Exotic beauty, part 2

My senior shoot with Kelly was in two locations. The first was a gorgeous backyard of a personal friend, and the second was in downtown Denver. Here are three of my favorites from the first part of the shoot. Stay tuned for the downtown favorites!

Exotic beauty, part 1

Last night I did senior portraits for an absolutely gorgeous girl. She had long, dark hair, and big, blue eyes. I don't normally get to do a lot of fun effects on portraits, but I really went to town on hers! Here is one of my absolute favorites from the shoot, done six different ways. Which one is your favorite?

Splendor in the grass

Yesterday I got go have a photoshoot with a wonderful family full of beautiful children. It has rained a lot in Denver lately, which means everything is lush and green. We went to a wonderful trail that goes by a river for the perfect location. Here are my favorites from the session so far:

I love how the wind caught her hair just at the right moment for this shot.


This one may be my new favorite portrait. I love the intensity of his eyes. When I look at this portrait, I think it personifies a boy on the cusp of manhood.


This one I love because of the little girl's expression. I wonder what she is thinking about.


I caught this shot of the parents while they were just interacting while waiting for me to set up. I love the palpable feelings of adoration that are evident between them.


Here is the whole family. This was the easiest shot of the whole session because nobody had to be looking at the camera!

Sweet one-year-old boy

This weekend I got to photograph the winners of my contest. They mainly wanted pictures of their 12-month-old son, but I couldn't resist getting some of the whole family. This little boy was such a doll. He would wave to me and come give me hugs (when he wasn't running around. That boy can move!) I had such a great time on this shoot and hope they did, too!

Beautiful album in earth tones

My friends (who you will recognize from the previous post) requested that I design an album for them. I chose these beautiful neutrals to coordinate with the gorgeous outdoor locale where they had their photoshoot. These albums are a wonderful way to get all your favorite portraits from your shoot, presented in a beautiful way. You can also get smaller 5x5 albums as gifts for parents and grandparents.

Farewell to our friends

Yesterday I got to photograph the stunning family of a friend from my missionary days. He and his family are moving half-way around the world, and I was so glad I got to do these portraits for them before they left. After the session, they came over for dinner and our girls had a great time playing together. We introduced them to the Wii, and now I think they might have to get one :) Check out the gorgeous portrait of all three kids together. It's my new favorite :)

We have a winner!

Congratulations to Jen Greffet for winning Blue Prints Photography's biggest giveaway ever! Thanks so much to everyone who entered! Be sure to check back to my blog often for news of other specials (I usually have them monthly). Now we can get crackin' on her photo shoot, as soon as it stops snowing....

Blue Prints Photography Biggest Giveaway Ever!

(This contest limited to Colorado residents only, unless you are willing to travel to Denver to claim your prize!)

For the first time ever, I am offering $200 worth of services and prizes to one lucky winner in the Denver/Colorado Springs area! The $200 credit will cover a 1-2 hour photo session and several prints, depending on which sizes you choose. All you have to do to enter is go to 30 Days and leave a comment on the post about the contest. If you would like a second entry, simply post about the contest on your own blog, including a link to the 30 Days blog and this blog (be sure to mention in your comment that you did so). For a third entry, just leave a comment under this post telling me which picture on this blog is your favorite. That's it! Good luck to everyone!

(Since I feel bad about everybody not being close enough to Denver to have a photo session, I will send a prize to a person who lives too far away if they win the contest. Or they can donate their $200 products and services credit to a friend who lives nearby).

How to choose a great photographer

Pick me! Pick me! That's all you need to know.

O.K., seriously folks, I ran across the website of another photographer tonight, and I started thinking about how people pick someone to photograph their children and families. I realized that it may be difficult to separate the good photographers from the bad, and to be able to tell what really "good" photography is. You may have had a friend come to you, giving you glowing reports about a photographer and showing you the cute pictures of their smiling children. Cute smiling kids must equal a great photographer, right? Not necessarily. Please consider the following:

Most new photographers suffer from a terrible syndrome. It is called "I am so awesome that I can hardly believe I'm real." I admit that I suffered from this syndrome at one point. Even though I had seen photography from really, really great and famous photographers, I somehow could not see that my photography was woefully lacking compared to theirs. All I knew is that my friends said I was awesome, and that was good enough for me. Of course, this syndrome was also tempered by the "I'm so terrible I can't believe people would actually pay me money" syndrome. This is a good syndrome to have! It pushed me to learn and grow and increase my skills. Unfortunately, some photographers only have the first syndrome, and never the second. Here are the telltale signs:

1. They post all 247 pictures from a session on their website with no editing whatsoever. There are loads of blurry pictures, pictures of babies crawling out of the scene, and even pictures that are corrupted where most of the frame is green.

