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Jim's youngest sister, Anita, is headed back to the Netherlands with her husband, Mike, and their daughter, Grace, where they're missionaries focused on working with children. They've been back stateside for the past year working on itineration, and it's been such fun getting to know sweet Grace. She's a beautiful young lady with a creative spirit and a huge imagination... not to mention a great smile!
Shot with Nikon D200 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 at 1/250s, ISO 200, and f/1.4.
Lyla was full of stories this weekend. I can think of no better way to spend a couple hours than hanging out with her and experiencing the world through her eyes.
Shot with Nikon D200 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens @ 1/250s at f/1.4. Post-processing done in Photoshop CS3, including Totally Rad Action "Dirt Bag".
Shot with Nikon D200 + Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 @ 185mm, 1/1000s at f/4.8.
I have no clue what Lyla was upset about, but that's possibly the cutest pout I've ever seen. Of course, I don't have to live with it like my brother and sister-in-law do, hmm... Shot with Nikon D200 + Tamron 70-300mm, @ 300mm and 1/500s at f/5.6.
Gabby is now 10, and truly in that "tween" stage; not quite grown-up, but not a little girl any more. We took all the girls to lunch at the American Girl Bistro on Sunday afternoon, and I caught this shot of my Gabs telling me a story. Shot with Nikon D200 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 @ 1/250s and f/1.4
Shot with Nikon D200 + Tamron 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6, 116mm and 1/60s at f/5.0, ISO 100. Softening filter added in Photoshop CS3.
I am officially in love with the light in Audrey's living room in the late morning. And I'm equally in love with Kasey's chubby little arms. Such a sweet little lady!
Shot with Nikon D300 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens; 1/25s at f/2.5.
Kasey belongs to close college friends of Audrey & Chris. Her mom and dad are not only huge football fans, but also die-hard Aggies. So when I spotted Kasey playing with the Nerf football, I knew we had a fun photo in the making.
Post-processing work done in Photoshop to convert to black-and-white and add a bit of Aggie Maroon.
I love this portrait. Love, love, LOVE it. It's a combination of my slowly-improving photography skills, an awesome lens, and some Photoshop magic.
Here's the original photo, straight out of camera (SOOC):
By itself, it's a pretty good picture. But I used Lightroom to crop it in tight on his face (and rotate it a bit, because I find there's more energy and interest in angled images) and tweak the exposure just a bit.
Then, I took it into Photoshop and used a couple filters to pump it up (Bring On the Eyes from Pioneer Woman Action Set 2 and Bitchin BW from Totally Rad Actions). Finally, I added an "edge burn" layer with a feathered-edge parallelogram rather than a circle to follow the same angle as his eyes.
Voila! Photo to portrait.
Now that Logan is massively mobile, I've found the best way to shoot him is to crawl around on the floor with my fixed 50mm lens and talk to him.
If I shoot with a really shallow depth of field, everything blurs into a soft background that makes up for the fact that we're not using a backdrop. I call it "Logan in his natural habitat."
He's got the sweetest smile... and that chin - could he be any cuter?
Okay, so maybe my depth of field was a little too shallow ... and maybe his eyes aren't "tack-sharp" ... but I think it's sort of a cool effect that his hands are sharp and his face is a little blurred. And in the end, my photography is all about amusing myself, so...
And every once in a while, I catch one like this that just melts Aunt Angie's heart. There's nothing sweeter than the sound of baby giggles!
All images shot with Nikon D300 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens using natural light.
