Night Sky

This was my first attempt at the night sky. I took an awesome nighttime workshop with Mark Bowie thru the Adirondack Photography Institute and he led us to a pond and we photographed from 9-12 midnight.

I got lucky and had my camera pointed towards the north star and got the beginnings of some star trails in this 10 minute exposure.

Blue hour before sunrise

This image was taken in the hours before sunrise, the blue hour. The water was so still, the warm colors of the boat house contrasting against the cool colors of the water, the fog and the dock leading to the boat house just seemed perfect to me. I am not a morning person, but finding and capturing scenes like this makes getting up early worthwhile. This was taken on Mirror Lake in Lake Placid.

Nighttime store front

Lake Placid, Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream shop, long exposure, zoomed lens when exposing.

Deer

Fractalius (PC only) is an awesome program! I first heard about it from Denise Ippolito's Blog

This deer picture was very simple, and I cut the feet off, so I decided to create something artistic from it...to me it looks like a deer from a Disney movie, you know where the birds are signing around its head...

Insect, Holding on!

I was supposed to be taking landscape photographs but the sunrise was a bust and the sky was white -- then I happened along this little fellow and loved the way his legs were wrapped around the plant!

Abandoned Barn in the Adirondacks

I have been taking photographs of this Abandoned Barn in the Adirondacks for decades. Everuy time it is different -- it changes all the time: the barn, the field, the lighting, me.

Scotland one year old

Oh, what a cutie! You can see both of her parents in this beautiful little girl. We photographed Kathy and Scott before they were married, their wedding, their maternity, and their beautiful Scotland since she was just less than two weeks old. We love having her (and her parents come into the studio!). This one year old session, as part of the "Grow with Me package" comes with a wonderful "Grow with me" composite for her parents to hang on their wall.

You can view more photos from her session here on our website.

I just LOVE this image showing Scotland walking with her parents. Children go up so fast and this pose will be something they can look back on later and lament how fast the time flies by...

The dress that Kathy brought in was just delicious on her!



The bathtub...





She just loved the treasure chest and had a lot of fun playing peak-a-boo in it!

and I loved the way she held her toes when she was in the flower pot!

Candles

Fractal Candles. Tripod. Long exposure, post-processed using Fractalius

Lupine and Trees, zoom blur

I zoomed the lens when taking this photograph very early in the morning at Acadia National Park. I especially like the effect on the grass below and the tree on the left.

Oyster catchers

Oyster catchers are very comical and entertaining to watch. Their coloration, their calls and their behaviors make for a wonderful morning. I love the foot up and the small plant in the top photo and the beack open in the second. Gotta get up early for these birds...

Plover

We were asked to judge at the Long Island Photographic Federation. They enticed us with being able to couple the trip with some bird photography! This was taken early in the morning, just waiting by the surf for the birds to venture down. We love all kinds of photographic subjects, but birds are definitely at the top of the list!

Lindsay

Lindsay was a wonderful model to work with! She was professional, on time, had great outfits and concepts and an outrageous smile! She was fantastic with expressions and just fun to be around.
You can view more images from her session here in her gallery on our website. We also had a second foolow up hi key shoot with Lindsay and you can see those images here



I really enjoyed being around Lindsay we even share a love of DNA* LOL!!

* DNA = Deoxyribonucleic acid, nucleic acids that encode the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of living organisms

Photographing children

When we talk about young children being photographed there are some photographers that have "Baby Grow With Me" packages consisting of 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. We prefer to have the sessions more developmentally based. We can, of course, photograph a child at any time, but these are the best times...


• Newborn, meaning within the first ten days (after ~10 days they are still babies but not newborns anymore, they do not sleep as soundly, they are not "all curled up", they get baby acne, you cannot get those "miracle shots" which require a soundly sleeping baby.

• 2-4 months, when they can hold their head up on their own (tummy time, gerber baby poses, etc.)

• 5-8 months, when they can sit up on their own but are not moving around yet. This is a fantastic age photographically!! We can get very creative with this session!

