Horray for Camille! She is beautiful, talented, smart, kind and caring. These are what I call, middle school senior portraits- she will be making the big change from eigth grade to high school next year. She is so fun-lovin’ and darn cute!

Last fall I donated a gift certificate to a silent auction benefiting Providence World Ministries. I was thrilled to learn that the winning bidder gifted the Oatsvall family with the prize. There is so much to say about this family that I don’t even know where to start! Gwen and her friend Suzanne (two moms with thirteen kids) started 147 million orphans, an organization that speaks up for those who cannot speak for themselves. The Oatsvall’s are in the process of adopting (again), and this week they got the call! meaning she will be traveling to Uganda to have her court hearing concerning the adoption of Joseph and Daisy. It is a long process, but Lord willing, will result in bringing her babies home. I absolutely cannot wait to celebrate this family with photography! Gwen said that she gets goose bumps thinking  of Daisy and Joesph being in their family portraits. Me too!  I share this good news so that you can join me in praying for this family, and the 147 million orphans around the world.

If you love our T’s… get one! The money helps to feed children in need, Amazima Ministries, and raise awareness of the orphan crisis.

Today’s fancy camera tip: How to take portraits of your own two children together… Yeah, right. I wish that I could offer that advice!

The first one  is my favorite… Me: “James Henry, will you please sit by your brother so that I can take your picture.”

JH: ”Eli, take picture with James.”  You can see James (the red train) by Eli’s foot- and then Eli is looking at me as if to say- “Do you really think this is going to happen?” The last grouping is a lil sampler to show the process. James Henry started way out in the field and eventually made his way back. Ahhhh, at least E stays in one spot.

 I love a little photo journalism, and I love, love images of my boys playing together. I try to be nonchalant about it without my flash, so in the first three I turned up the ISO to 1600. I had a pretty big aperture (f 2.8) and very slow shutter speed (1/50 and 1/25 in another). I am surprised that there is not more motion blur. I usually try not to go under 1/100 sec, especially for children.  Anyway,  I was laying on the ground and therefore steadied my camera a bit that way. I have a problem with camera shake so I usually try to lean on something for support.  The last image of Eli standing, woah! Is that my baby? pulling up?! I did use my flash for that one. Oh, and I was using my wide angle 16-35 mm lens, hoping to show more of the room.

Gotta go lower a crib mattress with all of this new pulling up going on… That Eli will be running away from my camera before I know it!

Hello! I will be in Douglasville, Georgia for sessions in March. Please contact me to reserve your preferred time. See y’all real soon! 

 These pretty girls came by our house Saturday for a quick mini-session. My boys were happy to see them and talked about “baby Kay-An”  long after she was gone! The mother daughter images melt my heart. I imagine Carrie Ann being grown and having these portraits someday. She will be able to look back and think how pretty her momma looked with her on her hip. Such a treasure for so many years to come.

As a bit of encouragement… I love to see before and after images. It reassures me that not all photographs come straight out of the camera, snap, crackle, and poppin’. I mentioned in an earlier post, about the image of James Henry on the swing, that I brightened it in my post processing. I thought it would only be fair to show the original. I got to thinking… If I am going to offer fancy camera tips, I need to tell the whole story. I do not want anyone without access to post-processing tools to feel discouraged when the outcome does not appear “professional”.

I do not have a studio so I usually take pictures of my boys in our guestroom. It has two big windows, the walls are a khaki color (don’t put out a strange color cast), and the white bedspread works too.  On the left, I did all that I could to get a good shot of Eli. It was in focus and had a good exposure, but still needed some sparkle. After some edits, I was able to eliminate the distracting background and really make it shine. A good photographer doesn’t need big editing software, however, it really can make a good image great.  My best tip for editing  is not to over-do it. Even in Picassa and Snapfish you can do some good edits but take them too far. Don’t forget- You must start with a good image!

 Like I said, I do not have a studio with backdrops or big lighting. I use available light (including my flash) and improvise. Part of the creative process is problem solving.  Here, I draped the scarf that I was wearing over the back of a couch facing a window in my client’s home.  I personally do not prefer excessive edits, extra stuff in my portraits. Everyone has different taste, and so one persons idea of overdone is much different than the next. Ahhh, that is why I love art!  For this image there was something so subtle about her look that drew me in.

After my usual tweaking, I wanted to do something dramatic and fun in contrast to the simplicity of her expression. I went out of my comfort zone and experimented… I adjusted the saturation, contrast, tone curve, warmness, and burned the edges. Next, I scanned a piece of scrapbook paper. I “laid it over” my image creating a new layer in PS. I adjusted the opacity to 8 or 9 percent and then erased it off of her face, hair, and coat. I don’t mean to oversimplify the process, I just hope to show how much fun editing can be! I may be breaking some photography etiquette rule… Like, a lady never edits and tells (I just made that up).  I’m ok with that. If a photographer claims to never do post-processing, I have to wonder if they are telling the truth… just sayin’.

BTW: The hansome  I T guy (Clint) fixed my google reader feeder thingy problem! It is now possible to subscribe to the blog- Just click on the RSS icon in the grey section under the banner… Thanks!

Ok, so I admit… When a session starts off like this, I get a lil’ nervous-

Sweet Elizabeth drove all the way to Nashville from Atlanta and missed her nap. She always sleeps on road trips… Well, almost always…

Her sweet, precious personality still shone through just enough to allow for a few portraits-

She even showed off her walking skills, such a big girl! I still had to be quick, real quick…

Afterall, she has not had a nap!

Thank you so very much for coming to visit this weekend. It’s been such a long time since we’ve seen you, and we hope that you’ll come back real soon.

We love you! Clint, Katy, James Henry, Eli, and Buddy Southern

*a fancy camera tip:  The sun had set when these pictures were taken (we were squeezing the last drops of daylight out of our warm weekend!) It was getting pretty dark so I cranked up the ISO to 1000 so  that the shutter speed was still fast enough to stop his motion. It may cause noise or graininess, but hopefully, you’ll get your shot!

p.s. I also adjusted the brightness in my post-processing, it was a teensy bit muddy do to the lack of light.

I had the pleasure of photographing two floral arrangements by an extremely talented artist. SGS designs is a group of three women based out of Douglasville, Georgia. They create beautiful and unique, custom floral arrangements for most any event. The above were for a zebra themed first birthday party. They were the absolute cutest things I have ever seen! Did I mention that the creative genius behind these designs just happens to be my mother, Melissa Sanders. I am so proud of her business venture. She is a retired school teacher with a passion for flowers. Last summer she won blue ribbons for the best table display, most unique design, and best in show, in the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival Standard Flower show. Bravo!

Speaking of my mother, here she is with my dad, canoodling with Eli after our Valentine dinner at “Grandmuver” and “Jampier’s” house (Clint’s parents) last weekend.

Mary Emmett just celebrated her first birthday! She lives in New York City, but we met at her Mimi’s house in my (and her mother’s) hometown of Douglasville, Georgia. Even her puppy, Friendly Friend, made the trip down. We got to do some of her most favorite things like read books, make music, play with Big Bird and ballons. She may live up north, but everyone knows she is a southern girl at heart!