Elaina’s First Birthday and Baptism

It’s seems like yesterday, when I first photographed little Elaina.  I couldn’t believe it was already a year, when her parents asked me cover her 1st birthday and baptism.  This kid is so photogentic.  She loves getting right up to the camera.  Congratulations Kelly and Dave for a healthy and happy 1st year!  The party was great, with the added bonus of a banana bread cake!  When it comes to desserts I am a sucker. 

On the photography  end of things, I have been taking a great liking to the Gary Fong lightsphere.  It seems to work wonders when bounced off ceilings, and the nice thing is you get that fill light from the front as well.  So far it was worked excellent for me.  I have used it on one wedding and a bunch of portraits.  I will give it a test with a live music shoot this Friday. 

Enough with the rambling, here are some of my favorites from the day:

She was full of expressions

Mother and daughter

Playing with daddy!

This was the most impressive cupcake/yoodle display I have ever seen!

Fixing her braclet

Those are some small shoes!

The baby looking at a photobook of herself with family.

A bachelor's of baptism!

Sharing a moment with grandma

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I am gonna huff, and puff..."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My personal favorite of the day!

Babies Babies and More Babies!

Up Close and Personal!

I don’t do a lot of baby portraits, but when I do, I must say that I am very lucky because the little ones seem to be just drawn to me and the camera.  This series of images is from a recent session with three different babies.  I was blessed to shoot in one of my favorite locations, a cottage that by itself, is a nice little portrait studio.  It features white walls, ceilings, and gorgeous light at almost anytime of day.  No need to setup lights.  I simply just bounce the flash and drag the shutter to get a nice soft, flat, light.  The ambient build up quite nicely and works as a great rims light if positioned correctly.  This little girl just loved the camera.  I was down at floor level, and just let her crawl towards me.  I was amazed at how close she got!  I had a 24-70 lens on a 40d body.  I know it is a goofy shot, but the awkward head size and expression sold me.  Normally, I shoot RAW.  In this situation, the lighting was so consistant and simple, I decided to shoot JPEG’s to save space on my cards.  I personally, love my images to jump with color right from the camera.  My simple way of doing this is by using the built in profiles that the camera has called “Picture Styles”.  I always leave my camera set on “landscape” as it gives me a nice combination of sharpness, and saturation, right out of camera.  I always try and go for warm, colorful skin tones, but always try to keep them somewhat in line.  I also, usually set my kelvin in camera to warm up the flash a little.  The next two images were shot using a 70-200 IS lens.  I was able to back up a little and throw the background out of focus.  To sum up all of this, when you are blessed with decent light, keep it simple and use your surroundings.  They can be walls, ceilings, or floors.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baby Paige Christening

Canon 40D with 24-70MM f2.8L lens. Canon 580EX, stroboframe, with stofen diffuser.

I was asked this past weekend to shoot a baby Christening.  Once again, the pressure was on to get some decent photos with little light, and a difficult angle.  This photo is of baby Paige and her godfather Jaime.  I liked this composition and moment the best out of all the shots I had taken.  To balance with ambient, I chose a shutter speed of  1/40 sec at F4.5.  I used my typical “event” shooting setup for this:  a 580ex mounted on a stroboframe with a stofen diffuser.  Getting the flash above the camera is key to avoiding red eye.  I always do a custom white balance for the flash, because I like my photos warm.  With consist light, the easiest way for me to shoot is in manual, controlling the background with ISO and shutter and flash with aperture.  I don’t usually do events like this, but it is a great opportunity to challenge myself and to try and be as creative as possible on the spot.