Portraits in the snow

Yesterday morning I took the kids out in the snow for some playtime in the falling snow. This time, I took my DSLR camera and used my rain shield for the first time to protect it. The shield worked beautifully, and I'm so glad to have these portraits of them enjoying the snow!

My daughter, the dancer

 About three weeks ago my daughter had her second dance recital with the Loudoun School of Ballet. On my personal blog, I've already posted photos I took at the dress rehearsal. When we arrived home after the recital, she of course didn't want to take off her costume, and we had some really nice light coming in through my living room window. So, I figured why not set up for a costume photo shoot? As she gets older, she gets better and better at listening when I tell her posing suggestions...maybe we've got a future model on our hands!

Be My Valentine!

I'm not really a Valentine's Day girl - my husband and I don't do anything for the "holiday", and it's always seemed a little silly to me. However, I have to admit that I do love the color combinations (red, pink, and silver? bring it on!), and with having a girly-girl in my house I thought why not set up a shoot for Valentine's Day? I knew she'd be a fantastic model, and I wanted to try out the new backdrop that I purchased over the weekend. I could not be happier with the results!

 In fact, I'm running a Valentine's Day special - $50 for a 30 minute session, getting 10 photos of your little Valentines! Please contact me if you'd like to schedule a shoot this week.

6th birthday bash

 In mid-January I brought my daughter to the 6th birthday party for the daughter of an old friend of mine. My friend always makes an amazing cake, and this year was no exception at the tea party-themed birthday party!

Christmas Portraits

 The holidays provides a lot of opportunities for adorable photos of the kids, and this year was no different. I was only able to get a few of the more traditional shots that I wanted to get, as my son would not cooperate. But that's ok  - my daughter made up for her lack of brother by bringing on the cuteness!

 

A snowy birthday

Two weeks ago today was my daughter's birthday. We woke up to gray skies and heavy snow falling, but were able to go outside twice that day despite the weather! Later in the afternoon, when the sun came out, I headed outside to take photos. She wanted to take photos with me, so of course I took the chance to grab some unique photos of the birthday girl in the snow. It doesn't hurt that they are also photos of her being a photographer!

 

Wedding Part 3: Portraits

The last set of Vermont wedding photos! When going through these, I found so many that I had taken of my kids, as well as the other flower girl, that I put them together into a single post here. I just can't get enough of these beautiful faces!

Little Miss M

My previous post was of the photos that I took of my colleague's daughter for her back-to-school photos. A former colleague of ours tagged along on the shoot with her adorable 2 year old; I couldn't help but take some photos of her, as she is a fantastic model and absolutely gorgeous!

Nutcracker Audition

Last month my daughter auditioned for a local production of The Nutcracker. I wasn't sure what the situation would be in regards to taking photos during the audition, but I was able to sit in on it and use my 70-300mm zoom lens to snap a few photos. The lighting was difficult, and I of course could not use a flash, but I think I was able to make do with the situation at hand.

The role her age group tried out for is "gift bearer", so during the party each of them would come forward with a gift to the front of the stage, curtsy, and return to the back. The older girls (chosen to play the main role of Clara) helped them out with their nervousness on the first run through (they each did it 3 times).

 

All Dressed Up

 About two months ago, we had a neighborhood yard sale and picked up a dress for my daughter. She jumped at the chance to put it on with some makeup for an impromptu photo shoot. I jumped at the chance to have a willing model on which to practice using my external flashes and lights. I love the different looks that I can get just by moving around the lights.

Preschool Photos

My son does not permit me to take his photo as easily as my daughter does; at 3.5, standing still and posing nicely for photos just isn't in his DNA! However, he started preschool this week, so I was able to convince him to take a few photos before (and during) his first day of preschool. 

 I cannot resist close-ups of his beautiful little face. And his eyelashes should be outlawed (as one of his teachers noted)!

Happy first day of preschool, big guy! Can't wait to see what this adventure holds for you.

They grow up so fast

Today was my daughter's first day of kindergarten. I of course took photos of her this morning while waiting for the bus, but I also wanted to do a mini photo tonight shoot celebrating her first day.

Back-2-School Promo

I've recently posted on Facebook about the Back-to-School promo that I'm doing: $30 for a 30 minute session for your kids, to capture them as they start their new academic year. Photos taken by the professional company at the school are not only cheesy, and impersonal, but they are prohibitively expensive; while I know the school uses them as a fundraiser, I'd rather donate money in other ways to help! I'd really love to help parents capture these memories of their children in a much more fun, personalized session, so please contact me (abbelynnphotography@gmail.com) to set up a session today!

My daughter, the model

It's really wonderful that I have a daughter who loves having her picture taken, and isn't too bothered by posing for me now and again. I try not to only use her as a model (and I do have to remember that she's only 5, and her patience for me to try new things is limited), but every now and again she gives me priceless photos like these. She had her haircut last night, and I wanted to enjoy the beautiful light at sunset in July, so it was a perfect match.

Girls in Tutus

A few weeks ago, my friend Blaire at Second Avenue Photography put a call out over Facebook for some girls to be models for her. She does a number of product shoots for people she "meets" on Etsy, and was doing a trade shoot for a tutu designer (she gets sent the items to photograph on girls, and gets to keep the products). A few of us volunteered, and all met up at a local park to take the photos. Blaire was generous enough to allow me to take a few photos during the shoot, but I stayed out of her way as it was her shoot!

Blaire posted her few favorites here on her blog (there is an embedded link there to even more photos on Facebook from this shoot). 

My shots of course focused primarily on my daughter. The tutus were *just* large enough to fit her, and she had a thoroughly wonderful time modeling various combinations.

My tiny dancer

Recently, my daughter had her first "big girl" ballet recital, which of course provided many opportunities to photograph her in her full dancing glory. I was able to take photographs of her on both her dress rehearsal and recital day; I wrote a big post about the dress rehearsal on my family blog. I had originally intended to do a separate post here of just portraits of my daughter, but ended up including the ones I would have posted here on the family blog. So, instead I'm doing a first and directing you to that blog for photos of her from the dress rehearsal.

http://aemacbeth.blogspot.com/2013/06/ballet-dress-rehearsal.html 

Gritty black and whites

In the past couple of weeks, I downloaded a few free "mini" actions for Lightroom. They don't have the "full" utility that the sets you pay for do, but hey, why not try the free ones out? Turns out, for mini presets, they've added a lot to my photos! In particular, I'm LOVING the black and whites that I can now create.

This is why I love my "nifty fifty"

If you enjoy photography, and have not yet purchased a "nifty fifty" lens (50mm fixed focal length), please run out and do so. I obtained my 50mm f/1.8 lens off of amazon.com for about $100, and it was probably the best $100 that I've spent so far on my photography hobby. There are MANY other lenses that I'd like to  purchase, some of them ranging well up over $1,000, but I believe this one will continue to serve me well. The quality of light, depth of field, ability to focus on a very specific part of the photo...all of these contribute to beautiful photography. If you doubt, look at these amazing shots of my beautiful daughter (and these were taken on an afternoon when she had the stomach flu!).

Morning portraits: children

As I mentioned on my Facebook page when I shared this photo earlier this week, I have a lot of photos to share of the kids all dressed up for Foxfield. I had a lot of photos to share from our weekend in Charlottesville about 3 weeks ago, and decided to split up the posts - I posted an album on Facebook devoted to mostly our friends (the adults), a post on my family blog devoted mostly to my kids, and thought I'd highlight the more "portrait" shots of the kids here. The kids all looked so lovely, and they were so obliging of my photography efforts!

My children, outdoors

When the light outside is this great, you can't help but take photos of these adorable subjects!