A Mother's Day Gift

This is a shoot with Holly's Aunt's second cousin. She wanted pictures of Jayden to give as a gift to his mommy on Mother's Day. Overall they turned out really well and everyone is happy with them. The first shot is actually one of the last shots taken, and Jayden threatened Luke with an "I'm gonna kick your butt!" (Hence the attitude on his face) It is by far our favourite shot of the day. We had lots of people around to keep him entertained, so he wasn't even close to being a struggle like Lillian is!

Some Recent Nature Shots

I haven't done much lately on the order of studio stuff, but I have been out a lot taking some nature pictures and working with my new lenses. I am sure you haven't been following the little "Our Gear" box to the right here, but if you have, you'll notice it's been getting smaller and smaller. I have been in the mode of selling off some of my mediocre gear to fund a smaller number of much better lenses. I am down to 2 lenses in my primary kit, the Carl Zeiss 16-80 and the Sony 70-300 G. Both are amazing lenses, and I have been nothing but happy with them.

Below are some nature shots I have taken recently. The first 2 were taken in my back yard with my 16-80. The duck shots were taken at a fishing pond just down the road using the 70-300. Ring-Billed Gull was taken at a marina in Cleveland on the trip home from buying the 70-300. The turtle is a Midland Painted Turtle living in the Killbuck marsh. It had a few friends hanging around, but this one was the only one brave enough to let me get somewhat close to it. It was also taken with the 70-300. The Canada Goose was taken at The Wilderness Center in Wilmot Ohio. I was amazed at how close he let me get to him. The geese there aren't typically outgoing, and this one was certainly on guard, but he let me get 20 feet away from him before I felt I was pushing it. That picture was also taken with the 70-300. The last 2 were taken in West Virginia, using one of the lenses I am going to be selling. The flower in the next-to-last shot is only about 3/4" across. I had to get as close as I could focus to make that shot work.

The Impossible Child

Here are a couple shots of my daughter Lilly for her 2nd birthday invitations. Now Lilly, for anyone who does not know, is a tomboy running at 120% full throttle all day long. She absolutely cannot be bothered by trivial things such as getting dressed or brushing her hair, much less a photo shoot. She is easily the 2nd most difficult subject I have tried to shoot, right behind a bumble bee in flight on a cloudy day. The first shot here is the only one I got of her with her hat and dress on, and I got it before I was finished positioning the flash heads. The second shot I ended up having to slouch down in a bag chair and let her come to me. I let her stand on my feet and I'd bounce her up and down some, then snap a shot, bounce and snap, repeat... For how difficult she can be, I thought they turned out fairly well.