• 9-11 months, when they can stand up, but not walk; often they require something to lean on and this makes adding in a photo prop very easy.

• 11-13 months, this can also be a great time for "the birthday cake" session with them just in a a pair of shorts (or a tutu) and a cake with icing, icing, icing!

• 1-3 years old, You will want to capture your toddler and child again at milestones in their life. We encourage twice a year from 1-3 years old.

• After 3 years old, time appears to slow down a bit now and they do not change as fast, so many choose to have a session once a year, but some still remain on the 6 month time frame until their kids are teenagers.


I have NEVER heard a parent complain that they have too many pictures of their child!

Many families take advantage of our themed specials like Teddys or TuTus, Feet, Silhouettes, Just Like Daddy, Mommy N Me, Threee generations, Valentines Day, Easter and other Holidays, etc.

Aja

Aja came into our Studio for two model portfolio builder sessions. We always ask people to bring their iPODs with their music to the Studio with them, well she brought HER music -- she signs and writes!!!  It was a pleasure getting to see that side of her. You can view more images from her sessions online here.

The above photos are on a new background, love it but it is small

  



KimE more

I just had to post a few more from Kim's session!

This first picture is one of my favorites! Wow!

For this next one I just loved the image on the left that Kim chose for her portfolio, but when I was editing it I decided to have some fun and make her into a mirror image. I just took the left side the the picture and duplicated it and flipped it and brought it together. Kim's beautiful symmetry allowed me to do this. Interesting...

Part of modeling is posing and if you look up posing in the dictionary you see that it actually has to do with acting rather than sitting perfectly stil, which is how some people define "posing". Kim was excellent at posing and acting and scenarios which allowed her images to be editiorial and storyteeling in addition to fashion.



We cannot wait to get Kim back in front of the camera!



Pooja -- A model

We had a lot of variety with this classical and contemporary model, here is Pooja! We started out in some traditional Indian outfits and migrated into some modern outfits and a bathing suit. It was quite refreshing to be working with someone with dance experience -- it showed in her hands especially, but in her overall poise. You can view more images from her session here in her gallery on our website. Check out the versatility with this young lady! Pooja was also very good with expressions, which after hands is the next hardest aspect to master.



Shanika

We photographed Shanika and Tony a few months ago -- she came recently back in for more photos for her portfolio. She was well prepared and we had a lot of fun with her in the stairwell. We will see even more images of Shanika soon because she just came in for another session!

This session was all done with of-camera flash in the stairwell near our Studio. I love the graphic quality of these images. You can view more images of Shanika here in her gallery on our website.



Carolyn

Carolyn brought a bunch of great outfits and we really tried some different backgrounds with her, from barnwood athletic to hi-key fashion with a red dress! You can view more images from her session here on our website.

Her red dress rally POPS on this white background.

Check out the relection in her sunglasses, LOL!

I love the purple on her too...

She has great flexibility and poise with her hands, hands are the hardest for a model to pose naturally, I am always saying in these blog posts to practice your hand poses if you want to be a model!

Love the FAN! and the hat.

Have to get some B&W images in too. She was really good with expressions, again an area that you can practice in. Many models have two or three expressions, but in reality there are hunderds or even thousands and the more versatile you are the better your chances!

Love the althetic look. Not many women can make this Joel Grimes lighting look good. She had a wonderful "intense look" too -- loved it!!

So many facets to this young lady! Wow!



Cheramie -- Radiant mom-to-be

Cheramie was a lot of fun to photograph, calm but radiant, glowing and happy!  We tried a new Ana Brandt maternity outfit on her, a brown split mama love gown. We also got some class silhouettes but alost tried an outlandish moon over the forest trees background with her. You can see more images from her photo session here in her gallery on our website. We had a lot of fun with Cheramie during her maternity session! She is going to make a fantastic mom!

I just loved when she laughed and threw her head back and her nose scrunched up.

Check out this new background, we have only used it a couple of times but this is the first for a maternity session! I love it, something different!