We got to the shoot location and the SECOND they set her down she was off running and didn’t stop the whole session! Literally RUNNING away from me!  She wanted nothing to do with even being held for a shot with mom or dad, and certainly didn’t want to stand still or look at me. That is, until I brought out the pez bunny!

For those of you who don’t know, Pez dispensers fit into the hot shoe of your camera.  As is, they fit with the character facing you (obviously not very useful) but you can trim the edges a tiny bit with a strong scissors and they will slide in with the character facing your subject too.

I had only pulled the bunny (and my kazoo!) out in desperation, not really sure if she’d show any interest, but she IMMEDIATELY wanted to pet the bunny.  I told her that the bunny was shy and that if she got too close he’d want to run away (and then I’d take a few steps back to demonstrate.)   Then in a stroke of desperation inspiration I held the Pez bunny up to my ear as if he were talking to me and said “The bunny said you should go sit with mommy and daddy and give them a hug!”  At which point she would run over to mom and dad and sit for maybe half a second (and I’d snap snap snap) and then get up and run over to me again for bunny’s next instruction.

All I can say is THANK GOD for bunny!  I honestly don’t think I’d have been able to get a full gallery’s worth of images if he hadn’t been in my bag.   So, thanks to bunny, we got a few good shots Saturday:

All images shot with my canon Canon 5D Mark II and the magic lens (Canon 70-200L 2.8 IS II) at around f 3.2, and SS around 320 or so depending on the light.

So, if you are a photographer or just a hobbyist or a mom with a stubborn toddler, you may want to try having imaginary conversations with Pez dispensers. Cause, you know, we don’t act crazy enough already trying to get our kids to look at the camera!! ;)

He definitely made me work for it.. I was there for 5 hours and he slept for maybe a total of 30 minutes? And when we tried to pose him he just did not want to be moved. Sometimes that’s just the way it goes, you get a few good shots and that’s all the little guys want to give you. Nothing you can do about that! At least, at very least I we got this pose that I had in my mind pretty much as soon as I found out they were pregnant:

I had planned on a few variations of that pose, but Bodhi had other ideas and started crying about half a second later!

You can see how much he was fighting the sleep here in this one- *Yawn!*

More, bigger and better on my photography website..

Right from the shoot, I went to Jasper’s friend Peyton’s birthday party and was going to meet Jeff and Jasper there.. I pulled up to the house and noticed the lack of cars and had the distinct feeling that I had gotten the days confused.. turns out I had, sort of.   Actually, Peyton’s mom Ami had changed the date from Saturday to Sunday and forgot to copy us on the email changing the dates., but it turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise when our impromptu playdate turned into a huge celebration when their lost cat returned 5 minutes after we arrived! Plus, instead of sharing birthday girl Peyton with all of her partygoing admirers on Sunday we got to have her for a private celebration:

Jasper was happy too, he even let Peyton get a good smooch in:

He usually plays hard to get, but I guess he made an exception for her birthday!

In other news, Jasper is crying much less at bedtime, but still lets out a few heartbreaking wails and is still sleeping on the floor.  I no longer think it’s just a case of that he’s sleepy so he wears himself out and collapses on the floor, he actually PREFERS the floor!  And I know this because I say “Jasper, let’s lie down and cuddle in your “big boy” or “cowboy” bed as we call it (in his favorite book the Brave Cowboy the cowboy has a big boy bed so I started calling it the cowboy bed in hopes that he’d want to emulate his little hero) and he says “No, Floor” and and lays down on the blanket on the floor next to his bed.

So I think the new plan will be to bring the futon from our guest room into his room and use that for the time being.. the dilemma is what to do with his bed? We can’t take it down unless we never want to use it again because of the stripped screws holding the mattress support. I don’t know if he’ll ALWAYS want to sleep on the floor!  Plus, it looks soooo cute right now because in a last ditch effort to make his “cowboy” bed more appealing we put his old crib bumpers up around the edges to make it so cute and cozy.

So that’s my weekend recap.. I have some canvases arriving today – can’t WAIT to share and review them with you all!

