The Family Photoshoot

Wow. Another week has flown by in a haze of photo-taking, editing, and location scouting. I can't even imagine what life is like for real photographers this time of year!

I had not set myself up for success with the time of day that this shoot had to take place, so while the shoot itself went better than I was expecting, the editing took me forever!!

Shadows and red casts abound! At this point, I'm glad they're done, and I'm glad that I was able to overcome the challenge to some extent. They were a hit to my ego, though, I'll admit.

Friday and Saturday afternoons, I took the kids to local parks to scout out the colors and lighting. While it was a bit of a hassle, the upside is that I got some good shots of the kids. Much better than last year's scouting trip. And who knows? Maybe eventually I'll even get around to editing and posting pictures of our own family!

I will say that if I ever decide to go into business (though after this shoot, I'm not thinking that's a very good idea!), I will certainly have a better idea of what that would look like, how much work is involved, and what my time is worth!

I'm also extremely grateful to friends who are willing to trust me with their time and energy as their family photographer. I know that even when you're not paying for it, a lot of time, energy, and thinking goes into getting your pictures taken. Even when you're just hoping for one good shot of your family!

And now, I'd better finish dinner and maybe edit some pictures. We're looking forward to another busy week of photoshoots, editing, and Thanksgiving dinners!

My First Newborn Photoshoot

Man, I thought I was doing so well last week getting my first blog post done early in the week. I thought that would make it so much easier to whip out another, complete with pictures. They were already edited after all. But no, things got crazy real quick, and before I knew it, the week was over and blogging hadn't even entered my train of thought! Whoops.

In reality, I ended up spending all of my free time last week doing research on newborn photography for this little man's photoshoot on Thursday. And then, once it was done, I spent every spare moment editing, so that these could be done before I take their family shots today.

But, let's be honest, I really didn't mind! Aside from being overwhelmed by the amount of information there is out there, I really enjoyed watching videos, reading, and looking at photo inspiration for my first not-my-own-child newborn photoshoot.

I remember being quite disappointed with Reece's newborn pictures, though I did have the bias that comes from being his mother to help me out! But, there were a few things working against me: being postpartum made it very difficult for me to crawl around on the floor to get the right angles, living in a dungeon made it hard to get good light, and the fear of waking my own child really kept me from posing him or moving him at all.

Reece also had terrible baby acne, flaky skin, and some jaundice...things this little one did not suffer from, in spite of the fact that he was already two weeks old at that point. He also slept like a log! And, somehow we managed without him peeing or pooping on anything, though he was without a diaper for nearly two hours! I was well-prepared for it, as I was assuming it would happen.

The original plan was to get the family shots at the same time as the newborn shots, but his mom ended up sick, so Dad brought him alone. I'm so glad it worked out this way, though, because I think two hours of newborn pictures was enough for one day...not to mention the disaster my living room was having moved furniture, blankets, and rugs all over the place!

So, today, I do the family shoot...they're wanting something for a Christmas card, can you tell? And then this weekend, a shoot for another family. We'll see how it goes....

In the meantime, I have 2 sick kids and a ceiling that is leaking in several places, so I think I'll just look at some more newborn photos...