Foto Story Friday #127-- Family photos

It's getting to that time of year when people starting thinking about a family photo to send at Christmas time.  We don't often do such things, we normally type up a letter and include some pix.  This year we wanted to do family photos.  What I learned is that it is much easier to photograph someone else's family!

We went to the museum and they have some outdoor stuff like a caboose and this old rail cart.  The twins wanted to sit up there so we gathered around and I set it up, put the timer on and ran back to get in position.  I can't tell how stiff or relaxed I look until after the shot is taken!

Then we headed to my favorite bridge for a few more.  this one is my favorite.  I like photos that show personality or family goofiness.

When we turned to face the river the other way, we saw this scene and I liked it as well.

Can't resist a quick couples shot also done with the timer.




Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Foto Story Friday #109-- maternity and baby shots

Last Thursday I did some maternity photos these are 4 of my favorites of the day:

This was a fun first for me to do belly pics.

I had willing subjects too.  The boys were so cute with their kissy noises.

A beautiful family.

These wild flowers made a perfect backdrop.  It was by chance that we got this photo.... as we were getting back into the vehicles going to head to one last location I saw them and they spoke to me calling out for their photo to be taken!
I also took baby pictures for another friends baby gift.  Here are 4 of my favorites.

He fits so nicely in the cocoon I made!

The hat and diaper cover are pretty cute too.

What a catch!

I just LOVE his expression!!
check out more photos from these two shoots here
and here 





Hosted by Cecily and Serious Krystyn

Foto Story friday #97 3 years old

This past Saturday morning I had a date with this little guy.

I set up shop in his front room and he was such a good sport.

As you can see, he was full of smiles

and just too darn cute! Go here for a collage and a few more cute pictures of him.

Hosted by Cecily

Foto Story Friday #96-- Easter photos

Easter Morning after showers we set up a backdrop and gathered a few props for our Easter Photos.

(click to enlarge for a better view also check them out here.)
I think I need a few more backdrops.... sometimes they blend into the black and white. I think I need a nice brown.


Hosted by Cecily

Foto Story Friday #93 Engagement Photos

The engagement shoot:
(click to enlarge)
It was fun to try my hand at this. We spent about 4 hours driving around town looking for the perfect places ( I had some in mind). I grabbed a few of my props and we went to work having fun. I took over 200 pictures, of course not all of them looked super fab! I think we got quite a few that turned out quite nice!
Thanks for all the words of encouragement.

Hosted by Cecily

Check out my new photo blog: CareBare Photos

Foto Story Friday #92-- To Prop

When you take or see photos, there are always props. Because I would love to really do this, I'm getting a little stash of my own props. At our local 2nd hand store, The Attic, I found this suitcase.... for a buck! Yup one dollar! Who could pass that up? Not me!
Now to try it out, I roped Savanna into having a seat and putting up with me. I liked this one because, you can see the case and her pose says waiting ... waiting for her mom to set her free!
Then a few days later I went back and found some hats and scarves. I went to another place called Good Buy and found the other smaller case.
Suitcases full of props.
At our antique store, I found a few more hats. Now for a couple of local models:
Robby- "Mr. Cool"
Em-- "Little Miss 'Tude"
At Good Buy I saw this chair, but I waited to see if I could find a cheaper one, cause I'm a cheapskate, but that was not to be.
I wasn't in love with the colors and the layers of paint but after a few applications of remover,
I'm liking the chair a lot more.
pssst, I'm going to be taking engagement pictures this Saturday and I'm a little nervous and a quite a bit excited as well. I plan to use a prop or two from my bag and to use a few ideas I've scoured the net for.... wish me luck!


Hosted by Cecily

Foto Story Friday #87--baby photo shoot

About a week ago my friend had her baby. So for fun, I went over on Monday and we had a little photo shoot. Well the only way to learn is to do, right? So here is a small sampling of the photos I took:
Mother and Child.
Mirrors are pretty cool. I wondered around the house looking for props, every time I passed this sign, I thought I should see how I could use it.
Gotta love the chance to edit the photo for a different feel.
A little princess.
Sitting at less than a week old! Her mom was standing ready to catch her. At nearly 1 week she was very alert, we worked on this for close to 2 hours and she was wide awake the whole time.

