Entry for March 24, 2008

This week spring finally arrived!  The pear trees are all in bloom and I can’t wait to get out in the sunshine and take pictures!  To get the spring fever out I took Ella outside for some pictures in the “Popcorn” trees.  It was a VERY windy day so her hat ended up giving her more of a Smurf look rather than “Sound of Music” which is what I was going for.  But I still think that the pictures came out great.

 

We had a major hail storm recently, it was pretty scary!  One second the whole world was bright and sunny, and the next a huge black cloud was overhead and the hail was coming down so fast that I couldn’t the back fence in my yard!  After it was over I got some pictures, I can’t believe how much hail fell in just 3 or 4 minutes!

 

 

This Saturday I got to photograph a family of 11!  It was so much fun to do such a big group.  The family was Grandma and Grandpa, their 5girls, the oldest daughter’s husband and 3 children.  This combination of people gave us so many different poses and groupings to shoot.  We ended up with over 80 proofs in the hour and a half that I was there.  The family was not only fun but they had great style, I loved the bright blue shirts that the girls wore, they were so vibrant! 

 

 

I just wanted to remind everyone about the Tot’s 2 Teen’s sale that I will be at this weekend.  This is a huge consignment sale that also rents out booths to local businesses.  There will be tons of stuff there and I will be giving out coupons for free pictures at my booth.  You can find out information about the sale at their MySpace page http://www.myspace.com/tots2teensalabama

 

Have a great week!

Entry for March 16, 2008

I had my sister Kerri over recently to model for me.  I got this gypsy scarf at a renaissance fair and had an idea for a neat picture.  Ella wasn’t too sure about letting her auntie take her place in front of the camera.  Ella was especially upset about Kerri playing with the scarf.  Ella was so upset that we were having trouble keeping her away from Kerri and the set so I gated her off in the kitchen so we could continue.  Her hysterical crying cut the session short, but we got what we wanted so it didn’t matter.  I let Ella out of her prison and she shot out towards the set and pushed Kerri away with a NO!  Then she grabbed the scarf and wrapped it around herself and proceeded to copy the pose that Kerri had been in!  I grabbed my camera and started shooting as Ella reenacted the whole photo shoot.  I got some great shots of Ella too, and it was so funny!  I guess the way to get Ella to pose for me is to try to take pictures of someone else so she gets jealous.  Here are some of my favorites from the session. 

 

The trees have begun to show their blooms around here and the world looks and smells like spring!  I am so excited for my family Easter shoot this weekend and I hope that the flowers are still out by then.  I was worried that the hailstorm we had yesterday was going to take all the blooms off but most of them managed to survive.  Hopefully we will have a great spring season full of color and warmth!  I will post some Easter pictures in next weeks entry!

 

For this week’s photo tip I wanted to talk about getting natural expressions from your kids.  If you are trying to take a portrait of a small child, don’t make the experience scary.  When I have small children in my studio, I let them look at, touch and even hold my camera.  When you make something forbidden to a child, it becomes either instantly fascinating and they want to have it, have it, HAVE It! Or it becomes scary to them and they want to run away.  When I give them a chance to see and touch the camera, they are usually less scared and less interested in it after they are done taking a look.   Chances are as long as you are there beside them helping them to explore the camera they are not going to drop it or break it.  Getting them familiar with the camera this way is well worth the risk and helps them to become comfortable around the equipment much faster.

 Don’t yell and shout to you kid and tell them to “sit up” “look at me”  “Smile”.  This only gets both you and the kid frustrated.  I usually just let the kids play with something on the set, and then every once and a while call their name or ask them a question.  When they look up, their expressions are more real and genuine, and more “them” than the stiff posed forced smiles. Talk to the kids about something they love… Spongebob, Cinderella, Cars, whatever they are into.  Ask them silly questions about their hobbies and families.  You will get some great shots of the kids being themselves.  I had a boy a couple of weeks ago, who loves to shoot his BB gun with his dad, I asked him some questions about it and I got a great shot of him showing me how to shoot a gun.  This picture shows his personality much more than a sit-and-smile does.

 

This can be difficult, especially with your own child.  I will do sessions, like the outdoors ones I showed examples of a couple of weeks ago, where I don’t get a single good picture of Ella looking at me and smiling, but I usually get several where her personality shines.  Don’t get frustrated at the picture of your kids back as they run away after whatever has captured their attention, treasure it as a photograph of the true essence of childhood and the wonderment that it captures.  I have several pictures like this that I love because it shows how much joy Ella gets from running.  Sometimes the pictures most treasured are the ones of kids just being kids.

Entry for March 10, 2008

This week the flu of doom was still ruling will full force, so not much was done. I do want to share some snapshots of Ella with you.

When Ella was about 4 months old we took her to the playground for the first time, she loved the swings and was pretty much unimpressed with the rest. I took some photographs of her to document the occasion. When Ella was just over a year, I decided to take some matching pictures to show before and after pictures of how much she had grown. It was amazing to see how much my little girl had changed. Last week at the playground I did this again, now that Ella is almost 2. Here are my snaps of Ella growing up at the playground.

Last weekend I was supposed to attend the Tots2Teens consignment sale. I rented a booth to advertise my photography, and I had flyers with a great special printed up for the people who attended. Unfortunately, the weather was TERRIBLE and the sale was postponed, so now the sale will be on the 28^th and 29^th of March. I will still be in attendance, at least for part of it as I have another important event to go to on the morning of Saturday the 29^th. Here is the flyer for the event, I hope I will see some of you there, I will be giving away free pictures! Click on the thumbnail to see the full size flyer.

Entry for March 2, 2008

Well, my family is still struggling in the depths of sickness!  While my husband and daughter and finally over the worst of the symptoms, I have unfortunately come down with it too.  As a result, I don’t have a lot to share this week, but I wanted to post some pictures from a recent session, and that photo tip I promised last week!

 

Here are some pictures of a little baby during her first of her “baby grow up” sessions.  She will have a session at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months to document her first year.  So keep your eye out for this little beauty!  I also snapped some pictures of her big brother, who was such a pleasure to work with.

 

For your photo tip I took a trip to the playground with my family to get some samples of natural frames.  When you are composing a shot of your children, look for natural frames to bring the focus over to your subject.  You can use just about anything, windows, trees, poles, branches, tires.  Anything that looks interesting and enhances the pictures can be a frame.  Your frame can be on 2, 3 or all 4 sides.  It is usually better for your frame to be darker than your subject, so that it doesn’t become distracting.  Here are some examples taken the one day this week that everyone felt human!