Angela will design your card with your digital negatives and then you get the digital file.

You can print it yourself at www.mpix.com for an awesome final product.

She’s not limited to Holidays… check out her blog to see birth announcments, shower & birthday invitations, blog headers and more!

You can email her at cbeeler@grandecom.net

After lunch she brought them all to my house where we had an all girls photo shoot!
Everything from hats, sunglasses, to charlie’s angles, pyramids and everything in between it was a girlie good time.  Happy Birthday Chic!  It’s time to ring me!

We’ve been friends with this family since our 6th graders were 1 ish and while our circles don’t often intersect these days, I hold them dear to my heart.

Dot won a gift card I donated last year at our churches women’s retreat and she cashed it in today… I think she’s going to flip when she’s sees her pre.ci.ous. family!

If you want to book a holiday session we have a few spots left.

Contact me through the website: www.stephensphotography-waco.com

After bridals we ran through the drive thru at Chick Fa La for a quick bite before changing and heading out to do engagement portraits!  You’ll see those later!  I got to check out the awesome location for Megan’s wedding at The Mediterranean Villa and it’s going to be a.w.e.s.o.m.e.   It’s a photographer’s paradise and her wedding pictures are going to rock!  So here’s to you Megan (your the bomb) and while the rest of the world may wonder what I meant by that… rest assured M. knows

I got a second work out this afternoon trying to track all star, select, should be pro twin soccer  players so I would have some pictures to use for promoting the event.
I knew these two boys would be super because they have the same names as my two boys and they have red hair, and my little one has red hair.  (and my daughter adds they all have armpits so that makes them brothers from a different mother says she)  Who knew?

These boys were a.w.e.s.o.m.e.  We did the  traditional soccer pose just for kicks, but I think I ruined them with these action shots which are far more descriptive.  Not only did I walk away with some kick bum shots… I learned some soccer lingo too.

Stay tuned for their posters & the Click N Kick details!    This is a bicycle kick and is way harder than it looks!  Don’t ask me how I know.

These little ones remind me of love drops.  Aren’t they sweet?   The grand finale’ from their session coming soon!

While in England one night I was “super nanny” for a set of twins who’s parents are a part of the Devonshire Chippy Club!  

 I decided to try a 5 min. photo shoot using only UK natural light and a reflector.  I picked the worst time of day (20 mins. before bed time) and set up a challenge that created “the best pictures ever taken of my boys”.

On the flight home it was father’s day so mom grabbed my lap top and surprised dad with pictures!!!

How cool is that???

You will need three crazy people… a sense of humor… muslim fabric & a reflector, & a large flash card !!!If fun is the central theme… you’ll get the pictures you want.   

Allowing them to be goofy is what made the session work.

The pictures were looking like this straight out of the camera…

I wanted B&W pictures so I used a grey muslim backdrop I had brought.
(muslim works better than cotton for absorbing/reflecting back light) 

I draped it over  two chairs.  Fancy I know.  I placed a reflector to my left up against a coffee table.
I had a large floor to ceiling window to my back.  Most of the light was coming from the top portion of the window. 

(a reflector can be your car sun shade or white poster board)

I had the boys hop like frogs onto the middle.
It was less than a five foot square. 

I set my ISO to 1600 which is  high for a portrait.
The higher the ISO the more noise you will get.  I
Because the light was good I didn’t get noise in these pictures.
I set my aperature at f4.0 and my shutter speed was between 1/50 & 1/100.

when foreheads kiss some of my favorite moments are born.

Leaving lots of time for silly faces in between and saying things like poopy pictures got the boys cutting up in NO time at all.  Establishing “this is fun” is what the first few moments are all about.

Number one pitfall for parents is they want a picture more than they want an expierence for their kiddos.  Portrait time should be fun.  If it’s not…. pack it up and try again later.

I know I want the final product to be B&W so in photoshop I punch up the contrast to about 55%.

I used a B&W photo action to achieve a good balance of color & contrast.  

(you can  google photographer actions.  Many are free on photo forums)
actions let you do several steps automatically and speed up the process
of photo editing. 

In photoshop under image>adjustments you can use gradient map for a manual b/w.  Make sure in your tool bar your set with one swatch white and one black.   You can then go under image>adjustments>color/contrast and adjust the contrast to your liking. 
(you want to avoid a flat, grey b&W) 

Not too shabby for straight out of the camera + b/w conversion.  

If you don’t have photoshop you can download a free 30 day trial at adobe.com

They have smaller versions called elements for around a hundred bucks.
 

I am still loading all the pictures but had to post this because tonight  ladies and gents I had a career first!  I thought I had juiced all the sweet expressions out of her son (who happens to be one of my son’s best friends) and so I offered him a break and was about to move on to one of the waiting other two when he says something to the effect of “but you haven’t taken enough pictures of me!”

So what’s a photographer to do but take more pictures???  And roll over laughing with his mom because I have NEVER had a child say that to me! ever! no never!

And here is the sweet picture he wanted to give me… his very best upside down shot… and I might add  I LOVE it !!!  (and now you can see why my son and I, and the rest of the world, just love this little man!)

His eyes are amazing!

and then we had a little piggie back that turned into brothers wrestle match

I love the candid expressions & causal summer feeling these have

It wouldn’t be a photo shoot with Charity without a foot picture so 
here it is…

Thanks Jeannie for being my friend, for trusting me with your family portraits, and making the world a wonderful place to live!

(and if you ever need a calligrapher…
let me know I’ll hook you up  with the best!) 

Why everyone knows you give him a (clean) band-aid to chew on…

And then you take pictures of him eating it!

This family was in the process of packing up the house when I photographed their three children.

That meant we just had to use these adorable faces to help people update their address books.

Now they can mail out post cards so all their friends and family have their new info.

Isn’t that just so clever?