Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Rambling, and a Sneak Peek

I adore one-year-olds, but they are one of my biggest challenges photographically speaking. Normally they have just learned to walk, so getting them to stay in one spot for more than a millisecond can be a challenge. Usually the moms of one-year-olds are very stressed out at the session, as their child is running all over the place. I always tell them to relax, reassure them that this is normal, and share the story of my son's 15-month portrait session.

My son was not walking independently yet at one year (so his one-year session was EASY!), but I really got a taste of the stress my clients with one-year-olds must feel when I tried to take my son's 15-month pictures. As a photographer, I am always taking pictures of my kids. I know that they must feel like I'm the paparazzi as I follow them around with my camera, documenting every little milestone of their lives. But when my son was 15 months old, I hadn't tried to take formal studio portraits of him since 3 months prior. Therefore I was not prepared for what I would encounter when we took him downstairs to the studio. He would not sit still. Not only would he not sit still, he would not stop RUNNING. I pulled out all the tricks I normally use with babies that age but being my own son, he was really not too interested in me at all. What I finally ended up doing was marking a space on the floor with masking tape, focusing on that spot, firing the shutter everytime he ran over that spot, and praying that something would come out. As you can see, he is clearly in motion in the final shot. This was the least "in motion" of the whole bunch, but I really love it because it captures his personality at that age.

But I digress. I sat down here at the blog to share some sneak peaks from my most recent session and instead took a little trip down memory lane.

This little cutie just turned 1 (which is what sent me off on my tangent),

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and he brought along his 3-year-old brother (who by the way I also photographed at age 1 in the same Cubs outfit above).

Look at the awesome curly hair on this kid. Totally to die for, no?

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Since the kids still had a little bit of energy left, we decided to try one more outfit change. I pulled out the Christmas lights, thinking that might be interesting to a one-year-old. And it was. For about 20 seconds. LOL!

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Saturday, September 27, 2008

Help Is Needed to Stop a Bill From Passing

Action is needed from as many people as possible to prevent our current copyright law/protection from becoming worthless. Please help prevent the single most damaging bill for artists of every venue - but especially visual artists like graphic designers and photographers! A bill, dubbed "Orphan Works," legislation was hotlined through the Senate yesterday while all eyes were on the financial issues. The "Orphan Works" bill, as passed in the Senate yesterday, would rob thousands of people of their copyright protection, and allow any outside person/corporation to TAKE OUR WORK and use it, with NO COMPENSATION to the original artist, as long as they claim they "couldn't find" the copyright-holder. That is a simple matter of removing our name from a file, then the work can be dubbed "orphaned" and used WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION for ANYTHING they want to use it for! This bill would also force us to "register" EVERY SINGLE PIECE of our work with private registries, which could cost thousands of dollars for photographers and graphic artists, as we produce literally thousands of works each year! (Think about how many pictures a professional photographer takes in just ONE WEEK or how many graphics can be produced in ONE DAY!)

PLEASE pass this along to everyone you can - this is extremely critical, as this bill will deprive artists, photographers, etc. of the income they depend on!

The Senate has just passed their version of the Orphan Works Bill (on Sept. 26th). Now we must try to stop the House Judiciary Committee from folding their bill and adopting the Senate version. Here is a link to a special letter for this purpose.

PLEASE EMAIL CONGRESS NOW!! USE THIS LINK:
capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/issues/alert/?alertid=...

Thank you so much for taking the time to help!

EDITED LATER TO ADD:
If you click the link above, it may default to my zip code since I just did it. Make sure to change it to your zip code to contact your area representative.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Times are still available for the Holiday Card special event!

There are still a few time slots available for the October 13th holiday card special event. Call the studio now to reserve your appointment! The studio is busier than ever this Fall, as there are not any openings left for normal sessions this year. If you don't already have your christmas card session scheduled, the October 13th event is your last opportunity for a 2008 holiday session.

Details about the October 13th event can be found here.

I look forward to working with you!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Happy 1st Birthday!

I'd like to introduce my gorgeous godchild. She turned 1 a couple of weeks ago, and it seemed impossible for my cousin (her mom) and I to coordinate our schedules so we could do a 1-year shoot and still have time for a little visit. My youngest still naps in the afternoon, my oldest gets off the school bus at 3pm, and my cousin's baby still naps twice a day. However, we were thankfully able to coordinate a time last week.

I was playing around with a little "vintage" look here and think it came out kinda neat.

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Saturday, September 6, 2008

Sneak Peek for D & M

Wowza, what fun for me... Another brand new baby came by to see me! I didn't mark it down, but I think this little sweetie was just 9 days old when we did the session.

D&M, below are three of my favorites. I truly love so many images from this shoot, but I am going to stop playing around with MY favorites for now and get the proofs online so I can find out which are YOUR favorites. I will email you shortly with a link to your proof gallery, but here's a little something to show the grandmas in the meantime. :)

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