Another Portrait Session

Children's Portrait Session - March 2010

This was supposed to be a family portrait session with my niece and her family, but due to a scheduling conflict the whole family didn't make it and it turned into a portrait session for the three children, ages 3mo, 8yrs and 10yrs old.

In preparation for the shoot I went to the fabric store and bought a 10'W x 15'L piece of white muslin to serve as my new backdrop. After hanging it I stretched it out on the floor and taped it down with painters tape to try to avoid wrinkles. I placed two strobes to light up the background and used two additional strobes with 42" shoot through umbrellas to light the subjects.

It was an enjoyable and relaxing shoot. Part of the reason was that I was set up in my own space and that I knew the subjects very well. So here are a few of the photos.

I decided to process these with a high key look. I think it works well with this set, although some may disagree. If you have any comments, one way or the other, I'd like to hear them.

And, that's all I have to say about that.

Anyone Hear the Crickets? 2009 Catch-up

Wow! It's been over a year since my last entry. I guess I failed to find a way to keep up with regular entries. A lot has happened since my last post back in February of 2009. I've taken over 10,000 photos and had several studio shoots as well. Several portrait sessions were with my favorite model, my daughter, but others were done for friends and relatives and one was a show dog.

Dog Shoot - May 2009

Watashi is a Japanese Chin that was being trained as a show dog. I set up my studio equipment to do the photos only to have none of the wireless receivers work properly. In the end I mounted my flash to the camera and used it to optically trigger a few slave flash units. It was much less than optimum, but I managed to get a few decent shots.


Watashi soon lost interest in modeling for me and curled up on the floor. I laid in my stomach and took a few more shots.



Family Portrait Session - November 2009

In November I carried all of my studio equipment to the home of a work friend to do a family portrait session. It was the first time I set up at a remote location and it was a bit of a challenge. I didn't have a backdrop large enough for the group of twelve and ended up hanging a king size sheet. Also, something in the house was causing my wireless triggers to randomly fire. The session was challenging and a bit stressful, but ended up being a lot of fun.



Christmas Portraits - December 2009

We always include a photo of our daughter in the Christmas cards and I decided that I wanted to set up and shoot a few portraits rather than send out school photos. Nothing really special here and no real challenges. Just a relaxed portrait shoot with my favorite model.



Informal Christmas Portraits

I took my camera and my flash with homemade diffuser (Better Bounce Card) with me to the family gatherings. I tried to get as many people as possible to pose in front of the Christmas tree so I could shoot a portrait. Some cooperated, while others did not.

Next post I'll pick up in 2010. I may also make a few entries on my other interests like birds, zoo animals and flowers, bugs & butterflies. Till then...