Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

On a Roll...

Keira

I had a session with this cutie tonight.

More Practice....

Well, it''s late (or should I say early?) and I should be sleeping... but I was pretty excited about what I'm learning and that usually makes for a restless night. So, rather than toss and turn, I thought I'd come down and blog a bit.

In my last post I shared some photos I had taken with my flash. I was happy that I managed to take them and still capture the lights from the tree... BUT, I knew that I needed to do better still to do the kind of job at the wedding that I want to do! Some of my photos were just plain unacceptable and my success rate was probably 1 out of 3 or 4 photos. Not good enough! Plus I couldn't get enough depth of field in my shots for more than 1 person. So... I did a little more research to learn how to do this with my strobes. I won't bore you with the details about how this shot was taken (unless someone out there really wants to know!).... BUT, I can now take a picture, capture the lights in the background, and be confident that it will come out sharp even with a moving subject and get the depth of field that I will need for a larger group! YIPEE!!! I still have some practice to do and testing with different scenarios. But I'm making huge strides and getting way more confident that I can get the photos I want to get. :)

Very fun!!!!

***EDIT*** For anyone that is interested in the 'technical details' of this shot you can visit my other blog here.

Practice Makes Perfect!

We certainly have a wide assortment of ornaments! Be My Valentine????

It's been fun to see the kids pick out an ornament each year and watch how their tastes change. And it certainly makes for an interesting tree!!

I took these pix mainly to practice for Heather's daughter's wedding... I need to be able to capture the lights and still get a nice exposure on the people. So, rather than use a tripod, I used my flash. Using a flash will often totally overpower the lights on the Christmas tree or candles... but of course there are tricks to getting around this! Using a slow shutter speed allows more ambiant light in and the flash freezes the subject. Without a flash a tripod would have been a must!! Anywayz, I certainly haven't perfected it yet! Hopefully by the beginning of January I'll have it down pat. :)

I also purchased a starburst filter for one of my lenses. Don't you love the effect it has on the lights????

The Christmas Rush

I've been busy, busy, busy with Christmas portraits....

This was probably the hardest shoot yet - except of course weddings!

Because it was so tough I learned a ton!

Which is always a good thing.

And it's causing me to research a bit how to improve my photos technically.

So, in the end I am thankful it was such a challenging shoot!

I'm sorry I haven't been around much....

Joshua...

I'm almost done with the pictures of little Joshua! I should be done by tomorrow!! But I thought I'd post a few more for everyone....

Josh really didn't like stripping down for us. And decided to get even all over Mom!

Mommy Kisses...

I finally got a chance to meet and photograph little Josh. We actually took pictures on Thursday and then again on Friday cuz he just wasn't in the mood on Thursday! I will have more to share later... but I wanted to get something up today!!

Subscribe!

Now you can receive an email everytime I update my blog - just subscribe using the button to the left!

And if anyone else decides to add this to their blog - please let me know! Sure would make checking up on everyone much easier. (hint, hint!!!)

More Babies...

I took the proofs over to mom today.

She nearly cried when she saw this one....

After we did the black and white ones she wanted some high-key color portraits.

She was so happy to be standing and climbing.

I quickly snap, snapped, snapped

and decided we'd better get her dressed for some more 'formal' shots

before she lost interest...

Maybe she was mad that we interrupted her when she was having so much fun?

But I couldn't resist taking a couple of crying baby shots!

Thankfully mom was able to distract her for just a couple more!

And then she was DONE for good!

I always try and include a couple of collages with all my portrait shoots.

It was so fun to do portraits again!

I have 3 more photo shoots coming up in the next 2 weeks.

How exciting!!!

Plus a stock shoot.

Busy, busy, busy!!!!

BABIES!

I had a photo session with this cutie today. Mom wanted high contrast studio photos. And she loves black and white as well as sepia. I haven't finished processing/editing yet.... I'm hoping to get those finished up within the next couple of days. Then I'm off to photograph little Josh! :)

One nice thing about this session.... Mom told me exactly what she wanted! She kept apologizing for being so particular... but if you want a photo a certain way be sure to tell the photographer! Better then ending up with photos you just aren't happy with!!

