Weekly Header Challenge -- Tell A Story

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Fishing Guy 

Kathy 

Imac 

Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.

Click on the other participants' blogs to see

what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Tell A Story

Chosen by Kathy.

For Kathy's chosen theme this week, Tell A Story, I tried to choose images that tell a story in and of themselves.  I love event photography--my favorite genre--in which I can use a series of photos to tell the story of the day.  I have plenty of those, but I wanted to challenge myself to use images where each tells its own story.

For my header, I chose a recent image I had used within a Header Challenge blog a few weeks back, but it wasn't a header.  Here is the uncropped image:

The bride and groom are the focus of the story, but there's so much more going on--from the birdseed being thrown, to the event photographer, to a few attendees with their phone cameras out, to the smiles and joy on the faces of the other attendees, to the cars--one of which is the "getaway vehicle--beyond.  I love all the details in this photo, and I think it tells a beautiful story.

Here are the rest of the images I chose this week.  I'll simply caption each image with a title, and let the image tell its own story.

Summer Vacation.

Post-Game.

Gasp!

February.

Guy in the Kitchen.

Those are my photo stories.  I'm going to keep this theme in mind as I go out and about with my camera over the next few weeks, and try to capture stories along the way!

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge -- Official

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Fishing Guy 

Kathy 

Imac 

Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.

Click on the other participants' blogs to see

what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Official

Chosen by Tom.

Should I use the noun or the adjective for this week's theme?  I may have a few pictures of officials--police officers, a government figure--but I decided that I have several images that describe something official.  Like my header, uncropped below:

This header image has a fun memory attached:  I grabbed the mail that day (spring 2013) and saw the envelope with the big "Yes!" on it.  I hollered to Danny, "Hey, you got mail from UIC!"  Then I said out loud to myself, "They say yes."  I thought it was another advertisement from yet another college, so I was trying to be funny about it.  Then I realized what the yes meant--Danny had been accepted!  I went from joking to super excited.

Here's my one image of the noun version.  He looks official, too, don't you think?

Don't mess with the security officer.

Here are the rest of my images for official.

Math team -- officially 5th in state.

Thomas--9th in state individually!

Officially a college graduate!

Thomas is officially a licensed driver (yikes!)

Danny--an official member of the National Honor Society.

Fernando started his own business a few months ago; this business card makes it official!

My official business display at a local business expo.

I took this last picture just a few days ago.  The vows, a kiss, then this walk down the aisle--they are now officially husband and wife!

That's officially it!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge -- Flash Fill

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Craver VII 

Fishing Guy 

Katney 

Imac 

Lew 

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.

Feel free to click on the other participants' blogs

to see what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Flash Fill

Craver VII chose the theme for this week's header challenge.  I suppose there's a reason it's called a challenge.  I rarely use my flash, let alone use it for fill.  So a photo where I used flash would have to be an older one.  Older doesn't mean bad, however.  Some of my older ones are pretty good.  :)

I had to dig back to an event I shot a few years back in order to get an image I took with flash.  And, since I'm having issues with the catalogs in Lightroom 4, I chose the first "flash" image I could find from the first event I could find.  And then I played Minesweeper while the gallery loaded...

Here's the full image:

I really do love this image.  These girls are sisters, and I had just taken a picture of them with their mother at a mother/daughter conference in North Aurora, Illinois.  I was charged with event photography, but the conference hosts wanted to provide a digital image for each conference attendee (meaning, a mother with her daughter/s, and sometimes including another generation).  That meant more formal portraits, too.  Good thing I've done this a time or two--and at other mother/daughter events!

The two sisters were waiting while their mom was chatting with another lady, so we decided to have some fun together.  The above image is the result.  I love the black and white version.  Oh, yeah--the flash.  Okay, so seriously, I was placed in a back hallway of a school (where the event was held) with fluorescent lighting.  Bad fluorescent lighting (is there any that is good??).  I knew I'd have to use a flash.  I don't like using flash.

