Oh, wow! Baby Portrait Session

Oh, what a hug-able, love-able, snug-able little boy! I don't often have a chance to do solo portraits, so I loved having a chance for poses in multiple outfits and locations in the Windward area. My favorites are the ones in the grass. Those big eyes are irresistible! And that wagon--borrowed from a friend of mine--such a perfect prop. Everyone was so great while we were shooting: mom, who was my assistant and great at posing her boy and getting him to look at the camera; dad, who safeguarded the baby when we had to balance him or set him up for poses, and of course baby, who stayed in good spirits throughout the whole thing. Now, that's a photographer's dream. Enjoy the pics!

Spring Family Fun: Family Portrait Session

There are so many things I love about this shoot: the freckles (!), the smiles, the sweetest, cutest dog, and great morning light on the day before Easter. Spring is a fabulous time to shoot kids, especially with their new puppy, but it's especially fun when we can get mom and dad in the photos too. We originally planned a kids and pet shoot, but it turned into an awesome family session and I'm always thrilled when I can capture family photos. Group portraits are always a bit of work, but totally worth it!

How to Capture Some Quick Spring Portraits

Spring is a great time to capture portraits with the blossoming flowers. Here's my "how to" guide with a few shots I did at a friend's house using this technique. 

1. Find a flowering bush. Bushes are better than trees for quick spring portraits because they are close to the ground and don't cause awkward mergers like tree trunks do.
2. Wait until the late afternoon or early morning when the light is best.
3. Put your subject as close to the bush or even within the bush.
4. Shoot close to the subject and shoot at an angle that fills the background of your image with flowers or spring leaves.
5. Edit as desired! (Psst... I use a texture on the first image. If you want to learn how to do this and other custom editing techniques, sign up for online mentoring sessions! I'd love to teach you.)

Hats: Schaer Talents Business Card Shoot

One of my good friends recently started a hat and accessory-making business. I love her creativity and was thrilled to design her logo and business card. We wanted the business card to feature some of her hats. Here's how it turned out:

Here are the cards fresh from the printer. The pearl paper we ordered gave them a warmer hue and a shimmery finish. They looked gorgeous!

The image for the back of the card featured a collection of her hats. Because it was on a plain white background, I could do a COB (cut-out-background) photo and use the cream flower-patterned background to echo the design in the front of the card.

Here are some other hat images I took as possibilities for the card. I love showing the texture of the yarn, but ultimately decided that a straight-forward representation of her work would be the best for this design.

I love this one. It just reminds me of something a Who in Whoville would wear!


Check out more hats and accessories at the Etsy shop for Schaer Talents: http://www.etsy.com/shop/jschaer1

Easter

I love Easter--the beautiful spring blossoms, the sunshine, and the first holiday we celebrated after my son was born. So it will always be a special time of the year for me. These past few years, it's seemed that nothing is certain in life with job changes, moving, our son's health, and the inevitable emotions that come with these changes. Yet, as I've reflected this week about what is unchanging in my life, I always come back to one experience: the first time I truly felt the assurance of the existence and absolutely overpowering grace of Jesus Christ, my Savior. That knowledge has guided me through a mission to Hungary, a marriage, and now motherhood--even when times are hardest. So, this Easter I'm truly grateful to Him who is the constant in my life:


"And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever." Ether 12:41, The Book of Mormon

And for my Hungarian friends . . .

--És most, azt ajánlanám nektek, hogy keressétek ezt a Jézust, akiről a próféták és az apostolok írtak, hogy veletek legyen és megmaradjon bennetek Istennek, az Atyának, valamint az Úr Jézus Krisztusnak és a róluk bizonyságot tevő Szentléleknek kegyelme. Ether 12:41, A Mormon Könyve

 

  

The first three photos were taken by Jacob, the last one by me: The petal blossoms were falling off the trees like snow yesterday, and that's my sweetheart with a handful. The text is Hungarian for "love."

Photog Mom and Kids: Mentoring Session

I usually post my own work as the first photo, but I love, love, love the image above, and I was certainly part of the process. My good friend and aspiring photographer Leah shot with me during a mentoring session with her kids. We worked a bit on group posing and after looking at her shots, I suggested she get closer, much closer, to her subjects. I was playing photo assistant and holding the umbrella to shade the kids while Leah shot. I love the angle, the faces, the catch lights in the eyes . . . only when we got the shot we wanted, one or the other of the kids wasn't looking as darling as they were in the previous shot or vice versa. Sooooo . . . I told her to send me the files and with a bit of post processing work, I made a composite of this amazing trio. Hurray! That was a fun collaboration.

The rest of the session is filled with favorites like the next photo--every photog loves having pictures of them at work, especially if their darling model is their son.

Enter Jacob, husband and dad extraordinaire, taking this awesome picture of us girls at work. The model? My little boy! (Unfortunately, he wouldn't hold still long enough for us to get good shots of him there--imagine that, a son of a photographer being tired of having his picture taken.) But Jacob took a lot of great shots of him while we were working with Leah's kids. See his photos on our Peter's Pavement Pounders website.

This one will be a portfolio piece for me, so characteristic of my photography style.

Oh, I just adore this one . . . If you look very closely, you can see me in the reflection of the baby's eyes! I was holding my camera out to the side and above my head to get a better angle. 

Can't see it? Okay, sorry. Here ya go:

I love working with lens flare!

These ones from Leah are so scrumptious! The baby's little pouty lips and big eyes make these photos. I'm also so glad we were able to get some genuine smiles out of big brother. Sometimes that's hard to do. Check out more of Leah's work at: http://leahbellphoto.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out my mentoring session rates. I'd love to teach and shoot with you!