My prayer for every session is that somehow my photos would bless the client....

Christmas

Thanksgiving is over... and now it's time to think about Christmas.

Brett and Jessi put up the tree today.

I just took pictures! :)

This might be our last Christmas together as a family.

Brian's talking about getting his own apartment soon.

Where did the time go???

True Confessions...

This is what saved our Thanksgiving! haha!!! (actually, it wasn't Stovetop stuffing.... but it was a mix non-the-less). I just couldn't bring myself to attempt all that cooking without a little help on such short notice.

Thanksgiving Dinner

The dinner was all made and we were sitting at the table and Brett says, "Well, for a throw together dinner it's not bad." Hahaha!!!

Sure hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!!

Change of Plans....

Well, we HAD a plan. We were going to go to a friends house for Thanksgiving. BUT their son is pretty sick so we cancelled. That means I'm making Thanksgiving dinner after-all!

I did a last minute run to Wegmans, got a turkey and some fixings.... I found the smallest fresh turkey I could (11 lbs).

There won't be a pie...

But we have some other goodies.
Turkey, stuffing a mashed potatoes...
Rolls, cranberry sauce and
Lots of fruit - YUM!
And I baked some cookies and have the makings for s'mores.
I forgot a vegetable (it wouldn't be the same if I hadn't forgotten something!) - but Brett said he'd run out tomorrow and get something.

It'll be a nice relaxing Thanksgiving at home.
Except for the fact that I hafta cook it! haha!

Prayer Need

Heather's had stomach pains for about a month now. We've been to emergency FOUR times in the past couple of weeks. (twice this past weekend.) Last night they FINALLY gave her pain medication and we got our appointment with the GI Specialist moved up from the 27th to tomorrow. I feel like the doctors are beginning to listen.... But now we need for them to find out what the problem is.

Bored???

Click here only if you are REALLY bored!

Pink Diva

Jessi has been begging me to take pictures... I've kind of put it off -not only cuz I'm so busy with other photo shoots, but because I knew that this shoot would require a white backdrop and I struggle with white backdrops. *sigh* But today I finally did the shoot with her. She came up with all kinds of ideas so they weren't just portraits. And did a great job all around!!

I spent the better part of the evening editing.... (making the white backdrop white!) But the good news, I took far fewer pictures than in the past and got just as many keepers and more variety to boot! So, all in all I was very happy with the results.

I still have a TON more to edit. Maybe I'll post some more when I get them done....

But I have another shoot with Rachael tomorrow.... gonna take her back to the hardware store for some more Christmas shots so I will edit those first and foremost.

Tagged

Tagged!

Bethany tagged me.

Rules: Once tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list 8 random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to 8 other people, visit their sites, and leave a comment letting them know they’ve been tagged.

1. I like funky socks.
2. I've been craving dill pickles lately. (nope, not pregnant!)
3. My second toe is shorter than my big toe.
4. My legs have red blotches on them from my laptop.
5. I joined a gym a couple of months ago and try and work out 3x's a week.
6. I now own the entire Little House on the Prarie series on DVD.
7. My humming bird feeder is still haning outside.
8. I have no idea what to make for dinner tonight! (Actually I rarely have any idea of what to make for dinner - my poor, deprived family!)

Hmmm.... now who on earth will I tag????

Christmas Stock

I had another session with Rachael yesterday. First we headed over to the bus garage to take pictures of her in her school uniform as if she were getting on and off the bus. Then her older brother joined us for some Christmas pictures. The local hardware store was kind enough to let us take pictures in front of one of their fire place displays. We are planning on doing a few more pictures upstairs on Friday where they have lots of Christmas decorations for sale. (The last picture was taken upstairs next to one of their display trees.)

Her mom has lots more ideas - so this model will be keeping me plenty busy! :)

Lil Indian Girl

I went out with my model again today. We had plans to go to a teepee at a local farm market and take some pix in her Indian Costume... but unfortunately, the teepee was rather sad looking and so we opted to just take some in front of a little bush.

I think I'm learning a little bit about younger models... give 'em something to DO in a photo shoot and they have the time of their lives! I think she would have raked my entire yard for me if I left her to it. haha!!!