Okay, okay. I know I said I’d come back and just edit/add to my original post about Elliott, but it’s even more fun to spam out my blog with a LOT of posts about Elliott! Since I’m on maternity leave and not taking clients right at this moment, I might as well fill my blog up with my own sweet boy, don’t you think? I actually made a list (and it is SUPER long) of all the shots I want to get of Elliott before he’s not a newborn anymore (which happens SO fast)! Included will be shots of Elliott with each of his 8 siblings (Calista is checked off the list!), outdoor pics of him in the fall colors, and yes, pics of him with myself and Daddy. Oh, and the BIG challenge…a group shot with ALL NINE KIDS. I’ve got my work cut out for me and I feel like I’m on a time crunch as these sleepy newborn days are so fleeting and our weather is getting ready to go south on us. You’ll see why shortly (I’m going to post a pullback for you).

We scored some awesome newborn props the other day! I’ve got to give credit to my husband…most men wouldn’t get too excited about browsing antique shops looking for props for newborn photography, but mine was cut from a different mold I think. Here is one of the finds we picked up. LOVE this rustic box and it was a steal at only $12!

Elliott was 10 days old in these…growing so fast!

Love me a rich black & white!

So here is a pullback that resulted in the shots I’ve posted of Elliott…pretty self explanatory. All natural light, no reflectors, no mid-tone boosting. I like rich, deep tonality. It was a really overcast day…pretty dreary by Arizona standards. Anyways…nothing fancy. In fact, I’m pretty sure my set-up is pretty darn ghetto…but it works well for me! Every shot I’ve posted thus far of Elliott has been done in this exact setting. I do plan to get outdoors and get some fall colors in his pics before it’s too cold, but it is pretty convenient to be able to do these at home right now. :)

Just a tip…when we first propped him up in the little box, his head was angled the other direction. I almost started shooting like that until it dawned on me that he was lit right up his nose! Don’t up-light your people, especially your babies! A simple adjustment of the head so it leaned in the other direction angled the light beautifully from the top of his little head downward. Don’t do it the other way! I’ve made that mistake before and it never looks as good…

Stay tuned! There will be LOTS more to come! :)

Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting Brooke & Ashley. Brooke is a senior this year, and needed her senior portraits taken, and they also wanted some with the two sisters together. I can honestly tell you that you won’t meet two sweeter girls anywhere! They were so much fun and up for anything! And the icing on the cake is that they are both, obviously gorgeous girls. That always makes my job more fun! I had a GREAT time meeting you girls and hope you love your pictures!

Can you believe this is Arizona? Well, it is, believe it or not! I take a lot of pride in finding those perfect little pockets to use in my photography…gorgeous lighting, gorgeous backdrop, and NOT brown (if you have ever been to my part of the country, you would totally understand how amazing it is to find a spot that is not brown). :)

I love this one! (Well, honestly, I love them all…this was a REALLY great session…)

I don’t normally put both the color and b&w versions of an image in a blog post, but I truly couldn’t decide in this case. I love them both!

We were pretty excited when we found this car. It even matches her shirt…bonus!

Ok, I’m patting myself on the back for this session…stream with gorgeous trees? Check. A beautiful field of yellow flowers? Check. No brown to be seen anywhere!

Doesn’t she look amazing in this dress?

I totally love sticking people in random bushes… :)

And just because I love showing the work that goes on ‘behind the scenes’…here are 2 before & afters from Brooke’s session. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to get it right in the camera! Editing just polishes it up and brings it to it’s full potential. Every last one of my photos gets individual attention, and is carefully, and artistically edited. I hope you enjoy these!

I think it’s safe to say that most people who hire a professional photographer to do portraits of their loved ones are a bit in the dark as to what goes on behind the scenes.  This blog post is just a small sneak peek into what goes on AFTER your photos are taken.  :)

In general, people believe that I just come in for a few hours, take some snaps, and call it a day, right?  So, so wrong!  There is so much work that goes on behind the scenes.  90% of the time I spend working on someone’s portrait session is done right here on my computer, where I carefully and artistically touch up and edit each and every proof that I show them.  Some photos just need minor adjustments to lighting, contrast, or white balance and can be done rather quickly.  Others need a lot of in depth work to reach an artistic vision I have in mind for the photo.  Your photos won’t get this kind of attention at Wal-mart or Kiddie Candids. :)  Small details are also given careful attention.  Any acne, bruises, dark circles under the eyes, etc will be carefully fixed in post processing, so that you will look your absolute best in your portraits.

The ultimate goal of any good professional photographer is to get a photo right off of the camera with the exposure, lighting, and white balance just right to minimize the time spent in the editing ‘darkroom’.  This is where the skill and knowledge of ones’ equipment and photography in general comes into play.  Editing is a whole other ball of wax, and requires a completely different skill set to do well.

Without further ado, here are a few before vs. after examples so you can see the work and artistic vision that goes into each and every session.  *This* is a big part of the reason they call it custom photography. :)

For reference, SOOC = ‘straight out of the camera’ and the photos labeled with this are exactly as they came off of my camera, before I did any editing.

First, a recent newborn.  I envisioned this as a dramatic black and white.  Here is the before and after…

Next, we have an adorable baby girl.  Aside from the obvious adjustment to the white balance, I did a lot of artistic editing to this photo…from filling in open areas on the canvas, to contrast, to major color adjustments (just check out her hat and nappy!)

Up next is a photo of my own daughter.  I had wanted a colorful, urban look to these pictures.  This one definitely needed some spicing up!

Lastly, here is a beautiful senior girl that I did.  Again, an urban session that needed some more pop!

Are you guys getting sick of seeing Octavia yet?  I like to  keep my skills in tune during the slow season, and she’s still immobile, so she’ll probably be making a lot of appearances here this winter!  I got a new ‘floor’ for my studio work and had to test it out today.  I really like it so far!  Who would know that it’s a giant rubber mat?

And a pullback for my photographer friends!  One day, I would *love* to have a real natural light studio, but for now, I’m thankful that I get excellent light in my garage.  Whatever works, right? Anyways, this was my setup for the above shots!  Sorry for the lack of a cute smiling baby, but she had had enough by the time I thought to take this.  She’d had enough by the time I thought throwing cool dried leaves all over the floor would look cool too…darn it!

Coming back to this one to add just *one* more…I drug her out again today because the leaf shot was eluding me! Haha!  She’s such a good girl, it was COLD and windy today, and not one complaint out of her!  Just more smiles!