My first maternity session... part two!

So I did my maternity session on Monday and I think it went really good! I'm a little over half way done with the edits and I say not to bad. :)


I really learned a lot from doing this. First thing, next time I do maternity session with a small child I need there to be a helper! It was really hard to get anything of just mom and dad together because we had to chase the little girl around! And as for the idea of the ultrasounds on the string. Nope. Didn't work. The wind and the flimsy nature of the paper made it fly up. I'll try to attach them to some stock cards next time for some weight.

Now to the pictures! Here are some of the ones that I'm done with so far.

Getting ready for my first Maternity Shoot...

Bad blogger, bad. I know its been a while. (Again, not like a whole lot of people are watching, but whatever) I actually have done a lot recently, and learned a lot too. I had successes, and total mental meltdowns. About a week ago I did 3 sessions. All people I konw, but still. It went ok. Some stuff better than others but I learned from the not so good stuff.

But lets not dwell in the past. Today I am doing my first maternity session. And unlike the other families I've done, I have never meet this woman. She is the sister-in-law of a co-worker. It will be herself (8 months along) her husband and 1 and a half year old daughter. I've been doing a lot of research, and by research I mean stalking blogs on line :) I've got a million ideas in my head. We are going to the City Garden, which is the same place I went with Katie on my very first trial run. I love this place. I did go out and buy some props. I don't want to become a big prop person, but I have some simple stuff in my head.

Here is what I got:

I started out with the simple and obvious, some ribbon to tie in a bow around her stomach. Honestly I don't even know if I like this shot, but she had it done with other child so I wanted to do it again for her. I did spend about 20 minutes staring at all the ribbon trying to decide on which one!

 

 

This is for a really cool shot I saw and wanted to try. You have mom hold one side of the string, hand ultrasound pics across it and you hold the other side. Add some DOF and bam! Stunning!

I've always been a fan of the little chalk board. I'm doing this instead of blocks for the name!

And this last thing I bought I'm most excited about. The plan is, at the end of the session, have here daughter but her hand prints in washable paint on moms belly! I came up with this all on my own too :)      (not to say no one has ever done it, I'm sure plenty of people have, I just didn't see it in my "research")

 

So that's the stuff that I bought. I asked mom to bring some baby shoes, ones with laces if she has them so I can tie their wedding rings to them. Also asked her to bring the ultrasounds for the string pic and anything else she wants!

I'm so super excited to do this, wish me luck, I'll post pics later this week!

I Heart Faces: Sun Flare

Sun flare is an effect I've been trying to work on here and there I know this isn't the best one out there, but its my best one so far! I did a quick mini session for my best friends yesterday and this is one of my favorites. They just look so happy!

Just a Quick Update

I realized while posting the latest I Heart Faces entry that I haven't posted a real blog in a while. Things have been going ok I guess. I got real discouraged last week and was ready to quit. Not really I guess but ya know. I did have lunch with a photographer friend of mine and got some advice. She looked at my work and I looked at hers. She didn't imminently start saying what was wrong with all my stuff so that made me happy. I've been working on some stuff on the business side of things. I started working on a website, although I think it will take a few months to really be ready. A girl I work with is going to school for graffic design. She is helping me work on a logo. This is what we have so far. She make the actually logo and I put the frame and green together.





Not bad right?

I think the most interesting thing is that I actually have four sessions scheduled for next weekend. None of them paying mind you, but enough to hopfully start a better portfolio. I have my friend Stephanie and her kids (ages 7 and 2) Saturday morning and my 10 month old neice Ivy in the afternoon. Then on Sunday a family with a 3 year old and a couple in the morning. Then my son/s 8th birthday party in the afternoon. I'm hoping to even use the party as an example. I want to offer "small event photography". For about $150 I will come to your birthday party, baby shower, bridal shower or whatever and take pictures. Then you get a photo book and a low res CD. So I'm hoping to use the party as a test for that.

And because you can never have to many pictures, here are some good ones from our visit to Laumeier Sculpture Park. We mostly walked through the woods so I didn't get a whole lot but I like these ones!

I Heart Faces: Best Face of February

This weeks I Heart Faces is a peoples choice. This is my first people choice! This picture was taken at the Missouri Botanical Garden and is probably one of my favorites ever. (it was taken on February 19th) There was a big tower and my son climbed to the top. He was having such fun all day making goofy faces at the camera.

Edit indecision

What is wrong with me? Why can't I just make a decision? I do my editing, make it look good. I'm happy with the result. Then I start playing around. *sigh* I just can't decide. I know there is something to having a well exposed and corectly edited photo. But look how cool the one on the right looks! What to do, what to do...