As you can tell I am getting behind on my blog again... and this time its nothing to do with the amount of time I am spending on the rest of my life, but actually because of the amount of photography I have got going on. Apart from this one, I have two other shoots I now have outstanding to blog, not to mention the wedding we are going to be doing in London this Sunday and the Hair shoot we are going to be doing for a local hairdressers!
Well onto todays post then... little Samuel whom you have met before was finally born a few weeks ago now, and when he was just seven days old, we had our first attempt at a newborn shoot. Unfortunately, Daddy works quite long hours, and the best time to shoot a newborn is around day six which was right in the middle of the week, we had to go ahead without him. Mummy however was on hand (as was Gran) to keep things moving forward. Starting off with a nice moment between the two of them:

Before anybody asks... that Vignette is actually mostly natural due to the lamp I had pointed at the back wall in our studio (known most of the time as our living room). In fact, that lamp was the only artificial light I used as babies don’t often react well to flashes, so my normal techniques which I use for models etc where not available to me. In fact, where you have the red background as below, it was all soft soft light coming from my french windows. I have some gorgeous shots of a hat of mine from testing where I had a sheet hung over the window to diffuse the light even when the sun was shining directly through the window as it does late in the afternoon.
He is however a wrinkly bundle of joy (despite him urinating twice during the shoot - once on my wife and the second time on me!) with really gorgeous bright eyes:


This one is an attempt at a shot I have seen many newborn photographers do before which came out alright. I was surprised at the amount of photoshop that goes on on baby shoots, finding out for example that in this type of shot the baby’s head (at least) is supported by someones hand which needs removing later (I have since bought some better bits of cloth to secure the baby so should be a bit more realistic next time...):



Lastly one of particular significance for Samuel’s parents with Samuel on top of some very important religious books which can be read online for free here. I have a decent collection of them, most of them quite old coming from my Grandparents when they studied them at college level. These ones in particular seemed the most appropriate dealing with how a child should be brought up as a Christian, the type of home that should be made for him etc. Well worth a read if you are planning to or already have your own children.
Anyway... the photo! This was the only one of the set where little Samuel was using any clothes... like a little Smee!



He was a real charm to work with, and such a gorgeous little baby! Looking forward to be able to do this again, especially with the things we have learnt this time around!
As I mentioned up top... much more to come!!!

Secondly comes Isabela. Niece of my wife’s English teacher in Brazil, this little one came to us with a warning. We where told she is very shy and wouldn’t take very good photos. I guess they switched the model at the last minute because the girl we met was great from the start and kept us busy as wherever she went or stopped or looked, there was a beautiful shot of her. The only thing we needed to do was keep up with her and be ready for that shot as there was no going back!
I was really happy with the photos from this shoot of this little gem of a girl and hope all our warnings come like that!


Hidden in the palm fronds she started bouncing in a way that gave a huge amount of life to her hair:


She brought her pet with her who


My favourite of the day however was this one, isn’t she just the prettiest?


Again, more of her in our Portfolio, and these ones are definitely worth a look! Read More...

Well... its been busy since I have come back to the UK, mostly playing with the photos of Nathalia and Cleidson whose wedding we did on 28th December. It has taken quite some time to sort through and treat all the photos we took and I can honestly say I have learnt a lot. I know I said on my face book I would blog the wedding today, but before I do that, I have added the rest of my albums to the portfolio and need to talk about them a bit first, then I can post the wedding stuff (which I have just burnt to disc) and then I can clean up any other random photos I have, as well as a couple of behind the scenes photos so you can see how I am doing some of this stuff.
First up then is Milena who is niece of (one of) my best mans wife if that makes sense... A delightful little girl who on this particular morning was full of energy. My wife and I as well as her Mum, Aunt and Uncle to be where hiding under a tree while she was gadavanting around in the bright sunshine. Her bright clothes and even brighter smile (even with that cute gap...) worked well for my wife and I as we got some very nice shots:




As usual whilst I was playing with the wider angles (in this case the 18-55) my wife was playing with the longer one, such as the below photo:


More examples of this shoot in our portfolio Read More...