Senior Photo Session - Old Town

I met my first senior of the class of 2012 in Old Town for some senior photos, on Saturday. His mom and girlfriend were helpful assisting me with holding my reflector or off-camera flash as I directed. I had my 4 month old strapped to me in my baby carrier (and she slept most of the time), so it was fun! This great-hearted young man is homeschooled, and in addition works part time and helps care for his younger brothers and sisters. Here are a few of my favorites from our time together.

A couple of more from travel

The stark New Mexico landscape. I am titling the first "waiting for rain". I did my own color changes to get the effect I wanted.

 

 This was simply shot through the car window as we were driving home. The open spaces of New Mexico...

Travel

We traveled to SE New Mexico to visit family over the weekend. Unfortunately my 2 year old came down with something Saturday evening and she's still fighting it. I did manage to get a few pictures with the beautiful, stark ranch land the area offers in the background. My children put up with my camera with surprising grace. My daughter explained to her great grandmother "my mommy's a photographer; that's why she takes pictures of us". Hopefully, that isn't the only reason! Actually, I want documentation, and when I see an opportunity, I try to take it. I don't often have the luxury of having equipment on hand, reflectors ready, etc, and so I get what is available. I do, however. ask my kids to stop sometimes and "pose" where the light is good. Sometimes they are willing to comply, and other times I have to get what I can get! Here are several. The first three I took in the evening (when it got cooler).

This is more of a silhouette with the bright sky behind him:

I had to take a few with the brick wall of the house. The light was lovely with light reflected off the white wall behind the house. These were taken in the morning in the shade of the house.

 

The light was a bit too bright in the morning with the light reflecting off the white wall! My son couldn't get his eyes open enough looking the direction of the white wall... I still liked the photo I got :-)

Back to the evening, I stopped my kids as they came around the corner playing some imaginative game together. I intentionally worked in the leading lines of the bricks, and placed my kids in the right third of the photo.

I didn't post the photos I took with family members.

My Girls

I am a mom of four, so I do take many photos of my children. Here are several recent ones.

The first are of my littlest one in her daddy's arms. I was playing peekaboo from behind the camera.

And here is her typical contemplative look:

 

And that open mouth that is so common!

Girls at Play

I shared this on my facebook page and am putting it here as well. I used Adobe Lightroom to lay out the web page. This is a collage of photos I took of two of my daughters playing on our cluttered back deck. I love the endless creativity of children.

http://lonelymountainphotography.com/Girls%20at%20Play/

Sun

A couple evenings ago my daughter was wearing a brightly colored outfit and I asked her if she wanted me to take a picture of her. We grabbed a large piece of lace my children were given for play and she was happy to wrap herself up in it. The sun was low in the sky and I saw this as a good opportunity to get backlighting. As my 2 year old is not going to be still for long, and I had no assistance at the moment, I didn't even try to use a reflector to bounce light back onto her from the front, although this would have been nice. She wanted a photo with our dog (he's old and rather deaf). Once I got his attention and told him to sit, I had to move my daughter so she wasn't between the dog and the camera. I intentionally placed myself so I could see the sun coming through the lace, and I captured the moment before either subject moved on. I wanted a fast shutter speed so any movement from either subject wouldn't cause blurring, so my ISO was set at 800 so I could get a shutter speed of 1/800 second with an aperture of 6.3 (I wanted both of them relatively in focus). I also used evaluative metering, increasing the exposure by 2/3rds of a stop.

Below I decided to make use of flare, which is caused by rays of light hitting the lens. Some photographers use flare a lot. It is a stylistic choice. It used to be that it was something most photographers considered a mistake until some started using it intentionally. It is relatively popular now, although you will find photographers who still really do not like it.

In editing I raised the black point to increase the contrast, warmed the color temperature, and desaturated as well as reduced the vibrance until I liked it.

Here is one with even more flare! There is even a large sunspot where the light directly hit my lens.

Reflections