A week out from Christmas already? Wow! An enormous thank you to every person who has contributed to a wonderful year for Eye Candy.  Fran and I have had the busiest twelve months with back to back workshops, including the introduction of our new Enhance Post Processing Workshop.  Our lovely Eye Candy Community has continued to grow and we’ve spent time with some truly beautiful people..we feel very lucky indeed :)

We’ve had numerous emails asking for gift vouchers for actions and online workshops and I’ve added them to the store today.  For those looking for last minute gift ideas, these may just be the easy answer!  You can download a gift certificate for Our next Explore Workshop (Beginners) runs from Feb 01, 2012 and Evolve (Intermediate – Advanced) starts on March 12, 2012.  Please email Fran at info@eyecandworkshops.com for further information.

Finally, a small gift by way of $15 discount off any single or duo action set or workshop registration from now thru December 26.  Please enter the code joy-11 at checkout!

Wishing every one of you a peaceful holiday with your loves..

Sheye xx

In June this year, we excitedly launched our latest Eye Candy Workshop – Enhance.  This is an intensive  three week online workshop designed for the beginner to intermediate photographer wanting to explore digital processing using Photoshop.   We’re running it again this November and registrations are now open!

Some of the topics covered will include:.

Setting up your Workspace
Menus and Tools
Creating a logical workflow
Layers, Masking and Blend Modes
Identifying and resolving image issues
Working with skin-tones
Easy image enhancement
Working with Photoshop Actions
Developing a consistent editing style
Correct cropping and resizing
Shortcuts
Adding polish
Color settings
Creatively displaying your images online

The workshop is designed to run at your own pace with comprehensive videos and written tutorials uploaded daily.  You will also have access to an interactive forum to share images, ask questions and receive peer feedback.    Co-facilitated by Fran Mackenzie, Enhance explores a variety of Photoshop methods, tips and tricks based in a logical workflow to give you the best possible editing outcomes with your images.  

The Enhance workshop will run in November 2011 and is $345 AUD per person.  We are able to offer payment plans for those interested.  Places are limited.  If you would like to register your place, you may do so here.  Previous Eye Candy students do not need to register and may go directly to the purchase page here.  If you have further questions, please email Fran at info@eyecandyworkshops.com.

Testimonials from Enhance Participants, June 2011:

I feel like this has been one of the most important photography workshops I have taken to date.  I am amazed at how much I learned and how “unlocked” photoshop feels to me. I had so many “aha! THAT’S how you do it!” moments I can’t even count.   I was extremely impressed with the amount of information shared with us, the way it was presented, and how absolutely thorough it felt (to me). Once again, everyone was very friendly and helpful. :) I really enjoyed the videos, they really brought the material in the modules together and helped with the practice. Thank you, Fran and Sheye for another wonderful and meaningful workshop!   Catherine Runyan

I actually feel comfortable using Photoshop now. I don’t quake with fear when I open it any more…! The videos made HEAPS of difference to me. Early on I had the videos on the laptop and I had PS open on my desktop and I followed along. It was perfect. It was so nice to put voices to the words and faces too!     Jane Dando

The modules and the videos were very informative and presented in a way that made it fun to learn. Sheye & Fran, you are both superstars at photography and Photoshop and i am extremely happy that i was able to participate in this workshop and learn from you both. Thank you so much!      Carissa Campbell

I liked that the learning was multi-faceted, with reading material, videos and tasks. This meant that applying the knowledge was much easier than just reading and assuming you understood what was meant to happen… Thank you for being so generous with your knowledge and allowing others to share in your thoughts and workflows. I am so much more efficient, skillful and knowledgeable on PS and know that doing the workshop will enhance my life in so many ways – better photos, less stress, more free time… and the list goes on. xx    Jodie Vass

