STOP ASKING ME TO DO MY JOB FOR FREE: A guide to being a decent friend to a photographer

October 21, 2014 by 2birdsbonnie

                                        Topaz Labs December Promo Code: INTROGLOW Raise your hand if you have a friend who is a photographer.  Now, raise your hand if you’ve ever asked that friend to do their job for free.  No seriously.  RAISE YOUR HAND. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU.  Because you’ve all done it.  How do I know?  Because I have a lot of friends […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Bonnie Al-Rifai, charge what you're worth, Photography, photography has a value, two creative birds photography

We don’t shoot weddings often…because they’re boring…except when they’re NOT.

October 12, 2014 by 2birdsbonnie

We don’t shoot many weddings because honestly, they make me snore.  So you KNOW that if I’m photographing YOUR wedding, it is because I think it is going to be out there and kick ass.  As much as I dislike weddings, I LOVE LOVE LOVE photographing them when they are creative, wild and unique.  I’ve never shot a wedding I didn’t love.  EVER.  I am so thankful that the couples that are drawn to our work are couples we are equally […]

Categories: Two Birds Weddings • Tags: bonnie and gabe two creative birds, conceptual photography, Two Creative Birds Weddings, Wedding photography

A tornado sucks the Happy out of Happy, Tx: Using Topaz Impression to create my favorite image for Bunny Danger Awesome Slash Trouble

October 5, 2014 by 2birdsbonnie

The STORY Every year I spend time in the summer in Amarillo, TX appreciating the Panhandle in a way that I’m fairly certain most people don’t.  Amarillo has enough artsy quirks to inspire me for years and there is no trip I anticipate more, knowing the entire time will be spent worry free and creating. Rewind time back to 1995 when my best friend Meredith and I decided to take our Amarillo trip a step further than usual.  We packed […]

Categories: Bunny Danger Awesome Slash Trouble • Tags: Bonnie Al-Rifai, bonnie and gabe two creative birds, Bunny Danger Awesome Slash Trouble, photoshop, topaz impression, topaz labs

Bunny Danger Awesome Slash Trouble: Creating a painting to introduce Chicken and Bunny using Topaz Impression and Alien Skin Eye Candy

September 29, 2014 by 2birdsbonnie

    I’m thrilled to release the next image in my Bunny Danger Awesome Slash Trouble series. This one took several agonizing months of taking a concept I had shot and deciding exactly how I wanted to piece it together. Knowing what I want it to look like in my head and making that appear on the screen are two very different things for me and isn’t something that just comes to me without a few tantrums and an aching […]

Categories: Bunny Danger Awesome Slash Trouble, Uncategorized • Tags: Bonnie Al-Rifai, bonnie al-rifai photography, bonnie and gabe two creative birds, Bunny Danger Awesome Slash Trouble, conceptual fine art photography

Achieving a dark, matte finish in Photoshop: Bunny Danger Awesome Slash Trouble: “Chicken Sightings”

September 18, 2014 by 2birdsbonnie

If you’ve been following my Bunny Danger Awesome Slash Trouble series, you’ll know that each one takes me ages to work on and has tons of compositing involved.  This one however, is probably the only one in the entire series that was “easy”.  There wasn’t any compositing involved and it was just a series of tricks I use to get the consistent coloring and toning that I use in all of the BDAST images.   After Bunny Danger spends time […]

Categories: Bunny Danger Awesome Slash Trouble • Tags: bonnie al-rifai photography, bonnie and gabe two creative birds, Bunny Danger Awesome Slash Trouble, conceptual fine art photography, photoshop tutorial, topaz labs, two creative birds

An EASY light set up for shooting glass by Two Creative Birds Photography

September 11, 2014 by 2birdsbonnie

I have a client who wants to photograph her glass art.  She showed me some examples of what she wanted and it looked beautiful, but challenging.  I started to look online and found that most of the tutorials looked like I needed to go out and buy some expensive items to make it happen.  Plexiglass tables aren’t cheap and I’m on a serious budget. So, I decided to take bits and pieces from different tutorials and wander around my house […]

Categories: Tutorials, Uncategorized • Tags: bonnie and gabe two creative birds, glass lighting, glass photography, lighting set ups, photography tutorials, photoshop, topaz adjust, tutorials

Quick and Easy Removal of Dust From a Photo in Photoshop by Two Creative Birds

September 6, 2014 by 2birdsbonnie

Hey kids! Working on this picture that I shot with a macro lens which showed every flake of dust floating in the air I became frustrated with using the healing brush. (which I accidentally called the eraser tool in my video, so no need to message me to tell me I was a fool for thinking I had used the eraser when I hadn’t….) Then my Vyvanse kicked in and I remembered I know a quick trick for getting rid […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: bonnie al-rifai photography, photoshop tutorial, quick and easy removal of dust, tutorials, two creative birds

Putting a face to ALS for the people who are tired of the ice bucket challenge

August 23, 2014 by 2birdsbonnie

I’m not a band wagon girl. Never have been. I didn’t go to the school pep rallies, I don’t play candy crush and I don’t post cryptic messages about bra colors to spread awareness of things that aren’t obvious. But when I heard about the ice bucket challenge, I knew this was one band wagon I was getting on. Why? Because of this beautiful child. Kaitlin was a student at the school that I used to teach at and as […]

Categories: Ice Bucket Challenge • Tags: ice bucket challenge, kaitlin geoffrion, two creative birds

Getting Kids Out of the Summer Funk With Creative Movie Making

August 13, 2014 by 2birdsbonnie

Sick of hearing your kids moan about how bored they are this summer?  It’s easy enough to end their summer with an absolute BANG. I LOVE having a boy.  Absolutely love it.  But I hate playing fighting games.  There’s something programmed in his DNA that turned that cute little finger that used to just hold my hand while it was filled with nothing but sweetness and baby love into a pistol.  That gun comes out every time I blink. “Mom, […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: bonnie and gabe two creative birds, creative kids, jubafilms, kids, movie making for kids, sony action cam

Bunny Danger Awesome Slash Trouble: Bunny Peeks In Edit and Instagram Contest Winner Announced!

August 13, 2014 by 2birdsbonnie

Triple loads of excitement today with this post.  I get to share my newest Bunny Danger Image, announce the winner of my #bunnydangercontest from Instagram, and share this month’s Topaz Labs promo code. Thank you to everyone who shared and participated in my storytelling contest.  I learned some valuable lessons about Instagram contests this go around. I’m absolutely thrilled with who won and I think his work is very deserving.  But my beef with Instagram contests being determined by likes is […]

Categories: Bunny Danger Awesome Slash Trouble, Uncategorized • Tags: bonnie al-rifai photography, bonnie and gabe two creative birds, Bunny Danger Awesome Slash Trouble, conceptual fine art photography