I used my (rented) dream lens the 70-200m 2.8 IS II and I really don’t think I’ll be able to part with it come Thursday when I have to send it back. I was worried that I would have to keep backing up too far but the minimum focus distance on this lens has been shortened since the I version so the only reason I had to back up was so that I could use it towards the dreamy 200mm end and get creamy bokeh like this:

The new location I found was PERFECT, though the cliffs made the sun set too early for backlighting which I was hoping for. Still, the clover dotted field with the forest behind really frames this gorgeous family well:

All images shot with my Canon 5D Mark II and rented Canon 70-200mm 2.8 IS II at 2.8, around 800SS and 32o ISO.

I shot the whole shoot wide open at 2.8 and I think I missed maybe 1 shot due to focus?  I guess that image stabilization really helps, and the AF is quick!

See bigger and better on my photography website.  Hope you all had a great weekend!

(for more, bigger & better see the post on my photography website!)

All images taken with my Canon 5D Mark II and Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8 Lens

I tried a few new things this shoot..

1) A black FABRIC backdrop from Denny Manufacturing that I got during their 50% off sale a month or so ago.  I realized that the 53″ paper is just too limiting and I needed something wider as an alternative.   It takes some adjusting to post process these correctly so you can’t see the wrinkles etc, but I definitely don’t have room for the 107″ paper, so it’s the lesser of two evils.

2) A new seamless color savage  “Suede Grey” that I used in all of the other shots you see here.  I really love this color! Definitely will be my go-to light colored paper now.

3) Dramatic lighting!  Instead of having my main light source infront of my subject and a secondary one from the side, these were lit almost entirely from french doors directly camera left of the subject.   I did also need to use a reflector but I’m not really sure it actually did much.

4) Jersey/cotton blend large piece of fabric to wrap her in (the green that you see in the first image). This fabric has a lot of stretch and was PERFECT to show off all of her lovely pregnacy curves. I doesn’t hurt that the color is an amazing compliment to her naturally redish brown hair.  I think I got 1.5 yards from Joanne’s fabric for a total of maybe $11?  Definitely worth it, I plan on going back and getting a wider range of colors to have on hand for future maternity shoots.

5) I really studied and utilized the posing suggestions in this amazing maternity posing guide painstakingly put together by Gregory Katsoulis of Momphoto.com.  I highly suggest checking it out, it’s a wealth of good info and I feel so much more confident about maternity posing since reading it.

My only complaint about my set up is that I have to figure out what is known as a “hairlight” which would just bring out the light on her hair so it isn’t fading into the black backdrop like it is on that last photo.   This is a commonly used lighting device in studio lighting, but since I am doing all natural light setups, I’m not sure how I can achieve the same effect with natural light or if it is even possible! I tried bouncing my 430 Ex II Speedlite off of the wall to my left hoping it would illuminate the hair, but I don’t think I got the angle right. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

Hope you all had a great weekend.. I have so much to blog about this week. Tractors, Tiaras, Jasper & his new potty (!) so stay tuned :)

He was in NO MOOD for photos, in fact he was completely unwilling to part with Paci, I had to play tug of war with him just to steal it and get just one paci free shot.  Oh well, at least he kept his hat on!

(see these bigger on my photography website)
Images taken with the 5D Mark II, Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8 Lens wide open at 2.8, SS 350 and ISO 100

I’ve been really loving B&W and backlighting lately..there’s just something so magical about it.  I was really happy to discover a free b&w action set someone posted a link to on Clickinmoms. It’s a simple gradient layer conversion, but there are some other layers you can toggle on and off to customize it and even adjust the contrast layer for example (I find that the blacks are a bit too black so often slide the right slider back over to the left on the “contrast pop” layer).

But this isn’t just a plain B&W conversion action, it also has a set of haze and overlay actions that are pretty fun to play around with.

You can get the action from Amy McMaster’s blog and see some examples too.

Enjoy!

So here is Jasper in his little Easter suit from Target, I think I sort of like it better without the Jacket so you can see that adorable tie!

(All images taken with the 5D Mark II, Canon 24-70L at these approximate settings:   (1/200) Aperture:   f/3.2  ISO: 1600-2000)

But I did manage to get one of him in the jacket too:

I TOLD you it looks better in person than in the target product pictures!!