2. They do "selective color," and do it badly. Everybody loves the black and white pictures of the little girl where only the pink rose is in color. But watch out for abnormally-colored eyes and other wonky colors that look fake. It means they probably are. Selective color should be used sparingly and add to the feel of the picture. It shouldn't be done just because Photoshop makes it possible.

3. They charge too little for their sessions and prints. I once read a book about photography that gave the advice to avoid any photographer who charged less than $100 for a session. At the time, I charged less than $100, so I thought this was bad advice. Looking back, I can tell you that it is, in fact, very good advice. Good photography is an investment. If you only want to pay for cheap photography, you'll get cheap photography. I understand that not everybody can afford hundred-dollar sessions. In my mind, it's something worth saving up for. You want beautiful portraits that will stand the test of time and not be thrown in a drawer.

4. Good photography is all about the light. A tell-tale sign of an amateur photographer is little round pinpoints of white in the eyes of his subjects. This means he has used on-camera flash, which is a total mood-killer and makes the pictures look anything but professional. Good light should most often come from the side, and you should be able to see a catchlight in the eyes. It can be any shape and come from any direction (especially in natural-light situations) but it should never, never be right in the middle of the pupil! Good professional photographers can use flash and make it not look like flash, and it is used most often to enhance the light, not be the main light source. Many wedding photographers have to use flash because of the lighting situations they encounter, but they will diffuse it or bounce it, or do most anything not to aim it directly at their subjects.

Whew! I could go on and on. But the next time you are considering a photographer, really look at their pictures and evaluate them for more than just whether or not the subject is smiling. Choose wisely, my friends!

Hanging out with superstars

I just got back from an incredible week at the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International conference in Las Vegas. All the best photographers in the world come and give seminars on everything from photographic technique to business and marketing plans. I was so excited to go, because my two most favorite photographers in the world were giving classes, and it was my goal to meet them and get a picture with each of them. The first was Audrey Woulard. She uses all natural light like me, and just seeing what she does helps me to feel confident that I can get the same kind of results using only the available light around me. Well, when I got to her class (20 minutes early) the room was already overflowing. I squeezed in and stood up by the wall in the back along with loads of other people. Audrey started early because she was informed that the fire marshall was coming to kick everybody out who didn't have a seat. Sure enough, that's what happened, and I thought my dream of meeting Audrey was about to die. But then, these two sweet girls asked if I wanted to share a chair with them. The scooted over so I could sit on the very edge of a chair, and I was saved! We became instant friends. They are Melissa Jackson and Traci Turchin, and they are both absolutely fabulous photographers. I'm not just saying that, either. Go check out their websites! Melissa is based out of Mesa, AZ, so all my Arizona friends, you should book her! Traci is based out of Colorado Springs and does families, weddings, and seniors. She will come up to Denver, and since I don't do weddings or seniors, I highly recommend her. And, because of them, I have this lovely picture:

That's me with Audrey Woulard! I feel so special!

That night, we got to go to a special free concert by Blues Traveler. I remember that I really liked a song of theirs in college, and if you all know how I feel about free things, you can easily surmise that I went to the concert. However, if you also know how I feel about extremely loud things, you can easily surmise that I left the concert early. Plus, they didn't play the one song that I knew :( But here is a groovy picture I took:


I must say that the highlight of the trip was meeting my all-time and long-loved favorite photographer, Vicki Taufer. Her work is absolutely the most beautiful I have ever seen, and she is the bar to which I am striving to raise myself. Her husband is her partner and takes care of the business end of things. I had talked to him on the phone probably two years ago when I was ordering something from them. While I was waiting in line for pizza one day at the conference, I noticed I was standing behind him. I tapped him on the shoulder and introduced myself. He said he remembered my name. I told him I would love to meet his wife, and he told me he would introduce me to her at her class the next day. After her class, her husband (Jed) was busy with other attendees, so I went up and waited my turn and introduced myself. I said, "I met Jed standing in line for pizza yesterday," and Vicki said, "Oh, you're the one I'm supposed to meet!" They were both so great to me, and I got my picture with both of them!



The conference was fantastic and I learned so much and had a wonderful time. And now that I'm home, maybe I can finally get some sleep!