Two-Year-Old Portraits | Alpharetta GA Child Photographer

This Alpharetta GA child photo session celebrates two years old! I am primarily known for my on-location outdoor portraiture, but indoor portraiture is another passion of mine. I love having the control of manipulating the light myself and having a clean background to create beautiful, powerful images.

Snow Day! | Alpharetta GA Children's Photographer

We've lived in Georgia almost 7 years, and this winter has been insane! A couple weeks ago, I was one of those Atlantans that was stuck on the road for hours. This week has been different, thank goodness. 

We know the snow will be gone in a couple days, but my little guy is enjoying it while it lasts. He got his Christmas wish!

Before and After | Alpharetta GA Portrait Photographer

I am not a crafty person. Creative, yes. Artistic, yes. But give me paint and a block of wood, and I'll turn it into a fine art piece, not a craft. That's why, if you see crafts in my home, it's most likely that I did not make them. I bought them.

Every year, my church's women's group has a craft night, "Friday Night Frenzy." And it is a frenzy! Imagine 30+ women completing crafts ranging from modge-podged family photo displays to homemade lime sugar scrub. Oh, so not my thing.

Last year, I tried. I really did. I finished one craft -- a job chart board that got used maybe 5 times -- and took home the makings for about 3 other craft projects. I didn't touch them, month after month. Finally, my husband looked at them and said, "You're not really going to make these, are you?" And off they went to Goodwill.

The organizers of the night know not everyone wants to do crafts, so it's a social event with yummy, yummy soups, salad, and goodies, classes, and plenty of time to visit. I always enjoy getting to know members of my congregation better, so I never miss the night, but this time, I had a plan.

I brought my laptop and edited photos. It was, in a word, awesome. Most of the time while I'm editing, I'm alone, up too late (or too early) and not interacting with anything except Netflix. I got a lot of editing done, and had a blast chatting with old and new friends. It was such a nice change!

Here's a sample of what I did last night.

Atlanta Child Photographer | Outdoors in Fall

Some of you may recognize this sweetie from my opening slideshow. She is so photogenic, but very busy, so we used the first part of the shoot to get the most important shots including this one. LOVE it! The gorgeous bokeh is from the 85 mm prime lens I used, and the rest -- other than a little color adjustment and minimal retouching is as shot in camera.

Want to learn more about shooting beautiful portraits? I'm teaching a Day of Workshops in a week. Join me!

Creative Valentine Card | Alpharetta GA Children's Photographer

This year, I was inspired by an idea in FamilyFun magazine -- a photo card with a "giant" lollipop coming out of the subject's hands.

I thought it might be even more fun to do a card with a heart-shaped balloon instead. I could make it look like my little guy was floating in the air. I also got heart-shaped chocolates to glue to the cards as treats. Last week, my little boy posed for me--for about 15 minutes--and we got the shots necessary to make this adorable card. Look below for some behind-the-scenes shots of what went into making the finished image.

Pin It

Composite shot below:

Little Models | Alpharetta GA Children's Photography

As often as I can, I get out and take photos of my little guy and (as in this case) his friends that happen to be with us that day. I always love new faces to photograph, but in this case I had to work fast. Big brother wasn't as into taking pictures (2 minutes and he was done), but his little sister took my breath away. Seriously, I only took pictures of her for about 10 minutes, and look how gorgeous!

Love these portraits? Want to learn how I do what I do? I'm holding photography workshops in January for beginning and intermediate photographers. I even have a special workshop for teens. I still have several spots open, but hurry! I'm limiting enrollment to 6 per class. Click here to find out more.

The Photographer | Themed Children's Photography in Alpharetta GA

Lately, I've been itching to try themed shoots. The shoots on Reverie--a photography inspiration blog--just make me drool. I've also had an idea of putting together a calendar featuring my little guy in different themes for each month. Well, whether or not that gets done, I had fun coming up with a concept for a themed shoot for the fall. This is my first attempt with my son, who posed in clothing inspired by Ansel Adams, the famous photographer.  

I love how the above photograph mimics the feel of this one:

My boy tried to imitate Ansel Adams' beard with his hand!

My Halloween Knight

I have learned that it's best to take Halloween costume pictures before Halloween. And all the better if a little friend in a fairy princess costume will pose with your little knight. Happy trick-or-treating everyone!

How to Take Fall Photos

Fall is just about the best season here in Georgia -- it usually lasts quite a few weeks and the colors from the trees are amazing. We are just starting to see reds and oranges (with an abundance of yellow), so now is a great time to snap pictures of your kiddo. Here are a few hints on how I got these great autumn photos.

My little boy loves to "explore" trails and sidewalks around our place. Our deal is that he gets to explore and I get to take photos, plus he'll agree to pose for some of them too. I took these shots around 5:00 p.m. after a drizzly day with overcast skies. Overcast = soft even light for outdoor shots. Perfect.

The first and second image show how tricky trees can be -- you want to capture the fall foliage, but you don't want a branch or tree trunk coming out of your subject's head. I squatted down to take the first shot so I could get the tops of the trees behind his head. The second shot was just positioning. I had to place my boy in a certain spot so that I could get a full body shot with the trees and without head-branches.

The last portrait is one of my favorites from 2008. I try to take photos of my son in each season every year. It is so fun to look back at how he's grown in the past 3 years. This was taken close to the Alpharetta Big Creek Greenway, which turns a gorgeous golden yellow one week out of the year. It is a magical time to take pictures there, and I'm hoping I'll be able to catch it again this year. And that's my last advice of this post: if you see a gorgeous fall setting, get back there with a camera as soon as possible (or better yet, keep your camera with you). A couple days can make a huge difference in whether or not the trees still have their colorful leaves. Happy fall!

There's something about Friday | Alpharetta GA Child Photographer

There's something about Friday that makes everything seem so much easier. Maybe it's because Friday is my long run day, and I don't have any energy to be stressed after running for 2.5 hours. Maybe it's because I have two glorious school-free and work-free days to hang with my boy and my hubby. I love Fridays.

Happy Friday. Here's some pics of my niece and nephew on our visit to Minnesota. (My little boy got in on the jumping action!)

January Snow | Atlanta GA Photographer

It's snowing in Atlanta and my son thinks his train is perfect for the "train tracks" left by cars on the road.

Straight Out of the Camera | Alpharetta GA Candid Photographer

I believe that editing is an important (very important) part of pro photography, especially after reading this article. If you shoot in RAW format, then you must process and export any image to get a JPEG. In addition, retouching and editing is required to get a truly pro look. In my experience, one image can take anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour depending on the amount of editing required, despite the fact that it is already a great photo. That's one of the many reasons custom photography will cost you more than a shoot at a retail outlet.

But then, I don't always do pro photography, especially when I'm trying to capture a memory at home or test out a lens on my family (as in this case). Sometimes, it's better left untouched. Untouched images show off your skill as a photographer, the ability to get the exposure, light, color, and focus just right in camera.
I'm particularly pleased with the color (thank you custom white balance) and the beautiful light in his eyes (thank you external flash). The nice depth-of-field is courtesy of my 50 mm prime lens. The rest is all him. Oh how I love bath photos!

So, here are some of my candid at-home shots, SOOC--straight out of the camera--just exported from my the original RAW image to a JPEG. No editing required!