Derek {Class of 2015}

Now that I've gone back to teaching full time, I've had to scale back the amount of sessions I can take on. I'm so glad I was able to work with this future Aggie and his mom, though!

Introducing "R" {Cypress, TX Newborn Photography}

It was SUCH a joy to meet the newest member of a sweet family I've been photographing for several years. This "little" guy was over 10lbs. when he was born! Such a squishy, perfect bundle of love!

Carolina {Cypress, TX Senior Portrait Photographer}

I just LOVE working with seniors!! This beautiful girl was a natural, and I wish her all the best!!

The "M" Family {Cypress, TX Family Photographer}

I met this beautiful mama several years ago when she was my AP, and now she is an AWESOME principal at another local elementary school. It was so much fun spending the evening with her and the adorable men in her life. (Maybe you're not supposed to call men adorable, but whatever, they were!) They had me laughing the whole time.

My favorite moment: When they whipped out their last professional family picture...from 15 YEARS AGO...and suggested we recreate it. Uh, yes please!!! I don't know if she'd want me to share it on here, but I'll give you one little tidbit: It involved one of the boys sitting on daddy's lap.

The "H" Family {Northwest Houston Family Photography}

I had the privilege of meeting a wonderful new family last week, and it was such a pleasure working with them!

Thank you so much, H Family, for choosing me to be your family photographer!

Baby J {Cypress, TX Newborn Photographer}

This beautiful boy took a while to fall asleep, but once he did, he was perfection! I wish Jack and his sweet parents all the best!

 

Baby L {Cypress, TX Newborn Photographer}

This sweet boy was a dream to photograph, and just such a precious little peanut!

Easy Peasy Christmas Picture

It's super easy to take a picture that looks like this!

(1) Do it during the day! If you can, try to find an angle where you can put your subject in front of the tree but also still have window light falling on your subject's face. You really need that natural light, as opposed to household lighting, if you can. It's so beautiful and clear!


(2) This step is key!! Put your subject far (at least a few feet, if not more) in front of the tree. Do not back them right against it. The farther away your subject is from the background, the blurrier your background will be.


(3) If you have a zoom lens, zoom in all the way. That might mean you have to move your body back farther away from the subject to get them in the frame. Back up if you need to, but use that zoom to its fullest. You're creating more depth of field this way, to get that blurry background we all love.


(4a) Lower your f-stop. You want to make your aperture wide open! If you don't know how to use full manual settings, try this super simple way: Put your camera on the AV setting. Then, use your controls to select the F area on your menu screen. Make that number go as low as it can. For some of you, that may be 1.8. For others it may be higher. It just depends on the lens you have. If yours only stops down to 3.6, 5.0, whatever, that's OK! The smaller the number, the better the blur, but if your lens won't go that low, just rock what you got!

Side note: AV mode lets you control your aperture, but automatically adjusts your other settings for you!


(4b) If you don't want to mess with doing anything manually, you can put your camera on the Portrait setting (sometimes looks like a face). Follow all the other steps, and and your camera will try to create that depth of field on its own. {It's always better to control your camera if you can, though. You're much smarter than it is!} ;)


(5) Now shoot away and check your results! If you feel like your subject's face is too dark, try moving him side to side and watch the light to see where it falls. Try again, and keep making adjustments until you find the perfect look you're going for!





Good luck! I hope you'll share with me how it goes!

Aria {Cypress, TX Newborn Photographer}

This sweet baby couldn't have been any more perfect!  

The "B" Family {Cypress, TX Family and Child Photographer}

As always, I LOVE seeing this family! I can't believe it's already been six months since the twins were newborns! Aren't the boys and big sis just as precious as ever?