So it’s been a really long time since I did any photos of Jasper on my seamless set up.. I forgot how HARD it is to deal with toddlers! If it weren’t for the chair, there was NO getting him to stay in one place. And even with the chair, I had to bribe him with puffs. In fact, if you look really close you can see a lone puff in his hands in both pictures. Oh well, it was either a picture with puffs or no picture at all!

I’m really feeling the size limitations of using the 53″ seamless, it’s simply NOT wide enough to get a decent rule of thirds composition (without subject being dead center). Normally I “stretch the canvas” which is to say that I fake it (Does everyone know how to stretch the canvas or is that something I should do a tutorial on?).  But this is pretty impossible when you have easter eggs in the foreground like I did for these pictures of Jasper’s gorgeous little girl friend Peytie:

Doesn’t she look amazing in that dress? The eggs look cute, I’m glad we used them, though the photographer in me is cringing at the centered composition:

I was able to stretch the canvas for this one:

The barnwood floor actually makes stretching really difficult too.   I dream of someday owning a studio with gorgeous wood floors and plenty of room for the giant 107″ seamless paper!

This was also the first real photoshoot I did using the Canon 24-70L which I got used for a great price in ILP’s buy/sell/trade forum.  I will eventually get around to a detailed post comparing this L lens to the Tamron 28-75. But as far as first impressions go, this lens has much less distortion/vignetting on a full frame camera than the Tamron, and it focus really really fast.  The Tamron is so sharp it’s hard to improve on in that regard, but I did notice that my normal sharpen and save for web action on these images actually made the eyes TOO sharp.. so maybe there is a bit of a sharpness advantage as well.

I’m still deciding weather I should keep the L or sell it and put the money towards the 70-200 2.8 IS which I have been drooling over for ever.. with spring in the air, it’s calling my name!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Meet baby Sihanna.  She was a good sleeper and not quite as difficult to pose as Drew. Actually, technically Drew slept more, but Sihanna slept deeper so she was easier to pose when sleeping!

How beautiful are mom and baby together??

and dad was such a natural with Sihanna, you would really never know this was their first baby!

Let me know if you have any questions about newborns and I’ll try to help.. as far as props and things I brought, I filled an entire SUV as I mentioned yesterday. Here is just some of what I brought:

1. Beanbag and boppy for posing (this is what baby lays on under the blankets)

2. Lots of blankets

3. Hospital pad to go under blankets and protect beanbag and boppy from pee

4. Small space heater that blows hot air on baby to keep baby warm while naked

5. baby crack machine for white noise (the Homedics Lullaby Sound Machine from BB&B)

6. Lots of hats and props

7. Savage paper and backdrop stand

8. Barnwood floor

9. Ikea Doll Bed (Duktig)

10. Large white scarfs I got from Marshalls to wrap mom and baby in

11. Clamps from Loews/Home Depot to clip blankets to backdrop stand or dining room chairs.

I think that’s it, but I’m sure I’m forgetting something because there was just so much!!  Photographing newborns is almost as exhausting as HAVING them.. but almost as rewarding too :)

photography setup pullback

This is set up in the dining room, which is also Jasper’s playroom – hence the chaos! I also just want to say that if you are shooting kids it is generally NOT a good idea to have new toys around.. not a big deal for your kid if those toys are old hat, but if I have other kids coming in I generally try to hide the toys as best I can otherwise they want nothing to do with sitting still in the middle of a boring floor!

So the last time I posted about my set up I was clipping the molding to the paper with clips from Home Depot, but that was pretty precarious.. since then my dad put shelf brackets on the molding so it stands up on its own – so much better:

Thanks Dad!!

The cool thing about the shelf brackets is that if you happen to shoot in a place that already has nice wood floors, you can actually roll the paper down so it goes just underneath the molding and use the existing floor! I did this at a client’s house a few weeks ago and it worked out great:

And now, here are the shots from the pullback pictures – this is Ahsley, who really didn’t want her photo taken- thank GOD for the lollipop which cheered her up enough to get a few shots!

