Soul Sisters and an Update

Been gone a while, but I'm back with a recent project. I sure do appreciate friends coming forward and asking me to take pictures. They have to know how much I love doing it, and my hope is that they'll have at least one or two photographs they'll end up liking.

So here are a few shots from my most recent session... a couple of lovely sisters. We decided against an "on location" shoot since the youngest has a cast on her arm! That's okay... I love the up-close and personal facial shots anyway. Lighting was pretty good this weekend.

So here we are with the basic "together" shots:

 And clearly my symmetry was off with this one, which makes me SOOOO mad because I really like the shot! Yeah, I could crop, but the printing dimensions will be off....  :(

 I love seeing all of the baby teeth in this one.

 Just experimenting a little bit...

And here we go with the solo portraits. Here's the oldest...

And now the youngest...

And finally a quick shot with their very pretty mom. Could have done better with this. Wish I had taken more time to set this up better.

What lovely ladies! That was a fun session.

So...

Time to get myself a little more organized with my purpose and my goal. I finally received contact from Team in Training and they are having an informational meeting later this month (one that I cannot attend because I have a staff meeting at the same exact time that I cannot miss). Apparently, this session is for those who want to train for the Shamrock Marathon. The Nation's Triathlon is not listed.

I've been doing some thinking.

I would love to do another triathlon at some point, but I am worried about the expense of the equipment. I would need a new bike, probably some attachments, and a new wetsuit. I don't know if I can justify the expense of these things while we will be facing a pretty expensive year with our middle daughter in travel volleyball. My races this year sure added up too.

It is probably significantly wiser for me to sign up for the marathon. I will be mostly trained... just need to keep my distances up over the winter, if my body will allow it. I won't need any additional equipment (except maybe a new pair of four leafed clover shaped sunglasses).

Hmmmm. Need to come to a final decision very soon.

The Secret Garden

Last Easter my sister, her husband, and their new baby girl came for a visit and we decided to drive down to the quaint town of Manteo in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. My sister shares my love of photography, and we decided that it might be a nice idea to catch some shots of our beautiful girls in their Easter "finery." It's so rare these days that my girls put on a nice dress and a bow in their hair. Soon enough they will refuse to do it, so I have to take my opportunities while I can.

Gardens, especially in the spring, are such perfect places to shoot pictures of darling young girls in pretty dresses. We enjoyed our visit to the Elizabethan Gardens with the azaleas, roses, and tulips in full bloom. While I typically prefer black and white for most portraits, many of these shots had to be color of course. I am typically not a fan of the "classic pose portrait", but there's something to be said about it.

 Is there anything more touching than young parents and their beautiful baby? My sister and her husband are completely in love with their little girl, and it shows in almost every shot. This was my favorite of them...

And this photo reminds me yet again of how the unexpected moment often turns into the "money shot." We placed baby girl in a bed of tulips, hoping to catch her sitting pretty. But she promptly fell over and just stared at her cute little toes. One day when I get a hold of photoshop I will remove that gazebo thing in the background, but I love this picture.

 The next photo is a personal favorite, but not without faults. My two girls, three years apart, are peering into a fountain. I love the way the picture compares and contrasts them. They're both wearing the same outfit and hairstyle to highlight their "kinship." But one is much smaller and needs to boost herself up to see over the edge. I like that.

 The problem with the shot (and what I learned) is that shoes make a difference. I brought fancy shoes that were identical. But the girls thought they were uncomfortable and replaced them with their scrappy summer shoes so they could run about the garden in between shots. I never asked them to peer into the fountain. It was true discovery on their part and I caught it. No time to think or change shoes. But as I look back at the image I realize it's one of the first things your eye goes to. The difference in their shoes. It bothers me, but I still like the shot anyway.

And finally, my favorite of the day. We're still at the fountain and my littlest peers into the water. There are flower petals floating about. There is something timeless about this shot. It could have been a century ago, so I gave it a sepia tone to "antique" it. It just worked.

