Portraits

Head Shot: "Are you really there?" * 5/18/2011 – 6:39 PM * Rexburg, Idaho * 1/8 sec * f/4.0 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * Jeremy was getting ready for bed and I was just about to leave the room and I saw him looking up. I knelt down and got the shot! His face had a red rash on it and I thought, hey, this is a baby, so I smoothed out his skin using the paint brush and gave him baby smooth skin.
Fun Fact: I asked him to act like he was sleeping at one point and he covered his eyes with his hands. I laughed and so he took them off and then squeezed his eyes really tight. It didn't look very natural. (Also-he likes identical to his dad who teaches Political Science on campus.)

Head Shot: "Meet Kaylee" * 5/20/2011 – 10:11 AM * 1/3200 sec * f/4.5 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * We found this bench and I really liked it but everything behind it wasn't very appealing so I thought I would get it as a head shot. I really like how the colors in her shirt match very well. I had her sit more towards the middle of the bench to get some of the bench in. She had a few blemishes so I cleared those up but I used the paintbrush to smooth her skin out. I also used the dodge tool to lighten up the white in her eyes.
Fun Fact: Kaylee was my last companion on my mission. I thought she may struggle and giggle too much in this photo shoot but she was an amazing model and I was so impressed.

Side Composition: "Picnic Time" * 5/20/2011 – 9:50 AM * Rexburg, Idaho * 1/4000 sec * f/4.5 *  Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * This picture turned out really good. It was a little too bright at first to I had my assistant use the reflector to block some of the light. All I had to do was adjust the exposure and then I used the adjustment brush in camera raw to whiten her teeth.

Fun Fact: Right as we were getting up after taking the pictures, the sprinklers went off! Just our luck.

Full Body: "Steps of the Tabernacle" * 5/20/2011 – 10:01 AM * Rexburg, Idaho * 1/4000 sec * f/3.5 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * I took a few shots to catch this angle. The lighting wasn't the greatest and we were having a hard time reflecting light with all the gray around so I had to lighten it up in camera raw and I increased the colors in the effects palette and used an adjustment brush to increase the exposure of her undershirt because it started to look gray. Then, added a a very visible vignette.
Fun Fact: I love the positioning of her feet. She did it because she was embarrassed of them because they didn't match her and then she started laughing and I got this shot.

Group Activity: "It's bedtime, kids..." 5/18/2011 – 6:29 PM* Rexburg, Idaho * 1/80 sec * f/3.5 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * This shot happened right as Mom was telling the kids it's time to brush their teeth and get ready for bed. There was so much interaction, I didn't know which picture to choose! Also, since there was a lot of movement, I caught a lot of blur. I added another layer of gaussian blur to and a mask increase the focus on Mom and Ruth and then smoothed out their faces using the paint brush.
Fun Fact: Ruth is a born to be model! Any time her mom would tell her to do something for the camera, she would do it right away.

Group Posed: "Prayer Time" *  5/18/2011 – 6:36 PM * 1/25 sec * f/4.0 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * I didn't get as much blur to the background of this image so I turned it black and white so the audience could focus more on the central image. Also, there was a piece of paper hanging that interfered with the picture too much so I used content aware to get rid of it.
Fun Fact: After saying this prayer, Mom turned to me and said, "it feels like we do a lot of praying around here." Such a great family.

Natural Work Environment: "Story Time" * 5/18/2011 – 6:34 PM * Rexburg, Idaho * 1/15 sec * f/4.5 * Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT * I caught Ruth getting a book for her mom to read to her before she went to bed. I thought I would make it back and white and mask out the books so it would show how books are magical to children and it is part of their 'natural work environment.'
Fun fact: Ruth fell asleep so quickly, Mom didn't even read her the book she picked out.

This photo shoot will be one of my greatest memories. Afterward--I felt like I didn't get the greatest shots but I learned a lot about motherhood and about having a family and I guess that is what I needed to get out of it. This is a righteous family.