so this past weekend, i got to photograph my cousin, her husband and their one year old daughter. often times my family or friends will hire other photographers to shoot their wedding or family photos and they often tell me they don't want to bother me or they want me to enjoy myself at the wedding or something like that. to that i say, PHOOEY! not out loud, just in my head. and then i pray that they found someone good who didn't charge them an arm and a leg.
so for the record...since only my friends and family read this anyways...IT'S NOT WORK to me. =) in fact, it's FUN! even the time i photographed my friend's daughter for their christmas card and it took 8 hours to get 24 pictures on film (and we used the last one for the card *phew*). despite the fact that she was fussy, she had to take a nap, she had to eat, she went poop, etc...it was still fun. i got to hang out with my friends for 8 hours doing what i enjoy doing, taking pictures. on top of that, i know they'll get some nice photos at a reasonable price. how great is that?!?!?!
ok, back to my cousin...so after scouting out the perfect location, i go to their house so we can all drive together. well, sometimes all the planning in the world can go to waste by forgetting one small bag in the trunk of your car. the battery powered strobe head was in that bag but we carpooled in their car. well, there really wasn't anytime to go back for it, so i figure i'll just use my on camera flash (my back-up plan...always have a back-up) and battery pack.
when shooting kids, you never know what will happen. remember my friend's christmas card? well, this weekend, was the exact opposite. sometimes the stars line up and everything just works out. the beach was fairly empty. *phew* no photoshopping people out of the background. the light was perfect. and Liya didn't make a fuss once. not even a peep. she was the perfect angel.
the first shot i had planned in my head was a shot of them walking up and down the shore and getting their reflection in the receding water using available light.
check.then, a closer shot.
check.now that i have the two must have shots...now it's time to play and get a little more creative. so i let them just do their thing and just shoot them interacting together. as i walk around them, i see the light. the rim light that is. how beautiful it would be in black and white. so i shot it and after converting it to B&W, i decided to sepia tone it as well.
better than black and white...after that shot, i backed up more and decided, as overdone as they may be, a silhouette might look cool. if you position yourself just right, when the sun is just peeking around your subject, you can get a nice starburst effect. =)
hee hee...now i'm giddy with the results.by now, the sun is just about to set and usually i would have been setting up a sunset shot. but since i really don't like the look of an on-camera flash and i had forgotten the strobe in my trunk, we're not doing one. but at this point, i had plenty of shots for my cousin to choose from.
but the lighting has changed from the beginning of the shoot, so i decided to shoot a few more of them walking up and down the surf line. and as they walked away, Liya turned around, gave me a brief glance and that was the final set of photos.
sometimes kids just do the right thing at the right time.and even though i set up my camera with a bracket and an on-camera flash, it turns out, it was just dead weight. mother nature provided all the light i needed. woo hoo! sometimes everything works out just fine, even if you forget the strobe in the trunk of your car.
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