The (unexpected) photoshoot

You live, you learn

So in my last post I talked some about how my photography has changed in the two years since I started. I feel like it’s important to point out that I know I’m still a rookie. Sure, two years is a good chunk of time, but I’m still far behind those who have been doing this for decades. With that said, today I’m going to talk about how, even though I’m still learning, I've grown as a photographer.

Times, they are a changing

To fully tell this story, I have to take you back to Thanksgiving 2012. I was in the kitchen with my sister, her cooking while I edited pictures. I don’t know about you, but when I’m editing pictures, I get completely absorbed. Sure, I can make conversation, but my mind is primarily analyzes the exposure of a picture; is it bright enough? Too bright? Does the color look a bit icky? The hamster in my head runs and runs until every picture is exactly how I imagined it. So when my sister sat down next to me and handed me a card, I was slightly startled. It’s not that I forgot that she was in the room, just sort of…yeah, I forgot. Confused as to what was going on, and extremely skeptical, I listened as she explained that though we normally don’t exchange presents on Thanksgiving, she had one for me. Internally going through a list of reasons as to why she would randomly be giving me something, in a card, on Thanksgiving day, I slowly opened the card. And to my surprise, inside was a simple, small sentiment. I was going to be an Auntie again :)

The (not) so shocking truth

I’m not gonna lie, it threw me through a loop. I know it was a surprise to them, none of us expected them to have another baby for a good couple of years. But once I recovered from the initial shock, the excitement took over. Another little niece or nephew to love on, and of course a chance to start over with all the photo-shoots I've done with my nephew. Almost immediately my mind started spinning with all the ideas, and the Pinterest madness began again.

Oh, the possibilities

Step one was figuring out where to begin. After talking with my sister about what she would like, and giving her some of my input, we both decided that the first shoot should be the announcement of the baby, since I was the only one they had told. After deciding where to start, the next step is always developing the concept and figuring out the location. I was lucky enough this time to already have some shots in my head, and my sister was the one to figure out the location when I explained what I was looking for. So we headed up to Baldy after church one Sunday.

Photographer vs. nature

I can honestly say this turned out to be the hardest shoot I've done yet. Trying to find what I was picturing in my head in a terrain consisting of ups and downs, a stream of water, and very large rocks was a bit more than I had in mind. 

This time, however, I scouted ahead to find the right spot, and then a path that would be easy for the preggo lady. The last thing I wanted was to exhaust her, or even worse for her to fall. But once I found each location, they felt right.

Since we were so close to Christmas at the time of the shoot, we decided to figuratively kill two birds with one stone and do their Christmas pictures at the same time.

Setting the scene

Once I found the spot, I strung some red tree ornaments I had picked up from target. Going ahead of them worked out great, since it gave me time to setup and gave the pregnant lady time to eat her lunch ;)

The location of the sun at that point proved to be a bit challenging  since it took more time than I had expected to find each location and set everything up. Yet another example of how still naive my skills and knowledge are. But like I said, you pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and learn from the experience. 

 It makes this process so much easier when the pictures still turn out how you imagined them.

 The end justifies the means

After everything was said and done, I loved how they turned out. And more importantly, so did my sister. The location was perfect, it provided both the greenery I was looking for, along with the stones and rustic looking trees to hang the ornaments from. Some of them were a bit tricky to edit, especially with the overexposed lighting. But I managed, and got their card layout done as well.

So there you have it, two years later, and I'm starting to get the hang of this whole photography thing ;)

Tell me, what was your biggest growing point? Is there something in particular that you feel you've grown on?