A couple of weeks ago, after being rescheduled three (or maybe even more?) times due to our lovely Ohio weather…the Father Daughter Dance FINALLY arrived.
Weslea was literally almost overcome with excitement. She waits for this event all year long and it is probably the highlight of her winter. :)
I tagged along as the 5th wheel on their date so that I could photograph the girls while they were dancing with their daddies.
My hope was to get out of shooting the posed shots. I hate, hate, hate shooting posed shots. It’s not my gift and I am not good at it at all. Plus, there was another photographer there that had a lot more experience with posing. Unfortunately, when the line of couples began to rope around the building, I was called in to pitch in and help with the posed shots. Ugh.
What I didn’t realize was that I’d end up being the one who had to edit all of the posed shots (the other photographer doesn’t own an editing program.)
With the sheer amount of photos that had to be edited, I decided to force myself to learn how to use Lightroom (which is supposed to be a lot easier to bulk edit with.) And fortunately, it is! As long as the files from your beautiful new amazing camera are compatible with your old version of LR. You guessed it. Mine weren’t.
After spending several days trying to figure out all of the issues between my computer, my new camera and LR, I finally had a chance to actually figure out the LR program…which I now love and adore thanks to Susan Keller’s patient guidance through the 300 panicked emails I sent her way.
Due to the time it took me to learn everything, I decided to edit the photos in B&W. I personally prefer B&W photos for my home and then I knew that I wouldn’t have to worry about the color issues from the terrible indoor fluorescent lighting as much. I bulk edited all of the photos and then tweaked each photo individually for some color issues that still popped up. As you can imagine, this took a tremendous amount of time.
By the time they were finished I was filled with glee that the task was finally accomplished and was thrilled to pass them off to the lady in charge of the dance.
Until I received her phone call about an hour later telling me that “they would much prefer to have all of the photos edited in color instead of B&W.”
I think the person in charge of the dance is a really incredible person, I absolutely, truly do…but at that moment in time I could feel my blood pressure soaring and it was all I could do not to sit down and cry buckets of tears. Which may (or may not) have been due to the three hours of sleep I had gotten each night for a week while I was trying to edit these photos.
But, since I never seem to be able to say no to anything…I ended up spending three more full days re-editing all of the photos in color. 
And I am now happy to report that I can move on to the photos that I love and adore…
The awesome candid shots of the beautiful little girls…and the amazing dads that spent an evening dancing with them.
And of one excited girl who kept popping her face in front of my camera to yell “HI MOM!!!!” before she scampered back to dance some more with her daddy.
P.S. Dads who dance with their daughters at the Father Daughter Dance totally ROCK. Dads who sit on the bench and talk to other dads while their daughters are dancing….BOO!
I am now going to happily head off to edit more of these little beauties.
I totally got the chills…what a WONDERFUL event for the girls AND their dads!!!
And you have the patience of a saint to redo all those images!!!
You are a saint Angie! But you got some fantastic shots. Plus your little girl is gorgeous. I hope I have a daughter one day that my husband will take to a dance just like this one
Ugh. Please tell me you were paid for this.
There pictures are charming!
Love it! And I am right there with ya… I am so totally useless when it comes to having to pose a shot. I wish everything in my photo life could be spontaneous.
OK, I want a Father/Daughter dance too!!
And YUCK on having to RE-EDIT everything! That bites!
Oh my Goodness. A Father Daughter dance…*sigh* so amazing.
Your first two photos are just so breathtaking. They gave me chills.
You did a wonderful job! I am sorry you had to do the work twice though. That stinks.
This post just made my afternoon!
Angie, beautiful!!! Wish you were at Coll's dad/daughter dance a few weeks back. I'm sure your photos would have been a heck of a lot better than the posed shot she got.
I downloaded the beta version of light room (freebee) a few weeks back and haven't touched it yet. You've inspired me… yet again.
PS My hubby was on the dance floor the entire night, per Colleen, and she was worried that he was maybe doing too much dancing because, in her words "Daddy's face was a bit red and I was worried", but they both had a blast. What wonderful memories Weslea and Bill will have of these times….
Oh Angie! I had one of those weekends last week too! In fact I wrote an email to my family saying I was on a vacation from them.. of course written in a much much nicer tone. I just told them I was exhausted and that I couldn't do any extra babysitting this week. My son told me I didn't like him anymore cause I always had other kids over… it made me cry! It was a rough week and thankfully my family understood but becaues I can never tell people no… I am always the first they come too! I love the B&W but the colored ones are still amazing too! Gotta keep the customers happy right! And I am sure you will get so many more clients from this! Great job on the pictures
Oh no…this wasn't a paid job at all. Up until now though, I felt like it was a way that I can help out the school since I rarely have time to volunteer.
I don't think I'll be able to do the posed ones next year though. It was so much work and I was so stressed out. I Heart Faces is just too time-consuming to be able to take on a task like that again.
Thank you for your commiseration with me fellow-photographers though! Most people just don't understand how much time it takes to edit photos (and I get that.) Hearing all of you commiserate with me though means a LOT.
oh NO, you dinnit?!?! Re-edit, that is. May this be the event that helps you to say NO!!!! in the future!!!
your b/w's are lovely/gorgeous/stupendous!!! (did you use the preset I raved about? if not, please tell me which you DID use. gorgeous! oh, did I say that already?) what a treasure for these students/parents.
Can't wait to see more of your wonderful candids. Joy is just stamped all over those girls' faces…
Awwww! These are wonderful:-)
I'm with Susan…I think I cried a little tear for you when you said you did the re-edits! Ahhhhh!!! What a happy event to photograph. Bravo to you, lady!
Elaine
i remember you doing this last year too and really loving all the pictures! You did a great job again. I have light room and need to figure it out better!
You are wonderful! I love the spontaneous look of your photography-beautiful emotions!
Your daughter is beautiful! Those first two images are pretty incredible
My skin crawled too when I read that you had to RE-edit *all* of those pictures. Mainly because I, like you, have problems with saying no. We come across people who really think it's easy to say "well, just do this" but it means SO much stress+work. It's over now and a lesson learned! You did great
As a Daddy myself I have to say that i love this post. I am looking forward to Father/Daughter dances! BTW the photos are beautiful and I am sure that everyone will like pose pictures you took. Nice job
I would love your feed back on my blog whenever you get a second.
I can not even believe that. Are you kidding that she asked for color? WHAT IN THE WORLD! The black and whites are so lovely. Oh my goodness. Angie. You are so nice. Way nicer than me. I am so happy you learned how to use lightroom and you love it : ) The pictures are just lovely. I just feel so bad you had to spend SO much time doing that… Oh. My. Goodness! And the photographer doesn't have an editing program? Any editing program at all? Get out of the city. Or Ohio : ). I hope you were passing out your card left and right and you get a million customers. I am going to pray that you do! : )
Weslea is SO pretty. Angelic!