Honeybees, Rainy Trees, & a Sleepy Newborn

Brothers

$99 Infant & Child Photography Special Offer
May - August 2014

Professional infant and newborn photography taken in your own home by a local artist.  Avoid the hassle of the mall's studios with restricting time limits, pose requirements, package gimmicks, and unfamiliar settings that disturb baby.  We come to your home or favorite location and capture precious moments for you.  Show off your little boy splashing in a puddle or capture those miss matched socks your little girl insists on wearing now that she can dress herself.  Perhaps you too have a new addition and want to share not just the cute little fingers and toes, but all the beauty of your nursery.  We can work in any room to tell your story. Great for newborns, shy children, family photos with pets, and cake smash images for first birthday celebrations!

No hidden fees or re-order archival charges, and no need to call back for extra prints. all the edited images come to you on one DVD. Collages, birth announcements, and other items can be ordered through our collections or build your own with your favorite website and no need to worry about coming back for a release every time you want more.

Spring Time Means Splashing in the Puddles

Some days you just need to jump in the puddles.

On Friday my husband lost his job.  That job is our steady income so I can continue taking weddings as they come rather than need to contract out for other work or raise our prices and make it more difficult for clients to budget for quality work.  If you are familiar with the job market in the United States you'll understand why this is a frightening thing for my family.  Compound it with the impending birth of our new baby and the fact that it was his company which provides our insurance... we're in a tough position to say the least.

SO... how does one cope with all this stress?  I take my son outside in his cute little rain boots and let him enjoy the warm spring day while jumping in muddy puddles.  I'm still cleaning dirt off the camera, but I also promise the photos are worth it.  His smile makes the stressful moments fade and reminds me that so long as we have a roof over him, food in his belly, and can afford to do the same for our newborn... that means it will be alright.

Keep an eye out after I play with some new color editing programs and you'll get to see my handsome little man and his classic "playing in the puddles".

The Busy Season

Wedding season is a wonderful time of year.  I honestly love getting to be a tiny part in the memories of a lovely day.  My time behind the camera is a reward for all the hard work I do on week days and all the hours of editing that it can take later.

It looks like August to September has been a slow month for wedding bookings, so I'll be offering more deals around that time for couples that need to book and any brides that would like to try boudoir.  Until then, I think I'm going to do some new floral photography when I don't have weddings to test out color works too.  Between weddings, wings, and flowers, I think this blog is beginning to look decidedly girlish.

Mommy Day!

I have a long day tomorrow doing various things that require me to look and act like an adult, so I'm going to go slaughter some digital zombies with my husband to prepare for that.  No really, it helps! *sigh* When you're finished laughing I'll continue... You're done?  Good.

I was once again voluntarily torturing myself on Mother's Day as I worked at the florist shop.  After having covered a wedding the day prior, that meant I had almost no time with my "Tiny Monster".  So, to make up for that weekend being lost to income, we spent last weekend doing family things. My camera never leaves my side, so I had time to take a ton of great photos of my husband and son playing all weekend long.  Today I finally went through a few and found out how awesome they are after all.

Anyway, I give you a ton of fun clips from this weekend. Enjoy the crazy birds and smiling toddler monster:

Scrunchy Face

I forget at times how much fun it is to chase my toddler around with a camera.  He is a tiny camera ham and loves to grin and make a cute scrunchy face whenever he looks at me from the other end of the lens.  I had the opportunity to be a guest at the wedding of a friend last weekend and though he would turn and smile at the the photographers, he never made that face to anyone else.

Today I am prepping for wedding season by rolling out a new collection of ideas to pull models and brides for my 2013 advertising.  So for now I will share another few shots of my cuddly boy as I finish making edits and get ready to share great things net week. These are raw and right from the camera, something about them is too cute to "correct" in editing.

The Torture Of Just ONE Good Shot

I  am the mother of a very precocious little monster.  At eighteen months, he has grown up with a camera constantly documenting his every adventure.  What I share here is a small fraction of the memories that fill albums and frames in my home; but they all come at a price.  Hours of practice and careful planning to devote the time to each shoot.

The shot above is one of two successful images from a period of twenty minutes on Saturday afternoon.  He was occupied with the cat stalking through the tall grass, a bird flying past, the dog waiting to cuddle with him, and finally a pile of doggie left-overs from when that same cuddly dog had to visit the bushes.  Which is why I wanted to point out that toddler photography requires the understanding that a single great image is all you may receive and it may not be the one you desire.

