Baby E: 2 months

After taking headshots of a friend of mine, I had the opportunity to take photos of his two month old daughter. Her mother brought an absolutely adorable hand-made dress for the photos. This was a great opportunity for me to use a basket that I purchased specifically for baby photos!

Professional Headshots

Recently I've been asked to take a number of head shots for different reasons. It's something that I've had a desire to get into, and it seems to be a case of "when it rains, it pours" as I hadn't done any in well over a year and then suddenly had an influx of requests!

I did a few for a friend to use on his website/promotional materials for drumming up business (he's a composer). Here's my favorite of the many shots I took.

Pittsburgh in the snow

In February I spent a couple of days in Pittsburgh for work. I knew the city was going to be covered in snow, so I brought my camera with me in the hopes I might be able to grab some photos. I was lucky that my last appointment before heading home ended early, so I was able to grab my camera bag out of my car and wander about the main Pitt campus for a bit. With the setting sun, the light was absolutely stunning and I was able to capture some interesting play between light and shadow. And to play with backlighting, which is always fun.

 

So many photo opportunities!

As I do only rarely on here, tonight I'm blogging about photography, but not showing any new photos (well, maybe one. We will see how the post goes as I write it!). After a bit of a slump through the winter, where I was really only photographing the things that I wanted to (and trying to find some topics to get through the cold days), things have really picked up!

Over the past month I've done a family shoot for my neighbors down the street; here are my favorites from the shoot, on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.726735814016459.1073741849.509299119093464&type=3

Shot some professional headshots in my home studio for a friend from college. This shoot also included photos of his adorable 2 month old daughter, which was new for me but I'm very happy with how they came out! I'm almost done with them (I just shot them on Sunday), so will have them to share here soon.

And then just this week I took a few hundred additional photographs for different reasons; none of these were paid, but were things that I'm not used to shooting very often so it was nice to stretch my creative juices. This includes:
- shooting an approximately 4' tall Lego castle made by my boss's daughter (I'll explain that in more detail when I show the photos)
- more professional headshots of all of my coworkers, as we need to update them in our system

Today I wrapped up my week of shooting with a special outing with the Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ) Photoclub. I joined the club a couple of months ago, but had yet to be able to attend any events. Two days ago I received an email about a special opportunity just for Photoclub members: a sneak peek at the lion cubs, before they are revealed to the public tomorrow! I had thought about taking the day off of work anyway, as I had some other personal things to do today, so this was the perfect reason to actually take the day. I am so glad I did - it was amazing to get to photograph these adorable cubs with only about 20 other people. It did make me realize the sheer amount of gear that true wildlife photographers had - my 75-300mm camera, with basic tripod, was vastly insufficient compared to theirs! Despite that, I am happy with my pics and can't wait to share them. I would post one now, but we're actually not allowed to put them up publicly before their reveal tomorrow. Next week, I promise! Instead, I leave you with daddy, who was in the enclosure with them (but was brought out prior to them, so he could get used to it first). He's gorgeous!

Foxfield 2014: Child Portraits

Prior to heading over to the Foxfield races this year, I grabbed a few portraits of all of the kids at our house. The lighting was difficult, due to fairly direct sun, but I found a patch of shade and did my best. The kids looked so beautiful all dressed up, I was glad to preserve it!

 

Foxfield Races 2014

Last weekend we attended the annual Foxfield Races in Charlottesville, VA. In addition to the many photos of my friends and the kids who attended, I did get a few shots of the beautiful horses as they ran.

Weekly Photo Project: April 2014

Once again, I got to start off the month with a category of my choosing! I had just finished editing some photos from our trip to the Outer Banks earlier that month, and loved this photo below. Since I set up the photo to get the exact look I wanted, I came up with this topic.
March 31 - April 6: "Perfectly Posed"

Spring at the pond

As we've all noticed, our extended winter has led to a later spring this year. April has been a truly beautiful month, particularly this last half. I previously posted photos of the spring blooms on my street, but hadn't yet had a chance to capture the new growth around the pond. On a walk with my family on Easter Sunday I got the first of my spring pond photos to share with you here.

Plum and pear blossoms

My street is filled with the loveliest plum trees; almost every single house has one in front. That means for about 10 days in April, the street not only looks beautiful, but it smells amazing as well! Unfortunately, my schedule combined with the elements such that most of the plum blossoms had blown away before I could get out and photograph them. On the plus side, the pear blossoms are now popping out, so just as one fades the other begins. I start here with the plum blossom remainders in my front yard.

Beach portraits

When we traveled to the Outer Banks for a long weekend back in March, the weather was so lovely that we were able to spend well over an hour on the beach. The best part for me was being able to capture these photos of my beautiful children.