This last image is a favorite of mine. Will’s posture (he has moved beyond the weeble stage) and profile will change rapidly in the coming months…these are the types of moments that we tend to forget if not photographed.

Raw and real “newborn-ness.”

Nick and I spoke at length about filling the frame (i.e. when you look through the viewfinder what do you see) with the “action.” He took the concept one step further by getting close to his subjects…and then I asked him to get even closer. He produced a wonderfully intimate image of his wife, Julie, and their children.

I started Todd’s session by asking him to reflect on an everyday moment that he will look fondly upon is his golden years. We worked on photographing a glimpse of what bedtime stories look like in his mind’s eye. With some encouragement, Todd attempted to capture the moment by trying out a number of different angles. Todd did a great job of including just enough of the book in the frame to relate to the viewer that his girls were reading a story.

Bob spends a lot of time in front of the camera as Dana (my office manager extraordinaire) has become an enthusiastic photography hobbyist. When it came time to turn the tables, Bob was eager to learn a few tricks to take a good portrait of his girls. We worked on encouraging the girls to interact by bringing their heads close together. Next, we took the interaction one step further by asking them to snuggle and hug. I know that Dana loves the image he shot as it’s her facebook profile this week.

Finally, I worked with Clark to become more comfortable using his camera and shooting with purpose. His daughter Ruby is 10 months old and getting bigger every day. As parents, we often forget to photograph to show our kid’s physical size. I asked Clark to take a photo of Ruby’s hands in Tara’s hands. The resulting image allows us to see just how tiny her precious little hands are.

I have to say that I was quite pleased with the results of the experiment. All of the Dads walked away from the exercise with a sense of pride and accomplishment. Hopefully, a few of you will be inspired take out your cameras tomorrow and take a few photos of your family for Mother’s Day! Remember…fill the frame, get close, encourage your subject to touch, shoot an “everyday” moment and/or shoot for scale.

Seeing as how their Dad, Nick, and I talked shop for a good while after their shoot, I am going to do something a little different and talk about lenses and settings for a little in this post.

In this first shot I wanted to capture the stunning thickness of Joey’s eyelashes and his little round cheeks. Using a 50mm 1.4 lens and shooting at f/2.2 @ 1/2500 I was able to get a crisp shot of the cheek and eyelashes and allow the remainder of his body to blur away.

The portraits of the kids were shot at f/1.8 or f/2.2 @ 1/800 using the same lens. I moved back about 3 feet from the kids to allow some room for their full faces and to get a nice portrait with a lot of bokeh.

The rest of the images were shot using my workhorse lens, the 70-200 2.8L. All of the images were shot at f/2.8 to keep the subjects in focus but blur the background.

Just a quick note here…notice Jane’s finger poking Joey in the second image…I love kids and the super cute things that they do.

If you are interested in booking a mini session (time is counting down until the holidays!!!,) appointment times are available for Saturday, October 23, 2010 at the Bath Nature Preserve. The Bath Nature Preserve is on my top ten list of favorite places to photograph families. Wide open fields surrounded by tall trees make for dramatic portraits.
Investment: $250 plus applicable OH sales tax ($500 value!)
Return: A minimum of 10 images will be presented in an online gallery. You will be provided the opportunity to download 5 high resolution images for personal use. In addition, you will receive your favorite image as an 11×14 print. Additional items may be purchased a la carte.

Call the studio asap to set up your appointment time! 330.294.0661