Kids
A friend of mine needed to update the portraits of the kids that were hanging on the wall, and was looking for something other than the school photos in front of the same backdrop. She was excited to try out the area around the Da Vinci doors in Lehi (seems to be a very popular area), and the kids had fun playing on the trains. These are a few of her favorites..
I've known the Scadden family for years; they used to live in Austin (my hometown) and they recently relocated up here to Utah. We met up at Wheeler Farm for the shoot; It was GORGEOUS, despite the late season (cursed short Utah fall colors time frame). It had been raining that day, so we were worried we might have to postpone- fortunately it cleared up soon after we started, and with the small exception of a short strong shower near the end we had pretty good weather.
I was amazed that a family shoot with SIX kids could go so smoothly. I was especially impressed with the youngest two! Chandler, known as "Chanman" to his family and friends, is only four years old but he had a ton of personality and could win any girls heart. Makenna, the next youngest, is seven going on seventeen, and is almost ready to go on the runway. Such a fun family!!
Click here to see the rest of the gallery.
As promised, here's the post covering the second half of the Hartley Family reunion. This was a pool party/barbeque/birthday party at the grandparents' house in Orem. They had a great backyard and a wonderful pool, and it turned out that "Nana" teaches swimming lessons there for all ages, from super little to adult.
Thomas was actually up by now and so accompanied me on this shoot (he wasn't about to get up pre-sunrise to make it for the more formal shots). We played the paparazzi as the family ate and chatted, and then as the birthday girl was blowing out her candles and opening her gifts.
As they got into the pool we began to really have some fun. Some of the guys started tossing the kids to see how high they could get them, and despite the failing light we got some shots I absolutely loved!
...and the food was GREAT. :D
You should click here and look at the rest! :)
After doing family pictures for the Hartley Family last month, and after hearing Meredith say that her nieces and nephews could give her kids a "run for their money" in the cuteness department I was looking forward to shooting their reunion.
After working it out scheduling-wise it was decided we would get up early in the morning to take more formal pictures just after sunrise at this great park in Orem (a new find... I expect to use it many more times in the future); later on in the day a pool party at "Nana and Papa's" house was scheduled and we were asked to take candid pictures there as well. (I'll do a post with the candids when I finish them up)
There were a ton of shots to get and so many personalities to try and capture- I'm glad that Matt was yet again accompanying me on second camera as we were able to get a lot more photos than we would have otherwise. Here's just a few of them....
To see more of the photos, and all the rest of the people click here.
I recently upgraded my primary camera (I LOVE my new d700!!), and so I did a quick shoot in my studio with my landlord's son. He had recently tripped and fell so he was sporting a nice cut on his face, but that didn't stop him from hamming it up in front of my camera. Thomas and I had also recently made a thrift store run looking for props and I found the most awesome miniature drum set and motorcycle. Zander had a blast playing with them, and Thomas' jacket and helmet were super adorable.
To see a few more photos of Zander, check out his gallery on smugmug here.
I love taking pictures of children. I love their smiles, adorable outfits, and the amazing amount of vitality and life that shows up in their pictures. Taking pictures of children is one of the rewarding things that I do as a photographer. It is also one of the most difficult. The sheer amount of energy that little kids possess combined with all the fascinating distractions around them make it difficult for them to look at the camera when they are supposed to, especially in a posed setting. The more children in the shot, the more difficult it can be to get them all looking the right direction.
I love having parents around, as they often know what to say or do to make their children smile and look around. However, here is an important tip to make your children's pictures come out well-
If we are having trouble getting everyone to look in the right direction, before you starting waving your arms, making funny noises, and saying "look at the camera! look at the camera!" consider where YOU are standing. 99% of the time they are going to be looking at YOU, so in order to make sure they are looking in the camera's direction, you want to be standing directly BEHIND me. Otherwise they may smile, laugh, and open their eyes nice and wide, but the majority of the time they are going to look at the source of all this entertaining distraction, instead of at the boring camera lens pointed in their direction.
Thus, remember the rule- unless you are standing DIRECTLY BEHIND the photographer, it might be best to just let me be the entertaining distraction. Parents often are the best people to bring out an awesome smile, but unless you're standing in the right place, it doesn't quite work. If it's not practical to be directly behind me due to space constraints, let me do all the work. I am more than happy to make funny faces, weird noises, jump up and down, and generally make a complete fool of myself in order to get everyone to look at me. It's in the job description. The problem comes when I am just one of a crowd of people jumping up and down making funny noises. :)
Of course, this only applies if we're looking for shots where they ARE looking directly at the camera... sometimes it's great when they are not.
Meredith contacted me a few months ago to schedule a photoshoot of her family and later of her family reunion. I happily accepted, and was pleased when I saw Meredith posting on Facebook before the shoot about how excited she was for me to take their photographs.
I ended up meeting them in Salt Lake at Liberty Park along with my great friend Matt Cobabe who was assisting me that day. It was a beautiful day and we were able to take pictures in this amazing garden nearby before finishing up around the pond in the park. Best of all? This is a great looking family, and their kids are ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE. :D
As I was editing through this shoot my husband Thomas was sitting next to me helping me out and after a couple close ups of the kids he said to me, "Wow, these kids are freakishly cute". I laughed, but I completely agree. Some of the biggest eyes I've ever seen, and they were just tons of fun to shoot.
Matt let their little boy play for a few minutes with his camera, and he was utterly fascinated by all the buttons.
I loved that this was the way she seemed to smile; almost every time she would grin and kind of twist her tongue out at me...
To see more of this super fun shoot, and more of THE CUTENESS click here.
