I headed down to the lofts of Southside on Lamar (Dallas’ newest old address) on another 100 degree Texas day to meet up with Rachel and Molly. This place was super cool! Rachel has assisted me on a couple of shoots already, but this shoot was about sharing what I do inside the digital darkroom during post production.

First, we planned to snap off a couple shots around the complex. Rachel quickly recruited her college buddy, Molly (I’ve been told to disclose that they are not lovers-just roommates lol!), to model for us and Rachel managed to get in front of the lens as well. As an on location shooter, this is the first time I have got to shoot indoors in awhile. We parked in a couple of stairwells in the building with the dusk light pouring through the windows...it was nice light and the building had an old rundown feel yet still refined. Second, we would take the images through digital enhancement for the final product. My software workhorse for organizing, editing and managing my library of images is Apple’s program designed for photographers: Aperture. I love it!

The other software I use in conjunction with Aperture is Adobe’s Photoshop CS2 software...the best and most popular image editing software available. Photoshop is such a diverse program that it would take eons to master every feature within it. My mindset as a photographer is to visualize what direction I want an image to go and use the best tools to get there. How do I do that? I actually do it with other people’s sweat & tears...and by that I mean using actions and palettes. The specific set of actions I use on most images is the Ron Nichols Retouching Pallete. It helps me spend less time in Photoshop while getting the job done.

These were fun to shoot and Molly is actually snorting in the photograph of her laughing...that is something I usually don’t think about: like a fingerprint, everyone has a unique laugh. I will leave you to ponder this...

John, Lauren & I went out to their alum, Southern Methodist University, to capture some engagement photos before their wedding in August. The campus was beautiful and the chapel was perfect. Then we headed to Deep Ellum in Downtown Dallas. This is where Rachel came along and helped me out...what a big help! John plays the trumpet and is looking to play in an orchestra after Graduate school at Rice. He played a couple of notes for me, he is good! Later we moved to the Nasher Sculpture Garden which was also pretty cool.

After the shoot, they wined and dined me with Pei Wei and a Chocolate Lava Cake at Rouge in Dallas. Rouge is where their reception will be at and this place is suave-man it is cool! Low lighting dances throughout the lounge with high backed red velvet booths and the bar top was this granite stone of sorts. It felt like I was stepping into a lounge in Spain. And the staff is so nice and hospitable-amazing. I also learned that Lauren speaks Spanish fluently, so we had fun listening to her dialogue with our Columbian server. Their reception will make some great photographs with Rouge as their backdrop.

These are some of my favorites...but see the rest of them at fredegan.com in the "lovers" area of my portfolio!