Tiny little hands
and precious little feet. Saw the rings on the toes idea and I had to give it a try.
Sweet kisses of a mother.

Hosted by Cecily

Foto Story #82-- Aurora Borealis

Last Wednesday after helping the youth prepare gift baskets, we came home to settle in and the phone rang. It was my friend letting us know that the northern lights or aurora borealis was visible out the door. How cool is that? We all ran down to stand in the freezing air and watch the lights in the sky. The kids quickly lost interest, it think because of the bitter cold temps one had to endure to view them but I was like: "OK how do I capture these? What settings do I need to adjust?" After trying to ask my brother-in-law, I remembered that Aunt Claudia had given me some photography books and I ran in the house to consult them. To my surprise, there it was right on the page a suggested setting for taking pictures of the northern lights!! So I adjusted the settings and mounted the camera on my trusty tripod and headed for the door. Now my biggest problem was that it was so difficult to see if I had the manual focus focused. These are the best of my attempts at the Aurora Borealis:



This is actually the very first of 13 shots I took and it turned out the best. It was in great focus and so many strips of color showed up!
When I was looking at these with my naked eye I saw a hit of red and the white was more of a greenish tint, so it was interesting to see what the camera captured!

Wishing you all a wonderful 2010!!

Foto Story Friday #76 -- Desire for greatness

I think we all have a desire for greatness inside us. I look at others and see their greatness, but it is much harder to see the greatness in ourselves.
I desire to make great pictures.
What exactly makes a great picture: Clarity? Beautiful subject matter? Seriousness or humorous? Knowledge of lighting and proper use of equipment?
Photography is a form of art. Beauty in the eye of the composer of each shot. Sometimes we can convey our perception of beauty to others and sometimes it falls flat.
Here are a few examples of the way I see my surroundings, what inspires me and things that contain beauty. (Of course, my kids are beautiful and inspiring!) I love a good showing of colors in the sky but sometimes I try and look elsewhere for the beauty and inspiration that surrounds me.
Humorous:
From the recent construction on my street, which thankfully is complete, I was inspired and humored to find this port-a-pot........... the first I's seen on a single trailer like this. It is truly a portable potty!
Beautiful/ Curiosity:
I like to improve on capturing my human subjects. Robby gave me that mischievous grin and this turned out to be a favorite photo of him taken at a volleyball game.
Beautiful/Growing up:
The fleeting tween years and the ever changing portrait of childhood fades. ANd maybe I need to look with my eye before I look with my camera....... how could I miss the strand of hair?!
Humorous:
Typical kid doing dishes, listening to the iPod and chewing gum..... bigger and bigger until it pops! Which it did all over his face!
Beautiful:
Photo night put on by the young men and young women at church. Props can help a person to loosen up. Learning lighting..... need lighting!
Dreaming/Inspiring:
Old time photos taken at Kmart........ shooting from the hip. The photographer was not well pleased to see that I had a camera hanging from my neck. She grumpily informed me that I could NOT take pictures of her backdrop they are protected! Well you can see that it is located in a store and they are stetting up and I didn't even try to conceal that is was a photo shoot. Props. Yeah could sure use some cool props.
Beautiful/ Sneaky:
In my ever growing attempts to take good people shots, I do have 6 mostly willing subjects. Everything worked that time!
Thoughtful/Beautiful:
Mostly this child doesn't stop moving and trying to get and acceptable photo of her proves to very difficult. She was busy looking off into space and I got my chance.
Inspiring/Thought provoking/Beautiful:
Patiently awaiting his turn and wishing his mother would not point that camera at his face, I got lucky to look up and see this glimpse at teen life. What was he thinking? Was he wondering if he could ride the rails on his board? or was he simply wishing the "photo shoot" were over?

So what inspires you? what is beautiful to you?

Hosted by Cecily and Sue