Kayla Sets Sail

Kayla has been modeling for me since she was 15. Whenever I needed to practice or needed to update my portfolio, she always volunteered to help me out. She also helped me out on jobs when I needed an extra person. AND she was my kids babysitter.

Well, Kayla is all grown up now and leaves for her new life with the Navy starting today. She signed up for 5 years which is why I took her out on a marathon photo shoot a few weeks ago. I told her I needed at least 5 years worth of pictures. I think I got it, too.

We all wish her luck!

SuperDUPER Shallow Depth

You can REALLY see the depth of field on this one. Her face is in focus while parts of her hair and everything behind her is completely out.

Same location as the last pic. I asked her to swing around on that pole, but then quickly realized that's not an appropriate request to make of a respectable young lady. Oops...

Super Shallow Depth

Still at the Heard, I used a 50mm f1.4 for this one. Not my lens, I'm still mostly working with my 24-200mm f4.0.

Got some great depth of field on this one. I used a little bit of flash just for some fill-in since this was a covered area. It was also about 85 degrees. Kayla was becoming uncomfortable wearing that sweater.

Argyle & Pigtails

The week before last I did a marathon photo shoot with Kayla, who has worked with/for me for a few years now. I also did her senior pics last year. She's getting ready to to move on to some big endeavors so she agreed to squeeze in one more shoot while she's still in town. More on that later.

Our first stop was the Heard Museum where we spent over two hours taking pictures. This was one of the first ones we did. I thought the ripped up jeans and pigtails against the wood screamed for some sepia. The argyle sweater doesn't exactly fit, but we weren't going for any type of theme and I didn't tell Kayla what to wear or what to do with her hair.

Uninspired at the Heard

So last Saturday I decided to go out shooting and I took the kids with me. I was hoping to get some outdoor shots at the Heard Museum that I might be able to use in my portfolio. As it turned out, it was a cold, cloudy, extremely windy morning. The kids were not happy about having to go out first thing on a Saturday morning and it definitely shows in the pictures I did manage to get.

The wind at times was blowing pretty strong and the sun was in and out. I was constantly fiddling with the camera controls while I made the kids stand there freezing and waiting for me to get it right. It was an uncomfortable situation for all of us and I wasn't feeling very inspired. Needless to say, I didn't get this pictures I really wanted to get, but did manage to get a few decent ones.

The one above was shot at 1/160 sec, f5.4, ISO 200 and lens set at 42mm. I added some vignetting in Photoshop and a small crop and I think the results are not bad. However, I can't use this in my portfolio because it's shot as landscape instead of portrait like everything else in my portfolio...multiple streams lack intensity. I haven't even tried making it black and white yet.

1/125 sec, f4.8, 38mm, ISO 200, fill flash

1/200 sec, f3.8, 20mm, ISO 200
Think he's cold?

1/200 sec, f5.3, 46mm, ISO 200, fill flash

1/200 sec, f5.3, 46mm, ISO 200

At this point the sun is becoming an issue. I think I forgot to adjust my ISO back down to 100 since I was using a fill flash when I needed it anyway. It didn't matter as the kids look pretty miserable in every picture. At least I captured their mood!