Last night as I was working on a set up, I grabbed my 14 year old and asked him to stand “there”.  I got the same look as always do, but he obliged.  And as normal, the light were too hot, this was wrong, that was wrong etc.  After 3 or 4 minutes I got it to where I wanted it to be and off I went.

When I got to my Mac this AM and was downloading my images, I saw the shots of Jimmy and started to look at them.  Sometimes I glace at them, many times, I just move on; but this time, I kept going back to my first shot; the “its too hot shot”.  I put aside my “work” and started to play with his image a bit.  After I was done with it (about 4 more minutes later), I decided to print it to see what it would look like.  Normally, I will crop the image to whatever size I am printing.  This time, I was lazy and didn’t do that.  I told my little machine, please just size it to fit.  But just as I was about to hit the “size it to fit” button, I saw the below crop.  My software didn’t know where to crop, it didn’t know what I wanted.  It just said, this is how it is going to fit if you don’t do anything.

I didn’t plan for any of this; it just happened.  And that maybe is the best way to learn.  Just let things naturally happen.

Each time I meet someone, particularly  someone who is  in High School, I always tell them the same thing: This is for you!  Not your mom, not your dad;  Today is all about you.  I ask them what they like or don’t like, and encourage them to tell me that an idea that I have (no matter how wild and crazy) is either awesome or stupid. I stress on the stupid as I want them to know it is what they like, not me (or anyone else).  I find it help them to relax and enjoy our time together that much more.

When Elisabeth’s mother found out that I was going to be in California, she asked me to shoot her Senior Portraits.  We went back and forth on locations and finally decided on the pier in Huntington Beach.  I had an idea what I wanted to do, but as it was going to be January, I did not know if the weather, or the water would cooperate with us.  Thankfully both did!  It was a warm sunny day and we could not have asked for better.

I have to tell you that even as I was editing these images, I had a huge smile on my face.  Not just because of my work, but just remembering the fun that we all had that day.  I hope that I will have the chance to do it again with all of them.  Maybe Elisabeth’s wedding??  Just a thought 3D!

And thanks to my assistant Sean who made my life that much easier that day!

What I thought would be a mellow evening at home turned into a spur of the moment full fledge photo photo shoot.  The white seamless come out, the lights, soft boxes and everything else.  Trust be told, I am not sure who had more fun, the girls, my wife (who did not dress us), my daughter or us “boys”.  A lot of laughs and fun was clearly had.

It is these kind of shoots that I love the most;  No pressure, so set up.  Think on your feet and do what you what with what you think will work best.  Granted, they did not all turn out perfect, but a lot of cool stuff came out of it. And I learned more then a few things as well!!

I can’t wait to do it again!

Can you say:  To Cool for School. The young lady face on the right is a bit too hot for me, but even with that, it is a neat image.

I call this “OMG!”

This past weekend, Becca was one of those people that not only was up for anything, but invited me to get a bit more crazy.  She knew what she wanted, she had a vision, but had a hard time deciding on specifics.  So we planned for an afternoon together and wondered around a bit. Her Mom was there to help but let this be about her daughter; she stayed in the background and was there to support her and provided some laughs when we did some crazy things.

Thanks Becca for making me laugh!  It was a blast!

This is what happens when you have a client who is tired of posing……

The bugs were nasty that night!  Becca was getting eaten alive.  Every two seconds she was trying to kill another mosquito.

It was almost pitch dark when I took this.  I think this may have been my last shot of the night. And I LOVE IT!

Below is an example of that.  The first image is the finished work, and below that the original.  The original is not much to look at, but by adding tonal contrast to the house and playing with a levels adjustment, you can see the result.  It literally is night and day.

A sneak peak at one of last nights shots!