Fortunately, I had taken a few photography courses and one thing I learned about was bouncing the light.  So that's what I did here; no direct flash, just aiming it so it bounced off the ceiling and onto my subjects.  That's how I took every portrait at the conference.  It enabled me to set a low enough ISO to avoid grain, plus a high enough shutter speed to avoid motion blur.  And of course I used my tripod.

Okay, enough technical talk.  Here are a few other images from that conference.  Enjoy.  :)

The sisters with their mom.  Don't you love the red?

This last one is cute.  The littlest daughter did not want to let her mom go, and the mom told her, "You have to do what the photographer wants you to!"  So I went straight up to that little girl and told her, "You stay right here and hug your mom."  That made us both happy, and hopefully mom liked it, too!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Portrait of a Young Man

There are actually two young men's portraits to share with you.  First, the 17-year-old young man, on the cusp of beginning his future with a year left in high school and so many possibilities for the future.

And second, the portrait of a fine young man, striding out into his future, starting his career in law enforcement with a summer internship.

Both young men are on their way, strong in integrity and sure in their faith.


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Introducing Misses J and M

In preparation for this portrait session, I purchased two wooden letters from Hobby Lobby.

Now, I'm not a creative person, as far as decorating and crafts go, but I figured two wooden stained letters would be cute.  At the actual portrait session, I set everything up:  apple basket, blanket, real apples, and finally, the two letters.

Well, that was sure cute!  But it'd be much cuter with two cuties inside the basket.  Which is what I did.

Miss M leaned over a little, with her head resting on her sister.  It turned out to be, I think, the cutest shot of the day!

We got the girls situated in their Bumbo seats (I'm going to have to invest in those!) and proceeded to spend a bunch of time trying to get them not only to look in the same direction, but to smile.  Boy, was that hard!

Their mom wanted some shots of them on the couch, so we used another blanket and tried to get them to smile.  I kept the below shot for fun--don't you just love how babies love their fingers?  :)

The below shot was our best effort while they were on the couch.  I think these girls are adorable!

This was one of the most fun portrait sessions I've had in a while!  The babies were so easy to work with, and even though we all worked hard to get them to smile, we got some beautiful images.


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Project 2012 -- Week 45

Project 2012 -- Week 45

November 4-10

Welcome to my Project 2012 weekly post!  This is my time to look back over the past week, 
choose seven favorite images I've taken, and share them here with you.  
If you have a project you're working on, please leave a comment 
so I can visit your blog and see what you're up to!

This was another restful week, with one big shock at the end--I think my 17-85mm lens is permanently on strike.  After doing a Littles Portrait Session with my 50mm lens, I tried to take some sunset pictures with my 17-85mm, and received an "Error 01" message that the lens was failing to communicate with the camera.  That had happened once or twice recently, but but was always resolved with turning the camera off/on.  I've tried the lens several times since that sunset, and it's a no-go.  It is my kit lens, and the lens I use for everyday shooting--which, as you know, I do a lot of.  Sorry to whine here!  But, I'm about to research getting a new lens, and soon so I can keep up with my skills, my blogs, etc.

Okay, I've ranted and now it's time for pictures!

This first one is not the actual ballot; our county provides sample ballots online, and we printed several out to go over and mark up so we were ready to vote.

[309] Voting Day

[310] First presidential election

Danny (above) was excited to vote in his first presidential election.  He wasn't so excited to learn the next day that every candidate we voted for lost.  We were redistricted into a liberal district, and now have liberals representing us at all levels of government--from local to national.  Welcome to Illinois politics.

I've been "downsizing" my spices, using smaller jars for those spices I use less frequently, in order to make room for all the jars on my little spice rack.  I've still got some jars on the top of the rack, but it's working pretty well so far.

[311] Spice rack

Here's the larger view:

[312] Kitchen spices

I found a bag of Andes mint chunks in the freezer, and figured I'd better make some cookies with them.  This was the recipe on the back of the bag, and they are dee-lish.  (It was a basic chocolate chip recipe, using the mint chunks instead of chips.)