I found everything about the workshop to be relevant and useful. All Eye Candy workshops have a great feel to them and a wonderful supportive atmosphere.   It is great that we can all learn from each others questions and the fact that responses from the two of you were so prompt, there was a real sense of momentum. I am thrilled with what I have learned and to have a fantastic printed resource sitting in my bookcase beside the computer is brilliant. Having seen the videos as well, I feel much more confident. Thanks so much for all you have taught me. I love growing as a person and the three Eye Candy Workshops I have done this year really have helped me grow as both a photographer and a woman. The friendships I have made are an added bonus to this wonderful experience.    Mish Mackay

Enhance has been nothing but inspiring and I cannot believe that you are both so helpful and willing to share. I love that about you!! I am happy to say since Evolve I have made some wonderful friendships and I am so proud to say that you are both set in stone in my photography journey x  Cassie Van Baak

The Enhance experience was just like other Eye Candy Workshops, where Sheye and Fran not only share so much new knowledge, but also provide such a kind and supporting environment to learn in. And as they say, like attracts like, and Eye Candy Workshops always seem to be filled with participants as lovely as the facilitators, and this truly makes it special : )   Sharlene Britton

We do hope you can join us!
Sheye & Fran xx

ps: Just a quick reminder that the Evolve Workshop begins on October 3rd.  We will be emailing all participants in the next couple of days so please keep an eye out!

It’s so wonderful  to see this beautiful family growing and do you know what I love about three?  Three is where you have a fair idea about what you’re doing.  Lets face it, the first is amazing, but also rather shocking.  Two kind of doubles the shock, for at least a little while.  Then it starts to fall into place and by the time three arrives, you’re just all kinds of whatever and while the sleeplessness and the feeding challenges may not get any easier, at least you’ve pretty much forgotten what that other life looked like.   This is my own experience anyway and spending time with Marissa and David last month after Frankie the third arrived..I got the same feeling all over again.  He’s divine, they’re relaxed, it just all looks way too wonderful from over here.   (I should mention that David does in fact have three older babies so Frankie gets to bathe in the total mellowness that is a Dad of six).

Thankyou, sweet little family, for letting me hang out with you.

Sheye xx

Processed with Eye Candy Actions Vintage Roadtrip Collection

A few weeks later, Fran and I packed up our chattels and checked ourselves out for the weekend, bound for the border.  It would be the longest post ever to describe all the things I loved about our time in Bryon so let me just say it really was magical.   We waited for gorgeous skies, we found the perfect forest, we played games and sang songs and Tash and I talked of things much more important than small people’s clothing.  Just how I love my time with clients..happy, relaxed, easy..with a camera in hand.

If there’s something else I love about photography, it’s the way in which you get to know a family so much more as you work with their images.  Yes, the time spent alongside them lets you gain a sense of their bond but it’s not until you sit down with their photos, when you sift them one by one..absorbing their expressions and their connections..the stillness and the moments..that’s when you really get to see them.   When I sat alone with these images, they spoke so loudly to me of all things that family should be full of.  Happiness and  laughter and encouragement and pride and more than anything, wrapped around it all, just so much love.

Here’s Part One of our time spent with a truly beautiful family in a truly breath-taking location.   Thank you Tash and Andrew, for letting me see you.

xx

Natasha’s beautiful family coming up next!

xx

It’s true, we are live.

And I’m just a little bit excited. After having spent the past..well lets not even talk about how long this has all taken..lets just say that this has been a while in the making. A long while since I began collecting pretty pictures and favorite fonts and an ocean of ideas to create a new site…all based in wanting something sweet and unique and meaningful to me. A custom website is a big project at the best of times but wanting to incorporate a beautiful place for Ava’s memories alongside my business and personal website needs was never going to be a quick thing.

While my inspiration folder (and sense of confusion) grew, it was ultimately a gift from my beautiful friend Fran, in the form of a Kristal Melson illustration, that formed the beginnings of the finished site you see here. I instantly fell in love with Kristal’s quirky style (read: knee high socks) and before long, I was sending her all sorts of snippets and imagery.

Not much later, she sent back my gorgeous enchanted garden, filled with memories and whimsy and pretty, pretty things. The child is my sweet Ivy, inspired from this image. Every element in this illustration is a reminder of something dear to my heart and the chimes you hear are recorded from a vintage music box, owned by Crayton’s Mum, Vivienne. The tune is Some Enchanted Evening. While I know most of you come directly to the blog, I wanted to give the full illustration it’s own special place and it now serves as a home page to navigate around from.

