100th birthday shots!

mmroden

My cousin Lou just turned 100! We celebrated his birthday today, and I got to be the photographer. Good thing, too, because I was jonesing for a good photo fix...

The man himself, with his grandson Evan congratulating him:



And then, his enormous pile of profiteroles, 100 just for him:


This little boy liked to crawl between everyone's legs:



But then he got shy when a little girl wanted him to dance. He backed away, even at the urging of his mom and sister:



So, she went to hang out with the old people, and get some profiteroles of her own:



They didn't mind in the least.

This last shot is of my cousin and her boyfriend, and is perhaps the shot I like the most from this whole extravaganza. They traveled to LA from New York for the event, basically here for two days before flying back:



Comments and critiques are always welcome!

The rest of the shots can be found here:
http://mmroden.smugmug.com/gallery/2571793#135378166

mmroden

60 views, no comments? Are they that bad?

JenGrace

I don't think they're bad, and you got some interesting angles on some of the shots. When I saw the thread title I thought I'd see more shots of the guest of honor, though.

Andy

mmroden wrote:

60 views, no comments? Are they that bad?

Hi, so one thing, even with party shots like this, we should be using our best technique at shoot. And if we don't, we can fix them in post. Your first shot of the set is severely underexposed, and the white balance is all wrong, resulting in a blue cast. Your shot on the left, a quick adjustment with i2e on the right:

EDIT: examples removed, as the original photo was edited by poster.

If you aren't seeing the differences, then holler, and I can direct you to some great resources!

Congrats to your cousin!

I love the last shot, nicely done

mmroden

Hi Andy,

You're right, of course. Luckily, I shot in raw, so the replaced image should be showing up there, instead of the original.

JenW: As per your request, here's two more shots of the birthday boy. First is talking to his grandson in Germany via MSN:



And here's another from a few years ago, as he was explaining that photographers today have it way too easy:



You know the footage of people overrunning beaches and so forth? He was one of those guys, a combat documentary filmmaker involved in the beach invasion of Morocco in 1942. He spent his life creating and developing film and camera techniques and equipment, and told someone two years ago to stop shooting film and 'get with the modern era.' Still as sharp as a tack.

WrenTheBlurry

That's quite a milestone, and he sounds like an interesting guy. My favorite is the one you liked as well---of your cousin and her boyfriend. Neat angle, nice smiles. Thank you for sharing the occasion!

happy day,

wren

Andy

mmroden wrote:

Hi Andy,

You're right, of course. Luckily, I shot in raw, so the replaced image should be showing up there, instead of the original.

Mkay, I will delete my example, as now it's not an example any more

mmroden

Andy wrote:

Mkay, I will delete my example, as now it's not an example any more

And now, I'm going through the others, and making sure I didn't make any similar mistakes...