All posts in Portrait

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Dan & April – Wakefield Maternity Photography

This past weekend I had the pleasure of shooting April’s maternity session with her husband Dan. I’m very fortunate to be friends with such photogenic people. April tried to keep saying how tired she has been lately was but it was really hard to believe her because that little fire-cracker was absolutely beaming the entire session!! We had a wonderful time and got some fantastic photos and we even had the added bonus of stopping by everyone’s favorite ice cream place Cravings!!
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Owen Blair – Christmas Baby Photography

Mike, Jen and I have been friends for an extremely long time. Mike was my room mate for basically 4 years in college and we couldn’t have had more fun.  To be perfectly honest, when Jen asked me for some Christmas Baby Photography of Owen I was a little hesitant at first. I had never shot babies before, only weddings and adults. I had also heard some real horror stories about how hard it is working with little kids and babies. I must say though, with Owen, those stories are all FALSE! Owen couldn’t have been any more well behaved for our shoot. He was mesmerized by the camera and anything else that got within his reach.

If he isn’t in a magazine soon something is definitely wrong in this world.

Jessy and Steve – Boston Portrait Photography

Steve and Jessy took a little bit to get comfortable in front of the camera for their portrait session but once they did their true personalities shined through. You can tell by the photos that they are the type of couple that are all smiles all the time. For the session we hit up a few parks in East Boston for some candid and set portraits before heading down to the water on Piers Park to catch a pretty amazing sunset. It got a little cold once the sun started to set but they were both troopers. I think it was worth the wait!! You wouldn’t even be able to tell that Steve had just arrived back from a bachelor party at Foxwoods a few minutes before the session ;-p

Valerie – Boston Portrait Photography

A week or so ago I posted on Facebook that I would take portraits for free of anyone who was willing to come to me in the next few weeks that I have off between weddings. Val, an old college buddy, was the first one to take me up on that offer. We headed down to some of the parks a short distance from my house in East Boston and grabbed some portrait photographs an hour or so before sunset and continued into the night to capture some great Boston portrait shots of the city at night.

Cape Cod Family Photography – The Landons

Every year the Landons take a family vacation and this year it was to Cape Cod, MA.  As with most families the older people grow the harder it is to get everyone together for family events never mind gathering everyone for a photo session. So when my good friend and long time college roommate Matt let me know that he was coming back to town on his annual visit and he was trying to book a photographer to take some family pictures, I jumped at the chance. I couldn’t believe when I arrived at the location of the shoot. The house was HUGE and literally as close to water as you could get.

Before we get into all of the pictures, my favorite shot of the afternoon is this candid of Savannah while she waited for her Mom and Dad to settle into some portraits.

The importance of White Balance and Flash Gels

Many times when taking an image the camera’s auto settings just do not produce the desired outcome. Take this shot for instance:

Click on images to enlarge

The goal was to capture a picture of Steph and myself in front of the Christmas tree in Faneuil Hall during the holidays. Obviously this picture is less than optimal. The lights on the tree are glowing orange and the subject in the foreground is barely visible.

One way to enhance this picture is

Off camera flash exposure

Off camera flash for dramatic images

Using off camera flash can have a significant impact on your photos. Early this morning around 11am Steph and I went down to the park so that I could play around with my new reflector that I purchased. The sky was fairly overcast which makes for nice soft light for photography when you are shooting against a solid background such as a wall. However, shooting against the sky would be nearly impossible without a double exposure composite photo or using a significant grade graduated polarizing filter. Here is a photo of the sky over Boston (southie mostly) as exposed correctly for the subject.

(click on the images to view the larger versions)

Correct exposure for the subject

Correct exposure for the subject

Stephanie loves having her photo taken

Just kidding.. she hates it!! but she is a good sport. We went out in the middle of a Sunday afternoon (the worst possible time to take pictures) just to mess around in a few spots that I’ve wanted to shoot around my neighborhood. As concession I let her take a few pictures of me. She did a great job!!!

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