More of baby Max!
Finally finished up Max’s park session. This baby was oodles of cute and seemed happy as a clam to smile wherever we put him!
We had perfect cloudy light, a nice fall day and lots of leaves for him to try and cram into his mouth before his mother stopped him. Doesn’t get much better than that!
Here’s some more faves, flickr set here.
Epic drool
Aiden in the leaves!
Everyone always tells me “oh, you must have so many great photos of your kids!” You would think that, but lately I have been slacking off! Between wrapping up 2009’s weddings, family shoots, school and working for the college paper…I never have any time!
SO, after a family shoot at the local park, I took 15 minutes to grab some photos of my son storming through the leaves. He hasn’t been to the park lately (again, slacker mom) and he was wearing his very serious seriousface.
Grant me this moment of annoying LOOKATMYKIDS parent bragging, will you? 
And because it was Halloween, here is Aiden in his Link (from Zelda) costume!
Unfortunately, I didn’t get any of Zoe in her costume since she went to her dad’s house and didn’t even wear the costume home! I’m forcing her to re-dress up later…woe is the child of a photographer.
Finn: 6 Months Old!
A knitter friend of mine managed to birth the cutest baby boy…next to mine of course…ever. I can safely say that editing photos of such a cute little person make the work fly right by! I cranked these out in one sitting.
We had a nice cloudy morning, so these are all natural light. I had my flash on at 1/32 power and pointed up to (attempt to) grab baby’s attention and put some catch lights in, but the light itself is all natural.
Here’s some favorites, the full flickr set is here. (20 pictures)
I’m always looking to photograph kids…when did you have your kids’ pictures done last? *eyebrow waggle*
Fun with the home studio.
Shut myself up in my home studio today. It’s more like a “crap in a bag I set up in whatever room is the cleanest” studio, but it does the job.
My two missions for the day were to get a black and white for The Hideout’s 20’s, 30’s and 40’s challenge and a nice picture of the kids. I also wanted a new headshot of myself for work purposes but my hair is ick right now. I have my moments of shallowness.
The selfie:
The kids:
Light was one Canon 430EX II shot through a brolly umbrella to camera right.
City scenes!
Here’s a couple photos I took in my neighborhood. I’m on a mission to pull some decent photos out of this miserable place, because I like a challenge like that.
Laundry in the City
And the inescapable plague that is advertising.
And just to keep this post from being too cynical, my son in his first “big boy” bath. The sink can no longer contain his water-splashing fury. Or I can’t. Either or.
Revisiting older images and LINKS!!
EHere’s a few before/afters of images I revisited last week while I was deleting crappy photos.
Madison, the beautiful daughter of old friends. The first image was all about her eyes and cropped in tight, but I wanted to try something that pulled the whole photo together…
BEFORE
AFTER
This is an image of my friend Erin. I love the photo but I realize not everyone goes for the “ghostly pale” look. That and I’ve learned to sharpen properly since the first process.
BEFORE
AFTER
I like both of those for different reasons.
I also had fun trying my hand at “saving” a junk shot. I saw a few articles online this week (which naturally I forgot to bookmark for my links post) on salvaging crap exposures with over-the-top processing and fun with drastic edits. I put this one together going for “silly photoshopping”.
I quite like it.
And here’s one last one, a re-edit of the photo of my son I processed after learning what the history brush did. It doesn’t take long to “get over” selective coloring so I re-processed this one with a more chocolaty tone.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
And now…THE LINKS!!
- Digital Photography School has a great tute on making a DIY ring flash. Not pretty enough for you? Craig White has a sleeker version.
- And 50 “Must Have” Wedding Shots.
- DIY Photography has compiled a list of 43 Photography hacks, mods and DIY projects.
- Here’s a sweet article on using v-cards (which is a term I attributed to something entirely different before I took up photography.)
- Miss the film darkroom? Me too. Here’s how to develop that film at home on the cheap. Now to find an enlarger…
- Want to try developing with coffee and vitamin C? I shit you not.
- Quite possibly my favorite Strobist post ever. Included: cute mouse.
- Ever have anyone ask you why professional photography is so expensive? Point them here.
- Has anyone ever demanded you remove a photo of them taken in a public place? Check this out.
- Picking up where Adobe dropped the ball, here’s a great tute on advanced watermarking in Lightroom 2.0.