Gardens are such a fun and beautiful place for portraits...

First Project... Life's a Beach

Drove down to the beach last night with a fabulous family to try to capture some nice shots. It really was a beautiful afternoon giving way to evening. The lighting was perfect and a good setting.

I haven't had much of an opportunity to photograph these four kids together... and I have to say it was more of a challenge than I anticipated. The ages between the kiddos spans five to sixteen. It was kind of an interesting dilemma to try to get the older kids (who feel awkward posing in sentimentally sweet stances) to mesh with a very busy five year old who thought my shutterbugging was an infinite nuisance.

I realize the set of challenges those portrait studio people face as they stand there squeezing their rubber duckies, trying to make the kids look their way for a split second.

I didn't have a rubber duckie.

So I just did what I could and played around.

I found the best tactic to utilize with the busy little man is to just let him do his thing. He wanted to jump off the sand dunes. He wanted to run in the ocean. He did not want to look into a camera lens. I just followed him around and tried to catch those moments of lovin' the beach.

And he loves his big brother. Of the scenes that I tried to photograph within that hour, for some reason these were the easiest... the two boys playing in the surf...

And this was my favorite shot of the set:

I loved it because I asked the older brother if he could lift little brother up in the air... and the little one screamed "NO!" and he meant it. So it seemed like a lost cause, but they went ahead and tried... and note the look on the little one's face. Despite his protests, he loved it. And that's why I love it too.

Wow. These kids are growing up. Hate to be nostalgic here, but I've known these kids for 14 years, and remember this "little" one coming over to my house dressed in a superman cape, cowboy boots and a diaper.

He's practically a man now. When did this happen?

And these beautiful sisters... time may be marching on but when I look at their expressions in this photo I see the same little girls I've always known.

I took 102 shots in an hour, including the entire family and am only posting a small sampling here. I think with every "session" I do, I need to take note of what I learned. Yesterday I just walked out of there with no specific plan, just thought I'd "feel it" and see what happens. That's probably okay if you're working with one person, but not six. Have a plan, have some shots in mind. Some days the creative juices will be flowing, and some days it just won't be there.

I need to just keep snapping away, especially the moments between the poses. My favorites from this set were the unplanned ones. The PLAN was to have all the kids hold hands and jump off a sand dune. While the jump shot was cute, I loved the BEFORE shot... the one when they're laughing at how ridiculous they feel holding hands:

And of course with the little ones... it isn't worth it to push. They want to do what they want to do. I'd rather catch them running away from the camera and laughing than looking at the camera scowling. It's all good.

Teenagers... I'll never figure them out as long as I live, so just roll with it. Actually, these kids were awesome. Very few eye rolls. Guess they know me by now and accept my weirdness.

So my first session since "Picture the Cure"s inception is in the books. I liked the challenge of it. If nothing else, I hope the family will enjoy some of the shots. I saw a lot of smiles, even if they were as a result of feeling silly. I take what I can!

Siblings: Focusing on the Unique

After studying biological sciences for years in college, the power of genetics never ceases to amaze me.

Do you ever look at a family with more than one child and realize that those children can look shockingly similar, or shockingly dissimilar? My kiddos fit into the latter description. It's like our genes were in a battle each time they combined. It isn't unusual for strangers to ask if all three of my children are actually siblings. If one looks closely, you can see the traces of similarity. But they also have some stark differences: eyes color, eye shape, skin tone, hair color, and even body type. Not to mention personalities. A true genetic mosaic... all three!

When photographing children in a family, I think it's really interesting to focus on the unique, yet highlight the characteristics that tie them together as brother and sister.

So, as I was photographing my friend's kiddos I first wanted to capture each individual (oldest to youngest):

Then take one aspect of their features that we can draw attention to and compare. I loved their eyes. They were similar, yet different...

And we had so much fun with these that we decided we had to update the "eye shots" this year.

Your siblings... your kids... little clones or genetic mosaics?