[313] Mint chip cookies

Remember the "M" and "J" letters from my last Project 2012 post?  I stained them and brushed a cost of polyurethane on, and here they are below all set up at the C. home, ready for twin girls!  Yes, the apples are real--I'd rather have real props if I can, and don't they look just lovely?  I can't wait to show you the images from the shoot--I got some beautiful shots!

[314] Portrait props

Right after the above portrait session, I drove over to a nearby park to catch what was going to be a spectacular sunset.  Kit lens on, click the lens--error message.  I already ranted about it above, so no re-hashing it here.  I stuck my 50mm on and captured this shot--still beautiful, though not as wide-angle as I would've liked.

[315] Sunset at the park

All in all, some basic and regular shots this week.  I'm learning to trust the Lord with my photography--both professionally (try shooting natural light on a dark, stormy afternoon in a back living room!) and personally (my all-around kit lens...).  He knows what's best, and I'm trying to trust Him for a solution.

Here's to this upcoming week, for both you and me!  May our cameras be trusty, and our pictures be inspiring.


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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W. Family Autumn Mini Portrait Session | Chicagoland Portrait Photographer

We interrupt our vacation...

I just had to interrupt all those Paris posts!  Otherwise, you might not see this family until Thanksgiving!   When I first visited this park, it was a warm and windy day, but still beautiful for taking pictures.  Just a few days later, on Photo Session Day, the temps had dropped into the 40s--barely 50 degrees while we were there--and still breezy.  But the colors remained fantastic, not quite at peak color but beautiful nonetheless.

The W. Family is a gorgeous family!  They are a good-looking bunch, and very easy to work with--even when I get names wrong.  (There are a lot of them!)  In fact, Mom was the one to suggest this park, very close to my home even though I didn't know it even existed!  I'm so grateful to her for that suggestion, because the park is an amazing place for outdoor portrait sessions.  And I love autumn.

Since they wanted just a few poses, nothing fancy, we decided to go with a mini portrait session--basically, we get the desired poses, and then it's "whatever we get in half an hour, we get!"  And we got some very nice shots.

Enjoy the W. Family!

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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New Outdoor Session Location! | Chicagoland Portrait Photographer

All my clients are great.  I have loved working with every one of them.  Honest.

Sometimes, clients have some great suggestions.  For instance, a new client suggested a park she wanted to use for her family's mini portrait session.  This park was only a few miles from my home--and I didn't know about it!  The session occurred several days after the phone call, so I knew I'd better get over there and scope things out.

I picked a warm, windy Wednesday, three days before the session.  It was supposed to turn much colder later that day, so I figured I'd be warm for at least the scouting session, if not the actual portrait session.

This is the scene that greeted me just steps from my car door, on a little footbridge:

Well, that looked promising!  Then I crossed the footbridge, and saw another bridge.

Another great place to take a picture.  I could just see a family on that bridge, framed by trees--whether green in spring and summer, or multi-colored in autumn--smiling and happy.  Beautiful!

I explored the little park area on this side of the bridge, and the trees were amazing--so many neat shapes and textures.  Look at the branches!

The steps in the photo above--on the lower right--lead to the bridge over the river.  Even the steps would be a great place to shoot.

I love the natural frames that these trees created.  I was definitely going to love this portrait session!

On the bridge, I got lost in the early autumn scenery.  Although it was breezy, the river looked calm and peaceful, with beautiful reflections.

Back in the first park area, I spotted a fallen log--perfect for sitting on.  Perfect for portraits!

What a beautiful frame with the branch overhead!

And the below tree--the lowest limb could be a great place to sit on!  It was about shoulder height on me, but I'm short.  I'm sure kids could scramble up there, or Dad could hoist them up there.

The squirrel in the image below thought this park was great, too!  Well, at least for gathering food for the winter, anyway.  :)

This may very well be my park of choice, if clients would like to shoot close to my home.  The shady park affords a great place to shoot during the day, from late morning to mid-afternoon (no harsh sun!).  And late afternoon would afford some beautiful light streaming into the park--perfect for any kind of portraits.

So, what are you waiting for?  Give me a call!

(630) 399-4430


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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