Lauren Betts - Baby Girl

Lisa and Scott have a nice sized family. For several years the happy bunch consisted of mom, dad, and three boys. Three boys. Poor Lisa. Lisa, the lone woman in a house of men. Trucks, blocks, and action figures littered her life.

Surprise! This year, little Lauren came along! Lisa finally has a chance to buy pink, tie bows, and capture the fun of the first little girl in the gang. I was thrilled to be able to capture some classic photos of sweet Lauren, both on her own as well as with mom and each of her big brothers. I have a feeling that this gorgeous little girl is going to be well loved and protected as she grows. Heaven help the boy that comes to the door when she turns 16 when she has bodyguards like these! What a great family!

{PHOTO IQ: A couple of tips for shooting babies that I would pass on. First off, turn up the thermostat so it's nice and warm. You'll get happier babies. Secondly, be prepared to deal with messes. It's a simple equation, babies eat, cry, and poop. Since you aren't feeding them, and you don't want the crying, you have to be prepared for the third alternative. We had a couple of covers for the basket and plastic underneath. It was not enough. Little Lauren still projectile pooped across the room. Of course, her mother was embarrassed but we reassured her that it was common and we'd prepared for it. It only delayed the shoot for a few minutes and we had a good laugh!
So to recap: Warm and poop.}

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17 Unique Wedding Cakes

Click to see if they're cool or not. You decide. (Does anyone else get a really geeky vibe from their choices?)

Jamison & Amy Part II - Fireworks, the Salt Flats, and the State Capitol

After shooting their engagements, Amy and Jamison changed clothes and modes to a more formal style. We made use of a dramatic sunset, some balloons, and their names in the salt (carved by Jamison with considerable effort.)
The next day of our shoot-a-rama weekend was the 3rd of July. We did a session at the Utah State Capitol then hurried up to Eaglewood Golf Course for a KILLER fireworks show and some pretty amazing images. We had every possible problem with equipment but we went to Plan D and pulled it out.

{PHOTO IQ: Like I mentioned, I had a total tech meltdown while shooting with the fireworks. The entire show lasted 10 minutes or so so we knew we only had that long to get the images we wanted.
Some of the challenges:
1. Knowing in advance where the fireworks will be.
2. Focus, The subject is not lit while the fireworks are like focus magnets.
3. Very little time to figure out settings
4. Posing in total darkness

The solutions need to be thought out in advance with several backup plans, this is a situation where if you don't know what to do should a piece of equipment go out, you lose. You simply won't get the images.
We didn't know and although we were set up when the show started, we were facing the wrong direction. They had moved the show more south than it had been the year before so we had to pick up and flip directions.
Focus was tough. I had an assistant holding a laser pointer on them but it ended up being too faint. Plus, the radio receiver wasn't triggering the back light. (Oh cruel irony!) I had to change tactics. I don't know that I've ever changed tactics quite that fast. I had been set up with two off-camera speedlites, (flashes) a main light up and left with a Fong Bong directed up, and a back light straight behind. Both were set on manual with Cactus V4 radio triggers. I didn't use my Pocket Wizard TTLs because I simply couldn't afford for them to crap out like they tend to do at the least convenient times (Ask me about my abusive relationship with my Pocket Wizards), plus, this was no situation for TTL flash. Since I had no flash on-camera, there was no auto-focus help . I feared that I was missing focus since my camera kept hunting for focus, and I couldn't take the chance. I quickly switched to the Canon slave mode on my 7D--the only Canon camera that can trigger speedlites with its pop-up flash--and used the focus assist option to make sure I was hitting. This worked well after some adjustment of the flash position--triggering via infrared requires that the speedlite sensors be pointed towards the camera--more time wasted. The other disadvantage is that because there was no line of sight between the back light and the master, it couldn't fire. I made sure I got some good, focused shots with just the main light before I jumped up to try and get the backlight firing again. Sometimes you just have to get something. I didn't know how long the fireworks would last so I didn't want to spend so much time fixing the setup that we missed it all. Once I knew I had SOMETHING good I jumped up to make the adjustments.
Fortunately, the back side flash was a cheaper, lower tech model. You see, the Canon 580 ex II doesn't have a photo cell to trigger from another light source. A HUGE oversight in my mind since it solves a lot of problems by working into any system. I jumped up and set the backlight to trigger from the flash of the main light. Finally the perfect setup, just in time to get about 5 frames of the finale. Fortunately, I think we got the RIGHT 5 frames. They turned out great.
The moral of the story is, no matter how prepared you think you are, learn how to do the same things several different ways. That knowledge is what makes someone a professional, the knowledge to get the shot no matter WHAT goes wrong with the equipment or situation.
Another thought, I never changed the output amount or settings on the camera or flashes. They had been set beforehand and were right on. That left me the time to solve problems without trying to figure exposure first.

It's been a long rambling Photo IQ but I hope, worthwhile. I'd love to hear your thoughts, either here or on my facebook page!}

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Jamison & Amy Part I - Salt Flats Engagement Session

Jamison and Amy came up all the way from Las Vegas to have me do their engagement session and a formal session (That one's next.) It's a shame I couldn't do their wedding but these sessions allowed us a lot of freedom and creativity. We basically spent all weekend together and I felt like I became like a member of the family, especially after watching fireworks with them on the golf course.
I loved the ideas proposed and I love the images that came out of them.

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{PHOTO IQ: I went with the obvious subject on this one--wind. There's not much you can do about it in most cases so just go along with it! You'll notice lots of poses with Amy's face into the wind to keep her hair out of her face. Sometimes the wind and the light simply don't agree, you have to take your pick. (Notice in the closer poses sitting down, good light, bad wind direction.)
Other ideas are to:

- Pose less formally so the wind feels like a natural part of the shot instead of something breaking up the "perfect" pose. I would even advocate a desperate measure, the dreaded camera tilt...hey, everything comes in handy at one time or another. In this case, it works to make the shot feel less formal.

- The more movement you use in the shots, the less out-of-place the wind will feel--Have fun!

- Have someone hold the hair as a natural part of the shot. (See this Salt Flats engagement session as well.) 

- Shoot more. The wind will change all the time. I try to shoot 5 or 6 shots at a time and most sets I got one with hair will work.

The bottom line is that anything you can't control, embrace! 

Cue cheeseball wind joke of your choice.}

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Lauren - Bridals at the Utah State Capitol

Since I'm done processing their wedding and it will be going up soon, I thought I'd post Lauren's bridals.
Lauren is beautiful, both inside and out. She wanted something elegant and striking. The Utah State Capitol was the perfect location with its white marble and stone pillars and stairs.

For those of you who can't see the slideshow below, click here to be whisked electronically to the facebook album.

{Photo IQ: For the tip today I'm going to diagram the lighting for the shot below. I wanted dramatic and striking which usually means bringing in extra lighting.}

There were three speedlites in this shot. The main light is from high camera right, diffused with a Fong Bong. It's at 1/8 power. The back-light is directly behind the bride about 5 feel high, pointing at the camera. It was at 1/16 power. The third is a bare flash behind the pillars on the right side hitting the stairs. I wanted the stairs to really trail down on her. I don't remember the power but my guess is probably 1/2 or so. I liked the shadows it cast, creating a kind of cross-hatching in the background.
It's important to use a slow enough shutter speed to still get the color in the background but not so much that it takes focus off the bride. It was shot at 1/125 at f5 and 800 ISO. See below for the lighting diagram.

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