Smorgasbord

We've had a lot of family things going on recently and I've been shooting a ton. I haven't shared any personal pictures on this blog in awhile, so here are a few of my favorites from the past month.







One of my sweet neighbor children.


More of the sweet neighbor children (Emma's in the middle stroller). And they're all from one family! A great family we feel lucky to live by.


Here's T., a neighbor boy.


And T. again. He was photogenic this day.


Emma and Daddy!


She LOVES the swings!


About one week before she really started walking all over the place.


I love having a daughter.


And a dog. This is our first "daughter," Bailey.


Maybe my favorite picture EVER.




My teenage brother-in-law, Wyatt.


Isn't he a cutie?




I love this one, too.


Whoa, so serious.






I've got a bunch of sessions coming up and a bunch I need to schedule. Now that the last of our big family events has come and gone (for the time being), I have a few free weekend days that I fully plan to fill up with photo shoots. I have to sincerely apologize to everyone who's been waiting for me to schedule a session. I can't wait for all the pictures I'm going to be taking very soon!

Jackson again

I realized that before I continued on with my Lucas and Lauren pictures that I still had a bunch of pictures from my shoot with Jackson and his three women! Here are more pictures from my shoot with Baby Jackson, Katia and her mother and grandmother. I'm still really learning how to use my flash (SB-800) and I have NOT mastered it yet. Really. I need to practice with this a LOT and maybe find some good resources to teach me. I am still much happier shooting in natural light.

Here are links to the other two posts of shoots I've done with the Long family:
November 2008
January 2009
I LOVE this one of Katia and Jackson! I love it in color, too.

Doesn't he just have the best eyes and the cutest little baby pout?

I think I should have lightened up Jackson's face in this one a little bit more. I don't care for how everything is all the same shade of gray. But I love his yawn.

This one of Jackson in his crib was cute in color too (the shade of pale green Katia picked for Jackson's walls is awesome) but I couldn't figure out the right white balance to use in the room ... the lighting was really tricky and the color version never quite looked right to me. But check out those sweet pictures above the crib of Katia when she was pregnant. Beautiful!

Here's one where the flash seemed to work out okay.

Love that little caterpillar rocker!

Lighting challenge

So at bathtime tonight, I grabbed my camera to see if I could handle the poor lighting challenges. Our bathroom does not have a window to the outside, so I had very yellow-tinged photos, even after I altered my white balance. I fixed most of the color problems in PhotoShop but thought these looked even more precious in B&W. I added a bunch of new things I learned in PhotoShop and am pretty happy with all of these images. Though I'm feeling a little unsure about posting pictures of my child in the bathtub on the web, even when they're not revealing. Hmm...she is my most willing (and most photogenic) practice subject, but is it right to put so many images of her on here? She has no idea how much I'm exploiting her cuteness to the world at large. Not sure. I'm going to think on this for awhile.

James was right there behind her, ready to catch her if her feet slipped. She's so proud of herself for standing up and does it all the time now. She's pretty agile on those little baby feet, too. I like to think it's the dancer in her, of course.

Have you ever seen a baby who smiles as much as mine? :) Even when she's cranky, she still cracks a bunch of smiles for us whenever we ask for them.

Inquisitive. Always questioning.

Lovin' on the bathtime! And lovin' on the fact that Mommy is getting the hang of handling poor lighting conditions! Yippee for her! And for clean, yummy-smelling babies.
And just for a reference point, here's what one of the pictures looked like in full color, after some minor editing in PhotoShop. Not too shabby? A little too yellow/red still, maybe ... and I could lighten it up a bunch ... but I still like it! LOVE the kid, of course.

My practice model

I'm having so much fun with my camera. I feel like we have an entirely new relationship. Like I KNOW HOW SHE WORKS NOW! We know how to work together to get the pictures we've been wanting for years. I also have learned a bunch more about PhotoShop and it is really helping me to edit pictures even better than before. That being said, now that my camera and I have a more personal relationship, I don't need PhotoShop as much because my SOOC (straight-out-of-the-camera) pictures look better when I use the settings properly. Like these pictures of my dear child. I hardly edited them at all. I bumped back the levels just a teensy-tiny bit and that's it. I think I sharpened one of them just a tad.
Since my daughter lives with me, she's my main model. So as I practice with new ideas, she'll be the face you see on this blog often. Even so, I have a bunch of shoots lined up and in the works coming up soon, hopefully. I have a lot of friends who would like some Christmas pictures ... I'm so excited.

And so is Emma. She recently started pulling herself up to her knees (ALL the time) and to a standing position (some of the time)! She's so sweet and independent and quite resilient when she loses her balance and takes a little tumble.

Ooh, and check out my family blog for a DELICIOUS pumpkin cookie recipe ... and pictures of the delightful little treats too, of course. :)