Growing Up...

I had the opportunity to have a quick session with Carson and his little brother, Carter.  We were kept in the studio as the Utah weather still hasn't made it's permanent turn in to Spring.  It was a fun time and the boys behaved long enough to capture some great frames.

See more images after the jump

Fall Leaves

The Wasatch Front of the Rocky Mountains can produce some of most vibrant Fall Colors I've ever seen, given that the snow doesn't arrive first and the temperature doesn't freeze too soon. Unfortunately this year we had a vast cold front move in and "shock" all the leaves into their dead winter state, causing them to fall to the ground before their colors peaked or halting their chromatic change in a mix of a pale yellows and drab greens.

You now have clients running to get their family portraits taken with vibrant Fall Colors. What do you do?

Improvise. Scout, scout, scout, and scout some more. Move to lower altitudes to the wooded parks located in your backyard and valley suburbia. With luck, you'll find some trees with some color left. Utilize some camera magic and shoot with a large aperture and shallow depth of field to turn the background into a creamy, blurred bokeh of Fall color, avoiding the details the drab leaves are displaying.

Anthony is a paramedic / fire fighter I used to work with when I was still full time in EMS. Anthony is an outstanding medic with great skills and a genuine compassion for those who need help. I was excited to shoot his growing family. Their daughter, Claire was a natural in front of the camera and we captured some cute and fun images.

Photographing Children.. You can do it!

It is in our nature as nurturing parents to love love our offspring and get all googly eyed and joyous when we see them. Hence, taking images of children is a breeze when compared to getting that perfect image of the CEO of a major company that has given you less than 10 minutes of his or her time to get the shot.

From my experiences, keys to capturing amazing shots of children include the following:
-Shoot them when they are most awake, fed, and not in an unusual place
-Get down low... I mean really low... At their level or even lower. Our normal perspective of kids is from up high. Give the viewer a different angle. Get low and make the subject appear larger than life.
-Light the eyes. Make sure their eyes are lit.
-Again, nap time isn't a great time to take photos.
-Have the parent stand behind or next to the camera so the subject will look toward camera and not the parent that is standing 6 feet to the right.
-Do something different. Go in your backyard, school, or park. The same tin wash tub with the cute baby in it has been exhausted by nearly every crappy Box Store portrait studio there is. Do something original. Let kids roam around and be themselves in their natural environment is great place to start.