Taken with my Canon 5D Mark II, Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8 Lens at around these settings:
SS 1/160th, f 3.5 and ISO 1000

Oh, and one more tip.. if you DO use cookies or candy as props, be sure you’ve gotten all the shots you want without them because once the candy comes out there isn’t any going back. Just try taking a lollipop away from a toddler and then getting them to smile – yes, I learned this one the hard way!! :)

PS: If you are interested in studio setups, be sure to read this post. One update though, those bamboo fake floors are no longer available. I’d recommend instead a piece of this sheet vinyl from Lowes (available in other colors too) for just $28.

Not only does she have the sweetest demeanor, she is also one of the most beautiful little girl’s I’ve ever met so I was thrilled to get to photograph her last week.

I finally use my savage coral paper that has been waiting for a little girl, and my newish fake floor and the tutu that I bought for Peyton’s first birthday pictures. The stripped tights were a lucky accident – daddy had brought those without me even asking!   It was just one of those magical shoots when everything works together – colors, light and a cooperative subject:

(see bigger and better at http://www.arianafalerni.com/2010/01/17/madisons-valentines-day-shoot/)

Dad has decided to surprise his wife for valentine’s with the photographs – Isn’t that the sweetest thing ever?

Here are the props I used:

Heart Lollipop from Target Dollar Spot
Barn Door Faux Floor (large size) from Bargain Outfitters
Savage Coral Seamless Paper from B&H
Tutu (in Sorbet Sweetie) from Trinity’s Tutus on Etsy
White Children’s Chair from Ikea

Now, any ideas for boy’s for valentine’s day? Red backdrop? I don’t’ really like bright red so not so excited by buying a paper I won’t use again much.. white?

But this year, I’m determined.. I mean I’m a supposed/sort of photographer dammit, I should be able to get a decent picture of my own kid for our own Christmas cards right? Apparently not.

Last Weekend we had another unseasonably warm day and I had a playdate set up with a friend and her son, so I turned it into a “photoshoot” playdate because since I met Kris, I have been wanting/promising to take pictures of her adorable son Jonas.   I even ordered a rocking horse from Wal-mart for the occasion (the same one that is in my holiday gift guide) because they are a good way of getting toddlers to sit still and are sort of holiday-ish.

Kris was a little late getting Jonas over to the house so by the time we got to the park near my house where I wanted to shoot the sun was just barely visible anymore and it was kind of getting chilly for the kids.   Between the cold, the dark and the babies not being too cooperative I only shot about 20 pictures – not nearly enough to get a perfect shot of Jasper. I think also his outfit (though ridiculously cute) makes him look like even more of a shrimp than he actually is.. I should have buttoned the jacket and angled him more towards the camera so you can see the adorable red silk tie (yes, in addition to photographer you also have to be a fashion stylist!) Actually, Kris nailed the outdoor fall outfit much better for Jonas, he looks so handsome:

He is a surprisingly  great model for a 20 month old, he actually looks at the camera!

Anyway, here are my Jasper pictures, cute but I don’t feel like any are necessarily holiday card worthy..?

I don’t know, I may just have to go with it though because it’s supposed to be freezing out (the first snow!) this weekend and I’d have to do a studio shot. I guess I’ll give it one more try.. I was thinking of using my blue paper roll and trying to hang some paper snowflakes or something. We’ll see.. I WISH I would have my mark II in time, but It won’t arrive until Monday :(

Oh, here’s one more of Kristy & Jonas together, aren’t they gorgeous?

All images taken with my Canon Digital Rebel XSi and Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8 Lens

I didn’t really nail focus on the image above, my shutterspeed was too low but I love it anyway..I HAVE to get those two in front of the camera again soon!

If you had to pick one of the images above of Jasper, which one do you like best? I’m thinking of designing one myself that says something like “Have a rocking Christmas” or “Wishing you Peace, love and a rocking holiday season.” That is if I get inspired and actually have time.. otherwise I’ll probably end up ordering something from Tinyprints or one of these Melissa Davis templates.

PS, thanks SO much for all the great advice on bathing and toe nail clipping yesterday.. I don’t know if you saw my update but I actually was able to cut his toenails in the highchair last night!!!! No more ripping socks :) I’ll let you know how bathtime goes..