Preschool Graduation

My son graduated from preschool today.  All the 'big' kids came marching out of the preschool at the end of class with their cute graduation caps on.  Mrs. Rosemary made them.  I feel like I was just registering him for preschool.  Now we've registered him for Kindergarten.  And I can't believe this was the last day of preschool for us - ever.  I'm kinda happy to give up a little taxi-ing for a bit.

So now I would like to share a few tips on how to take these sweet little portraits that will make their grand appearance at his mission farewell and on his wedding day.  What we did was once we got home after a good celebration lunch and gift giving (I gave him one Cars 2 squinkie and ramp) and he was in a great mood we headed out to the north side of our house.  It was about 1pm here.  

Then I had him stand in the garden where the garage and office meet in a corner.  I set my camera at f2.8, and because he was about 10 feet away from the rock wall, it was nice and blurry, making him the focus.  Yep, aperture priority all the way! I had his back facing that corner and so the light fell across his face at a 45 degree angle.  Of course he is in the shade but just barely. If I stepped to the left a foot I would have been in the sun. This gave us some good bounce light and a little shade. 

Since you are in control of the camera you can do this quickly and take a few different angles and turn the camera which ever way your heart desires.  It's nice to be in charge of the portraits but make it quick. Happy kid, happy mom!

Again, these are straight out of the camera - no retouching.  Click on the images above to see them larger.

New lens

When you get a new lens you have to get some practice time in before you photograph paying subjects.  I love this lens for it's great shallow depth of field.  Let me know what you think!

You can see I can set it to be so shallow that the eye on the right of the photo is in focus and the eye on the left isn't.  

And this was the only photo I got of my son without him being silly and sticking his tongue out at me.  He just rolled over after laying on his face on the ottoman.  I can just hear him saying, 'hm?' as he raised his eyebrow. Gotta be fast with this one.  Although I love how his eyes are so crisp and his skin is soft - love that shallow depth of field (f 1.8)! He's only 3 or 4 feet from the cabinets in the background and you can't even tell what they are - makes him really stand out against the background - which is what you want in a portrait.

Again, she is only 4 feet or so away from the stone wall in the background.

This photo session took less than 3 minutes and I really love how it turned out.  

Simple - my kind of photography - my kind of life.

For those of you interested in posing like this - sit on a step - and I had her lean back on her right arm. She is on the North side of the house on the front porch around 3pm. I almost wish I had her turn and lean on her left arm so that it was a little less broad lighting and more shadow on her face -which is more feminine.

And this lens is great for shooting indoors with low light.

And this is my banister railing with some added fall decor.  I'm trying to use things I have had in storage in new ways.  I wrapped this around the pine cone garland that I left up after Christmas and added orange halloween lights for fun after dark.

25 photos 'til Christmas - Day 14

Do you scrapbook? I do, did, hope to some more. I've been taking a mental break from it. Sad but true. But these photos make me WANT to scrapbook. I love the smiles of my children, their happiness, and excitement for life, winter, and snow.

Remember catching snowflakes on your tongue as a child? When was the last time you tried this? I honestly can't remember, so I'm going to have to change that the next time it snows. They were having so much fun. I enjoyed watching them, but I think next time I will have to join with them. This photo makes them look like they could just break out in song at any moment.

We love crazy winter hats.

And when was the last time you rolled around in the snow? Hmm...

Well, I better get back to work. Tomorrow I'll share photos of our candy gingerbread train. Actually my children decorated it. This time my husband bought the kit. He knows how exhausting this time of year is for me. All I had to do was melt the brown sugar, stick it all together and supervise.

Weekend Fun

We enjoyed a little weekend fun at Grandma's house. Our yard is slowly growing in, so maybe in August we could actually put down a slip and slide somewhere. I am going to add links to some of the photography we've been doing lately. Feel free to let those families know what you think of their images or let me know what you think. We are still offering $35 for each photo session referral and we'll pay you as soon as they pay their minimum commitment fee. Hope you are having a great week! Now back to folding laundry...

Cook Children's Photography

Cook Family Photos

Donna's Family Photo for her 80th Birthday

San Diego Temple Sealing

Senior Photos







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