Every year in my early days working chain store studios and selling retail photography, this was the time of year that made me cringe.  Families and parents that otherwise felt photography was a waste of time and money would begin booking sittings while some ideal image of two toddlers sitting with model perfect smiles in a catalog perfect holiday scene danced in their heads.  I often watched new hires and veteran coworkers being insulted and abused for failing to make their children magically behave like perfect darlings.

What I will be doing now is sharing all those moments that could have made lovely photos that fell victim to the evil toddler photobomb! Yes, even professionals suffer from those moments.  In fact, with my son visiting my studio on a daily basis at times, I have a plethora of material to choose from for this entry.

The image to the left is also for Saturday, though taken at my home with studio lights up while attempting to take an updated headshot for his portfolio**.  As you can guess, he was having no part of Mommy and her camera being in his face.  This is a rather typical response from toddlers to anything which they no longer want.


The next image, on the right this time, was taken at a family gathering on Thanksgiving Day.  This is a common moment of poor cooperation through extreme sleepiness on the part of the child.  My son had refused to nap and was about two hours past his usual time for unconsciousness following his watching of Sesame Street.  I was already forming the idea of this blog entry and was pleased to get this "gem" for our examples because I cannot begin to count the number of parents with infants and toddlers that do not understand how vital it is that they consider feeding and napping times when booking with photographers.

As the manager of a few chain studios I often gave advice to parents as they booked about outfits, props, and the often ignored "how to time your booking".  The factors were simple, children who are over tired or just woke up from a nap will be puffy-eyed and grouchy.  Children who did not have their snack prior to sitting for the camera should not be expected to just wait because they will get focused on food over smiles.  Sleeping newborns should be allowed to nap and wake up on their own; babies tucked into a gift wrapped box can be the best holiday card you will ever find.  I stuck this information into the Brain-File of advice along with having your child partially dressed for their sitting as you arrive so that you can put on their shirt or dress and make sure it is free of stains.

The example here is from another day I was in the studio just to shoot my son's photos.  This was at the same session that involved his destruction of a birthday cake, though I intentionally planned to do that last.  At this point it was late June and I wanted to take photos of his beach outfit before allowing him to make an epic mess.  I had put the hat on his head, but he insisted on holding it, leading to a natural failure with this second image.  I fell victim to having an idea in my head that he would leave the hat on, and instead he fought it and eventually tossed the hat on the floor before we moved on to our next phase.

Toddlers making a mess or doing things you do not expect can also make for lovely moments.  Keep in mind that there is often a way to make something beautiful without having to retake or ask your photographer to create a false image through large amounts of image manipulation.  That photo of your little angel looking off into the distance and not making eye contact with the lens can be just perfect. The cozy little monster sleeping through his photos could make for a perfect "Sugarplums Danced in Their Heads" moment to share with family.  And that kid with the grin that shows every missing tooth... he is just perfect even when he's asking Santa for his two front teeth!

Slacker Moments... I Have Them Too!

I am a slacker right now.  I actually wrote this on Friday night and forgot to hit the button to post it.  I could re-write, but I will be leaving it because I admit when there is something I did wrong.

Close-up taken by my husband after I
returned from work the other day.

I should be on the phone letting tech support have a piece of my mind over the delays with posting the gallery from my most recent wedding, but I know that it will do absolutely nothing more than make me feel guilty for giving some already over worked peon even more of a headache for doing his/her job.  Instead, I have been doing laundry and enjoying some mindless reposting on facebook that sparked a number of discussion on woman's rights and the ability to use that repressed anger to it's maximum benefit at some times.

Now I am going to spend some time looking up ideas for a shoot with a model that I had to reschedule due to time demands from my day job.  I suppose demands is not the word to use, they were kind enough to offer extra work hours knowing I have said I am willing to take any shifts that others cannot fill, but it did mean I called my model to set for a new date.

I have an awesome model for this shoot, rare in that she is willing to do nude and implied nude work without worry that it will become part of my portfolio and might be eventually viewed by others.  Models often choose not to do nudes of any kind because they could be seen by future employers after being leaked, or just do not feel comfortable letting themself be photographed sans clothing.  I do no generally share anything I do with nude or implied nude shoots because it is not what I focus on in my portfolio. 

Akelis Studios Infant Portraits

I also want to continue my work with families and children.  Parents have the right to need to feel that their children are safe; something I completely understand as a mother with a baby that has a modeling portfolio of his own.  Child pornography is something I view as a plague on the world of creative works involving young models.  I usually limit my infant models to being diapered for the sake of my backdrops.  On occasion I will work with a cute baby bottom from an diaperless little monster, though that requires strict posing and editing for appropriate exposure.

