This family is one of my favorite families to photograph. They show up again and again in my portfolio, which I love, because not only are they nice (every single one of them), they are also easy on the eyes. I’ve photographed this little girl over the past 2 1/2 years, watching her grow from toddler to bonafide preschooler. And I photographed the brother on the day of his birth. It’s such a blessing to be allowed to witness children growing up.
Last weekend I had the chance to photograph two young brothers who I’ve photographed once before. The first time was Halloween, last week was for Easter. This time, a year older, they were hilarious. The older brother just turned 5 and the “baby” as we call him is almost 3. And the personalities that have arisen are hilarious. What used to be a timid, introverted baby, is now the family crack up. Although he still thinks his older brother is the funniest person on earth, he loves to get it on the act. The funny faces he made were so great that I had to include them here in the outtakes.
And since moms have to play photographer, they rarely show up anywhere in the actual photos. So I made their mom, Amanda, get in the photos, especially since she was all prettied up in her green dress.
This is one of my favorite little girls to photograph. This is my 4th time shooting with her. This was an Easter shoot with her and her super cute baby brother, but here she is alone in all her Easter cuteness.
So you bought a DSLR to take better pictures of your kids – better than your point and shoot, only to find out that you actually take WORSE pictures with the so-called better camera. Why is that? Well, firstly the point and shoot doesn’t let you make mistakes, but you actually have to know what you’re doing with a DSLR.
Secondly, the point and shoot always uses a flash indoors. Well 95% of the time. You know why that is? Unless you’re standing near a window in daytime, taking pictures of your kid inside is just too dark. For the lens that came with the camera, that is. Or a zoom lens. So you’re not going to get what you want…at least not that way.
So here’s my self-help #1 tip for those who attempt to buy their way to better pictures. Although your first buying-up experience didn’t net you anything, this will:
NEVER, use the built in flash! At least not indoors, or if you can help it anyway.
Buy an external, hot-shoe flash. And you must make sure of a couple of things before you do:
1) does your house have white ceilings? If no, you can’t use any of these tips in rooms with colored or wooden ceilings. Wait for another tip on another day!
2) the flash must be able to be rotated upwords in order to bounce off the ceilings. While you’re at it, get one that also swivels, unless you like having to buy the same thing twice and having to upgrade a year from now when you understand why it’s useful.
And from now on, indoors at night, use the external flash pointed up towards the ceiling, not facing your subject. The light falls down from the ceiling, larger and softer than it would’ve and voila, no more shiny foreheads!
Stay tuned for other tips.
This is one of my favorite families and I think our 3rd or 4th photoshoot together. This time, they were back for a family portrait for their Xmas cards. Little baby D. is now a toddler and we had to catch him running, but managed to get lots of good shots. There are some particularly precious ones of him and his mom here in my portfolio. Here in front of Westlake Lake. Here are some outtakes of the whole family, trying to get him in the mood to cooperate.
I like including outtakes. In addition to giving people a better idea of the behind the scenes, in terms of what it takes to get a baby to participate, it’s much more documentary. Now we’re cooking, here are some of the better shots with him all settled down:
And the final Xmas card photo:
This is a boy I am extremely proud of. I find his story to be so inspirational for all those people whose pregnancies ended in terrifying premature births. There’s also so much fear and concern that your baby will never recover from having been born earlier than planned. Well, I can’t vouch for everyone’s experiences. My sons were barely premature at 37 and 37 1/2 weeks and they are great. But this young man was born at 22 1/2 weeks! Yes, you heard it, twenty-two and a half weeks. Babies generally aren’t considered viable until 24 weeks. But this little fighter from Pasadena didn’t just survive, he thrived. And now, 18 years later, he’s been accepted into Harvard University and graduated as class Valedictorian. Super smart, multi-talented and amazingly well adjusted in general, he’s a walking talking miracle. So parents of preemies, know that it can all work out. Here’s one splendid example.
This is a personal post, which I’ve sequestered off into a personal blog section. I dislike when photographers mix up their personal pictures and client work. Firstly, it makes it harder for potential clients to see what your paid work looks like and secondly, although I think my kids are the cutest in the world, everyone doesn’t want to see the bazillion photos I take of them…unless they do. And they can mozy over here.
All that said, I think I may link this back to the professional page because it highlights something that I love to do and that’s gotten lots of positive feedback: lifestyle photography. Sure it’s great to see your kid clean, gussied up, everyone smiling. But what about capturing those casual, real life moments of joy, in a way that’s higher quality and more nostalgic than a point and shoot snapshot. This is a great example of lifestyle photography – a day in the life.
As a matter of fact, while writing this, I’ve decided to create a package specifically for this, called – you guessed it – A Day in the Life.
Here’s a day in the life of my then 1 and 3 year olds. There’s this notion, I think perpetuated by those who need an excuse to pity us Angelenos rather than envy us, that we don’t have seasons. Well, not only do we have seasons (we have a full 3: summer, fall and spring), but we also have fall foliage. Yes, ladies and gents. If you are fortunate enough to live on a block (yep, block by block) that has deciduous trees, you get leaves that turn golden yellow and orange and fall to the grown. Then your mow-and-blow lawn team comes and whisk them away as if they never happened.
I took advantage -it was 3 days until the lawn guys were coming. A native Angeleno friend pseudo chastised me, asking why I don’t call them gardeners, and I told her, it’s really not that posh. Back in the midwest, gardeners were something estates had. Guys with a weed whacker and a leaf blower don’t really need that title.)
Anyway, I knew they weren’t going to be around and I discovered that I don’t own a rake! Went to a super sweet neighbor’s house and borrowed hers. Ran home, rakes all the leaves from my lawn, the sidewalk and all the neighbors’ sidewalks into a big pile and called my kids outside with the camera. They’d never experienced this and loved it. Here are some of the shots:
