It’s that season again- time for fall family portraits! I love seeing this family and catching up- we’ve been getting together for almost three years now- Benson is getting so big and has some really impressive football moves!

Horray for me! I get to photograph the sweetest children in Nashville!

Aren’ t these just the sweetest lil’ Georgia peaches! I love a hometown visit and the chance to work with friends, “back where I come from”-

and this cutie is ONE! We had a quick mini-session to capture that sweet face before she gets any bigger. They change so fast and I love being the one to capture it all.

 Sunny days chasing the clouds away! Great to be outside in the warm sunshine-

 A few more from the happy family session last week!

 So happy to have shared the afternoon with such a lovely family. Just one favorite from a very happy session-

I originally titled this post “Experiments in Natural Light”  but decided that may suggest that I gave children beer- Not true! So I renamed it- I should mention that it actually includes 1 yard of fabric, 1 bed sheet, 1 window, 7 precious children and a little CS4 Photoshop-

 I am always looking for fresh indoor ideas that allow me to still use natural light- I have also been wanting to incorporate fabrics in my work. Yesterday when James Henry and Eli had some friends over to play- I thought it was a great time to try out my ideas on some willing (well, most of them were willing!) models….

I drapped a yard of fabric over the back of the seat in our kitchen, turned the bench to about a 45 degree angle toward the bay window, turned up the ISO on my camera  (Canon 5D mark II) to 600 and set a custom white balance- I left the overhead light on by accident but I think that the custom white balance helped to cancel out any funny colored light that may have come from it-  here are the results-

I love that I did not have to use my flash! No yucky pinlights in their eyes or dark backgrounds- Not to mention that I spend a fortune in batteries each winter- I was so excited about my new home studio that I pulled a white bed sheet out of the closet and created a whole new set up-  Below is a snapshot of how it looked in the process of setting it up- The window is at 90 degrees here- It made better light at 45- (they are eating ice, in case you are wondering)

James Henry is of course one of the not so willing models… The other children don’t live with a photographer- I was pleasently surprised when he jumped on the bench to have a turn- It was not so perfect that he was wearing a blue shirt with the blue background but I ran a “pool party” action in PS and love the end results- Sorta vintage looking-

I “ironed out” the wrinkles in my fabric using the clone tool in photoshop. It was easy on the blue and the white but I could not do it on the polka dots- It caused a disturbance in the pattern so I just left them-

 Sweet Lucyon the white sheet- Technically, I “blew out” the right side of the image- The PPA (Professional Photographers of America) would probably disapprove- But I like it- I think that it shows a definate light source and that is what photography is all about- Well, one of the things that it is all about- It is also about having fun…

so here is, SUPER NOAH! I got my metering just right on this one and the colors really popped!! I thought that he looked like a comic book hero and thus added a little artwork to reinforce the idea- A big thank you to the precious models and my lovely assistant and friend Erica (she was the tickle monster who got all of those cutie smiles). Happy Wednesday and happy experimenting with Natty Light!

We met downtown Douglasville for some portrait fun. We were having a great time until we all ended up with ants in our pants! Ouch! I love my hometown clients, and consider myself extra blessed to be able to work with amazing families here and there (Georgia and Tennessee).

It was a joy to photograph these beautiful children. They are getting ready to celebrate little sister’s first! Happy Birthday Sophia! 

 …and a sleepy little brother. Many couples, like us, had a baby before the children ever came along. A real friend and truly a member of the family. I love that when this spunky little girl would yell at him, he just looked at me, as if to say, do you see what I put up with everyday?! Good ol’ Woody, such a good dog!