This image is a moment where I could have skipped the diaper, but I also know that this little man will get up and run around in the nude.  For those paying attention, this is indeed my little boy.  He is one of my favorite test subjects when I have an idea for lighting or colors because he never has to force a smile.  Our home is filled with framed photos, baby albums, holiday photo momentous, and so many digital images that I could never imagine having them all in film format.

My son being a very cute model.

You Look Smashing!

Earlier this week my son turned one.  I was agonizing over what approach to use for his cake-smash photos because I wanted to capture the entire event without going too artistic and loosing the quality of the moment for the sake of one or two images.  After having to fight my instincts as a mother, I went for a bold color choice in frosting and made an effort to really light the area at an insane level so I could ensure that every little detail was visible.

 

The boy was an amazing model yet again, really getting into the moment and giving me some wonderful expressions in his wild celebration.  The start was just a little timid, poking the frosting then looking at and licking his fingers.  For a moment I even thought he was going to go Godzilla on the poor cake and belly flop on it in some sort of mini pile-driver.  He got his feet, hands, even his bottom into the act when he sat on the cake at the very end.  

 

Thankfully it was followed by a bath since we have a full bath with tub at the studio, but I got stuck with the epic clean-up while my husband simply took bath duty.  The hardest part of the whole event was getting the little man to bed that night after the amazing sugar rush.  Thankfully he did nod off around one in the morning, but by then I was already to tired I was debating if he would ever have cake again.

Directions In Photography

I do not claim to be the world's best photographer. I have spent years learning and teaching others, but I will never claim to know everything about my craft. I shared a blog recently about being humbled and shaken when a peer gave a scathing comment on my request for advice, and I still find myself looking at work sometimes saying “I should have moved just a smidgen to the right” or “I wish I waited just a second longer so his eyes would be slightly more relaxed from the last flash”. These are the worries and thoughts of a typical photographer, and may have been distilled perfectly in a quote a fellow photographer made in a forum I was once reading:

A GOOD DAY FOR ME IS REMEMBERING TO POINT THE CAMERA IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.

This is a man who has his work in Vogue, Elle, and a million other places I can just hope to achieve in my lifetime. But his words have more meaning when you think about how a photographer is actually doing their client a service by freezing a moment in time.

Expression is huge, but only lasts a second. Shock and joy on the groom's face as his bride comes into view, or that warm candid moment when the Mother-of-the-Groom gives her son a kiss with tears rolling down her cheeks because he is all grown up; these are all something you can only capture just as they happen. These are true moments of candid photography. I need to be on my toes every moment at a a shoot so that I can capture the perfect image.

Perhaps even more so than weddings, working with children requires almost inhuman speed and attention to detail. I am talking about this because it will be a vital part of my shooting tomorrow and is weighing on my mind. Tomorrow is my son's cake smash sitting. Cake smash photography is a quickly growing avenue for child centered studios because of the honesty and silliness it embodies. To make it simple, a toddler is placed on a bare backdrop with a cake or cupcake in front of them and the photographer documents the following chaos.

I was introduced to the idea while working for a chain studio that absolutely forbid it because they kept a strict policy against food in the camera room. When I moved on the the studio chain, where I was responsible for training newer photographers, it was something very warmly welcomed. Now that my own studio is open, I am more than open to doing this kind of work and will soon begin looking for a local bakery to coordinate our efforts.

My son is a perfect test subject for the studio. He is constantly in my advertising and I have begun to market him out to infant and toddler talent agents because his aptitude for brilliance in the camera room could honestly make him a good deal of money to put aside for college. I also use him to test out new concepts and techniques, something I do often in an attempt to grow as an artist... but as a mother I am facing some worry that I will dislike the results.

What I want to do is really intensify the images tomorrow by choosing a stark white backdrop and a bold shade of blue-green for his cake. Next is where I am reaching my point of tension, because it is a huge risk as well. What I want to do is use a very tight depth of field and play with a slight distortion in focus. My goal is to change how we see the moment and bring out the “dirty” part of the experience.

Unfortunately, cake-smash is the kind of photography where one cannot simply “reset and try again”. The child's reaction will inherently be different because they understand that they have absolute freedom in that moment. As a mother, I want these images to be something my family can cherish just as much as myself. As an artist, I want to take advantage of this ideal opportunity to advance my skills as a photographer.

I will make the executive decision tomorrow as my husband places our boy on the subject mark. Once I can review the images I will post a selection and allow the results to be seen. But for tonight all I can do is take the advice of my photography hero and just hope that “my camera is pointed in the right direction”.