Hope & Baby Dawson

gpphotos

This was my first shot at portraits of any kind, i took these durning the summer along the riverwalk in Augusta. Both mom and baby were having a blast, i got them to play in the fountain for some fun shots too. At the time I didnt have a flash and i wasnt going to bother with the on-camera flash, so i'm aware that there was some issues with lighting.

C&C welcome, of course











whole gallery here, with some other really cute shots:

http://gpphotos.smugmug.com/gallery/1711100

Tommyboy

Great stuff. LOVE #s 2 and 3.

Scott_Quier

After seeing these photos (which I think are fantastic) I went to the link and discovered that you really didn't cherry-pick the examples. The gallery is just loaded with great images. I'm sure Hope will be thrilled with the prints!

ellepixels

Scott_Quier wrote:

After seeing these photos (which I think are fantastic) I went to the link and discovered that you really didn't cherry-pick the examples. The gallery is just loaded with great images. I'm sure Hope will be thrilled with the prints!

That is such a cute subject...he is so huggable.
Well done on the pic, great shoot.

urbanaries

ellepixels wrote:

That is such a cute subject...he is so huggable.
Well done on the pic, great shoot.

these are very imaginative, great job on your first shoot.

I especially love the one of mom and baby in the water's spray. I'd love to hear comments on how you approached this, challenges, etc.

My one suggestion is that you edit out the snot....I have a boy not much older than this so I completely understand how hard it is to stay on top of it, but its certainly not something Mom will want blown up to 11x14.

photogmomma

Awesome shoot! But then again, with a cute kiddo, that makes it easier!

Here is my CC: the first thing you should watch out for is cutting off the limbs. Make sure you either crop really tight if you did, or make sure the hands/feet are in the shot. Also, when you do cut off the hands or legs, it's best to crop between the joints, not at them. And generally between the knee/hip or elbow/shoulder, if possible.

The color looks a little off on these... You may want to take a look at your white balance and learn how to do a custom one.

Here's specific CC:

1. Absolutely adorable! Watch for your background - that looks like a trashcan. But if you were to crop this vertically and very close so it's mainly a head shot, you wont' be able to tell. Just a wonderful capture and timing, though!
2. I like this shot a lot, but don't really love it... The fingers are cropped and the baby isn't looking at the camera - almost, but not enough to/away from it. Also, try getting even lower - that can give you a neat perspective. But it might mess up the background in this case. Also, try cropping closer...
3. Great facial expression! Try cropping to just the head/face since the arm is cut off.
4. Almost an awesome shot! Poor baby has no hands. !
5. Absolutely LOVE LOVE this one! It has a pretty bad color cast - try fixing that and then turning it B&W with a bit of contrast (making it a bit lighter to show off faces) then FRAME IT! Just LOVE this shot! (I tried it, hope you don't mind - it didn't come out as well as I would expect it would with the full sized image especially if it was taken in RAW. Let me know if you'd like me to remove it.)

These are wonderful shots! Too many people have problems capturing those expressions that are so fast or they dont' get down low to take photos of babies.... And you did both and did a wonderful job! I can't wait to see what else you post!

photogmomma

Oh, I forgot to mention - you may want to be careful with nude/nearly nude photos of children posted/available to public. I had photos of my daughters (butt shots) available and those had by far the largest number of hits on my site. Creepy.

I have since password protected my personal site and will not post shots like this again. Just my 2cents.

gpphotos

thanks for all your comments, folks!

i'll make sure and watch out for limbs in the future.

How did I approach this? well...basicly i was at Regis getting my hair cut, and Hope was cutting my hair. we were chatting about hobbies and work and i mentioned that i did some photography on the side. she said she wanted to get some shots done of her young'n and I told her i'd be happy to do it.

so...i gave her my web addy and my phone number and she called me the next week. we set up a time on a saturday morning at about 9am to meet downtown by the riverwalk in augusta. basicly we started at one end and i followed the munchkin down about 5 blocks. he was full of energy and wanted to run around which was a challenge, as was keeping him from running into the river heh.

none of the shots in the gallery are posed really, except where i put mom and kiddo on the park bench. Technically, im not sure how i approached it...when i started shooting i just got in the groove and framed him up how it felt "artisticly correct" to my eye. Not really sure how to explain it other than that. I didnt go into the shoot with any preset approach other than knowing that he'd be all over the place. I know i had to dance around him a lot because he was running around. occasionally he'd stop and plop down for a sec but then he'd be back up and going.

The fountain shots were a lot of fun...Dawson was a bit scared of it at first so i got his mom to pick him up and take him in. once she was wet she just stayed in it with him lol. by that time it was getting hot outside so it was nice to get a little wet I didnt join in the fun because of my equipment, of course. I asked her to hold him a few different ways that I thought looked good in my mind's eye, which was difficult. babies should come with a "slippery when wet" sign lol. you can see how she's having to hold him in the pics and how he wants to slip away heh.