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Baby Portraits in Redding, California

To begin, thank you Rebecca for letting me take some pictures of your little one!  It was fun, even though a good portion of the pictures have Marley crying in them! :)

A couple of things I learned during this photo shoot that I will have to implement on my next baby session.  Babies do not like to hang out in creek beds so much.  Now, I do have to say in the beginning she didn't mind as much, but it was a really hot day and that could of been where some of the baby blues came from.  What else did I learn?  Hmmm....Even though she might not of loved the creek bed, I think I will try it again.  I think the background is so nice here. 

Squeekers!  That might be something that might help me get babies attention in the future.  I think I will give it a shot.

Moms!  I couldn't of been more lucky with Rebecca, she really helped me get Marley's attention, helped calm her down, had snacks to make baby happy and was totally awesome!  I think if I ever had a shoot and the mom was freaking out if her baby was upset, I would stress out!

When I did my post editing, I decided to throw a texture on this image for a little added detail.  I am not too sure if anybody would even notice it, but I liked it.

Finished With Another Family....

One more family down, and several more to go!  Thanks again you guys for all your help being super awesome models!

Do you know anybody looking for some updated family portraits, or just portraits for the heck of it?  If you contact me through this blog via the "Contact Me" button and book a session by October 31st, 2010 it will be 100% FREE!  I am still looking to build a portfolio and gain the much needed experience required to one day be a professional photographer.  Currently, I am have an insane passion for photography and am looking for people to help me gain the confidence that I need to one day be a great photographer.  However, I will need a signed model release if you are interested.  This release allows me to use the images I take of your/your family to promote my photography.

More of this Cute Family...

Again, thank you so much you guys for letting me practice on you!  I am getting closer to being finished with the edits!!!!

I have to say that I am so thankful that I have full photoshop.  This would of taken FOREVER in Elements.  Though, if I would sit down and do a couple more actions of my own, this work flow would be even faster.  I can only imagine it is going to get easier!  SO AWESOME!

Looking at the picture now of the little boy, I think I need to darken his face and shirt a bit...he looks like he is glowing.  This is one of the great things about blogging my trials and errors...I have to take a second look at the pictures and might see little things that I would like to tweak.  Like there is a speck in one of the pictures on a shirt!  Can you find it?  I see it and it is really bothering me!

I love the look the youngest daughter is giving in the middle picture...so serious.  Another fun picture, I think, is the one where Mom and Dad are kissing and the two youngest are looking at them.  The little boy has the happiest look on his face, so cute!  I think that the reason I love this type of photography is you get to see true moments in peoples lives.  Yes, I did pose them...but these real interactions between the family are the best.  To me, not looking straight at the camera sometimes gets so much more of a response from the viewer of a portrait.  If everybody is still and frozen, saying "cheese" between their teeth, something is missing to me.  However, this is my opinion, and I am sure there are a lot of people out there who would disagree with me...which is fine, that is what makes art so subjective.

Edits...

To begin, I have to thank this family so much for letting experiment on them.  It was a challenge for me and I learned so much from it!  Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Just doing some editing tonight and messing around with actions.  I am liking this vintage action from Totally Rad Actions.  These pictures were taken in the shade and seemed to be missing something to me, so I thought I would play around a little bit.  I first edited my images in Camera Raw, then did some final edits in Photoshop CS5.  After that, I loaded the new actions and just applied them to the already corrected images.  It was too easy! I am one of those people who has to stare for awhile at a photograph before I decide if I like it or not, so I thought posting these images would be a good way for me to check them out through out the day and determine if I like them better with normal color or a vintage feel.

So, with each photo shoot I learn so much!  This one along with my other family of five photo shoot were similar.  I need to work on group poses for an entire family.  With that in mind, a less busy background for a big group of people might be a better choice.  The leaves in the background are too busy and distracting to me on some of these pictures.  Also, somehow figure out how to get the whole family to look at the camera at the same time.  Another thing for me to remember is when shooting younger children, that at this time, I need to use auto focus.  Trying to focus manually on a moving child is difficult for me at this time.  Because of my slow manual focus, I missed the CUTEST shot of the youngest little girl...darn!  I also feel that using selective focus helps me, just one little focus square right in the middle of my frame.  Rather than the camera trying to figure out what is important in the picture to focus on.  All in all it was a good shoot, wish I could of done better...but it is going to take time! :)

Done with one shoots edits, on to the next....

All done with  Amber and Addison's shoot!  All that is left is the final color checks from the printer and I will then burn the images on a disc for her.  Thank you again so much Amber for letting me practice on you!  I had so much fun and it was great to have somebody who was so excited to have pictures done.  I LOVED all of the outfit changes, the accessories, and the attention to detail!  Any time you want to be photographed again...I would LOVE to do it for you guys! 

Can you tell a difference?

How cute is this family!  Thank you for letting me experiment on you guys!:) Which one is the best color wise for your monitor?