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As Tall as the Trees!
Hello <<First Name>>
Welcome to June! Schools out...or almost and we can relax into summer! This months newsletter covers a lot of ground...lots of new stuff to hear about and exciting developments!!
The recent mini sessions have been popular and last month I was working at the Oakland Redwoods. I can't get over how gorgeous this area is and just a few minutes down the 24 from the TriValley. I took the picture above at one of my recent visits...If you look closely, it seems as if in every small gap of space, there is a perfectly aligned Redwood (obviously they don't bow to meet each other as it looks like they are doing in the photo). It is just so spectacular and equally so for portraits!! In case you’re wondering if I have a camera that could actually photograph the picture above, the answer is no, ha I wish! It is actually made up of four separate pictures and merged together. I am a huge fan of using the beauty of nature to enhance portraits and redwoods comes up very high on the list! We have also added two more mini sessions for the month of June...sunflower fields and lavender fields! Read more about them below and see the website for more details
As we move from Mother's Day in May to Father's Day in June, I thought I'd add a few pictures from a super smiley Dad...and family that I photographed recently....So cute!
Another exciting development is working with a talented local video professional to bring a package of photography and video to local businesses! Particularly fitness businesses. I have worked in this area for several years now and absolutely love the challenge of movement in photography! If you are a local fitness business, make sure you take a look below to see the opening offer!
Our business spotlight comes from a wonderful vineyard and wine company! Read about how they got started and continue to inject their passion and enthusiasm for their business.
For the photographer in you revisits focus stacking...and includes a quick summary of what it exactly is as well...get your computers out, its a post process technique!
Pajara Dunes was the location for a short break for us recently and I have included a few sunset pictures to get you started on the summer sunset vibe.
Finally, keep scrolling to arrive at the panoramic passion and the quote of the month!!
As always please do get in touch if you have any questions on anything or would just like to chat!!
I hope you have a wonderful June and if you are off on vacation, don't forget to have fun...and get pictures!
~ Tracey xxx
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Latest and Greatest
Mini Sessions ~ New Dates and New Locations for June!
We’re excited to announce new dates for mini sessions and new locations for June...lavender fields and sunflower fields. Use NEWSLETTERMINI code to schedule your mini session for just $250 in month of June ($299 usual price).
See below for some of the new options and new dates, just released!
Click here to schedule on the website!
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Gift Cards for Dad!
Dads are special! And so is their relationship with their family!!! Just because they complain when it’s time for pictures doesn’t mean they don’t like the results!! Make sure you get some special moments to capture with the Dad in your life this Fathers day!
Get a gift card now!!
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The Business of Fitness - Photography and Video Package Offer!!
Latest offer, especially designed for fitness companies! A complete and collaborative service between Tracey Medcalfe photography and Sam Bennett Media to bring you a step closer to having the content you wish you had for advertising your fitness business on your website and social media.
1-2 hours of photography time and gallery of 40-70 images
2-3 hours of video time and approx 1 minute branded video
All for only $1,000...It’s a steal!
See some photography examples below and click on the video page to link to an example fitness video!
Act soon, the offer is only open for businesses that book during the month of June (photography and video sessions don’t have to be scheduled in June)
See details of the offer below and get in touch if you'd like to know more or have any questions!
tracey@medcalfe.com - 925.683.2823
sambennettmedia@gmail.com - 925.216.3884
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Business Spotlight ~ Di Stasio Vineyards and Wines
Looking for a fun experience at a spectacular vineyard...not to mention the fabulous wine of course! Hear about Di Stasio Vineyards and Wines from one of the owners below and plan your visit!
Our family has farmed continuously in Amador County's Shenandoah Valley since 1911, when our Great-Grandfather purchased the land we are on today. Our well-established reputation as premium grape growers inspired us to create our own wines, focused on bringing out the best of our estate grown fruit with Italian style varietals and fruit.
