jayden sandwich

-

I’ve never been much of a writer and since this is after all a photoblog, I’m thinking that from here on out I’ll primarily focus on posting pictures instead of trying hard and often unsuccessfully to come up with interesting things to say

These pictures were taken over the weekend on my birthday. A picture of all 3 kids having fun made a wonderful present for this photo-crazy mom.

safe.

Watch over her in the desert
Watch over her in the mountains
Watch over her in the labyrinth
Watch over her by the quicksand.

Protect her from the Voices
Protect her from the Visions
Protect her in the tumult
Protect her in the silence.

-T.S. Eliot

{photo notes} :: I heart this picture. It’s a very simple photograph of a simple moment between father and child but it still speaks volumes to me. I love the manner in which she is resting her chin on dad’s shoulder, the slight tilt of his head towards her and her somewhat perturbed expression. I decided to tint the picture to lend to the mood but it didn’t seem quite enough. So I typed up some text and created an overlay to enhance it some more. I like how it looks now.

I love post-processing. I find it to be a lot of fun and it enables me to push myself creatively. Like most photographers, I own a ton of actions and do make use of them but more often than not, I just like to post-process by hand. To see what I can do and where I can take a picture creatively. It ends up being such a learning experience because by playing around in photoshop I stumble upon new techniques all the time.

Have a great weekend!

my youngest

Here’s a picture of my youngest on easter. I use the term “youngest” loosely since she is ALL of 5 minutes younger than her sister but maybe it’s because she has such a slight build, I sometimes feel like she’s the baby of the family. I think she looks really sweet in this one but like any parent, I’m biased!

Of all my kids, I feel that Nia is the most like me with regards to personality. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of battles we have as she grows older! I’m sure all the back-talking i did while growing up will come back to bite me threefold. What’s that they say about karma?

See those frames in the background? One of the things that has been a lot of fun for me has been to fill up the huge amount of empty wall space in our home with pictures. I basically use my photographs as artwork in certain areas.

I’m not sure how much you can tell but each one of those frames is 23×32 inches and houses a 16×19 print. And I have six of them arranged in a grid so the entire arrangement spans 4 feet by 8 feet. I really enjoy walking into the room and seeing these photos on the wall. Makes me smile as I remember when they were taken and the events surrounding them. And I think a few large prints make such an impact. No one can accuse me of not being serious about my pictures!

fun in the sun – a storyboard

I will be meeting with mom this week to go over the proofs and I thought she might like a look at a storyboard i pulled together in the meantime. I figure it may tide her over till we meet.

I’ve said it numerous times in the past but i just *love* storyboards. They are so versatile and 100% customizable. Don’t like a picture- no problem, we can switch it with one you like. Think it’s too busy – no problem again, let’s switch the arrangement.

Yep, i definitely like them storyboards.

random favorites & organizing photos

Just thought I’d share some random favorites from the last month.

I’m in the process of pulling together an art album and since I went through the exercise of finding the pictures, I thought I’d share some with you, my lovely blog readers.

-

-

I’ve come to the conclusion that I really need to do a better job organizing my personal pictures. I have a pretty decent system that is date-based but since I shoot so many pictures I’m starting to lose track and my system is falling short when it comes to family pictures. I have both ACDSee and Lightroom and have started cataloging but the sheer number of pictures is just so overwhelming that I haven’t begun to crack the surface yet. Does anyone have a good system they recommend? I’d love to hear about it.

On a related note, I read a good article on Epic Edits a few months ago regarding this.

Organizing Images (part I)

Organizing Images (part II)

Organizing Images (part III)

For those of you that may be unfamiliar with Epic Edits, it is a wonderful resource for photographers and is highly recommended. Brian Auer, the author, shares good photography related information which I’m sure more than a few of you would find worthwhile.

The following article titled “28 ways to interpret a photo” was the first post of his that I stumbled across and it was so interesting that I was hooked to his blog from that point on. The article discusses the dramatic impact cropping and post processing the same picture can make, and how it will change the look and feel of a picture drastically. It’s pretty amazing, really. Have a look:

28 ways to interpret a photo

Have a good one!

happy easter

Happy easter all!

