Archives for June 2011

This photo session was a dream Alaska photo session!! We gardened, played in the woods, picked flowers, rode 4-wheelers, played in a dirt pile, and chased the many dogs around. The weather was a gorgeous Alaska summer day, warm enough for shorts and cool enough for a long-sleeve T.

I had so much fun with this family! I felt like this was a “a day in the life” photo shoot which I have always dreamed of doing. We arrived during blueberry pancakes for breakfast and ended the day with a picnic lunch! The girls weren’t so sure they wanted to play with me because there was a lot of other things going on but with a little bribery and some great strategizing by their amazing mom we convinced them to hang out with me. Thank you guys for playing with me! I even go to see their secret fort and eat their porridge!

I know it’s not Friday but it’s summer vacation so the days are irrelevant, right?

I have been asked a lot lately if I do weddings. There are many reasons why I don’t at this moment in time but it is something I am working towards. I read this latest post from one of my all-time favorite “celebrity” wedding photographers and my heart jumped. I’d love to help someone like this at an incredibly important time in their lives. Family is what it’s all about.

Check out this picture of the bride and her very ill Grandmother taken by Cliff Mautner and posted as his Image of the Week for June 24th.

Have a great weekend!

This is how I spent my morning. The Alaska summer light melts my heart, mix that with a gorgeous, squishy newborn and I’m a melted mess.

Look at this handsome big brother!

I had so much fun photographing Darian. The lighting was perfect, just until the thunder and lightening storm came.

Two tips for today. First, use the light. This was around 6pm. A great time for some soft light if you have a few trees like we do to diffuse the light a bit. I did practically no editing to this photo. This was how the light was.

I personally like the bottom photo best of these two because it is more intimate. I took the first so that in case they stopped what they were doing before I got there that I at least captured the idea. I would have like to have gotten down even more at there level. The idea here, especially with children, catch the moment first and then see if you can better it. If you wait for perfection you may just miss it altogether.

Ok, so I guess the theme of the week is me thinking it’s a day earlier then it is so we’ll pretend today is Friday. Ok? thanks! A little sneak peak for one of my Granville Senior Reps. Isn’t she amazing?

Alissa is a volleyball player so I might be a little partial but she was fantastic to photograph! Her smile was so real no matter what! Alissa is also an active member of her FFA and does so much good with her time. We were able to take our photographs at a local farm which was completely fitting.

I had such a hard time narrowing it down for this sneak peak. They all ended up “dreamy”. Wonder what that means for the kind of day I’m going to have? Two photoshoots today! Woohoo!! Can’t wait and gorgeous weather at that. Enjoy!

We’re going to ignore the fact that it’s actually Wednesday. Since Monday was a holiday today is kind of like Tuesday, right?

We had some dear friends drive over from another state and while they were here we had a photo shoot planned. Of course it decided to pour rain. Because it was our ONLY chance we made do. As the rain grew heavier I lost more and more light. I was able to get enough to take the picture but not enough to get a catch light in the eyes.

After taking a few outside we hauled indoors. There was absolutely NO window light to work with. I was feeling desperate as the boys were rapidly losing all focus (who can blame them!). I wasn’t sure they would be able to wait for me to pull out any bigger equipment. I found, laying on my floor, a large piece of white paper. I immediately bounded by speedlight flash off of it, getting more light but also creating a reflection from the white paper. Here’s the difference.