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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My Week With the S Family

One of my Project 2012 weekly blog posts featured my time throughout the week with the S family, while dad and mom were at the hospital having a baby, and again so dad could go back to the hospital a few days later to bring mom and baby home.  I photographed most of my time with these four wonderful children.  What an amazing, wacky, fun time we had together!  And our time together ended on such a sweet note, when baby sister came home.  So, in pictures, here is my week.

Headed to the park

Underdog!

Playing on the rocks

Trampoline time

The farming game (I was losing miserably!)

Master R made pancakes for breakfast!

Pizza slicer as pancake cutter--innovative!

Daddy's home, and showing off pictures of their new baby

Daddy/daughter time on the porch

Waiting for Mommy

Gifts from the family for Mommy and baby

More gifts arrive!

Mommy and baby are home!!

Three sisters

Welcoming Little Miss C

The below is a beautiful shot of mom.  I can't believe she just had a baby; she's still glowing!  I know the picture is blurry, but this is the only shot I have of her.  I didn't even take it, since I was too busy holding/adoring Little Miss C.  Throughout the week, I had let all the kids (except little E) use my camera.  I kept the settings on manual mode, too, and they took some great shots.  Miss K (big sister in the above image) is, in my opinion, a budding photographer, and used my camera the most.  Although her mom was slightly alarmed at her just picking up my camera and shooting, Miss K took the below shot.  So don't think about the blurriness of a shot captured by a six-year-old!  Yes, six.  Not bad, huh?

Up next--photo session with Little Miss C.  I can't wait to share the images; they turned out simply beautiful!  :D


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Mother/Daughter Portraits

I'm so excited to share a few of my favorite portraits from the Mother/Daughter Weekend.  Each set of ladies (mother with her daughter/s) had only about two or three minutes with me, so it was a challenge to get at least a decent shot.  I just needed to make sure eyes were open and there were nice smiles, and I was done.  This is not my favorite photography to do, but as part of a whole weekend of shooting, it was a lot of fun to sandwich all those mini photo sessions in to all the other event photography I was doing.

Below are some of my favorite portrait images--formal (to get the shot) and candid (either while having fun or to capture a different pose).

Marielle (below) and her daughter gave me the (great!) idea of posing twosomes back to back.  It worked great in several shots--thanks, Marielle!

A few moms asked if I could take their daughters' pictures.  Of course!  Here is a cutie.

If I had a little extra time, I sometimes moved the ladies around for a different pose.  The below shot is adorable.

I took several of this family, and loved how the below turned out with the little one resting her head on mom's leg.

This mom wanted a shot with her daughter, but the daughter wasn't enthusiastic about it.  I caught a series of them goofing off--the look on the daughter's face is great as her mom tries to pose with her, then gives her a kiss.

My favorite back-to-back image!

I love the below shot.  There's nothing like a newborn to elicit awe (and aww!).  So precious!

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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A Challenge

I'm usually up for a challenge.  When it comes to photography, I definitely like a challenge!  And when it comes to photography and someone who does not want his picture taken, I take it as a personal challenge.  It is no longer about photography, but about getting the reaction I want.  Then I can take the picture.

Such was the case this past February at the Mother/Daughter Encouragement Weekend.  I set up my portrait studio in the church's library, and had a great time snapping images of mothers and their daughters throughout the weekend.  Then one family walked in to have their portrait taken--one mom, along with her five daughters.  It took just one look--that littlest one (I'm guessing around three years old) did not want to be there.  There was no way I was going to get her picture.  If I remember correctly, her arms were crossed and she was determined.

I had only minutes with this family, since I had moms coming in with their daughters all throughout the conference.  This was not my typical hour-long photo shoot.  Two minutes, one family picture, done.  I had to work fast.

So, I played Guess Your Name.  Jackpot!  She thought that was pretty funny, and I had her laughing in no time with all the girl names I was thinking up.  Once she was laughing, I quickly got the ladies arranged around their mom, and snapped away.  I got a decent shot, and you can see Haley, in the black dress with red bow, laughing as I snapped this shot.

Whew!  As I started chatting with the mom, Katie (to Haley's right) climbed up on the stool where her mom had been sitting.  She dangled her legs and was having a great time.  Haley thought that that'd be pretty fun, too, so she climbed right on up next to her sister.  Their mom and I noticed, of course, and tried to pose them.  Haley didn't like that, but once her mom got her situated next to her sister, I got her laughing again.  Thank goodness my camera still had all the right settings and was sitting there, waiting!

Mom suggested, "Haley, kiss your sister!"  I guess Haley settled into her good mood at that point, because she turned on the stool and gave her sister a great big hug.  Another opportunity!

Katie was so cute as she just sat there and "took it" from her sister.  And then the moment:

Three awesome shots.  Those were the hardest shots I'd worked for in a long time, and the best images from the entire weekend.  Thanks for playing with me, Haley!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Mothers and Daughters

For three years, the Lord has blessed me by opening the door to allow me to attend this wonderful event, hosted by SECHDF.  I've spoken of it--and blogged about it--a number of times in the past, and I get to blog about it again here.

For two days, mothers gather with their daughters to renew friendships, be encouraged by a guest speaker, participate in craft times together, and share fellowship meals together.  The two-day event culminates in a Mother/Daughter Tea on Saturday afternoon.

This post is my big picture post, an overview of the weekend together.  I have future posts lined up to share specific things from throughout the two wonderful days, and those will be appearing over the next few weeks.

Preparations continued all the way up until people started arriving.  Name tags were being cut out...

The speaker table was being set up...

Holly completed some last minute work on the tea party decorations...

And Miss J meticulously decorated the tables in the dining area.

The photographer's table.  That's mine.  :)

Greetings.

My sister D (below) and her family put on this event.  She is an amazing, wise, Godly woman.

Leslie Ludy was the featured speaker for the weekend.

Lots of activities in the craft room.

One little guy among all the girls!

Precious capture of mama and her baby girl.

Friday night dinner.  Yes, it's teddy bears and cloud wallpaper.  The serving line ran through the nursery, since there was a record crowd in attendance.

I love capturing mealtime candids.

Chef Gregory catered the event (he gets his own blog post soon!).  These are his cakes for Friday evening dessert.

The way these girls were crowded around the cake, you'd think they hadn't been fed in two weeks!  I asked them all to line up so I could get their picture.

Saturday began with another speaker workshop.

More crafts in the craft room throughout the morning.

Time for lunch!  Whoever set out these water bottles was a neat and tidy person.  I didn't move a single one for the below shot.  I love when things are in order.  Yes, I notice the one water bottle on its own in the background.  Perfect.  :)

Miss S (below) is D's daughter and also did a tremendous about of behind-the-scenes work to make this event a success.

Yeah, sometimes people figure out that I'm aiming the camera at them.  :)

I "caught" this young lady watching my slide show from last year's Mother/Daughter Encouragement.  I was tickled that she spent the time watching, so I took her picture.

The weekend ended with a fabulous tea party, parts of which will also get another post.  If you wonder where my food photography is, keep in mind that there was a lot of food throughout the weekend.  It'll get its own post.

Remember that wide-awake little guy from Friday (above)?  He was all tuckered out by Saturday afternoon.  So was I.

Stay tuned for my detail posts of the Mother/Daughter Encouragement weekend!



Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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