Family Love

Watching over me...

Big brother!

Short stop

Damn Desperate Housewives

I was having a practice shoot the other day but my two victims were too engrossed watching the TV series to look at the camera at the same time!
The primary objective was to find an intersting shape that worked with the two models.

Xmas Nightmare Part 2

Someone hates us enough to give this recorder to my daughter for a Christmas present. The noise she makes can be heard anywhere in the house...

Hide and Seek

On this particular day she didn't want her photo taking, and tried to make life hard for me. Fortunately I am particularly stubborn and a lot more devious. She didn't stand a chance!

Friends

I have been 'told' to take more family portrait shots, so here goes!... A nice standard mum and daughter shot.

Those of you who are observant may notice that I have a nice new backdrop. I was fed up of trying to move the clutter!

Flexible Friend

I wanted to show something about my friend that described her rather than just a standard portrait shot.
She has always been supple and energetic, so I wanted to capture the essence of her flexibility rather than just her beauty.
We tried a few different positions, but in this shot I like the way that her arms created the triangular frame.

To die for..

I know many women who would love to have eyes like this...
I am sure that her mum will be beating the boys off with sticks in a few years time!

far far away...

Is she dreaming of kissing a prince... or singing with Robbie?

Its hard work being this pretty

More from the shoot on Sunday.

Mischief

Yet another from the series of shots that I took of the giggler and her pet rat. She simply has the most fabulous expressive eyes.

Taken at 1/40 and F4.5.

Primary colours

I really wanted to show the colour of her hair.

Although it looks like I have increased the saturation, in fact, I simply removed some of the colour from her face to create the contrast.

The green clothing compliments the red, and if you squint a lot she looks like the Hungarian flag! (She will pummel me for that comment!)

Taken with a 50mm lens at F4 and 1/250th. Just using the light from a window to the right and a reflector on the left.

Brown Eyes Blue

She was a natural smiler and giggler, but I wanted this pose with the strong shape to really create a darker mood for the image. I used a black background and increased the contrast before removing the colour saturation.
I also changed the colour of her eyes from dark brown to blue using a Photoshop saturation adjustment layer and mask for her eyes. (Click image)

Taken at 1/30 and F4 and 100mm the primary lightsource was on the right with a large reflector on the left.

I got so many good picture from the one session with this young lady that I dont know what to do with them all. She was such a pleasure to work with!

Loose Tongue

This little chap had a problem with his tongue. i.e. it wouldn't stay the right side of his lips. So in the end I gave in and captured a few shots with him in his natural state!

Taken at 250th and F4 with very frontal lighting to flatten the image.

Its been heavily post processed to create the image shown.

Thankfully, the weapon wasn't loaded!

The eyes have it...

This little angel had the prettiest dark brown eyes, and I really wanted to capture the way they sparkled.
Because they were so dark, I knew they would be tricky to light. However, as soon as I got my act together she really came to life.

I tried so many combinations of lighting that I cant remember what this shot consisted of, but I can assume from the reflection in her eyes that the window was behind me.
She chastised me for calling the little puppet she was holding a rat. Apparently its a cat called Jess, and its been with her for as very long time. In fact, its so well 'loved' that its almost as bald as me!

Weapon of Choice

I wanted this image to tell a story about both of the children.
The boy has just achieved his orange belt in judo and was very proud of the fact.
His sister has just got a new angel outfit and she wanted to show it off.

I gave her the baseball bat to even the fight, hence the impish grin...

The lighting was from a fairly small window behind me, and was assisted with a large silver reflector. I had to increase the ISO setting to 800 to capture them still enough.

During post processing I turned the image black and white, and then hand painted the belt, bat, and angel wings.

Monkey Boy

I struggled for ages trying to get a decent shot of him. It didnt matter what I did or said, he did NOT want his picture taking - and it showed.

In the end I used the monkey toy to give him something to cuddle and he relaxed.

Lit from a flash shooting through a white brolly on the right, and filled using the plain wall on the left as a reflector. I used a second flash on the floor behind to light the rear wall.

I then changed the overall image to black and white, and then added a saturation layer and mask for his eyes.

Taken on my Canon D20.

Upon Reflection

Tried to capture a more serious image rather than the usual portrait shot.

Used two flash guns, one was under the table providing some faint lighting for the glass top. Didnt want too much otherwise the reflection would have been lost.
The other gun was used 'bazooka' style in a cardboard tube to just light her face.
The remaining light was provided by the tungsten lights shown.