Seniors 2013 - Alex and Ryan (plus elena got a new camera!)

Monday was an exciting day.  After I got home from work I spent some time waiting anxiously by the door for the arrival of my new camera!!  Pentax K-5, it's pretty fantastic.  Luckily it came a couple hours before I went to go do my cousins' senior pictures.  They're identical twins and I THINK I can tell them apart in these pictures.  Sorry if I screw up, guys!

The first couple test shots with the K-5 were actually of their dog, Emma, who is I believe an English Setter and ridiculously gorgeous and very sweet.  Of course she was difficult and kept wanting to come over to me instead of stay still but I got a couple good ones.

Then I started photographing the boys.  I started with Ryan and then would switch to Alex while Ryan changed and back again.  Sometimes we shoot do both of them together, or with Emma.  I think they got a kick out of me trying to keep track of who was who.  So these are all of Ryan - nice shirt, cross-country uniform (there are also some fairly amusing ones of him rounding in their backyard), with the pretty puppy, and all suited up.  Their school requires them to get yearbook photos from a specific photographer so we didn't do any with the plain backgrounds I usually use.  My new muslin ones are so much better than the paper I've used the past few years though, it was a great investment and I can't wait to pull it out again!  As for the new camera, well, I think that was a pretty great investment too.

Awww!  Ryan doesn't look thrilled to be having his picture taken.  Boys are like that it seems, but fear not, guys!  It really isn't that bad!  Alex was a little more smiley although I can tell you're faking it in some of these.  Not surprising that their best smiles are in the pictures with Emma - she's a great dog!

 And of course, since Alex and Ryan ARE twins, we had to get a couple shots of them together.  I think in the first one they're conspiring against me.

 And to finish it out, another picture of the beautiful Emma, stopping to smell the flowers!

Seniors 2013 - Anna

I've said it many a time, and I'm sure I will again - doing senior pictures for someone I remember from their stroller days is kind of weird and makes me feel old.  Her parents have been friends with mine for as long as I can remember and we would go hang out at their house and go to fairs and such when I was a kid.  Anna's sister and I even did college tours together.  It was nice to get to see them again - this was another house call, which are much more fun.  People are more relaxed in their own space and since my studio is portable, I'm all for it.

It was raining off and on yesterday, so when I got to Anna's house, we decided to do the outdoors part first while it wasn't raining.  Luckily it held off and the overcast sky gave us nice soft lighting!  We went to a park a couple minutes from the house, brought their puppy and a few props and took a bunch of pictures!

 Anna likes photography too!  She said it was weird being on the other side of the camera but I think she did a pretty good job at it.

After the park, we went back to their house and set up my Alien Bees.  Instead of using one of my backdrops, we took a frame off this red wall and used it as a background instead.  I love the color!  Also love the huge grins big sister Kelsey helped me get!

Sweet Stories Make Me Cry

As many of you know, I volunteer for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, providing free photography services to those who have or are about to lose their child.  It's very difficult, but very rewarding and I come across similar situations occasionally at my day job with Bella Baby Photography, which is where this story takes place.

A few weeks ago was the most difficult session I've had to date.  I won't provide details, but my heart goes out to the family.  I spent nearly an hour taking photographs of the baby with her mother and siblings and even took her outside at her mom's request.  Today, a social worker came up to me at work and thanked me again for taking pictures.  She said that a couple days later, the mom came back to the hospital and showed her a memory book she had made from the photos I took, and that she had used some in a collage at the baby's viewing.

I choked up and nearly started crying right there in the hallway at work.  To know that they were touched and helped by the images I took, that they have those tangible memories to cherish, that's all I need.  I saw a father post a couple images of his daughter on facebook and it's so touching.  Another family is still occasionally in contact with me, two years later.  It's not quite something I can be happy about, because the situation is overwhelmingly sad, but I'm glad to help these people, these families who can never take their child home.

Do what you can for people.  If someone needs and deserves your help and you can provide it, do so.  It makes the world a better place.

Polaroids and Pinups

Trix and I shot again after forever last night.  She wasn't sure if I would want to since I have a photography job now, but I told her I would be glad to shoot a babe instead of babies and we giggled.  She got this amazing lace lingerie awhile back that we've been wanting to do pinups with, and I brought my Polaroid camera so we did some with that and some with my K20D.  These are some of the digitals.  Most of the Polaroids I left at her house, except for one pinup and one super adorable one of the two of us!

