Monday, March 26, 2007

Preschool's a Blast

I had the wonderful chance to photograph some preschoolers the other day. It was so much fun. It reminded me of the days when I used to be a teacher's assistant. Working with these kids made me miss those days. Then I quickly remembered that I had a whole preschool/jr. high school waiting for me at home! That's enough! lol lol Anyway, this is one of the little cuties that I photographed. I kept it simple as usual. I love it when they give me eye contact. I know that the moms are going to love looking at these and looking into their child's eyes and feeling that their child is looking right at them. :-) Don't you just love that?

Have you had your portrait created today?

Betty

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Wub a Dub Dub

A small group of us photographers here in Memphis had another get together and this time had a couple of the cutest babies as models. We used different lighting modifiers. We use a soft box that was larger than life! I'm a tall gal, and this baby was HUGE! It had to have been at least 7 ft (2.1336 meters for my metric users! lol) tall. I'm not quite sure that I'll be investing in this monster. It was really cool though, but I can already envision my kids using it as their tent and popping their heads out of the little hole at the top (the hole that you put your light through) playing whack the mole! So, nahhhhh...I think I'll stick with my little portable brolly boxes that are easy to pack away and out of site of the little ones.
:-) hahahaha

In the mean time, hope you like the images I captured. This one is one of the first ones that I took. I was also the last person to photograph this baby so she was starting to get grumpy as there were 6 of us taking turns. She was such a good and happy baby. I love this shot of her, I only wish I could have positioned my camera over a few more inches in order to include her entire left side. But that's okay, because the expression she has is a killer! hahahahaaha I can't wait to see what everyone else got from her.


The second was supposed to be a bathtub scene. Most of you that follow me will know that I'm not a proppy (I know that's not a word, but hey...it's my blog! lol) person. So I kind of took the photo so that you would not see all of the props that were in the scene. But that IS a bathtub that she's sitting in. :-P Which was quite adorable...but I thought that she was waaaaaaaay more adorable than the tub. She was a true Diva. She posed, she grinned, she smiled, she showed us how it should be done.

Have you had your portrait created today?

Betty

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Rocky Grounds

I had to take a small trip early morning the other morning. By the time I was done with taking care of business my kids were at whits end in the car, so I found this Mickey D's that was in the middle of nowhere along the I40 and I decided to stop. Right next to it was a little picnic area with boulders and an empty lot full of rocks. It was a really great photo op on these boulders.Wish there was a way for me to drag them home. lol There were just too many distractions in the background that not even a low aperture and higher position would help. lol :-) I did get a few shots. I let the kids eat their "healthy" meals from there and then play it off by jumping on the boulders and throwing the rocks around. They had a good time and I'm so glad I had my good ole trusty Canon with me to capture this moment.

I hate to admit it, but this is one time I think Mickey D's was actually good for our family. hahahaha Because the kids played so hard in Mickey D's empty lot, they slept the rest of the way home. Of course by the time we got home, I was tired, but they were ready to go! lollollol


Have you had your portrait created today?


Betty

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

The High Key Experiment

Yesterday, I thought that I would try a new lighting hi key thingy that a local photographer friend told me about. She heard about this at the Image USA down in Texas back in January. I've always been told to have my background lights at least 2 stops above my key lights. Well, my friend has told me that one of the exhibits they showed how to have your background lights the same f/stop as your key lights. Why not? Good question, huh? Well, I tried it. On one very unwilling little boy and one that was overly willing! lol lol

I think that they came out pretty good. I shot them in RAW at ISO 100, SS 200, & F.9. My only problem was that originally I had them sitting on posing stools but they kept swinging around and pulling the lever to make themselves rise up. So I made them stand up, but I forgot to lower the background lights, which made me have to tweak the levels quite a bit. You could see an obvious difference from the height of the lights and where my little subjects were. Also, I used AB 800s for the background lights with no light modifiers on them. Only the 7 inch silver reflector that comes with them.

Also, you can see the tint on the paper background. I have no idea where a redish/pinkish tint came from. My walls are no where near being red. They're yellow, but not red. Maybe it's time to get a new background? But all in all, I think they came out pretty good. I'll be trying this on another baby session on Monday. We'll see how it goes.

Have you had your portrait created today?

Betty