Drop and give me 20

Regan shows excellent form doing push-ups in her very fashionable work out attire!All that hard work pays off - she looks fabulous in her pretty pink dress.
I applied a softly hand colored look to this portrait.

Lil cuppa luv

Casey fit perfectly in my new prop for babies, giving us lots of cute expressions as she checked it out.
Love the soft, fuzzy hair and long lashes!

Senior Pictures - Kial, Vintage Hollywood style

Hmm, seem to be having trouble posting to this blog. This was to be with the photos below.

I was thrilled when Kial scheduled her Senior Portraits with me because she wanted to do her entire session in the style of the 40's Hollywood portraits. I've long admired the work of that era by photographers such as George Hurrell and Clarence Bull so was excited to create some images in a similar fashion.

The lighting, wardrobe and styling are key elements to this look. Most photographers today use light modifiers such as softboxes to produce a large, soft, wrapping light that is flattering/forgiving for most subjects.

The studio portrait photographers of the 40's used many precisely placed lights to accent their subject, highlighting features with a more concentrated light source that produced deep shadows. This type of light is also less forgiving in that it revealed texture and imperfections. Thus the need for heavy retouching to the negative using chalk and a magnifying glass, to achieve a flawless complexion on the finished print. Although it's still paramount to capture the image properly in camera, we've come a long way and now the skilled artist can perfect and enhance wondrously with Photoshop.

Kial brought in several fabulous outfits that were perfect for her session and we had a lot of fun channeling Marlene Dietrich!

Senior Pictures - Kial, a few more, Vintage Hollywood style Senior

Happy Easter!

Easter eggs

Thank goodness these eggs are unbreakable because they were certainly "tested" during this session for Genevieve's one year portraits. She gave us happy smiles at the start and we captured wonderful images but after about 20 minutes she was done, which is pretty normal for this age.

Hats are adorable on little girls, but often little girls don't agree - she took that thing off as fast as it was placed on her head! Oh, well, still cute.

3 generations

Regan' s grandma came for a visit with her new granddaughter so this was the perfect opportunity for a 3 generation portrait with baby, mom and grandma. They did a great job coordinating their clothing and I love how it allows the faces and baby to stand out.

A few more from her 3 month session.

Purse stolen

It's been quite a week - my purse was stolen last Sunday while prop shopping at one of my fav stores, Joanne's Fabrics. I stupidly left it sitting in the cart at the end of the aisle while I looked at something for a minute, turned back and it was gone. Didn't hear or see a thing and neither did anyone else, although we're waiting to see what the store cameras might have captured. Of course all the usual important items were in there, but won't do the thief much good as we have closed the accounts and changed the locks. They tried to use two cards within the hour at an ATM but both were declined.

So I just wanted to pass on some advice to prevent this from happening to others. The obvious is don't leave your purse unguarded. I saw another woman doing the same thing in a store this week and she was very appreciative of my warning to be more careful. We all get so busy, with our minds on other things, not noticing others around who may be watching us to see if we might be an easy target. We need to just be "in the moment", taking heed of who and what is going on around us.

I found a website with lots of great tips on being prepared, like make copies of your credit card front and back and store at home, make a list of everything normally carried in your purse/wallet, don't carry your entire checkbook and register, clean those cc and atm receipts out of your wallet/purse, etc. Take a moment to read this and follow through: http://www.whathappensnow.com/sec_item.cfm?sec_uid=c323e6bb-72ce-4c9a-af65-214ea4f241b5&sec=BP&cat=PER&event_id=9

Easter bunny portraits

More new props for Easter portraits. They don't run away and they don't make a mess!

Another cute one of Bennett during his 6 month session.

New props!

I've purchased some new props recently and tried them out during Lillians 9 month session. I had an idea for a portrait so visited Ebay and bought this antique phone, with the metal dialer that makes the distinctive sound. Strange that this phone is considered antique. I thought this portrait would be perfect to use on the contact page of my new website. Thanks Lillian!

Perfectly precious, prettily perched in pink. Here's my new baby bench, from Wicker by Design, perfect for little ones to sit comfortably, with high sides to hold on to if needed.



Doesn't she have the prettiest eyes?

New Website!

Announcing the release of my new website! Check it out and let me know what you think. Same web address as before - www.colleenphoto.com

Acting Headshots

Nathan is a rising star who was in the movie Babel, which recently won the Golden Globe for best drama, and was just nominated for a best picture Academy Award. You may also have seen him last fall in the TV series Runaway. Such a smart, polite, personable young man! He comes from a family of actors and it was a pleasure to photograph him and his sisters for their updated headshots.

Lillian 6 months

Here's new photos of 6 month old Lillian. Giggles, expressions, playing, eyelashes.

My new favorite CD

I saw this duo, Rodrigo y Gabriela, on Letterman a few nights ago and was blown away by their unique sound. Latin rhythms and harmonies with a rock structure is how they describe it. Bought their CD and could not sit down listening to that one - Love it! (My kids laugh when I dance around the room like a maniac.) You can check them out on their website at www.rodgab.com

Santa baby

I photographed Brian and Barbra's wedding a couple years ago and really enjoyed working with them so I was happy to receive their email inquiring about my baby plan for their new addition. Just had to try my baby Santa hat and Bennett was a good sport about it.
Also tried some wonderfully soft new fabrics which he snuggled right into.


It's so cute how he's tucked in Daddy's arm here, I had to capture some of these.

The look of love on mom and dad's faces is just precious.

Family Maternity Portraits

Tanya looks incredible and there are so many great images it's hard to choose my favorite. Daddy and big sis were an important part of this intimate session.

Garden

Here's an image of the front entrance. It's so nice to take a break on the porch swing on a warm summer day and look out at the garden. The porch is also great for portraits because of the directional light quality. It's North light so is always shaded and low light plants do well here. I plant impatients in the spring and they bloom non stop, without deadheading, until first frost. They have to be replanted every year though since they are annuals. The lamium and hosta come back every year.
The pond next to the entrance. It does require some maintenance, but the sound of the water is nice and kids love to see the fishies. This area is perfect in the afternoon with the western light filtering through the trees.

The front path next to the porch, also wonderful afternoon light. Blue star creeper is a great ground cover to fill in between the stones.

The Tropical set along the side path to the back yard. The bananas die back in the winter but come back every spring, getting taller every year. We also have calla lillies, star gazer lillies, which smell heavenly, canna tropicana and coleus.

We just planted the geranium ground cover this spring and it took off like crazy to fill in the area around the base of the arbor. The arbor is another fun prop to use in portraits and it will be nice when the climbing rose grows up.
A wide view of the back yard. The dark pink heather is beautiful in the fall.
The Fairy Garden path and border were just added this year. The flowering cherry tree on the side provides nice shade and a light block on the side and over head for beautiful directional light from the left.
The Italian set with purple clematis on the wall, fragrant wooly thyme underfoot, and lavender on the edge, makes a beautiful background for portraits.