Alisa Stacey Photography

R family

2012-02-01T18:35:00.000-08:00

The R family are long time friends and it made the photo shoot a crazy fun time. Even little J smiled a few times despite her best efforts! What cute kids. The R family is moving away for 3 years and will be missed! We love you!

Baby K

2012-01-06T12:07:00.000-08:00

Sweet little Baby K. She was so tiny and so good to sleep for us. Her skin was nice and warm because of her jaundice so she looks like she's laying right in the sunlight. What a beautiful little girl!

2011-12-04T13:06:00.001-08:00

You would hardly know Tami was 2 weeks away from having her little girl! She looked amazing and was willing to try lots of fun pictures. Thanks Tami!

The proud big sisters to be...

The L Family

2011-11-13T15:11:00.000-08:00

I got to photograph this sweet family a few weeks ago. We had a beautiful fall day at the old mental hospital and the leaves couldn't have been prettier. The kids did such a good job; it was fun to get to know them and see their personalities. Thanks again!

Family Picture Samples

2011-10-26T14:19:00.000-07:00

E and C at SLC

2011-09-01T17:51:00.000-07:00

The kids at Temple Square in SLC. The lighting by these oak doors is so beautiful. Nathan and I got pictures taken here after we got married. It was fun to do some of the kids in the same spot!

Blue Eyes

2011-05-27T19:15:00.000-07:00

Baby K

2011-03-11T19:38:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I posted pictures. Life is busy but pictures are being taken. This little cutie happens to be ONE of my favorites. It really doesn't get any better than this.

Gina and Chris-reception

2010-12-01T11:22:00.000-08:00

Congrats to a wonderful couple!

Gina and Chris- Formal Shots

2010-11-30T10:18:00.000-08:00

It was SO cold outside but the bride and groom were great and we got some beautiful shots.

Gina and Chris-Pre Wedding

2010-11-26T10:52:00.000-08:00

Gina and Chris, two amazing, kind people, such a great couple. Here are some details shots. Beautiful couple, beautiful dress, flowers ect....

The S Family

2010-11-16T06:32:00.001-08:00

I did a trade for this shoot; and as an added bonus, we got dinner and a babysitter too, woo hoo! The S family is so wonderful, I've always wanted to get to know them better so it was great to do their photoshoot. Thier daughter L is such an amazing young lady, she is inspiring to know and so positive, and uplifting, and CUTE too!

Fall pictures.... take 2

2010-11-11T11:16:00.000-08:00

This is my second shoot for the service auction. It was a beautiful fall day and the pictures turned out great. Aren't these little boys adorable!

And this is what we call "the stink eye"...

Fall pictures....

2010-11-07T16:30:00.000-08:00

At church we had a service auction and I auctioned off a few kids photoshoots. This is one of 2 that we did one morning this fall.

I always think I know what a child looks like until I photograph them. Once I start going through the images I'm just amazed at how sweet and beutiful these little ones are, and I realize I had no idea what they really looked like! These pictures turned out so cute, I love the ones of the 3 of them together! Each of their individual pictures really showed off their personality, what beautiful kids!

Candland Family

2010-10-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

I love the way these pictures turned out. It's always a challenge with bigger families to arrange them in an eye catching way and this one worked out really well. The lighting worked great for us and the kids were quite cooperative. Big families are such a different dynamic, it's always fun to see the Candland crew together.

H- Family

2010-09-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

We took these pictures a few weeks before little Addy had her brain surgery. It was a long hot photo shoot but we finally got a picture with all 3 kids sitting! It was 100+ degrees outside and both girls were not excited to be part of this. We got some great pictures though. A few weeks later Addy had her surgery and we all got to see a miracle. She healed quickly and her seizures have stopped. What a blessing and what an amazing family.

More Eyes

2010-06-11T18:48:00.000-07:00

I love the dirty face and big blue eyes, he's all boy!

Eyes

2010-06-09T10:24:00.000-07:00

I love these sweet little close -ups. There is something about black and white that just simplifies a photograph and gives you a clear look at a personality.

Baby G

2010-05-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

Little G hardly knew we were taking pictures, which worked great because he wasn't a huge fan of getting his picture taken. What a cute little guy!

Leaves

2010-05-25T19:48:00.000-07:00

I love these fall pictures, the colors and the kids are beautiful.

J and D

2009-12-06T11:18:00.000-08:00

Since I rarely get to see these two, we took advantage of being in Ohio together and the beautiful fall leaves. They are such a great couple, and easy to take pictures of!

Pictures of M

2009-11-03T18:30:00.000-08:00

I love how these turned out. I've been wanted to brush up on my head-shots and M graciously volunteered to model. Thanks for being such a fabulous model. Here's my favorites.

So this first one is obviously not a head shot, but I love the Kirtland temple and this is such a cute picture.

Fall Family

2009-11-01T10:43:00.000-08:00

I was so excited to be able to take some Family Pictures with the fall leaves. The color was amazing and the family was really easy to work. I couldn't believe how great the kids were about sitting for the pictures. They both loved to get their pictures taken so it was lots of fun for the photographer.

Guinea Pigs Wanted....

2009-10-18T19:50:00.001-07:00

I have a new spot or two I want to try out for Fall pictures. Anyone want to volunteer to be a guinea pig family???? The discount is no sitting fee and 10% off pictures. Leave a comment or give me a call if you want to discuss further.

K's Senior Pictures

2009-09-21T18:48:00.001-07:00

This has been my funnest (not a word apparently) photo-shoot in a very long time. I can't believe my baby sister is a senior! And so beautiful, inside and out!

Photos of G and P

2009-08-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

It's about time I post something new. These boys were so cute, and it was a very eventful photo shoot.

