nicholeV photography - Monday, February 15, 2010

Monday, February 15, 2010

Win a Mentoring Session | Utah Wedding Photographer

Monday, February 15, 2010 9:25:33 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00) ( )

Well, I just have to give a little shout out for Thirst Relief and WPPI this year. I've donated a one-on-one, 2-hour mentoring session to be auctioned off tomorrow, February 16th and February 17th. This is your chance to help bring clean water to the world and receive a one-on-one private mentoring session with me at the same time. I promise to be uber-generous with the winner, haha. You can see the details here:

Auction Details

As I said, the bidding starts tomorrow and you don't need to attend WPPI in order to bid on the auction. Don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions!

Comments [0] | |

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Updates | Utah Portrait Photographer

Thursday, February 11, 2010 10:27:30 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00) ( )

Alright! Just thought that I would take a minute to update all the happenings around here.

We're really excited for our first in-person {life as art} workshop of 2010 coming up in just two weeks. The workshop is entirely sold out and we're busily making last minute preparations. The March 25-27 workshop is sold out too. Also, the workshop in Orlando on April 29-May1 still has a couple spots left, if you want a workshop a little later in the spring. Additionally, our June lighting workshop is sold out and the lighting workshop on July 9-10 only has 1 spot left.

Many of you have asked what happened to my group on Flickr. Apparently, Flickr is deleting all groups that are tied to a business or product, so I have instead created a page on Facebook for Flourish Emporium. I will be posting updates and specials there. You can also feel free to jump into the discussions section and ask questions. Also, if you post a photo using my products, feel free to tag me in the photo. This will help others to find examples of photos edited with my products.

Flourish Emporium Facebook Page

Also, many of you have asked if I will be creating a Photoshop version of my Sunflare presets. And the answer is yes! I am currently working on creating a Sunshine set of actions that will add sunflare to your images. Additionally, I am putting the final touches on my new Ethereal Action set. It includes actions that will add a light, airy feel to your photo. I love this set, because it brings out detail in shadows and masks blown highlights. I plan on releasing both sets in the next 10 days or so.

Another sample . . . . .

After

Before

Comments [3] | |

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Snow Fun! | Utah Portrait Photography

Thursday, February 04, 2010 1:49:04 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00) ( )

Alright. I've decided that I'm a very bad blog mommy, cause I can't seem to post more often. Sigh.

So in an attempt to better my blog parenting skills, here's a fun little session I did with my daughter not too long ago. I love the snow and bright sunny winter days, which seem to be few and far between this year. So here's a little fun! All of these images were shot with a huge studio strobe to camera right.

An in case you were wondering what the shots looked like without the strobe, here you go:

Comments [10] | |

Friday, January 15, 2010

New Presets Now Live | Utah Wedding Photographer

Friday, January 15, 2010 8:08:45 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00) ( )

Well, I just had to hop in here and say that my new Proofing Presets and Sunflare Presets are now available on Flourish Emporium. You can see samples and read all the details there. And hey, why not save a few pennies while you're at it?! Enter this coupon code when you checkout and receive an extra 10% off your entire order:

flourish013110

Also, my {life as art} professional workshops are selling out for 2010, so if you've been hesitating on signing up, now would be the time to ensure your spot. And if you can't make it to a {life as art} workshop in person, the Workshop in a Box will provide you with that workshop experience from the comfort of your own home. In fact, enter this coupon code when you check out and receive $50 off your purchase of the workshop in a box:

box013110

Note that both coupon codes will expire on January 31.

And stay tuned . . . . . there are fabulous things in the work for February, including the launch of my Ethereal action set . . . . I've been working on this set for a while and I LOVE the look of it . . . soft, light and oh-so-yummy! Here's a little teaser . . . . .

Before

After running an action from my new Ethereal set . . . .

Comments [4] | |

Monday, January 11, 2010

New Year's Resolutions | Utah Portrait Photographer

Monday, January 11, 2010 10:53:42 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00) ( )

Okay, so my first New Year's Resolution is to post more to my blog. Honestly, I need to schedule it on my calendar, haha.

Second New Year's Resolution is to create more products for Flourish Emporium. To that end, I've been working feverishly on several items. One is a set of proofing presets for Lightroom and ACR. This are presets that will allow you to quickly proof a session in LR (primarily) but can be used in ACR too. I do all my proofing in LR and this is a collection of the presets that I use on every session that I proof.

Along with the proofing presets, I also have created a little set of sunflares for Lightroom and ACR. These are just little sunflare presets that you can add to a photo to get an instant burst of sunlight from the edge of the photo.

