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Happy Snow Baby [Photo]
One happy baby enjoying his first day out in a snow covered, winter wonderland.
Back Story
After an unplanned “mental health” break last weekend, I was back behind the camera this past Saturday as the ‘ohana ventured out into the snow for our first winter snow portrait session.
And with the nearly unprecedented lack of snow so far this winter here in Chicago, it’s been a long wait to get out there do a shoot like this. While we were only shooting for 15 minutes, we had a blast and there were a ton of images to go through and edit afterwards.
All told, it was a great time that I can’t wait to do again. However, less than 72 hours after we were blessed with all this snow, the temps jumped above 40, the rains came and washed it all away – literally overnight. Bummer.
Guess it’s time to stalk the 10-day forecast again.
52 to Two Project
The above photo and the two below were also included as part of my weekly 52 to Two project.
Half Snow Angel
In the Bushes
Photo Shoot Photos
In addition to the photos added to the 52 to Two project, you can also see the rest of the images from this shoot in the Winter Snow Portraits gallery.
View Photo Shoot
Here’s to wishing for the next big snowstorm and coming up with ideas for this week’s photo shoot as well.
– Kris
Outdoor Portrait [Photo]
Outdoor portrait on a relatively warm January afternoon.
Back Story
Back with another installment in my weekly 52 to Two project. And for being the 2nd week in January already in Chicago, there may be a post from me soon titled “Where’s the Snow?” But that’s for another time.
This past weekend’s shoot was outdoors with natural light, thanks to some unseasonably warm “winter” weather. We started at about 4:45pm – which was a little bit before sunset – and shot for almost 30 minutes. The light was still a little harsh in the beginning because there were practically no clouds, but once the sun went down behind the buildings behind us, the light was gorgeous (but changing rapidly).
We were out in an open field, so I took another chance to shoot with my 70-200mm f/2.8L again with all that extra room to work with. The shoot actually worked somewhat similarly to some of the shoots we took in Door County back in October, which was nice. I originally had hoped to continue on with the walking theme from last week, but by the time the light was perfect, he was already getting tired.
A few of the other images from this shoot can be found over at my Facebook page in the Photo Shoots – 2012 album.
Here are the other two images that made it into the 52 to Two image galley this week.
Playing in the Grass.
Beautiful Light
View all the photos to-date in the 52 to Two project galley.
View Image Gallery
Future Shoot
While this field is literally minutes from our front door, it was the first time we did a shoot out there. The only thing that was missing – especially this time of year – was the snow. You can bet that as I continue to monitor the extended forecast, we’ll be back out to the same place at least once to get some wintry goodness.
Until then,
– Kris
Unnamed Beach [Photo]
A small beach with no name between the airport and the ocean.
Update: One of my Facebook readers kindly identified this as Kanaha Beach Park – Mahalo!
Back Story
2011 was a great year for my photography in so many ways, I probably should have done a “best of” post before it was over. Instead, I spent some time going back through my collections in Lightroom and ended up looking at a fair amount of shots from my doors-off helicopter shoot back in August during the Maui Photo Festival.
So, after a little time here and there this past weekend, I finished processing a handful of new images that I wanted to share here at the blog and elsewhere:
After Takeoff
North Shore Sands
Ka’anapali Beach
Maui Windmills
More Images
If you’d like to see more images from this photo shoot, visit the Maui Doors-Off Helicopter ’11 gallery in the Photo Shoots section.
View Photo Shoot
You can also find more of my other aerial imagery in my Aerial Portfolio.
View Aerial Portfolio
Last, but not least, you can also buy prints of these images and others in the Above Maui print gallery at my online store.
Buy Prints
As always, I hope you enjoy the images and the beauty of Maui, and many thanks for the support.
– Kris
On the Move [Photo]
Taking a short break from walking through the hallway in our building.
Back Story
In addition to being the start of the new year, Sunday was also the latest edition in my 52 to Two project.
And it wasn’t much longer after last week’s photo shoot was over before I already knew what I wanted to shoot this week – our son’s new found skill of walking all on his own.
So after a week of watching him run circles around our condo, it was clear we didn’t have enough room to do a shoot for his walking talents. It would have been great to chase him around a park somewhere, but it was the middle of winter – that wasn’t going to happen. The hallway outside our unit was the best compromise we could come up with.
It was great having the extra room to use my 70-200mm f/2.8L lens again, and it turns out that extra stop of light was very necessary. The light in our hallway wasn’t as bright as I had thought it would be, so these shots were taken at ISO 1600 and f/2.8 using only the available light on the walls and ceiling.
View Image Gallery
The One That Got Away
I went to bed Saturday night envisioning a way to capture our son’s triumph over gravity in motion by deciding to shoot a composite of frames with him in full stride.
In order to go wider, I switched back to my 24-105mm f/4L lens, so I was already losing a stop of light there. Next, I had to dial down the aperture further in order of widen the depth of field, which brought me to f/10. To compensate for that, I maxed out the ISO at 6400, and well, the final result fell short of my expectations:
Outtake Image
I still like the concept, and am contemplating re-shooting this piece before walking becomes second nature to him. In order to pull it off, however, I imagine one or two continuous lights would be needed and that’s not in the budget this early in the year.
But we’ll see how creative I can be in the weeks ahead.
Flying Wrapping Paper [Photo]
The wrapping paper flies as presents are revealed X-mas morning.
Back Story
As part of Week 03 of my 52 to Two project this week, I set to capture images of our son opening presents on his first X-mas morning. Well, technically he was 3 weeks old last year at X-mas, but you get the point.
The hope was to shoot with natural light because our tree was setup right next to the balcony doors. However, with the room facing south, we didn’t receive enough light at 10am to get the images I wanted. So it was time to close the blinds and bounce the flash.
You can find the chosen shots for this week in the 52 to Two image galley, and see the rest of the shoot over at the X-mas Morning photoset on Flickr.
View Image Gallery
New Photography Goodies
In addition to our son expanding his stockpile of toys, I also scored a few photography related gifts on Sunday that will certainly come in handy with this project and my other work in the new year:
The ColorChecker Passport has been on my radar for while, after watching Episode 209 of Digital Photography on AdoramaTV. I’ve had a few cases where my subject was wearing his traditional red Blackhawks gear on game night, and the reds were just throwing me off in post. Using something like the passport, I hope to drastically improve how those colors fit into the rest of my images.
The FlashBender just seemed pretty neat after reading a few reviews on it, and it should also fit well into this weekly project of mine. Having a reliable way to bounce flash in many different rooms, settings, or even outdoors feels like a strategic advantage too good not to try. We’ll see how it goes as I factor it into my shoots.
Your Gifts?
Did you get any neat photography gifts this season? Do share…
– Kris
