Janie and Joseph - 3 month shoot

It's unbelievable how much babies grow and change during their first year of life. Here's some of my favorites from Janie and Joe's 3 month photo shoot.

Janie looking sassy! Such a cutie!

And here's another one of her, this time laying on a blanket her great grandmother made.

I still think she looks just like a little doll, don't you?

And here's Joe as cute as ever!

After doing this shoot, I've decided to hold off on purchasing studio lights--for now. All of these photos, except for the one outdoor shot, were taken using my on-camera flashgun. I recently read a book by Neil van Niekerk about his on-camera flash techniques, and his results are absolutely amazing. Anyone interested in learning more should give it a read or at the very least check out his website. I was pretty happy with the way these came out. Can you tell these were done with a flash?

Such a beautiful family!

Tonya with Mr. Joe. So sweet!

Little Janie was talking in this one. Ha ha!

It's the Joe's! Don't you think Joe looks just like his dad and Janie looks just like her mom?

Priceless...

I still can't get over how much they've changed from 2-1/2 months ago.

And we included their grandpa in these last few images. He's not proud or anything.  ;-)

I absolutely love the expressions in this shot. Such a sweet baby. Don't you just want to pinch those little cheeks?

Thank you for letting me capture these special memories for you! It was so much fun!  =)

Senior Portraits 2011

I really enjoy photographing senior portraits; they're so much fun! And I had the pleasure of working with the sweetest mother and daughter ever! And if that wasn't enough, she was stunningly beautiful to boot!

We had such rich lighting that evening!

This one reminds me a bit of Alice in Wonderland. This photo just has a certain sweetness to it.  =)

Believe it or not--a train actually came down the tracks as we were leaving. Too funny!

I love the way the vines in the background twist around just like her gorgeous locks of hair.

And I love, love, love the rustic feel of this building--it goes perfectly with her cute outfit!

Thank you so much for letting me capture such a special moment! Best wishes to you in all your future endeavors!!!  =)

Water Drop Experiment

Well, this evening I played around with photographing water droplets once again. This time I used my shiny reflector instead of a piece of foamboard. AND I took a picture of my setup so you all could see what I was talking about in my previous post.  ;-)

Janie and Joseph

Last Saturday I was lucky enough to photograph my cousin’s precious 3-week-old twins. And my cousin just so happens to be a twin herself—how cool is that!? Now, the prime time to take newborn portraits is when babies are 7 to 10 days old, because they usually sleep very soundly. But for being 3-weeks-old Janie and Joseph did really well. I wasn’t able to pose them as much as I would’ve liked (they stirred easily), but overall they tolerated me. Ha! Joe even woke up for the 2^nd half of the shoot and didn’t fuss a bit. Tonya, you have some AWESOME kiddos! I can’t wait to watch them grow up and see how their little personalities develop! Hope you all enjoy the photos!

Here’s Janie and Joseph snoozing away. Don’t they look like two little angels?

Janie’s wearing a custom, vintage headband that was handmade by the talented ladies at Bitter Berry Boutique. Go check out their page on Facebook. They sell all kinds of unique items!

Sweet baby Janie.

I just love baby feet! Here’s Janie’s cute little toes with her mom and dad’s wedding rings. I really wanted Joe with his Dad’s ring and Janie with her Mom’s ring in the same shot, BUT Joe’s feet were apparently a little more ticklish than his sister’s.  =)

Look at those cute chubby cheeks! Doesn’t he look like he’s sleeping in a little nest?

I have big plans for this old wash tub I bought awhile back. This is one use for it. I just couldn’t help myself. Joe was so cute. He didn’t mind posing at all.

Baby Joe again. Such a cutie!

Joe LOVED this rug! It must be pretty comfy. He looks so peaceful in this shot. He has such a sweet expression on his face.

Joe is a very laid-back baby, as you can see.

Isn’t Janie a doll? I just want to pinch those little cheeks! So cute!

And here’s a photo of the twins in their going home outfits. I LOVE their little hats!!!

My recent water drop experiment...

I like a good challenge; so I decided to try my hand at photographing a water droplet as it hits the water. I wasn't super happy with my first attempt. Plus, it was a pain to set up. However, after a little more thought--my second try went much smoother. This particular shot does involve some photography know how, but more than anything it's just luck. It kind of reminds me of shooting lightening photos (except this is much less dangerous.)  ;-) 

For these particular shots I used a 70-300mm lens in macro mode. I had my camera set on 1/180 sec. at f/6.7, ISO 100. I placed a blue glass bowl in my kitchen sink, filled it with water and turned the faucet on a steady drip. Then, I took a piece of white foam board and placed it between my back splash and the faucet at a slight angle (with the bottom of the board touching the backsplash and the top part leaning against the back of my faucet.) Next I took a wireless flash and placed it so that when it fired it would light up the middle part of my foam board. Hope this makes sense for anyone who would like to play around with this type of shot. I apologize, I'll try to remember to take a photo of my setup next time I make a post like this.

And with my camera on a tripod, I just started clicking away. Focusing was a little tricky. On my third attempt I'll try playing around with my lighting technique a little more. It would be nice if I could maybe use f/8 instead of f/6.7 next time. I strive for perfection. I'm not there yet on this, but I'll get there.

Note: If you don't have a blue glass bowl you can probably just set your white balance to tungsten--that should give you an overall nice blue color.

And here are a few of the pics!  =)

More posts to come! Thanks for stopping by!