Kid in motion

We love photos that show motion while still maintaining enough focus on the subject. This is one of Marchet's favorite shots. It was taken indoors in tungsten light with no flash. Aperture was f/3.5 at 1/4 second shutter speed. She was able to keep focus on the toddler's face by panning with the subject as he ran.

Christmas Photo Gifts

Photographs make great gifts! A client and also a good friend opened our gift to her and she said she nearly cried. Why? Oh, it may just be these adorable photos of her toddler in a collage frame. She had no idea had done the photo shoot while we were babysitting the little tike; so it was a complete surprise.

We did the same kind of gift for my uncle and aunt this Christmas. When we went to visit during Thanksgiving, we set up a simple backdrop in the front room and did some quick headshots while the parents were taking a nap. The 3 boys loved the attention, and since we knew we only wanted headshots, we were done in about 10 minutes.

Here's what we learned about doing these kinds of gifts.

1. Get the frame first. The frame and matting will guide you as to the coloring and the style of the shots you will have taken. For example, the 3 boys' frame dictated black and white photos for a very modern look.

2. Think about clothing. Our friend's little toddler wasn't wearing an outfit that would have looked right in the picture, so we changed him into the cute striped shirt that you see above. Because we were doing headshots of the 3 boys, the only thing that really mattered is that the top of their shirts look the same.

3. Preplan poses and backgrounds. In each of these photo shoots, we used a simple backdrop cloth to cut out all the "busy-ness" behind the subjects. We often use just a bed sheet or a length of material. It works great for little bodies like these.

4. Make the shoot a playful experience. Kids faces don't lie: if they're having fun, it shows. If they aren't, well that shows too. Since we are parents ourselves, we have experience in the getting a fussy kid to smile realm. We usually have props to coax smiles out of our subjects.

5. After the shoot, try out several arrangements of the photos before ordering the final prints. We cropped and tweaked our favorite photos and then printed them out from our computer to arrange on the frame. It was great to have something tangible to play around with before making any print purchases. It also made it easy to visualize the final product.

8. Assemble with care. Have your photos printed and set them into the frame. Be careful not to smudge the glass on the inside of the frame, and give yourself time to make small adjustments to the photo placement in the mat.

Park Photo Shoot Shots

Park Photo Shoot

There's nothing that catches the energy and emotion of children like candids at the park. These photos were taken for a client who specifically requested black and white shots, but of course, we loved some of the color photos too.

One of the advantages of this kind of photo shoot is all the great "architecture" the playground equipment provides. Also, since kids are having fun at the photo shoot, they tend to ignore the camera and show genuine expressions.

We did a few head shots for the client too. Although it was challenging to keep the youngest boy focused, we did get a couple gems like the one posted under "Park Photo Shoot Shots."

Little Tike with Leaf: Special Edit

This little tike loves leaves! I took the opportunity to snap a couple candids while he was examining this specimen. Later, I realized this picture would be great as a black and white with spot color. Although it took a little work to get it just right, I think it turned out great. The client had this picture printed up on mugs for the grandparents. Fun idea!

If you are interested in a special edit like this one, please let me know before the photo shoot. Special edits take more time to create than a regular black and white image, so there will be an increase of cost of $10 per photo given this treatment.