunity
The boys have been staying at Nan & Grandad’s caravan in Clacton with cousins Evan & Natasha. I went to collect them today with just a slight detour to the seafront & pier (never one to miss the opportunity I went heavily laden with kit).
Ethan & Tash paddled in the sea while I had a play with Canon 15mm Fisheye f2.8.
with a little tweaking in photoshop even a grey & overcast day can look good
Two rather soggy children had a blast ( Canon 135mm f2L )
Wow Cheryl your clients are so varied - agree the last is a gem.
What a gorgeous doggy!
Hey, those are fantastic, she is very cute, what sort of terrier is she ?
These are great! That last is my favorite also. Wonderful color!
What a great session! LOVE your collage. That little dog is so cute.
The collage is great! What a sweet dog! I also am loving your colour!
ooooh Cheryl, these are fantastic!
I love your fav too!
Great stuff Cheryl love that last shot
Aww love these, love the one with his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth, too cute!!