Georgetown, Washington DC | Photography Lesson

As anyone with a craft/passion should do, it's important to periodically take classes to improve one's skills in that area. I really enjoy taking photography lessons, whether it be informally with fellow photographers, sharing tips, or in a class that I have paid for. While a lot of my lessons recently have focused on photographing people, which is really what I've focused on, I have taken other lessons in other areas. A while back, I took a class in Washington, DC where we walked through Georgetown at dusk. The class focused primarily on how to adjust things like white balance in camera, not in post editing, to get different "emotions" in the photos, as well as some tricks for evening/low light photography. It was definitely fun to work on adjusting the mood of the photo while shooting, instead of during editing as I usually do! For all of the comparison shots below, I did not do any editing in post; it was all done on camera.

Victoria, BC | Travel Photographer

At the beginning of June I had the opportunity to go to Victoria, British Columbia for a conference for work. It's an absolutely beautiful town, and I had a wonderful time walking around photographing the beautiful buildings (these are my hotel and the capital building).

 

Little Miss E: 9 month portraits

It's very important that I get this little cutie's 9 month photos up here, as I just shot her 1 year photos last weekend! I've previously shot Miss E for her newborn photos, as well as at 6 months (we skipped 3 months because that's a very difficult age to get good photos of a baby). At the very beginning of May we scheduled (a bit after 9 months, to be true, but sometimes that's how schedules work), and I was very excited to have this shoot be a bit different than the previous two. First, we shot outside (the other two were indoor portraits), and second we shot at a brand new location that I had never used before, hidden away in Leesburg! I absolutely love this location, and can't wait to do another photo session here.

Welcome to the world, Baby R! | Newborn Photographer

I'm so happy when I have a friend who has a baby, and even happier when I get asked to take some photos of the new baby and parents. Again I was able to visit one of my very good friends in the hospital when she gave birth in May, and she and I were fortunate to get a couple of hours in the hospital room just the two of us (and the new baby of course!). We don't get that often, so it was a really nice time, capped off with some photos of the little one and her mom. I've never really taken photos in the light that we had (a single light from above and behind the hospital bed), and it was definitely a bit of a challenge, but I loved capturing mom and baby in the first day of baby's life.

Cherry Blossoms 2015 Part 2 | Nature Photographer

In my last post, I showed photos I took of the Tidal Basin during peak bloom of the Japanese cherry blossom trees in Washington DC. In addition to those, I took a number of close-up photos of the blossoms themselves, and had some fun with editing them to bring out the beauty in the flowers, and the light around them. I hope you find these as beautiful as I do!

Cherry Blossoms 2015 Part 1| Nature Photographer

I absolutely love photographing the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin in Washington DC. This year, peak dates were delayed due to the cold weather, so I was able to get there during that time (first weekend in April) to take some sunrise photos. I went again with my good friend Kathy; she and I had gone two years ago and photographed the trees at sunset, so we thought we'd mix it up this year and hit sunrise instead. This meant bundling up against the cold, finding a parking spot not too far from the Tidal Basin (which was easier than we thought it would be), and finding just the right spot to get started.

Rising Stars Interns | Dance Photographer

In January, I had the opportunity to photograph a large number of dancers at my children's dance school. Through a series of unforeseen circumstances, the photographer who had been hired to do the action photography on stage ended up leaving during the dress rehearsal, so I was asked to step in at the last minute. I wasn't fully prepared, but did have my favorite lenses on me, and so I think I was able to capture the dancers as requested! I don't really want to post the photos I took of the little ones here, so instead I will focus on the high school age Interns, who dance with the little kids on stage. In addition to helping out the young ones, they also do their own opening and closing number. These girls are beautiful dancers and very sweet with the little kids, so I was glad to have the opportunity to get to capture them dancing!

A birthday photo shoot | Leesburg VA Child Photographer

Last month my son turned 5. On that day, we actually scheduled our very own family photo shoot! This photographer has to get her own photos taken too, right? As much as I love photographing my little ones, I can't exactly be in those photos!

When we arrived for our shoot, the previous family was running a bit late, so we had some time to kill. In order to entertain my kids, and to get some shots of them while they were looking their best, I did my own quick photoshoot with them.

 

Miss A: Senior Portraits | Portrait Photographer

Last fall I did a senior portrait shoot of a colleague's daughter. She's absolutely lovely; a beautiful girl both inside and out! I had already posted her "sneak peek" album on Facebook, and so I wasn't in a huge hurry to get these photos up here on the blog...but since just this past week I attended her graduation party, and on Wednesday she officially graduated from high school, I thought I would finally put up a few of my favorites. Best of luck to this lovely lady as she heads off to Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in the fall!

St. Louis Zoo | Animal Photographer

I absolutely adore taking photos of animals. So when I spent two days at the St. Louis Zoo for work, I could not pass up the opportunity to explore the zoo and capture the animals there. It was difficult to weed out my favorite animal photos here, and not post too many of the elephants, sea lions, and penguins (all of which I took many photos of!), but I did my best.

 I was so excited to find out that they have a red panda, as those are my absolute favorite zoo animals!