Weekly Header Challenge -- Why Did I Take That Shot?

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Fishing Guy 

Kathy 

Imac 

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

Visit the other participants' blogs to see their entries!

Theme ~ Why Did I Take That Shot?

Chosen by Tom.

Here is the image I used for this week’s theme:

So...why did I take that shot?  Well, we were visiting friends in South Carolina a few weeks ago, and I did a mini "portrait session" with each of the kids for them (I had done a family session with them several years earlier and they needed updated photos).

As I was getting my camera ready, six-year-old Emma came up to the screen door and pressed her face into it--so naturally I took a picture.  :D

Here's a much sweeter photo of Miss Emma...

Another one I decided to take of the three youngest girls being goofy (except for Miss Charlotte on the right; she just looks sweet).

Ahh, Miss Lily!  The two-year-old who wouldn't sit still.  So I decided to take a few photos of her "in action."  Thus, the below...

And one super cute one of super cute Lily!

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge -- Fun Fun Fun

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 ~ Fun Fun Fun

Chosen by Tom.

This week's theme gave me an excuse to go back through all my photos from the year and reminisce about the fun times.  I admit there weren't too many, since this was--and continues to be--a rough year for us.  There were, however, wonderful moments of levity which I share with you today.

For my header, even though it was hard to crop, I chose this photo of me having fun for my 50th birthday.

I'm totally claiming credit for this image, because even though Fernando snapped the shutter, I set everything up for him!

Here are some other "fun, fun, fun" times from my year...

Fun with a can of whipped topping.

Ice cream at the lake is always fun!

Below was my first experience with a handgun (a revolver).  I loved it, and loved that I was actually good at it.  Look at that grouping!  And, I did it in a summer dress!  It was so much fun that we shoot fairly regularly now.

After helping a friend move, Fernando and Thomas had fun with the dolly at the storage facility (taken with my phone).

When we get together with Allie's family (Jake's girlfriend), we always have fun.  This is another one taken with my phone.  It seems that fun is generally spontaneous and my phone is more readily available than my camera.  :)

Fun is when a friend's adult daughter invites you over to teach you how to make bubble tea (a Taiwanese beverage).  It was interesting!

 Bubble tea.

Finally, it is fun--and heart-melting--to watch your adult son charm two little girls into hanging out with him while at a friend's house for a sing-along event.

 Coloring time together!

Aren't they simply adorable?


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge - Smile

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Craver VII 

Fishing Guy 

Katney 

Imac 

Lew
Tom W 

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 ~ Smile

A big welcome to Tom W, a new (to me) participant in the Weekly Header Challenge!

What a great theme this week!  Many of us need a nice, big smile after our long, cold, snowy winter.  In choosing my images, I went for the cuteness factor.  And what can be cuter than kids?  Not much.  :)

I also stuck with my current images, choosing from ones I've taken just this year.  The main reason for that is I don't have to change catalogs in my editing software (Lightroom), which adds an extra headache or two onto the process.  Someday I'll be able to dedicate a whole day--which is what it'll take--to getting some help debugging the software; for now, I stuck with my current year's catalog.

Here's my full header below, taken at a wedding just last weekend.  I didn't cut too much off the image, since everything from top to bottom is vital to its composition.  I love all their expressions, these cute little flower girls and ring bearers!  I love the two ladies peeking around the door to make sure the kids start down the aisle at just the right moment.  I love that they're all sweetly holding hands.  And I love those cute silver shoes, too.

And, I love how, as they walked down the aisle, they made everyone smile.

In my cache of images, I went back a few weeks to another wedding, in mid-February in Texas.  We were blessed with 70-degree weather and no rain for this particular wedding--just one week later they were in the 30s with rain, freezing rain, and sleet!

Below, the little flower girl (daughter of the groom) was twirling through the barn in her pretty dress.  I saw her twirling and immediately started shooting.  Only afterwards did I realize my settings were all off, since she was twirling in the light and my camera settings had been set for the dark interior of the barn.  With a lot of tweaking (I don't think it's called tweaking at that point!) I was able to save the series of images.

These two young men are brothers.  The little guy has Down Syndrome, and I have a special place in my heart for special kids like him.  He was a sweetheart, and when I asked the pair if I could take their picture, they immediately snuggled in together, arm in arm, and smiled for me.

That cute twirling flower girl gained a mama that afternoon, and here they are hugging after the ceremony, the new mama wearing her beautiful wedding dress and daddy's suit jacket to ward off the wind.

That's all the smiles I could find this week; I can't wait to smile some more as I visit your blogs!


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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Little Cutie | Chicago Portrait Photographer Children

Life has overtaken our family.  I haven't posted in a while, but that simply means I have been busy.  In fact, busy doesn't even describe our recent life.  So "catch-up" is the name of the game for me.

Here is a cutie I was privileged to photograph recently.  Her image is plastered all over my website, too.  Now you know how much I love this little sweetheart!

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Spring Wedding

I am not a wedding photographer.

I always make sure I say that when I post wedding pictures.  Having said that, however, I do love event photography--capturing the various things all happening around me.  Whether I'm a participant who happens to have brought her camera, or the actual event photographer, I have fun either way!  Enjoy these few images from a recent wedding we attended.

FYI--All these images were taken using my "kit" lens, a 17-85mm telephoto.  It's a very basic Canon lens, but still produces nice images.  A lower F-stop and a sharper image and this would be my go-to lens for practically everything.  But of course, that would cost me, and so I continue to use this lens.  :)

There's something about little girls at weddings--they're all dressed up and are beaming with prettiness and excitement.

Some of the adults had to make sure the bubbles worked before the couple exited the church.  :)

It was so hard to capture the happy couple with all those bubbles floating everywhere!

Okay--I seriously got lucky.  I almost deleted the below image right from the camera, without even downloading.  I thought it was ruined.  I'm so glad I didn't.  I think it's just cool that I captured Rosalinda's face in that bubble!

This last photo was pretty contrast-y, but really lent itself well to a black and white image.  I love how it turned out.

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Joanna's Wedding Shower | Chicagoland Event Photographer

I had the wonderful privilege of attending and shooting this very special wedding shower, held for a beautiful young southern lady.  Although I would've loved to have traveled south to shoot the shower there, she visited up north.  Because she and her family have so many friends here where they used to live, a wedding shower was held for her here.  Enjoy some highlights and favorites from this very special afternoon.

I'm constantly in awe of people who can decorate--whether it's signs, tables, or food.  I just don't have the knack.  I can, however, take a beautiful picture of all that.  :)

These flower decorations were created with sewing patterns.  Aren't they gorgeous?

All showers must involve a silly game--I think it's a rule.  This one featured a "create-a-gown" game where teams had to make a gown from special "fabric" (that would be toilet paper).

Little helper.

Seriously, these toilet paper gowns were so beautiful you could almost walk down the aisle in one!

The beautiful bride-to-be.

Gifts for the littler ladies.

Look at that sweet expression of warmth and joy!  Such a wonderful young lady, who is so very excited to be getting married just after the New Year.  I'm just as excited for her.  :)


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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