Over time, the wonderful Katie Kolenberg refined ideas with me and designed a beautiful, simple hand-drawn logo to fit with my love of vintage inspired fonts. Then along came Josh Nash who made things fade and blink and fly. Finally, to pull it all together, the rather amazing Renee Swigert from Ribbons of Red performed her magic and created something far beyond my greatest expectations. Every one of these people did a fantastic job and I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Please have a look around, you’ll see a beautiful new layout for Ava’s section that I’m particularly in love with, a new category called Pretty Pretty Things where I plan to share some lovely finds and lots of other little things that make me feel right at home.

I hope you love it here just as much as I do.

Sheye xx

The last year has been tough.  A different kind of tough to the one I knew previously..a somewhat self inflicted phase of difficulty, based in a large degree of over-commitment and a misguided belief that I was somehow super human.  Impervious.  Able to accomplish far more than the average mortal in less time and no hiccups.     I’ve come to recognize that I’m prone to filling the smallest gap with the biggest of tasks and that when you’re already trying to juggle lots of other tasks, that’s probably not a good thing.  It’s certainly not a sustainable thing.   Crayton says I just don’t have that normal human ability to know when enough is enough.  I can’t argue with him.  (Though Lord knows I tried some days).  BUT, I’m certain I’m not alone here.  As women, mothers, partners, friends, daughters, employees and self employed business owners, over-committed (sliding into over-whelmed) is a natural state of being a lot of the time but you do know when it’s no longer okay.   When something has to give, before your sanity does.  There are times when less really is so much more.

So, with all that confessed, I can also tell you I’ve come through the worst of it, I’ve once again learned to say no when I need to and wow,  it sure feels mighty fine.  Apart from the lingering guilt of neglecting people who didn’t deserve it  along the way (self included), right now my heart feels happy and light and right.   I’m so relieved and I’m so looking forward to the rest of this year..both personally and professionally.

Speaking of Eye Candy things, some of you may have seen on Facebook that we’re running a post processing workshop in May.  We’re just finalizing the details for that and should have updates out this coming week.  It’s something we plan to continue doing through the rest of this year so if you don’t get a place offer for this coming workshop, please don’t worry..there will be more.  (Along with other fun workshop things planned!)

In other verrrry exciting news, I am about to launch a new Eye Candy Actions  set.  It’s been months in the making but I’m so happy with it  and am just putting the last touches on a new website.  I will let you know as soon as it’s launched – hopefully just days away.

One last bit of news, and very much about change, is that this is my last entry on this blog.   Well, this blog with this layout and design that is.   I’ve had this pretty mix of pink and polkadots for two years now.. it’s time for something new.  The creating of something new has been a very long process (did I hear someone say indecisive perfectionist?) but we’re finally there.  In the next day or so we’ll shut shop while things are rearranged and prettied up, and in just a little bit we’ll open the doors to something new and beautiful.   I’m normally sentimental at this stage but not today.  Today I’m embracing the chance to do things differently and so very excited to see what lies ahead.   I can’t wait to share it with you.

Love Sheye xx

ps, Ivy and Baby, yesterday.  Five minutes in the sunlight before my temperamental model began visibly scowling and trying to feed Baby grass.   5d Mk2, 85mm 1.8.

Luckily for me, Tracy arrived with these here stunning children and their rather incredible wardrobes.   The fog suddenly looked beautiful and everything just came together.. the pastel sand and the milky sky and those gorgeous fabrics.  I could have left a very happy girl without my beloved sunlight but, half way through our session, the sun didn’t just come out, it arrived, transporting the sky from the softest winter white into violet and pink and then,  the most incredible golden bronze as it slowly fell into the ocean.   I felt all sorts of spoiled as I wrapped up the afternoon – everything I had imagined for this shoot and so much more that I hadn’t.  To Tracy, and Orange County’s ever changing weather, thankyou.

xx