Monday, August 16, 2010 at 5:12PM 
Brittany and Kyle's wedding in Wilmington, NC was one of the funnest I've ever photographed. Their unique style added so much to the day and made for such an easy and fun day. To see more of their awesome images, click HERE.
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 3:12PM 
Foundation, a personal favorite, is the meeting grounds for July's Raleigh Photographers Shindig. Not only does it strictly serve North Carolina brews, but the somewhat secretly located bar under 213 Fayetteville St, hence the name, only serves relatively local wines and domestic liquor. Other notable awesomeness from the underground bar is that it's non-smoking, has free W-Fi and maintains a nice cool temperature to give us all a break from the sweat wrenching heat outside.
I believe I can safely speak for most of us photographers in the area, but finally sitting down to relax without our eyes glued to our computer screens and hands around our cameras, is exactly what we need considering July has been a beating from Mother Nature. Not to mention that it seems as if this has been a busier month for us all!
(All images via NewRaleigh.com)
If this is your first time reading about this local meet up, you can read more about it in a previous post by clicking here.
If you're interested in joining in on the good times, come out to Foundation on Monday at 8:30 PM!
For more details, feel free to email at brett@brettarthurphoto.com.
Monday, July 26th at 8:30 PM
Foundation
213 Fayetteville Street, Suite 010
Raleigh, NC
Monday, July 19, 2010 at 10:52PM Lara and I had put this shoot together in roughly 24 hours for a project she is working on. The shoot was a blast, even considering the 104 degree weather and a breeze at zero miles per hour. We even had our very own live music going on, which we found out was a Raleigh native group that goes by Kooley High. Seriously a fun live show to listen and work to!
Here are few from our quick shoot at Duke Gardens:
Be sure to check out all of Lara's links and awesomeness below:
laracaseymedia.com
laracaseyreps.com
swsmag.net
MTH2010
Friday, July 9, 2010 at 1:09AM A few instant shots from Brittany and Kyle's wedding portrait session in Wilmington, NC this past weekend. I can't wait to share the rest!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 10:45AM Just as Photoshop actions can be over used, easily spotted and horribly abused, LightRoom presets aren’t any exception. With the rapid rise of LightRoom users, more and more presets become available each day. Most of which are pretty rough looking when applied to your image and many of them do not produce the quality and adjustments you see in the screen shots associated with them.
Gage Young, a good friend and great photographer, has taken the time to put together a few presets for those who are looking to get a jump start to their LightRoom edits or to simply cut down on workflow time. I am not usually one to sit here and push products onto to people, but his eight LightRoom presets are not your average presets you find online, download for free, and then delete them because you’re ashamed you even saw the result of the preset. I’ve received numerous emails asking questions about LightRoom and “how to” questions, so here is a good start to my answer for most of you.
To be completely honest, these presets are far more accurate, subtle, and yet powerful and retain the quality of your image you started with, if not better. After you load these presets into LightRoom and play with them, you will see what I am talking about. The adjustments make it so easy to clean up your photograph, ad some punch and recover over or under exposed images.
No, Gage’s presets are not free, but when and where do you get quality for free? If you are looking for a great way to easily adjust images, fix images, build a strong foundation for the rest of your edit, then I suggest trying these out. You can get all eight presets for $40, not a bad investment, especially if you are tired of spending too much time trying to find good presets online for free.
To give you a little more confidence in these presets, if needed, here are some screen shots of my own images that I applied these presets to:
-Aged-
-B&W-
-Cold Shift-
-Light Contrast-
-Over Exposed Recovery-
-Strong Contrast-
-Under Exposed Recovery-
-Warm Shift-
To buy the Gage Young preset collection, visit his shop at http://shop.gageyoung.com.