So this is love...

My daughter and her boyfriend have loved each other since they were children...okay, it's been 5 years but they were only 17 and 18...babies, really.  They are talking marriage now and Samantha is taking more pictures to document their love.  (I'm gagging a little here, gotta work on being more sentimental...isn't that important in a photographer?)  She's trying to figure out how she is going to photograph her own wedding, not really.  She has already narrowed down her choices of photographer, this is more important than the ring...haha!

I hope this brings back memories for you or gives you something to look forward to or even softens your hardened heart (you know you want to be a softie!)

,,,so it's all about the shadows for me and Iheartfaces.com

I have so much fun experimenting when it comes to taking pictures of my grandson.  Little boys don't have as many fun props as little girls.  Little girls have tutus and flowers and crowns and wings, tea parties and dolls...so many girly, fun things.  Little boys have old toys and hats....same pose, different hat. 

 

I bought a fedora from Blueberry Hill at WPPI and looked forward to the photo shoot I would have with my grandson.  I recently went to the Flashbus Tour with David Hobby and Joe McNally demonstrating off camera flash techniques  I absolutely had to put what I learned to use so I used the fedora as my inspiration for creating mood with off camera flash (post coming on the lessons learned).  Here is one of the images from a set using ambient window light as the fill light and off camera flash as the key light.  The deep shadows are created when the ambient light gets dialed down in the camera for drama.  The flash is behind a Lumiquest Softbox on the floor sideways dialed down to 1/32 power manually so as not to blind the kid or blow out the details.  The "neon light reflection" is done in postprocessing.

You can see more creative shadow images from other photographers on Iheartfaces current challenge here!

So it's time for the random...

Often photography guides will tell you to get on a child's level, don't look down on the kids but I say "PishPosh" or whatever polite way I can think of to disagree.  When a child is trying to get your attention and you look down and see this cute face, well you just want to capture it as is.  So here is some bigheaded kid happiness of one of my favorite non grandkid kids.

To make this just about the Tay-ster, I eliminated the busy background (with the lasso tool/delete), selected the area around her and on another Photoshop layer, painted it white then gave it a good strong gaussian blur.  It's like she's lookin' right at you, isn't it.  I'm pretty sure she's askin' for something and I gotta tell her to ask her mom and dad...I just wanna give it to her but she'll get a big hug and a tickle right away instead.  This smile should get you through the week, consider yourself hugged and tickled.

...so it's April Fools and March's Best Face!

and as they say, there's no fool like an old fool.  I have been furiously working on orders, projects and a website so I was caught unawares with the shenanigans that is April Fools Day.  I got caught up in an email prank, I was totally thrown off by Iheartfaces.com's goofy post for a new "Photography Posing Guide book"  and editing Photo Booth pictures just made me realize that today is no day for serious work.  So here is an image from one of our Photo Booths that will make you laugh.  Heeeeeere's Johnny!

For more April Fool's pranks to tickle your funnybone, go here! ...or here for another photography joke!

In all seriousness, this was a test for a basic photobooth with a plain white background where the faces of those being photographed are the focus.  The images can be fun with props or people can use the photobooth as a DIY portrait session.  I've been meaning to capture Johnny's faces before he outgrows his goofy stage and won't do them anymore so this is my favorite face for March.  You can see more at Iheartfaces.com