Orchard Unplugged - Albuquerque Senior Portraits and Family Photography

For Easter I donated 100 $100 gift certificates to local churches and community centers for their Easter Egg Hunt.  One church had a few left over, so they thanked their volunteers with these little gifts.  It was by that luck that I was blessed to meet the Orchard family.  They have three magnificent (and hip) children who each play a few instruments.  Their oldest son plays the electric guitar, classic guitar, electronic keyboard, and the viola.  I was impressed to say the least.  I'm sure all the high school girls swoon over him.  I also found out he is in a band and also plays in their church's awesome music program.  Here are just a few of my favorites from in their music studio and in their backyard.  I can't wait to do his Senior Portraits here in Albuquerque.

A Spunky Bride and a Sketchy Bus Station - Albuquerque Wedding Photography and Bridal Sessions

Yesterday I attended a photo meet up where I met several photographers and Claudia, an aspiring model. We played around in the studio, then went down to the downtown Greyhound bus station for some urban shots.

Our posse of 5 consisted of three photographers, a beautiful model, and her bf of 5 years.  We shot at night to avoid leering eyes and any commotion we would cause, however Claudia still managed to attract several double takes by the rubber-necking drivers and cyclists.  Together we started walking together carrying all the gear.  One of the other photographers took a lot of behind the scenes photos and kept lookey-loos at bay.  When we arrived at the bus station, one of the security guards took interest and generously kept us safe from the interesting fellows of the night.

 As the night progressed, the security guard even started to help out.  We staged him in the shot interacting with our model, and then he even offered to hold a reflector for another shot.  It's amazing how everyone likes to get involved when you have a collaborative environment.

A Little Boy with an Amazing Heart - Albuquerque Family Photography

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to shoot the American Heart Association's Heart and Soul Ball at Hotel Albuquerque. There I met 10 year old David Joseph. He stood up in front of hundreds of guests at the black tie affair and shared his story to help raise money for the American Heart Association. When he was 19 months old, he was diagnosed with a Coarctation of the Aorta. This is a very serious condition that, if undetected, can claim the life of a child through a stroke or aneurysm before that child reaches 7 years of age. When he was 4 1/2, he underwent anastomosis heart surgery to rebuild his heart. His story was incredibly compelling and everyone was impressed how his public speaking at age 10 was better than most adults.

Here are some photos of young David Joseph and his parents. He is also a very sweet young boy. Most of the time we got him to smile was talking about his brand new baby sister.

Got "Fesh"? - Albuquerque Events Photography

Under the direction of Michelle Morrison, Farfesha Belly Dance is a professional belly dancing company and instructional studio located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. If you're lucky you might catch them twirling, shimmying, and gyrating on a Friday night at Taaj Palace, a local Indian restaurant.

As the story goes, the Egyptian music historian, George Sawa,  spent the evening with the dance company and declared they were full of "joyous laughter." Hence the name Farfesha.  Since then, the adjective "Fesh" has made it's way into their vocabulary describing a dancer who is full of  that "on-stage high energy delight."

The Jameson Wedding Ceremony - Wedding Photography

It is said that rain on your wedding day is good luck.  But why?  The "logic" behind the superstition says that a wet knot is more difficult to untie.  And so it was for James and Leah, although thankfully it only sprinkled a little bit the morning of the ceremony. 

 James and Leah tied their wet knot in Half Moon Bay, CA.  The coastal fog actually provided some beautiful diffused light for the ceremony.

Leah brings so much energy into any occasion and was extremely animated, even through the ceremony.  

"I Now Pronounce You Man and Wife!"

Double the Blessings Double the Joy! - Albuquerque Newborn Photography

One of my new friend's sisters just had the most beautiful baby twins! Here's a sneak peek of the two cutest individual ones of the munchkins.

February Specials!

Brighten Up Your Real Estate Listings - Albuquerque Real Estate Photography

This last week I got a call from a friend who is a professor up at a university in Oregon.  She was teaching a class on product photography for Graphic Design majors.  I had helped her with some basic lecture outlines earlier in the term, but this time she wanted to add some spice to the curriculum.  She wanted to do a lecture on HDR - High Dynamic Range so they had something fun to learn about right before their finals.

