My Fall Mini Sessions! 

November 13th, 14th and 15th.  

The main things I learned from these sessions

• 20 minutes works great for the straight forward traditional family photo session. 
• Anything different like a mother daughter shoot or a child portrait session needs more time.
• I love the time between 3:15 & 3:45 pm and will try to book all 1 hour portrait sessions at that time.
• I could see that having an assistant hold my flash and help make kids smile is essential! 

I am very grateful for the wonderful families that book me year after year, Thank You!

I really enjoyed doing the fall mini sessions. What I learned was that I am very capable of getting gorgeous images in under 30 minutes. The kids stay fresh and don't get too distracted and we stay on task getting as many shots as possible for them to choose from later. The 20 minute session will most definitely be back!

I wanted to post some photos showing how the lighting changes color and how this impacts the images. I am not sure I have a favorite time to shoot but if I was forced to pick one I would have to say 3:15pm to 4:45pm gives the most variety of light. The color of light really gets more intense as 4:30pm approaches so it's really beautiful to capture that golden hour. However at 3:15 the sun is bright but much softer then mid day so you get crisp warm images with a lot of sharp detail.

So it's a toss up between the 3:15 & 4:15 time slots. At mid day the sun is so bright that the highlights get blown out, and if you aren't going for that look then you have to find the perfect spot to shoot. When trying to find the perfect spot you realize there really aren't any;) The shade at mid day can be quite dark in the woods. Finding open shade is ideal but not always possible. I had to use flash with many photos. The shadows are really dark early in the day, and when shooting in shade later in the day it's nice to have flash as a back up. 

Session at 4:15pm The Golden hour!  

 The last two images above were taken with out flash. The one in her foxy dress inside the basket was edited to brighten it up. The one above that is not edited and shows what the light really looked like in real life:)  

My Shutter speed was at 320 and my ISO at 250 so I could have changed either setting (or both) to get a brighter result. The difficult thing about shooting in full shade at this hour is it  can create a lot of noise (grain) in the image. Increasing my ISO could add to the noise, and slowing down my shutter from 320 to 200 is probable very doable but I find when I shoot with a long lens it helps to increase my shutter speed for less camera shake, hence sharper images.  Also kids move a lot so keeping my shutter speed fast is kind of a must. I try to stay at 250, and not go lower when working with kids.  That's why flash is so important to create the crisp sharp images most mom's like. 

 

This Session below is at 2:15pm. This time of day can create very dark harsh shadows, but it provides really bright clean light. Finding Shade is really a must. Love the photo below. It's really nice to see someone so comfortable in front of the camera. Letting yourself feel love while someone is taking your picture isn't easy, many families are much more reserved.  This beautiful mother & daughter are from Italy! So that may have something to do with her expressive demeanor. I love it!

The photo above was taken mid day - see the dark shadow from the tree behind her? I love how she is leaping over the shadow but yet her face is very well exposed. 

 

The Session below at 2:45 pm. Bright light, but a bit softer then 2:15pm slot

 

 

This Session Below 4:15 pm  The Golden hour!

The sun seemed a bit brighter that evening compared to my previous 4:15 session.

Session was at 3:15pm - Great variety of light!

 

 

The Session Below - 3:45 pm 

 

The Session below was at 4:15pm - The Golden hour with no sun! Yikes! Not an ideal lighting situation.  The sun had vanished so I used flash the entire session. The flash provided the warmth & sun light effect I was hoping for! I am really happy they came out great & look really naturally lit.