Recent Portrait Work

One of the things I am going to add to my blog is recent sittings.  I often post personal projects because they are fun.  While those posts allow me to talk about a variety of topics they often don't showcase work that is done for clients.  The first post about a recent sitting was about a local musician beginning his doctoral studies (full post available here). 

Today's post includes a picture from my niece's second birthday shoot.  She is such a cute little girl and a joy to photograph.  She follows directions well and loves the camera.  I'm very fortunate to be in a position to capture these moments in time for members of my family.

For this image she was sitting on a little rocking chair in front of the small waterfall at my mom's house.  We were playing peek-a-boo and she was pretending to be a little shy.  I love the innocent look on her face and the direct contact of her eyes and the camera.  It was hard to change positions or want to move on because she was having fun and giving lots of different smiles.

Some technical info on this shot.  My SB-800 was aimed into a Photek Soflighter 2 with diffusion cloth above and to the left of Natalie's position.  I paired my 70-200mm with the D700 with a large aperture to make sure the background was out of focus.

Natalie has a great little smile.  Quite often now she sticks her tongue out the side and I think it makes it even cuter. 

For the majority of the shoot I was laying on my stomach to get closer to her level.  It is an easy way to make your photographs of children that much better.  For more tips check out my previous blog post, Taking Better Pictures of Children.