Fun with actions

2009-01-16T11:34:00.000-08:00

These are some photos I'm framing for our playroom. We're only doing black and whites in it and these are some of my favorites of the kids. I've had lots of friends telling me about Pioneer Woman actions for photoshop that you can get for free. They are really fun to use and too easy to get carried away with. I used her PW B&W and B&W Beauty. I really like them, you usually have to tone them down a bit, but the basics are there for you and it's really nice and time saving. They are nice because you can open them up and see the different layers used in each action and delete parts of them you don't like. Thanks my photo friends for the help and advice, this is a very fun new free toy!

Fun with Photoshop

2009-01-04T19:59:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I "artistically" photoshopped something, and it was so fun! I gave my sister-in-law this series for Christmas so since it's no longer a surprise I can post it. Here's to another year of photography!

Family L

2008-12-04T08:43:00.000-08:00

This family was great to photograph. The girls were so sweet and even took turns helping my babysitter by playing with my kids. We ran out of sun on the last few pictures of the girls so we bounced my flash off of the reflector which worked great. I really loved the sitting pose, it turned out so well, but also the standing one I was excited about. It has great personality in it.

Family of 8 (and a puppy)

2008-11-15T17:22:00.000-08:00

I've really enjoyed photographing all these big families lately. It's been fun to see all the different personalities in each family; it is hard to get everyone smiling though. We've had to change a few smiles and wandering eyes, but overall this photo shoot went so well. The light was beautiful, I love seeing how the color just pops and looks warm and soft when you get it just right. I used a flash/umbrella combination at a very low intensity as well as my reflector for the family groups. It evened out the light so well, I"ll probably try it again. I also was really pleased with both of the poses we did. I like more spread out poses like the first picture, but they wanted a more uniform studio look so we also did the second pose.

My Photography Philosophy

2008-11-14T13:54:00.000-08:00

Even after so many years I still feel like I have one of my college professors looking over my shoulder. He was one of the last of the f/64's in my book. He did everything with film, knew how to use large format cameras, and figure bellows factors. He knew photography backward and forwards, never leaving exposures to chance or manual settings; and that's the way I learned photography. He went by the adage, "Show me you can do it the right way first, and then you can do what you want." In other words show me you can properly expose a negative and then you can show me an underexposed negative and call it art.

I'm so glad I learned this way, because right after I graduated everything went digital, and I really value the way I was taught. It's easy to cheat and "fix" your mistakes with photoshop, but it feels good knowing that you did it right to begin with!

I consider myself a digital photographer. I hardly ever shoot with film anymore. I haven't shot with a large format camera since my sophomore year, and I can't say I've never fixed an image out of desperation with Photoshop; but for the most part I try to keep my digital editing as close to what I would do in the dark room as I can. Photoshop is my digital darkroom, not a fix-all for a poor photograph.

Photography and digital photography are two different art forms. I miss the film days, using my Bronica and shooting large format sheet film, but honestly who can pass up not having to buy and develop film!

Baby L

2008-11-02T19:43:00.000-08:00

I don't often get to do baby photo shoots. So I was excited to try some new ideas. Baby L was a little too big for the basket I thought he would fit into, but we made do :) We made a make shift studio back drop, used some window light and a reflector and got some pretty cute pictures. What an adorable little boy and a beautiful mom. Congrats on your little one A and L.

More family pics

2008-10-04T17:39:00.000-07:00

Another great family! I love how you can tell the personality of the family through the photograph. This family is so relaxed, it was a lot of fun!

Family Photos

2008-09-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

Some recent family pictures from a shoot I did. I loved the lighting on the family pictures. It turned out beautifully! Thanks to my assistant Nathan, who always holds my light bouncer thingy. I love my light bouncer thingy, I don't quite know what I'd do without it, although I am looking for flash alternatives that will do the trick and give me beautiful, warm, natural light... I don't ask for too much. By the way, I'm always impressed by how well kids do on big family shoots. What a great family! It was fun to take some senior pictures too. I haven't got to do that in a while. She is such a beautiful girl, and so talented.

I didn't do a ton to these pictures in Photoshop other that darkening the corners. But the style now is kind of a blown - out high lightes look. So I did an adjustment layer for levels and brought the high light slider to the left. It gives it a brighter skin tone and blows it out a little bit. But just for the record, I did it on purpose.

Ahh Fall...

2008-09-28T17:08:00.000-07:00

Fall is my favorite season, especially in the East. It's such a relief to have some cool air and to watch the leaves change color. I love it!

You would think if I started a photo blog I would post more often! It's just hard to get everything done that I want to do. I'm sure I'm the only one who feels this way right...

Civil War Reenactment

2008-08-11T19:13:00.000-07:00

I decided to start posting my new pictures on a blog instead of adding them to my website. It's a lot easier. So I'll start with some pictures I took a few years ago, but just recently edited. They are from a Civil War Reenactment held in Ohio. It was the first one I've been to and the pictures turned out really cool. I love all the bright colors, the uniforms and the flag against the green. But black and white worked really well too since the scenes look as if they were in the 1800's.

Since I used to print my own black and whites, I always try to do the same things I did in a darkroom but with photoshop. So here are some things I did this time. In the darkroom I would use a magenta filter while printing to get a brighter look to the image and I found that by using "curves" very subtly you could bring in really great blacks but also keep some brighter highlites.

Also in the darkroom you dodge and burn a lot to keep areas darker or lighter. Instead of dodging and burning I used a "layer mask". For example: on the tractor image I wanted some nice dark blacks in it but I also wanted details in the darkness behind the tractor so I used a layer mask on the "curves" layer to block that particular section from getting too dark.