Too Cute For Words....

jeffreaux2

....Only a photograph will do!!!

This is what I was really up to yesterday. Now, maybe you can see why I considered These as outakes.

These, again were taken at LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Three of the kids belong to my very best customer, and two belong to her sister. The clothing is traditional Korean dress that is to be worn on the child's first birthday. All of these kids have, of course, had their first B-day party already, but the moms wanted a photograph of them all dressed together.

We attracted quite a crowd yesterday in taking these. The mothers stayed primarily behind me doing...who-knows-what...for smiles. Guess we created too much of a ruckus?

Hope everyone enjoys looking as much as I enjoyed shooting!!!

Now...If I can only finish sorting and editing them all!!!:scratch

1-



2-


3-


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5-


6-


7- This beautiful little doll was my very first customer nearly a year ago. She is absolutely adorable. Be carefull photographing such sweet subjects. It can lull you into overconfidence...believing portrait work is simple!!!


8-


9-....my favorite...

urbanaries

Jeff,

What an adorable bunch! I cannot imagine shooting this many at one time, and trying to get them to do "traditional" groupings. Hat's off to you for accomplishing the impossible...at least in my mind!

The exposures and colors are stellar. Your photography consistently shows that, contrary to popular practice, clever photoshop actions, grunge treatments or even snazzy BW conversions are not required to produce great images, when you have the fundamentals of exposure, flash technique and color management working together.

I have to say #6 is my absolute favorite. I love taking and viewing photographs of people laughing. Especially kids. You captured a wonderful moment here and I hope the moms agree!

If I were to give one critique, it would be the setting. There is nothing wrong with it, but the overall texture and color of the rock concrete is distracting or doesn't fit with the bright, shiny, solid jewel toned clothes. I looked again at the series and it seems the buildings (like in #6) are the same color, but they're not the pebbled texture, and I think those shots work better. This is totally a matter of taste, and you normally do a very good job of choosing settings for your subjects, it's just food for thought.

(Still like that clover shot, put that doozy on your homepage...pronto! )

Agnieszka

Wow, Jeff! Those photos are great. I don't know what your camera settings were, but ... spot on! #6 is my favorite also. Great shots!

eoren1

Hey Jeff
Very nice series.
3 and 6 are just awesome shots.
Wonderful captures.
E

Awais Yaqub

very cute !
great photos

anwmn1

2 and 6 are very very cute. Can see it was a great time

3 is adorable and captures beauty and culture at the same time.

Cuties02q

Just adorable the kids and the clothing and all of them together...too cute!!!

jeffreaux2

Jeff,

What an adorable bunch! I cannot imagine shooting this many at one time, and trying to get them to do "traditional" groupings. Hat's off to you for accomplishing the impossible...at least in my mind!

The groupings weren't that tough with these particular kids. There was plenty adult supervision, but really.....they are very well behaved. They might look hyped up in some of the shots, but they were super good.

The exposures and colors are stellar. Your photography consistently shows that, contrary to popular practice, clever photoshop actions, grunge treatments or even snazzy BW conversions are not required to produce great images, when you have the fundamentals of exposure, flash technique and color management working together.

....well I'd like to thank the academy.....

Seriously.... THAT is a huge compliment from my perspective, and the fact that it is coming from a very talented artist is not lost on me. I like to play with different treatments as much as the next guy. In fact, in the "out take" thread, I posted a monotone, and another that I treated to a retro look. Not "groovy retro", but classic retro. If forced to choose between BW or color photography, I would probably shoot BW, but many times the color is what makes the photograph. It would be a huge dis-service to convert these IMO. I used flash on a handful, but many of these are good ol sunshine bouncing from all the walls!!

Thanks for that.

I have to say #6 is my absolute favorite. I love taking and viewing photographs of people laughing. Especially kids. You captured a wonderful moment here and I hope the moms agree!

I hope so to. My only worry is that the little one is looking away from the camera. We will see!!

If I were to give one critique, it would be the setting. There is nothing wrong with it, but the overall texture and color of the rock concrete is distracting or doesn't fit with the bright, shiny, solid jewel toned clothes. I looked again at the series and it seems the buildings (like in #6) are the same color, but they're not the pebbled texture, and I think those shots work better. This is totally a matter of taste, and you normally do a very good job of choosing settings for your subjects, it's just food for thought.