- Want to try macro photography but don’t know how? Me either. DPS to the rescue, here’s macro photography for beginners part one and two.
- Fun? No. Necessary? Yes. Here’s an article on licensing your photography.
- Miss the Photoshop World Convention in Boston last weekend? Yep. So did I. Scott Kelby has some recaps up on his blog. Go there and pout with me, I had no babysitter.
ETA! I forgot to add this! Michelle Black and Jessica Price (two of my favorite photog e-buddies who also happen to be amazingly talented.) are hosting FLARE: A National Photography Contest. All entrants get some freebies so go check it out!
Is it summertime yet?
Here in New England the winter is the longest, most annoyingly gray winter ever. I’m over it. I want nice weather, outdoor shoots and the beach back. NOW.
But since that seems to be light years away, I’m keeping busy with indoor photos, my 365 project and website updates. I’ve added (finally) the general portrait info packet to the Rates page. This applies to senior, couple, children, newborn, and any other portrait sessions. Exceptions being band promotion photos and model portfolio which I am still taking pro-bono sessions for.
I also finally got my Poverty Wizard flash triggers (or Cactus triggers if you want to be no fun about it). They’re pretty sweet for 40 bucks! I’d say they fire 8 out of 10 times. I can deal with that for now.
Their more expensive counterparts, Pocket Wizards have announced their new models for us poor photogs to drool over. Dave from Strobist has given a good run-down on them here.
For fans of photoshop actions and preset goodness, Michelle Black is offering some killer discounts in preparation of her upcoming flash website. Check em out here.
Well, I’ve got some wedding contracts to type up now, but here’s some of my favorite pictures from the last week or so.
Vintage with a runny nose.
My husband’s two faces (ISO 100, I set the shutter to 10 seconds, f/20 or something like that, and hand-popped my flash twice- once when he was up close to the lens and again when he backed up.)
Bath time!
Mother & Son
Had a shoot on Monday for mother & son photos for Valentine’s gifts for Dad. Here’s a few from the first round of processing:
An update for Aunt Nancy
Just when I thought no one would notice me neglecting my photo blog!
Moving pretty much zapped most of my time but here’s a few photos from the last month. I’ll be updating later with last night’s Withered Sun promo pictures.
365.74 – Random Selfie II
365.69 – Me, at home. (For The Hideout’s “You at home” self portrait challenge.)
365.70 – Baby Mackin’
Last Minute Family Photo for Xmas Presents. Which reminds me I need to get some printed…
(Taken sitting against my son’s white wall, strobe behind a shoot-through umbrella to camera right. Reflector disk to our left to fill in some light)
365.47 – Well, shit. (Only snow could make Fall River look that pretty.)
Maternity Shoot: The Burke Family
Had a great shoot today with the Burke family! Thanks to Kate, Tom and the adorable Nora for letting me invade their home with all my crap.
Zoe at sunset!
Took my daughter out today to take a stab at sunset/flash fill photography. I came to the conclusion that I really need a stand for my speedlight. Holding it at arms length and trying to blind aim? Lame.
One studio: Unpacked.
My “studio” arrived last week via a mangled UPS box (thanks for abiding by the “fragile” note on the box, guys) and I tore right into it…just in time to go class. So days later I had my “craft room” deconstructed and by way of my excellent Tetris skills I managed to make just enough room for my backdrop support, my tripod and myself.
To my dismay on of my lightbulbs did not illuminate when I asked it to so I was stuck with one light for now. I called the darling daughter in an attempted to take a few quick shots of her before the ants in her pants went to town. That took about 4 and a half seconds. I managed to get one decent, semi-craptastic shot before it was time for dinner and all hope of a calm 8 year old was abandoned.
Crappy attempt #1
Ignore the wrinkles in the backdrop, my sister in law was holding my iron hostage.
Dinner was ready so I couldn’t fiddle anymore. Later I got some more time with a very happy baby of mine and got MUCH better results:
Much better attempt #2
Ex: 1/200 – f3.2 – ISO800 – 60mm – No flash, one umbrella light to camera left.
I’m pretty excited to mess around in there some more asap. Unfortunately the above happy baby is currently a stuffy cranky mess (as is his mother) so it might have to wait a few days.
~P
