What I love about photographing children is their innocence.  The really young ones don’t worry about whether or not they are looking their best, they just are who they are.   With couples, I love their interactions.  Many times I may just place them together & pretend I am checking some settings in my camera while they interact.  I get some of the best images that way!

I have found that sometimes you have to refocus (pun intended) on what your specialty is. Portrait photography may be a general area, but there are so many kinds of photography that I feel it’s a really good niche for me because I don’t only photograph children, but families, couples, birthday parties & the like.  Any reason to photograph anything is reason enough for me.  So think about it….what do you specialize in?

Once I had a client that wanted me to do all kinds of things like make her eyes bigger, get rid of all of her wrinkles & remove her double chin.  At the time, I was new to photography & thought if that’s what she wanted, that’s what I’ll do.  After it was over, I just felt so wrong.  Don’t get me wrong, the woman looked great, but she also looked like the photo was taken about 10 years before!  The important thing to me at that time was that they were happy with the images I produced.

Paramount to anything is that my clients are happy.  I still do retouching, but it’s more realistic & people will recognize them as how they currently look, but at their absolute best.

Not only does loving what you do not feel like work, but helps you improve what you’re doing & you make sure that you are doing your best at it.  I’ve been shooting since I was 11 & shooting professionally since 2003 & to me the only difference now is that people pay me.  If I could make beautiful images for people (& myself) without having to charge, I would!  But the world being the way it is, I do have to make a living.

If you’re not doing what you love for a living, is that really living or is it just doing what you have to do to survive?  When I was a software consultant, initially I loved what I did, but eventually I got burned out from it & it no longer gave me the rush of excitement when a new project came along.  The money I was making was excellent, but it just didn’t make me happy.  Money can’t buy happiness.  It can however buy things that you think will make you happy or will make you happy for a little while, but eventually that will fade.  Figure out what makes your heart sing & then see if you can make a living out of it. You’ll never know until you try.

When today rolled around, I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about.  Since I’ve been working on lengthy projects, I haven’t scheduled any portrait sessions; therefore I haven’t had any new images to show.  :-(  At any rate, I decided to share the news of my wedding anniversary, for those who care.  It actually was rather ironic to me that I spend my time photographing other people for their anniversaries, but I didn’t take a single photo for mine.  Hmmmmmmm…..I think part of that is because I really don’t like having my picture taken.  People always find that funny, that being a photographer one would think that I like having my picture taken.  Well you see, that’s the point.  I prefer being behind the camera instead of being in front of it.

Years ago I did a little bit of modeling.  And when I say a little bit, I mean a little bit.  My mother talked me into it.  I hated it!  I didn’t like all of the attention, not to mention that I really don’t think I am photogenic.  This actually helps me in my portrait sessions with people who need pictures for whatever reason, but don’t really like having their pictures taken for whatever reason.  I can put them at ease because I totally understand how they feel.  The great thing is when they tell me they had fun & that they love their images.

That was a bit off subject, but I think I made a nice segue into it.  At any rate, we had a great time, now it’s time to get back to reality.  I do have 2 portrait sessions set up for this coming weekend, so I’ll have some new images to share then.  Stay tuned & please, if someone is actually reading my blog, drop a note just to say hi.  You can even say congratulations if it so moves you.

I’d like to reiterate that these children are not the babies or toddlers that come to mind when you think of adoption.  These are the older children (12-17) who seem stuck in the system and regardless of how old they are, they still want a home with loving parents.    I am delighted that I had the privilege to photograph the children and after multiple sessions, getting to know them a little more each time.

Even though seeing them in this predicament doesn’t make me jump for joy, it is comforting to know they are being well cared for by Roots, Bethany and their foster parents.  During the last session I was told some fantastic news.  There was a set of 17 year old fraternal twins I photographed about a year ago, a brother and sister.  Although they were on the verge of turning 18 & being released from the system, the sister still held out hope, while her brother’s hope waned.  Well it turns out that they both were recently adopted!  I was thrilled to hear the news so of course I had to share.  I wish I could share images of them, but because of privacy issues, I cannot.  At any rate, I hope someone out there is considering adoption and not just adoption of a baby or small child. Older children need love too.

Funny thing is we did drive through areas that were either drizzling or the rain had already passed.  When we got to the equestrian center, they were still cleaning up from the downpour.  It was humid, but cooled off quite well, which made the shoot even more enjoyable.  The bride said it was a first for her…going four-wheeling in a wedding gown!

Most of the session was done in rather secluded areas, but the last part of the session was in full view of other people.  The people were so nice.  As the people drove by they honked their horns and said things like “Congratulations!”, “You look beautiful!” and gave thumbs up.   Considering she’s been married for 4 years now, we thought it was rather funny.  At any rate, enjoy the images below.

The premise is taking portraits of a woman in her bridal gown in possible exotic or at least uncommon places.  The images could be glamorous or grungy, it all depends on the photographer’s goal and what the bride is willing to do in or to her dress.

The session I had was a somewhat uncommon place for bridal portraits.  I’m not saying that a bridal shoot has never been done in a forest, but it’s not somewhere you’d normally see a bride.  At any rate, we had a great deal of fun and the trees provided wonderful shade as it was 90+ degrees that day!

Below is a small sampling of what we shot.  I hope to have more posted on my website real soon.  For now enjoy!  Oh, anyone located in metro-Atlanta who has already been married and would like to help me expand this portfolio, please drop me an email or give me a call.  There are still 3 slots left for willing brides!

Yes, she did fall asleep, but no she didn’t stay that way.  She’d be sleep, we’d try to take her clothes off & then she’s wake up.  I figured, OK, she’s awake so we’ll take pictures with mommy & daddy.  Let’s just say she didn’t exactly smile.  She was a bit fussy, but there was a lot going on around her & I’m sure she didn’t want to miss anything.  We tried calming her down, which didn’t always work, but did help me get some interesting shots.  Eventually we go to a point where she was somewhat relaxed & I was able to photograph her…wide awake.

There are a lot of details within this story, but I will summarize to keep it brief.  She did a number 2 on my white backdrop.  Oh I’ve had babies pee on the black one, but never poop on either of them.  Needless to say we were all surprised at the little gift she had made for me.  Fortunately I had another white backdrop that we could use.  So we just cleaned up everything & continued after she finished her business.

Regardless of what happened, I still enjoyed the shoot.  The baby was precious, as all babies are & the parents were happy to have pictures, but I’m sure they were glad when the session was over too.

When I arrived at my client’s home, the baby had just gone to sleep.  I thought “hurray!”  So I set up for the session and when it was time to get him undressed and ready…he woke up.  Sometimes after babies wake up from a very short nap, they tend to go back to sleep.  Not in this case.  He was fussy, so they fed him.  After a short period of time, he went back to sleep, but evidently not a deep enough sleep.  To make a long story short, he would continue going back to sleep and waking up, but never sleeping long enough to allow me to photograph him asleep; therefore all pictures were taken while he was awake and sometimes squirming.

I really enjoyed the session, but I had all of these great ideas I wanted to do with him, but couldn’t.  Am I a little disappointed?  Yes, but it’s not about me.  The parents seemed to love the images I created and that’s what really matters.  I’ll get over it and try again.  There’s another newborn session coming up on Wednesday, so I’ll see how that goes.

Anyway, his job has him traveling a lot, so he wanted to be able to take her with him, so to speak.  How sweet is that?  Long distance relationships are difficult, but they can work & after meeting these two, I know theirs will work.  Below are some of the images from the session: