Seussical Dancers

Just over a week ago was the Rising Stars recital for the Loudoun School of Ballet. For the first time this year, the teachers and interns (older students who assist the younger ones) did an opening number together. This year's theme was "Happy birthday Dr. Seuss", and the opening number was "Oh the thinks you can think" from Seussical the Musical. It was really great, and choreographed by my friend Danielle (the head of the program). The girls did such a fantastic job!

Mommy & Me Spa Day

For Mother's Day this year, my daughter and I attended a "mommy and me" spa day in Vienna, Va. While there were a few hiccups with the event, she and I had a lovely time together and the setting was truly lovely!

The S family: Kids | Leesburg, VA Family & Child Photographer

In mid-April, my neighbors asked me to do a family photo shoot for them. We had a last minute change of venue due to an event at our planned site, but I scouted out a lovely covered bridge and walking path, and I think everyone was very happy with how the photos turned out - I know I was!

 I have already posted their full sneak peak album on Facebook - it wasn't just the 4 of them, but also their extended family (brother, sister-in-law, their two kids, and Grandpa!). Doing a shoot for 9 people is a  bit different from anything I have done before, but it was a lot of fun. Here, I wanted to focus on the four adorable kids! They were so good for the shoot, and lovely to photograph.

Sweet Justice Concert: Petersburg, VA

About six weeks ago I once again had the pleasure to see the Richmond-based band Sweet Justice. Previously I posted some photos I had taken of them at my sister's boyfriend's house, which was an outdoor event. Because that was done on his backyard stage, there was not a full lighting rig set up, just what he has at his house. This time, they played at a roadhouse near Petersburg, VA, on my sister's birthday. It was a great night, but to my photographer's eye, the best part was the lighting! It led to some really fantastic shots.

En Wageningen

In my previous post, I mentioned that two months ago I went to the Netherlands for work. After our two days in Brussels, we took the train up to Wageningen, NL where my company's home office is located. When I visited there in the fall of 2012, I posted photos of the beautiful forest outside of Wageningen, where our hotel was located, but none of the town itself. This time, we were given a couple of very nice tours of the town by a few of our Dutch colleagues, so I was able to capture and share photos of the beautiful location!

En Brussels

Two months ago I went to The Netherlands for work. My colleagues and I spent the weekend before our work trip in Brussels: despite two of them having been there before, we all agreed due to the many things to see and the city's proximity to The Netherlands, it was the ideal location for us to spend two days.

Upon our arrival, we began walking around the city center. We started in the Grand Place (Palace), where there was some sort of ceremony taking place (we never did find out exactly what was going on). The buildings and grandeur of the ceremony were simply beautiful.

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!