Welcome, Baby Sister! {Arlington, VA Lifestyle Newborn Photographer}

There is nothing sweeter than a new baby, except, perhaps a sweet baby with a big brother.  And a light-filled little nursery where her parents dote on her.  This session was such a joy for me to capture, and was my third with this family, who I've known for.... a long time.

I love capturing genuine moments and interactions in families and this session was full of love and laughs and a very involved and helpful brother.  I ended up with a lot of black and white conversions thanks to a documentary feel, but I love the color versions as well.

Heart Warriors: Arlington, VA Family and Child Photographer

Learning your newborn or even unborn baby has a heart defect can be terrifying.  In our experience, the waiting and fear were harder than the surgery itself, and Ellie was amazingly resilient.  

I photographed a number of children, ages newborn to high school senior, with congenital heart defects in honor of CHD Awareness Month.  This collage also includes their siblings, and one mama with a CHD herself.

You'll notice kids with Down syndrome disproportionately represented.  Kids with Down syndrome have about a 40-50% chance of having some kind of heart defect.

Like Ellie's cute zipper club shirt?  It's from Capitol Maker.

Photography Basics #2: Which Mode Do I Pick?

I have three DSLRs.  All three are Nikon - the D3100 that was my first camera, the D610 I bought when I started my business, and the D750 I use in low light situations.  All three have a variety of settings which the user can switch to depending on the situation.

When I teach photography tutorials, we almost always start in Aperture Priority (AP, or on a Canon, AV) Mode.

 

Aperture is a measure of how much light gets into the camera, essentially, the size of the hole that lets the light in.  It's measured in f-stops.

From a functional perspective, my easy way to think of aperture is "how wide of a plane are you focused on?"  A small f-stop number (i.e., f/1.8) means a LOT of light and more of that beautiful bokeh, or blurry background.  Bokeh is lovely, but if you're only focused on half the people in the picture and the rest are fuzzy, your f-stop number is too low.

I personally think AP/AV is a great place to start because aperture can dramatically change the look of a photo.   In this mode, you set the ISO and aperture, and the camera controls the shutter speed.

Uh oh!  f/2 was too low.  Poor Piggie is out of focus.

Photographing two kids on the same plane, I start around f/3.2.  Sometimes if the lighting is too dark, I'll go lower, although I risk an out of focus child.

One kid when I want a lot of bokeh, I go as low as f/1.8.

But here's the catch.

When you control the aperture and your camera controls the shutter speed, keep an eye out to make sure the shutter speed is fast enough to catch your subject - especially if your subject is a moving child!  1/250 or so is a good minimum for kids!

If the shutter speed gets too slow (you'll see blurry photos), move the aperture number lower or the ISO higher.

And that, my friends, is your VERY basic intro to aperture.  Happy shooting!

My 365 Project

A few days before 2017 began, I committed to a 365 project - a photo a day of my kids.  Here's a few favorites from the last week or two.  The added bonus is that by having my camera out more, I have more than a photo each day!  I return to family sessions in just over a week, but until then, I'll keep focusing photos of my girls.