A deep appreciation for and of our relatives who came to Amador County from Italy to start the next chapter. Our winery is a natural extension of the farming operation and a return to the former winery operation that pre-dates prohibition. We feel strongly about being able to honor their legacy, tell their story and add our chapters to this 110 year old and counting family story.
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Our family brings many talents to the table, whether it be the former CEO of SMUD, Scientist, Senior Business Consultant, Construction Leader, and Staffing & HR Professional, all of our backgrounds and education have come together to create a lovely blend of experience that lend itself well to our family business.
Our focus on honoring our Italian roots differentiate us from the competition. From our tasting room, inspired by the clean but rustic colors of the Puglia region of Southern Italy, where part of our family is from to the direct from Italy imported foods and hand made Italian ceramics, to our tasting room menu, our legacy and Italian heritage is visible in all that we do and offer.
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Our inspiration derives from being able to offer high quality wines, along with a memorable experience when you visit our tasting room. Our family is at the heart of all that we do and when you're here we want you to feel that too!
In addition to our delicious wine and Italian inspired tasting room, our vineyard has become a very popular venue for private and corporate events, photography sessions and weddings. In fact, one of our previous weddings featured the couples doggy as their ring bearer!
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Business Highlights ~ New Instagram Account
Introducing the Tracey Medcalfe Photography wedding IG account. Our wedding images are getting lost the regular IG account and I wanted to highlight them all on their own!!! We all hope it is once in a lifetime after all!!! It deserves its own account! See how its all getting started with the direct link above!
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For the Photographer in You...
Lightroom/Photoshop - Focus Stacking
As If your a seasoned recipient of the newsletter you may remember an article I wrote way back on focus stacking. I thought I’d revisit it, because it’s a very useful technique during editing, but isn’t as straightforward as it might seem.
Our eyes combined with our brains, our excellent interpreters of our visual world. We can view wherever our eyes are looking in perfect focus and adjusting our gaze, there is virtually no interruption in focus, we immediately bring the new subject, closer or further away, into perfect focus. We can also do this with cameras, however there is a limit to how much depth lenses can achieve in focus. I’m sure you may have noticed that if you photograph a scene, some of the picture will be in focus on some of it may be out of focus.
Focus stacking is an editing technique in which you combine two or more images that are in focus in different parts of the image to form a single picture that is in focus across more or the whole of the picture.
Landscape photography can benefit hugely from focus stacking as sometimes it is difficult to you capture a scene with everything in focus in a single shot. Product photography is another example of where focus stacking is used. In this example it is important for all details of the product to be sharply focused And again this is not always possible with a single shot.
I included a few images of my focus stacking experiments below...as you can see, while the software has tried to combine the two images, it has got pretty confused about how to merge the two around the edges of the merging (the edges of the flowers). In reality to make this work, I would have had to take numerous images to help the software fill in the gaps that make the blending a challenge!
If you would like to know how to focus stack in Photoshop or directly from Lightroom, this is a great article from Adobe
As always...I’d love to see your pictures!!!
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Little Ditty - Pajara Dunes
Along the Northern California coast, just south of Santa Cruz, there is a small resort right on the beach with a number of houses and apartments overlooking the sea. Pajara Dunes there’s a beautiful place to relax and unwind for a few days. Pahara means bird in Spanish and there is certainly no shortage of them here. I managed to capture a few pictures at sunset. I just love to watch these small birds Scurrying around while the waves chase them. And at sunset they seem to be silhouetted in the water and form a outline as they frantically and mostly successfully try to avoid getting splashed.
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Panoramic Passion
A sweep back to the stormy weather a couple of months ago. I love the green stripes in the tan grass and the overall stormy and vibrant feel of the image.
Follow me on Instagram to see how I post these panoramic images!
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Quote of the Month
As with all quotes, it is pretty abstract and I'm afraid you'll just have to read the book to get a better context. It wasn't my regular sort of reading, but provides an interesting historical fiction account of early 1900 Texas - California history....it is easy to get swept away with the characters...I recommend it.
"Fear is smart until…you realize you’re afraid of the wrong thing." ~ Kristin Hannah (The Four Winds)
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