And the Experiments Continue

In continuation of this shoot...I experimented a couple more times with adding texture. You never know until you try things, right?

I like how they look but it's most important for me to see what the customer likes.




One more edit that I haven't shown yet...completely dodged out the background on this one. I'll probably experiment with textures on this photo as well tomorrow night. I need to download some more textures off of flickr to try with it though. I'd like a variety to present to the customer.



Check back for more from this series.

Show Me the Texture

Thanks to a suggestion from Julie I added texture to this shot and I love the results!

I grabbed the first texture I saw and tried it out...now I'll be on the hunt for the perfect texture to try this a few different ways for the family to choose from.

I love yesterday's high key version but that's very time consuming to get right with dodging so texture is a nice option as well....makes it look like I had lots of backdrops!

I love S.'s expression in this one (she's in the middle)!

Click to view larger

3 Lovely Ladies

Aren't they the cutest Family???

I think so!

(click to view larger)

H., S. & J. were great to work with!

This is one of my favorites from their shoot!

More to come!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

My family Christmas:

What would a photographer be without their camera during the holidays...well it wouldn't be me!

These are my favorites from Christmas day. I shot them with the SB800 flash (mostly) pointed straight at the ceiling. What a great light it creates in the room when you bounce the flash!!


I love this one of my Mom:



My Cousin (he loves to make this face for photos):



My Aunt:



My Aunt & my Cousin (her son):



My Mom and the "gravy" (yeah, we're Italian...we call tomato sauce "gravy"):



My hubby & his Dad:



One of my favorites of the day... My Grandpa who we got to smile/laugh.
The pic of him I took before this one...looked like quite the grumpy gramps.



My Brother-in-law and his Fiancé:



And of course...every year I make the family pose for a group shot (thank goodness for a tripod and a remote shutter release!):



And then when everyone cleared out I asked my husband to let me take a couple of us "since the tripod was already set up!" :D I love that my dog joined in the shot!!

Giving Thanks

Today was Thanksgiving and we were blessed with beautiful weather (66 degrees).

We got together at my mother's house for Turkey dinner. I decided to take my camera (of course) and I also brought along my tripod and new Gary Fong Lightsphere.

I thought it would be nice (especially with the nice weather) to take some portraits of my family (including myself). Everyone was up for the idea so we took them right when I arrived at my mom's.

We found a nice spot outside her house and I set up the tripod, etc and joined the group for photos. The thing that made it very easy was the remote control shutter release. I could get everyone set up through the view finder and then join them with ease and snap the photo.

I made sure I tried to find a little shade but we were limited where we could take the photos where my mom lives. I used the flash (with the lightsphere) like everyone suggested and it worked really well.

We got some great shots and some fun ones too! My sister and her husband didn't arrive until it was dark so they weren't able to join in the pics but I got some nice ones of my grandfather, my aunt, my, my husband and my mom.

Check out a few below:







This was tonemapped in Photomatrix. I wanted to make it look "funky":

Family Portraits Today

Today I tried "family portraits" with my OLDEST friend in the world and her husband and daughter.

We ventured to a park near their home on this beautiful and very sunny day. It was very tough because it's hard keeping a one year old's attention. I've worked with 2 & 3 years olds and it was a lot easier with them.

I thought it would work out very well in my head but it didn't turn out like I had envisioned. But it was a first try at this.

These are learning experiences...believe me...I know that....what I've taken away is that it might not work out the first time. You may have to try several times to get it right when it comes to small children who's attention may be on things they find in the grass, ducks in the pond, people walking by, sounds, etc....These are distractions you have to look for that take their attention away form looking 'towards' the camera. It helps to have things to catch their attention such as toys they like (especially squeaking toys).

I did get some shots during the visit that are great shots of the baby with daddy, baby with mommy, or baby alone but I'm slightly disappointed in what I was able to capture of mom, dad, and baby together...which was my main focus of the shoot. They wanted a family photo possibly for their Christmas card.

I got what I consider 2 good shots where everyone looks great sitting on a blanket byt the lake but the part that was tough about those good shots was the SUN. I'm tellin' ya - the sun is my newest issue and I swear I will learn how to defeat this mortal enemy! LOL! (ok, please don't think I'm crazy...I'm just on a rant because the sun has ruined more of my portraits practices lately then I care to mention.) I also got some good family shots where they were holding the baby in standing shots.

It was such a beautiful park to photograph a beautiful family. Here is one I really like. I've applied other filters on this shot that I think came out great but here is the color version.



I've been hearing alot about exposure being "key" and to be quite honest...I know I just need to read more so I can get what that really means and understand if mastering it will really help the sun from blowing out someone's face and ruining shots. I know that I am in hurry to be 'pefect' and that's the problem. It takes time to master all of the techniques....and I guess I've only got time so I should take it slow.

As I edit more of the family photo shoot I will be adding them to my website and possibly a couple favorites here.

Worked on Restoring Old Family Photos Yesterday & Today

I spent countless hours this weekend restoring old family photos. I scanned each one and on them all in Photoshop. Photoshop is a godsend for this type of project!

They photos were in great condition so they weren't too bad to work with. I was impressed with home well they were preserved - with some being close to 100 years old!

I'm happy to have done this work for my family and I know they will treasure them.

(click to view the photos larger)