Wow 'Em Wednesday {Use Window Light}

So a few weeks ago I talked about filling the frame to really get an intimate image of your subject. Many of you tried it, but a few of you mentioned that your pop up flash washed out your subject's face when you got that close to them. I'm so glad you mentioned this!!

When I'm taking pictures indoors I always look for my best source of natural light. Look around your house and think about which windows let in the most amount of sunlight. In my case, my front bedroom has great morning light, and my living room has wonderful afternoon light.

Put your subject in a place where the window light is going to fall on them, position yourself so that you're not blocking the light, turn off your flash and snap away!

(Note: Try to keep your camera as steady as possible. The less light you have, the more you are susceptible to motion-blur.)

Here you can tell the window was to my upper left. Do you see how the light is hitting the front and right side of Ella's face?

In this picture the table is positioned around 6 feet in front of the right corner of the window.

In this picture, she is sitting directly next to the window. I turned her so that the light fills most of her face, but leaves a bit of her left side in shadow. Do you also see how you can see the window catchlights in her eyes? If you were to use flash, you would take the chance of having red eye instead.

I would love to hear what you think!!! Let me know how it goes!

Beautiful Bailey {Cypress, Northwest Houston Children and Family Photographer}

This little doll just turned one, and it was absolutely love at first sight for me! The gorgeous, toothy smile she is sporting throughout these pictures was there during the whole session. She was so happy, so sweet, and so inquisitive.

I loved working with you and your family, Bailey! Happy first birthday!

Jack Turns One! {Cypress Family and Child Photographer}

I think one of the coolest things is getting to see your old friends become parents. These two are friends from college who were blessed by the birth of baby Jack one year ago. Since they live out of town, this was the first time I got to meet the little guy. He is so adorable, and truly lucky to have such wonderful people to call Mama and Dada!

The G Family of 5! {Cypress, TX Family Photographer}

This is one of the most amazing families I have ever known. They are sweet and silly, beautiful but humble, and allow God's love to just shine through them.

I just love this last one because it captures them perfectly: Little K doing the "moves" she rocked all evening, E posing like a diva, and S laughing and being the family jokester. Meanwhile, Mom and Dad go with the flow and enjoy it all.

Wow 'Em Wednesday {How to Get Your Camera Back When You Lose It}

Have you ever left your camera somewhere or misplaced it somehow?

Blogger Andrew McDonald has a strategy for you that will increase the chances of you getting your camera back.

{Click on the link below and enjoy!}

How to Get Your Camera Back When You Lose It

J and K {Cypress Couples Photographer}

I loved this session! Aren't they an adorable couple? (Of course, I may be a bit biased since this handsome dude is my little brother.)

They are wonderful together, and it's obvious how in love they are. Thanks for spending the weekend with us, you two!

Wow 'Em Wednesday {Want That Blurry Background?}

I'll be honest: To achieve that beautiful, fuzzy background blur like this picture

you truly need specific lenses that have the ability to shoot "wide open" (which means to use a low f-stop). I shot this picture in manual mode using my 50mm 1.8 lens (very affordable!) at f/2.

Oh no, don't get discouraged! My Wednesday posts are geared toward those who want to get some great snaps, but mostly shoot on auto mode.

So maybe you can't get the totally blurred-out background, but you can still do something super easy to make it less sharp.

Let's say you see a beautiful flower bush or something and think to yourself, "Ooh, I sure would love to get a picture of Susie in front of that." So, you put her right in front of it and get a picture that looks something like this (but hopefully with a more willing subject than my little model on the right):

There's nothing wrong with this, but you can see all of the detail of the plant behind them.

Now try moving Susie several feet in front of the flowers. The further you can move your subject away from the background, the less sharp the background will become. Do you see the difference?

(By the way, I shot these two pictures using my auto mode, so nothing fancy was done here.)

Even better, put your subject well in front of the background, and then use your ZOOM! I don't have an example here (so you should try it and then share your example!), but doing those two things will give you the best results and you can create pictures that "wow"!

Have fun, try it out, and let me know what you think!

A Piece of My Heart {Cypress Children's Photographer}

It's been a very relaxing week, and I actually had time to have my own personal session with my favorite 5-year-old in the world! So, a few days ago, I put my little one down for a nap, and my big girl and I let loose. She had a blast jamming to her favorite VBS tunes, jumping on her bed, and just being in the spotlight.

Yes, that's a big shiner on her forehead!

What a blessing to have been able to spend some time like this with her; not being mommy with rules and regulations, but being the silly photographer lady! She's such a joy!

Wow 'Em Wednesday {Use Your Flash Outside!}

If you can stand the heat, you're probably outdoors a lot these days, maybe trying to capture some summer fun moments. Why in the world would you want to use your flash on an already bright and sunny day? To give that WOW factor to your pictures, of course!

There are times when photographing in the sun without flash works great (like when the sun is behind you, the photographer, so that it lights up your subject.)

However, when that midday sun is directly overhead, or if the sun is behind your subject, you can end up with some really dull pictures, or have funky shadows where you don't want them (like the eyes, under the nose, below hats, etc.)

This is the perfect time to use fill-flash!

Do you notice how much brighter her features are in the second picture? The only thing I did differently was use my flash.

If you're shooting on auto mode (like most people do), your camera's flash will probably not automatically pop up because it thinks you already have enough light. But YOU are smarter than your camera!! So just:

* Manually activate your camera's flash (it can be as simple as finding that little flash button, or changing a menu setting to keep the flash on. If all else fails, check out your instruction manual. It's not hard, though ... I promise! :)
* Be sure you're close enough to your subject so the flash will have an effect (not farther than 4 feet away for many cameras)
* Snap away!

That's it! Try it out and let me know what you think!!

Share examples, ask questions, don't be shy!

Country Boys {Waller, Cypress, Northwest Houston Children's Photographer}

This isn't technically a sneak peek, since mom and dad have already seen all of their pictures, but I just wanted to share a few on here anyway!

These two handsome little guys are friends of ours from church. Maybe you remember them back from their family Christmas photos? You know, the post where I was drooling over where they live?

This time I got to shoot them in the middle of their neighbor's cornfields (so fun!) as well as at their great-grandma and grandpa's house.