Florida Trip (warning a kid photo inside, not mine though)

JimM · January 4, 2006

So our friends DRAGGED us to Florida over the holidays. Since they brought us to their parents condo and their parents always complain they never take pictures of their grand daughter, I brought my equipment with me. Needless to say Grandma and Grandpa are happy with me for these. I have posted the entire gallery here http://jimmitte.smugmug.com/gallery/1074694/1/49916619

My Favorites:
All are straight out of the camera, no pp.
(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5) We went to dinner at one of those Japanese Steakhouses that cooks for you...

(6) Tall Swimsuit Model

(7) I think she was the pawn, or maybe the queen!

(8)

(9)

Thoughts? Comments? Thanks for looking! Maybe they'll invite us back now. By the way, the pool at the condo this:

With its own private lake:

It was rough!!!

photocat · January 4, 2006

The one with the chess pieces is in my eyes the nicest one.
The others are snaps, nice snaps, but lack swung... If I would do portraits of a little girl, I would use a long lense so I can blur the background, or if the background is really needed, make sure it works with the girl.
It is not really working with the girl in most of the pics.
I would either focus on the child, and go in closer, or compose better so she fits better in the frame.
The one with the chess pieces has it, it has the surroundings, and she is in it and THERE... The one with the blue swimming suit I personally would not post on the internet for everyone to see in the bad climat that we have today as photographers in the eyes of a lot of people... (also because she is not your child) Just my two cents, she is quit a miss perky. Lovely child and I can see why you would want to take her pic. She is very cute.

JimM · January 4, 2006

photocat wrote:

The one with the chess pieces is in my eyes the nicest one.
The others are snaps, nice snaps, but lack swung... If I would do portraits of a little girl, I would use a long lense so I can blur the background, or if the background is really needed, make sure it works with the girl.
It is not really working with the girl in most of the pics.
I would either focus on the child, and go in closer, or compose better so she fits better in the frame.
The one with the chess pieces has it, it has the surroundings, and she is in it and THERE... The one with the blue swimming suit I personally would not post on the internet for everyone to see in the bad climat that we have today as photographers in the eyes of a lot of people... (also because she is not your child) Just my two cents, she is quit a miss perky. Lovely child and I can see why you would want to take her pic. She is very cute.

The ones I were trying to do the portraits of are the waterfall ones. I tried to use my fill flash to pop her eyes and use the sun as more of a back light (these are numbers 3 and 4). The rest were basically snaps, as you called it. The last two of her were surely that, as they were taken with my point and shoot spontaneously.

What I find interesting, is my least favorite of the group is the chess shot.

I have taken your note on the blue swimsuit and removed it, thanks.

photocat · January 4, 2006

girl having fun

This how I would crop this lovely portrait... (in my humble opinion)

JimM · January 4, 2006

photocat wrote:

This how I would crop this lovely portrait... (in my humble opinion)

I like the crop, I just wish I had a longer lens in the first place. I hate to remove all of those pixels, as I think I already cropped it once. My longest lens is 200mm with my 20D it acts like 300mm, but from across the pool, it is still a long way off.

I switched angles to get closer for another series... this is uncropped...

Whirly1128 · January 4, 2006

#2 is my favorite
I love #2! I can almost hear her laughing when I look at the picture. I also like #4. They both really seem to capture her personality- which I'm sure the grandparents will love. I'm sure they will love whatever shots you choose.

-Jamie

photocat · January 5, 2006

Another very good one... I hear you about the 200 mm lens. There is only so much one can do with a 200. Yet the crop I cropped for you can be shot as is, straigth from the camera. You have to go physically closer. Try to frame your shots to the best possible (you don't always have an option to go in closer) so you have as less post processing to do as possible. You have a very good camera, you can do it. I had a look at your gallerie, and there is good work there. But there is also a lot of work with backgrounds that are empty or work against the picture. My tip for you would be "Go as close as you can",
and use the zoom to blur the backgrounds for portraits.
If you want to go pro, it might be a good idea to invest in a 70-300 lens. It will pay itself off. But then again, a 200 should work fine also.