For quite awhile, I have been fascinated by eyes, pictures of eyes, eyes in movies (especially those in film noir)… well, all eyes. I sort of first found a fascination with taking these pictures with a senior whose photos I did a couple of years ago. Since then I have done more “watching and learning,” a technique that has given me more insight into how much of my photography is just for clients, and how much is just for me.
This photo is the first one I did for a client, who requested it.
Later in the year, I was shooting at a wedding and was looking for some “new” eyes. The bride had eyes that were filled with a little mischief, a little happiness, and a little nerves…
It wasn’t long after this wedding that we were photographing some models for an upcoming product line we are working on. I’ve known the one model for many years, and have always found her eyes and her expressions to be deep and expressive. This image is extracted from a much larger picture, so rather than try to fix the grain, I enhanced it a little to give it a kind of mystery.
Later in the senior season, we photographed the daughter of our hair stylist. She has really amazing eyes. I’d never seen someone who had what amounts to highly reflective irises. The color in them seems to have gone brighter under the right light. While the rest of the image has been desaturated to really draw attention to the eyes, they stand on their own.
It didn’t take me long, being the emotional person that I am, to want to photograph Diana’s eyes. At the last Day of Beauty we did, Diana participated and it really was the perfect opportunity. Up to this point, eyes were a fascination for me. Now, they were personal, since I can see my entire world in these eyes… and a whole bunch of love.
I’m going to continue photographing eyes… as a personal project. How about yours?
So, around this time of year we get lots of families for portraits. And each one is different. Some have kids, others have their pets. And still others have just themselves.
I wanted to take a few minutes and highlight one family that came in for portraits, though. Not because they were difficult or unusual… although they were quite unique. And we did, in fact get quite a few good portraits for them. During the course of the session, however, we had some serious fun.
The youngest, Elaina, was a real pistol. She had a “look,” which kind of reminded me of a pro wrestler’s posturing move.
The kids were great… sometimes kids get carried away. But these kids were great and had no problem with me capturing their mock fights on camera. 🙂
And it seems like everything was funny…
And when I asked them for something specific, they obliged. Here, I asked the eldest child Emily to act uninterested while the other two kids, Evan and Elaina were “totally into it.”
But, like I said, we did get a few good ones, including the one below.
Hope your holidays are bright… and at least this much fun
In the last several years, we have seen a rather dramatic rise in the number of maternity portraits. Now whether this has been because we are a more visible studio, our marketing or samples, or if there are just plenty of people who want this level of intimate portrait for their home… it matters not. But it is interesting to learn some of the top reasons why people are getting maternity portraits done.
“I want my baby to see how much we loved him/her before they were born.” I think this is probably the most popular response to the question at hand. Many people want the baby’s father involved, too, so that the child gets a distinct sense that both parents really cared about the progress of their child and how beautiful the whole maternity process is. Many even went on to have video or still photography during delivery.
“The art of maternity is astounding.” True enough from many perspectives. From the parent’s angle, this may either be their only child or one of only two or three they are planning. You can get a family portrait every year, but how often is a woman going to be pregnant in her lifetime with one of her little bundles of joy? The art surrounding maternity images is, for us, about so many elements… the lighting, the color, the belly, and for some, the interaction between mother, child, father, family, and much more.
In the last few years, we have taken portraits of families with the pregnant mom, pets, older children, dads and even siblings of the mom-to-be. From full states of dress, with even the belly covered by a shirt or sweater to complete nudity for the sake of the art and intimacy of the portrait, we have seen so many people who genuinely care about making sure that the deep love and commitment to their child is captured forever after.
One thing is certain with maternity portraits. They are an amazing way of displaying a kind of love for the unborn child that ordinarily is reserved for the moments following birth. In a recent maternity session, mom and dad held alphabet blocks with the baby’s name in front of her belly. Dad was very into the whole thing and became something of a contortionist in order to do whatever was necessary to create the ‘good shot.’ It’s moments like those that render the emotion we feel as part of why we enjoy doing what we do.
So… why maternity portraits? It’s for the love.
Generally, maternity portraits are best in the 7th or 8th month of pregnancy. We always encourage people to bring any props they wish, their family, pets, and anyone else who you feel is important in your baby’s life. Often times, people bring samples of what they would like, and we will even present a few of our own ideas.
But one thing remains constant… we always do maternity portraits with grace, elegance and class. From fully clothed family portraits to totally nude works of art, the important thing to us is that you feel comfortable and at ease.
I’ve been bad.
No… really bad.
I have neglected my blogging since July. Although my main excuse is that I’ve been very busy (you’ll read below why), that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be connecting with my fans more often… and better.
First, let me just tell you all that the holidays are going great. I had a nice Thanksgiving, and am looking forward to more holiday time with family and friends. My family is doing fine, and everyone is in relatively good health. The dogs are all fine, too. 🙂
We started working on a boudoir/modeling project about three months ago. We even hired a couple of models to do some work for us. The results are fantastic, but we need more samples of course. We’ll be working more on that in the coming months.
The second thing we’ve been working on is a new division called TLC Pro Executive Imaging. This will be a separate division in our company that just handles commercial photography. The objective is two-fold. First, while I love doing commercial photography, I’m so busy with portraits and weddings that I really cannot commit to the kind of schedule that is often needed in commercial work. As this is the case, we hired a new photographer who specializes in commercial photography. Her name is Kristi and she’s done some amazing work. You’ll see more from her in the next few weeks.
The third thing is our seminar and workshop series. Diana and I have created a series of workshops for intermediate to advanced photographers who need more information about getting into portraiture, seniors, babies and other areas of studio management. The entire series starts in January, and we’ll start taking registrations soon. Stay tuned for that, too. We are already so enthused about this, because I love teaching and Diana has so much to share.
Now, none of this takes away from our seniors, babies, families, or weddings. In fact, it will only draw more of MY time toward those things because I won’t have to do as much with commercial work (because that’s Kristi’s thing now), and I can focus deeply on my portrait work because I have to explain details to budding photographers and that makes my work only that much better.
I’ve included a few images of what we’re doing lately, just to give you something to look at.
I’ll be back again in a couple of days. 🙂
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=94330684-c6ed-4ae9-8336-64f1ba5f886a)