The human eye is truly amazing.  In one scene, the eye can see detail in the brightest highlights and the darkest shadows all at once.  A camera, on the other hand is not as gifted and has about half of the dynamic range of a human eye.  Even shooting in RAW falls short.  There are several HDR programs out there, including a plug-in in photoshop, that can help bring back detail in both the highlights and the shadows by merging several images together taken at different exposures.  Many times photographers also bump up the saturation to get an over the top HDR image.  While I'm not going to get into details, I will share some of the pictures I made yesterday.  I needed a subject while I was writing the tutorial for my professor friend to use, so I looked around and decided my dining room would do just fine.  The first photo is best averaged exposure from the camera, the second is a 5 image HDR composite. The HDR version makes the room just glow. It is warm and inviting. In this case the HDR isn't over the top, it's just enough to add some spice to any real estate listing.

Research done by Tim Ellis at Redfin concluded that listings with professional photography:

• Receive an average of 61% more views than their peers across all price tiers.
• Have a 47% higher asking price per square foot.
• Have an increased likelihood of selling for homes priced above $300,000.

BEFORE:

 AFTER:

When Should You Use HDR?

If you are interested in photography and have access to Photoshop, you can manipulate images using HDR too.  Here were some pics I took in Zion National Park at the Weeping Wall a few years ago. The left picture shows a photo with an exposure metered for the cliff, but then the sky is blown out and loses detail in the highlight. The second image is metered for the far away mountain, but then the cliff loses detail and is too dark. This is a perfect situation to use HDR. With the camera on a tripod, take 3-7 images with different exposures. Keep the aperture the same and move the shutter speed up and down from the best average exposure.

When the images are merged in the HDR Photoshop plugin you can get an image like this:

There are far better programs for HDR such as Photomatix with better tone mapping algorithms. However, if you already have Photoshop, it's an easy way to spruce up your vacation photos.  (This photo is a little too saturated and "HDR over-the-top" but you get the idea of the range of things you can do.)

Baby Yakup! - Albuquerque Baby Photography

In January, Christine came back to Los Alamos to visit her family for a few weeks with her two and a half year old and her 3 month old boys. They were a blissfully boisterous handful, to say the least.  We decided to do two photoshoots at Grandma's house where they were at ease. 

We shot Baby Yakup on his 3 mo birthday. You'd think he was a lot older because he's just about ready to sit up on his own! Their grandma had a beautiful white bedspread, so we set up the portable studio in the guestroom and put Yakup in a basket full of towels with a blanket thrown over the top. I saw these cute little hats on Etsy and decided to knit one myself. Yakup was my first baby model to wear it. I'd say he rocked his first gig!

He absolutely LOVES his Aunt Tricia. She just had to tickle his toes and he'd start cooing and giggling.  He was being so cute and adorable that the rest of the family heard him laughing and came running in to see the action.  If you zoom in on the reflection in his eye (in the high-res image), you can see mommy, auntie, uncle, and me standing over him smiling.

A Boisterous Handful - Los Alamos Children's Photography

It's such a shame that the amount of energy that you have in life is inversely proportional to age.  Two year olds have all the energy in the world, and parents wish they had as much to chase them around!  I learned long ago not to bring a 2-yr old into a portrait studio.  The best children's photography is on-the-go, just like they are. 

Emin is no different.  He LOVES chickens and eggs, so we decided to take a field trip to a farm to meet some animals while we looked for eggs.  Now We're using the photos from the trip to make a story book for him and his family.

Falling for Your Sweetheart Over and Over Again - Albuquerque Photography

This young couple has been married for 3 years, but together for many more.  When I first met them, I thought I'd be shooting an engagement session for their announcements, and was surprised to learn they were already hitched.  The trees behind the waterfall and the pond were just starting to turn and made a romantic background for this gorgeous couple.  They made the photoshoot fun and easy, but narrowing down the photos was very hard!