It’s been *so* long since I scrapbooked. Pulling this quick card together was fun for me. I need to do it more often – god knows i have more than enough supplies to last me a lifetime and then some.

Have a fun weekend!

an honest friend

“We are all travelers
in the wilderness of this world,
and the best we can find in our travels
is an honest friend.”
–Robert Louis Stevenson

I *love* this. I love her tiny little hand on the window, their body language, that protective arm around her, his cheek resting against her head and the overall mood of it.

Of course this lasted all of 30 seconds and then it was back to chasing each other around the house but you can’t tell that from this picture!

-

This one melts.my.heart.

We were at the park and Nia was off running in any direction she could find. So I asked Jayden to walk with her and lead her towards the playground. So he did. And he did a really good job at it. She tumbled at one point so he pulls her up and pats her head then kisses it and asks her if she’s OK. {more melting}. He’s such a big boy now.

I intentionally left this in color although I think black and white would have highlighted the hands and worked really well too. This picture was so vibrant – the blue sky, green grass, the bright clothes and the light trees and path. There are many reasons I like this picture: the vibrancy, the leading lines, the hand holding (of course) , their feet in tandem, and the winter trees, to name a few!

I just realized that I have a tendency to share a array of walking shots but I just loved this one above and deemed it share-worthy. I will be mixing it up soon though — I have some really nice ones of my kids that are nothing like what I’ve done before so stay tuned.

:: let’s talk…::

… panning.

** warning – this post may only appeal to blog readers who are interested in photography. **

As the rest of the country is dealing with fickle weather, those of us that live in AZ are relishing every moment of it. We have been to the park so many times over the last month that I’ve lost count. While the kids like to play, I often use the opportunity to practice my photography skills. That’s how I ended up with this picture that I am really stoked about and wanted to share.

I love the sense of movement and speed in this shot.

Panning is a photographic technique used to capture a moving subject in such a way as to lend the feeling of movement to the shot.

The main idea behind this technique is that the moving subject remains in focus while the rest of the picture is blurred. To accomplish this, the photographer tracks the moving subject (i.e. pans) with their camera, thus resulting in a blurred background while retaining a relatively sharp subject. This lends the picture that sense of motion.

In order to do this, you need to find an object that is moving at a relatively constant rate. Lower your shutter speed (I used 1/30 here, my f-stop was 14), lock focus on your subject and make sure you follow the subject with your camera along their trajectory while releasing the shutter. For best results, continue to pan for a few seconds even after you hear the shutter release.

It takes a bit of practice but the results can be phenomenal. I really like the end result of this effect and can’t wait to practice some more. Hmmm… I’m thinking jayden riding his bike would make for a good picture.

{Park session – part deux}

Here are some more pictures from a recent photo shoot at the park

red is a great color on this little lady. As my friend, Maggie, commented on the last post, the red along with her bright blue eyes form a striking combination!

-

love these eyes too…

-

{swinging along} — This little guy is so easy going and happy.

-

and here are a couple of fun ones:

-

M & C — Thank you guys for allowing me the opportunity to capture your kids. I hope you enjoyed the sneak peek. I have many more but I’ll try my best to save them for when we meet.

75 degree weather

+ a park

+ slides & swings

+ playful cousins

= a great photo session!

M, Here’s your sneak peek. Thanks for being patient — this weekend has been crazy. Hope you like the pictures!

I want to title this the “smile series”! When I asked M what her expectations were, she said that she’d just really like pictures of her kids smiling.

While I tend to favor the slightly off-beat pictures, I do understand that my clients enjoy seeing ones that depict their kids smiling. From my experience, it seems that given a choice , more often than not, those are the kinds of pictures they’d like to frame. So I thought that the first look should really reflect their interest. I shall share ones that speak to me for other artistic reasons in future posts.

-

-

I simply *love* this picture. I love her expression – i think little E looks downright adorable. Her perfect features, the shallow DOF, her bright eyes, the expression, the angle & the pose – to me they all make this picture. One of my favorites from this session – I happen to have a few!

-

T is all smiles.
Stay tuned for more!