Sarah, Charlie, and Olive - a family affair

This was on the tail end of the outside portraits from last year because it was getting a bit too cold. But the warm sunshine in the morning down in Old Town Alexandria got us through the cold.

What I loved about this session was the family had it in their minds that they wanted black and whites, but once they saw all of the colors their minds were changed!



I did bring a flash with me, just in case, but it turned out necessary and wasn't very practical trying to chase the little one around!







I did not, however include another one of my favorite pictures I grabbed while running backwards trying to keep up with Olive skipping down the pier......one of my lenses fell out of my lens bag and went bouncing down the concrete. Luckily it landed first on the lens hood and was caught before any rolling towards the water occurred, so no damage done - one great reason to use a lens hood.

Baby Mara

Terrific time with Baby Mara a few weeks ago where she was kind enough to share her parents with with me and teach me a little bit about "tummy-time"

We started off in the family room on the first floor.



You can see from the diagram below I was dealing with two windows. I had one window with a good amount of light coming in behind them, and one on the other side of the room that wasn't helping much. One of the strategies I always work when dealing with this type of shoot, is set up more then you need for one particular picture, that way when you transition there will be another light ready for something you didn't think of. Because I'm using radiopopper JRXs, I can adjust the lights if need be throughout the shoot without ever stopping the action.

As you can see below, I went with one light up into the ceiling by one window, and a second light in the dining room creating a chunk of lighting (can lighting chunk?) coming in through the door-way. That way when we were on the floor the first light would be my main light, and the second would be fill/separation, and while we were on the couch the second light would be main and the first would be separation.  Don't forget that back-light window is still a light source!



You can see the dining room light in this "tummy-time" photo


Next up was a great room upstairs that was in a wonderful blue color and had this great trunk that added some good elements in the photo. Here's a rough diagram (note there's a curtain in there). Again I use the two windows plus one light to reduce the contrast just enough to ensure they're all not backlit:

Once we got everyone on the floor, everything was great! Mara went for noses, she went for glasses, and had a great time.

This one's my favorite!


One of the criteria for the shoot was to work in two hand-made blankets that were made for Mara as gifts. We grabbed a few of the family (just enough blanket in this one, but I happen to like it)


I decided to get her laying on the second one to work in the radiator in the back for an interesting element. I like how all of the colors of the blanket and the wall really pop.  The non-curtained window is coming in from camera left rimming out Mara, while the flash is providing the catch light in her eye.  In the above photo you can see both the window and the flash in her right eye (camera left).


Last but not least we spent some time in the backyard on the swing and in the grass (but in the shade the entire time because it was 95F that day. I won't post any more, but here's one family shot that I enjoyed using their fence and backdrop.

Baby Abigail

Thank you to Abigail for giving up her parents and part of a lazy weekend amidst all of the eating and sleeping to pose for me for an afternoon. And although baby pictures can never be completely planned, she did great...and her parents held up quite well too :)

Most of these are a mix of natural window light and flash. The flash was on a stand and usually pointed up into the ceiling to provide a large fill source.


(Part of her name has been blurred for privacy)

We had to lure the dog in with some treats...but he was quite protective of her, and wouldn't eat anything close to baby....I guess that's a good thing!