So here are some before and afters using the proofing presets and sunflare presets. No PS work here . . . . all these edits were done in LR using just the presets and no other adjustments. And those of you who have worked with presets know how fast theyare to work with. These edits took about 10 seconds each to do. I love these sets and anticipate having them ready for purchase in the next week or so.

Before

With Proofing Presets applied

Sunflare preset added

Before

With Proofing Presets

With Sunflare presets added

Before

With Proofing Presets

With Sunflare preset added

In addition to these presets, I'm also working on a new action set I'm currently calling Ethereal . . . . . think soft, light tones . . . . . it's going to be so yummy!

Comments [10] | |

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Happy Holidays! | Utah Wedding Photographer

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 3:05:07 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00) ( )

First of all, I want to wish everyone a happy holidays and a very merry Christmas! After weeks of craziness, I have mailed all my holiday cards, completed my Christmas shopping (though I haven't started to wrap presents yet . . . . sigh) and am now hoping for at least a day or two of relaxing time.

But I first wanted to wish everyone some Christmas cheer, so here are the outtakes from my 2009 holiday card. Photos are always stressful, especially when you add an active 16-month old into the mix.

First you have to catch the toddler . . . .

Then you have to get him to hold still . . . . .

And prevent him from escaping . . .

And going boneless . . . .

And then several hours of frustration later, 164 frames, 2 swapped heads in Photoshop and lots of tears (theirs and mine), you have a holiday photo. So here's wishing you and yours a fabulous holiday season!

Comments [11] | |

Monday, December 21, 2009

D & D Wedding | Utah Wedding Photographer

Monday, December 21, 2009 4:45:34 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00) ( )

I've been meaning to post this session for a month or two now, just finally getting around to it. I loved shooting this wedding and working with such a fabulous bride and groom! So here are a few highlights from their wedding day!

Comments [1] | |

Thursday, December 10, 2009

A Little Holiday Cheer! | Utah Portrait Photographer

Thursday, December 10, 2009 8:46:36 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00) ( )

So it's been bitterly cold outside the last few days and I'm feeling the need for some holiday cheer. So here's a coupon code for my Flourish Emporium site that will give you 10% off your entire purchase!

Just enter this code when you checkout:

blog122509

This code expires on Christmas, December 25th!

Also, remember that you can still get a Flourish Gift Certificate! Just email me if you'd like a gift certificate and I will send you an invoice to pay.

And just a little photo that always makes me feel cheery, haha!

Happy Holidays to one and all!

Comments [1] | |

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

a little holiday gift | Utah Portrait Photographer

Tuesday, December 08, 2009 2:58:07 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00) ( )

Well, if you're like me, you're frantically trying to get everything done during this busy holiday season. And if you're like me, you may not have gotten your holiday cards done yet (hey, I'm working on it . . . . . I'll have time tomorrow to do them, right?). So here's a little free holiday card template to help you along! Just go to my Flourish Emporium website and click on the freebies link at the bottom of the page to download the free template.

And I hope that despite all the madness that you're having a fabulous holiday season!

Comments [8] | |

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Ghost Town Bride, Part II | Utah Wedding Photographer

Thursday, December 03, 2009 3:52:31 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00) ( )

Well, here is Part II of my ghost town bridal shoot. As you may remember, I had a contest a few months back for a bridal session in a ghost town. I had sooooooo many fabulous entries and it was so hard to choose a winner. In the end, I couldn't narrow it down and ended up doing two days of shooting with two different couples.

So here is Bride #2, Whitney and her husband, Nick. They were recently married this summer and were up for more fun wedding photos. I absolutely adored her dress for this location!

Comments [5] | |

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About Nichole

Nichole Van has repeatedly been labeled as a hot, new, up and coming photographer. As a Utah wedding photographer and a Utah portrait photographer, she specializes in turning everyday life into art. Nichole loves expressing the unique beauty of every client, creating artistic images that make people gasp when they see them.

As an international award-winning photographer, Nichole won the prestigious International 8x10 Portrait of the Year from Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) for 2007. Consequently, her international award winning photography was featured in Rangefinder Magazine in June 2008. She has also taken First, Second and Third place honors from WPPI in other international competitions for her child and family photography. Additionally, Nichole has received numerous Accolades of Excellence and currently holds an Accolade of Photographic Mastery from WPPI.

In addition to her love for photography, Nichole loves teaching and enjoyed being English faculty at Brigham Young University for nearly 10 years. As the best of both worlds, teaching photography to others is her passion. Nichole currently offers international photography workshops focusing on helping others enhance creativity and artistry in their photos. Combining her excellence in teaching with her photographic knowledge, Nichole’s Life as Art Workshops are quickly revamping industry standards for photographic workshops.

Nichole lives in southern Utah County with her husband and three children. You can see her work at www.nicholeV.com.