About Me

My name is Rita and I live in the great state of Texas. I work at home on this blog and as a part-time instructor over at The Graphics Fairy while homeschooling my two amazing sons (Luke, 16 and Isaac, 14) and am married to my best friend Paul. We were high school sweethearts (well, I was in high school, he was a college boy!) and we met at the small town grocery store where I worked slicing deli meats and selling cookies and cakes. B.C. (before children) I worked in a molecular biology and biochemical lab for many years doing serious research that did not involve cloning pets but did involve other interesting things like running big lasers and growing cells from cow eyeballs. But I digress...

I am completely addicted to digital design, photography, and enhancing my photos with Photoshop and Lightroom. I am a firm believer that anyone who wants to can take great photos, and you don't have to have an expensive top-of-the-line lens, huge pricey camera body,or fancy photo-editing software to do it. You can take a great photo with any camera phone or cheap camera. Great photography is about capturing that one amazing moment in time.

I have an iPhone 8, Canon EOS Rebel T2i body, Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8, Canon 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6,  Canon 50mm f/1.8, and a complete need to take hundreds of photos a week. Nothing I own is really fancy or expensive, but I never bought into whoever has the best toy wins. I do find myself using my iPhone camera all of the time. :-)

The reason I started this blog and give away my actions and other goodies for free are twofold. First, I create these things for my own use, and I decided that it would be fun to share them. I absolutely love staying at home with my two boys and would have it no other way, but I also have the need to keep on learning and experimenting. I remember how difficult it was to find freebies out there with free commercial terms of use, so I wanted to thank those bloggers back that shared things with me. Second, the selling of my Mega Download Pack and ads help support my site so I can work at home.

And in case you are wondering about my CoffeeShop name, I worked for a small coffeehouse as a barista in my 20's for a year (a second job to make some extra money) and that is where I developed my love for coffee and tea. Drinking all of this caffeine has made this blog possible. So I dedicate CoffeeShop Photography to all of those coffeebeans that were not grown/roasted/ground/brewed/and enjoyed for vain!

If you want to contact me the best way is leave a note over at the CoffeeShop Facebook page. 

Rita

If you love using my free CoffeeShop creations and would like to make a donation to Rita the self-professed geek of CoffeeShop, please click on the donate button! This blog is possible because of your generous support.