I love this picture.  So so SO much.  Seriously, I converted it into black and white and that's it.  Otherwise, absolutely nothing has been touched.  There's no need.  My girl looks gorgeous!  Actually, there's very little editing in any of these.  I like them the way they are.

Fantastic clavicles. Is it weird that I find collar bones attractive?

Because this is amazing underwear, there are some detail shots as well.  See below!

Bella Baby Photography

So, as many of you know, I started working for Bella Baby Photography back in January.  It's a really fun job, and I love that I'm making a living off of what I went to school for.   It's a cheerful job - after all, I get to photograph adorable day-old babies!  Even when I get stressed out, it's totally worth it.  I've been wanting to make a post with some of my images for some time now but have been pretty busy.  Finally got a chance to go through some of my favorites and now show you!

 

 

Seniors 2012 - Bryce

Word of mouth is a wonderful thing, especially for small businesses like mine.  I do the best I can so that my clients get the best pictures they can and then tell their friends and family!  Referrals are the way to go!  Bryce comes from a nice string of word of mouth and is actually my 10th senior of the 2012 graduating class!!  I'm really excited about that because while it might not be much compared to a lot of studios, it's definitely an awesome start.

Today, however, did not start that awesomely.  We planned to do Bryce's senior pictures at his girlfriend Kacie's house.  I did her photos in the fall and her sister Alex's a couple years ago, so I know where their house is, but somehow managed to get lost.  Fail.  Bryce was running on 2 hours of sleep from having been at work all night so was exhausted.  His blue shirts looked great with his blue eyes though, and Kacie made me a chocolate chip pancake.  I LOVE pancakes and shirts that bring out people's eyes so really once I got there it went pretty well.  We shot outside at first - it was a really nice day, bright but overcast so there weren't crazy coon eye shadows.  Kacie held my reflector and gave Bryce some directions - I'm hiring her one of these days when I have a big shoot because I'm terrible at directing people and she knows what looks good.  Bryce looks especially good with a 3/4 angle looking over his shoulder.  It seems odd, but I like to work with people's best angles and we definitely found his.  Also, I love his beard.

While he was sitting in the grass, I had Kacie go sit with him and took a couple frames of them together.  So cute!

We set up my studio equipment in the living room and took some more photos there - fancier clothes and football uniform.  One of the reasons I love senior pictures is because I get to do both indoor and outdoor shots - it's nice changing it up.  Really glad to have gotten some real smiles - fake ones are always awkward, so it was good to see Bryce relax as the shoot went on and crack a few grins.

Seniors 2013 - Emmilia

Keeping in the tradition of photographing seniors I've known for years, Emmilia is a girl who has been going to my family's bowling alley for at least a decade.  I even taught her to bowl when she was 5 or 6.  Now she's switched from her studies at Lincoln Park to do cyberschool so she can graduate early and start taking collage classes! 

When I put out my call for senior models this year, she responded so earlier this week we had her photoshoot.  We ended up at her aunt's house because Emmy wanted to bring her dog and her aunt has a big backyard.  I LOVE when people bring pets to photoshoots!  It's always so fun, even when the pet isn't being overly cooperative (kind of like Zander was this week).

First off, we did headshots.  Nothing too dramatic, just a nice pretty portrait.  I played with my portrait lens a little but it's really more dramatic for outdoors shots.  Studio is so great though because I love being able to control the catchlights in the eyes.  Check out how sparkly Emmy's are!

After the studio shots, we went out to the HUGE backyard.  It's pretty great and since it was nearly 6pm, the light was beautiful.  I took some really pretty pictures of Emmy with my "new" LensBaby which I got at ImagingUSA a few months ago but haven't really used much.  It's definitely going to make for some fun senior portraits this summer, I can't wait!

Emmy's dog Zander had been hanging out, sniffing around, and she wanted him included which was pretty entertaining to accomplish.  He kept rolling around!  Awww, happy puppy in the yard, he's so cute!  I want a dog....

Zander was being a little difficult though, so we ended up not using him so as many pictures as we would have liked.  I enlisted Emmy's boyfriend to help and hold my reflector for some more portraits of her because she was facing away from the sun and needed some light in her face.  I should have taken one of him holding it, she kept saying he looked like a giant M&M.  But this wasn't about him, it was about Emmilia.  She has been an awesome senior model for me!  If anyone else wants to volunteer, I have an application.  You have til the end of the month!