I knew you were buttering me up for something....:D
I'll make a deal with you. If you are ever in town....and ask me to take your picture....we will find a different spot?


-My last set at this exact location it seems you made a similar observation. I am not so keen on the texture either, but I do like the archetecture. The surfaces are beautiful when OOF as in the BG of #7. Looks very painterly. The colors are also fairly nuetral. For these reasons, you will see more from me on campus in the future. I just need to figure out how best to get around the texture issues. FWIW, for a person rather than a group I am sure my 85mm would do the trick. However, with a group...of 5 no less...and a mother saying she wants something on canvas.....well...I was going for sharp first...and let everything else take a backseat to that. I probably should have opened the lens up more, but.........

Anyway, I agree about the texture, but have not given up on this location just yet.

...and I am pretty sure ALL the buildings have the pebbles.....but the distance and light is fooling your eye into thinking it is smooth.

(Still like that clover shot, put that doozy on your homepage...pronto!

uuuuuh.....
Yes Ma'am. I will get right on that!!!

Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts on these. It is...as always...appreciated.

jeffreaux2

Agnieszka wrote:

Wow, Jeff! Those photos are great. I don't know what your camera settings were, but ... spot on! #6 is my favorite also. Great shots!

Thanks. Not sure about the "spot on"....but it did come together fairly well in PP.:D

jeffreaux2

eoren1 wrote:

Hey Jeff
Very nice series.
3 and 6 are just awesome shots.
Wonderful captures.
E

Thanks E....for taking the time to look AND comment!!!

jeffreaux2

Awais Yaqub wrote:

very cute !
great photos

Thank you Awais...

jeffreaux2

anwmn1 wrote:

2 and 6 are very very cute. Can see it was a great time

3 is adorable and captures beauty and culture at the same time.

.....those fans gave me fits because they were so reflective. I appreciate the kind comments.

jeffreaux2

Cuties02q wrote:

Just adorable the kids and the clothing and all of them together...too cute!!!

It wasn't my first time seeing outfits of this type. I was scouting shade while they changed clothes on location. When I returned to the group, I HAD to smile. How could you see that and not smile?

This perhaps explains some of the onlookers?

Thank you for commenting!

Briggie

Awesome!!! Love the colours and expressions! Great work!... especially like 6, 7, and 9!! More Please!!!

Brige

jeffreaux2

Briggie wrote:

Awesome!!! Love the colours and expressions! Great work!... especially like 6, 7, and 9!! More Please!!!

Brige

....

More?

Well maybe after this weekend. I have to meet the family of three to take a shot that we had planned, but forgot to do. She also wants a "clover" shot. It seems those are all the rage around here now!!!

I appreciate the feed back. Thanks for taking a look.

DavidS

Great stuff as usual!! I love looking at your work. The kids are adorable and the costumes are great.

amscout

I think they looked great. My children wore their hamboks (the name of the Korean dress) for an "introduction" ceremony with my husband's family in California during Christmas. I love them. Now I'll have to dress my babies up in their hamboks and take pictures!

jeffreaux2

DavidS wrote:

Great stuff as usual!! I love looking at your work. The kids are adorable and the costumes are great.

Thanks David. I just checked your website for the first time in a while. It looks very good!!

jeffreaux2

amscout wrote:

I think they looked great. My children wore their hamboks (the name of the Korean dress) for an "introduction" ceremony with my husband's family in California during Christmas. I love them. Now I'll have to dress my babies up in their hamboks and take pictures!

The first time I did a session that included this clothing I was dumbfounded by how cute is was. She had told me over the phone all the colors of the outfit. I had found a flower bed that looked like what she described, and so we took some photos near it. I highly suggest you take special time set aside to go somewhere nice and get those pictures.

I dug up a few from the other session. This was just prior to this little fellows first birthday party. In addition to prints, she had a woman, I think in Dallas, use my photos to make up invitations for the party.

Thanks for the comments.

Here are the ones from last June...

Elaine

Super cute kids! And those outfits are great in pictures! Looks like you had nice soft light and very willing subjects.
I really like #9 as the group shot! Their expressions and the way her scarf is flying around are just great. Is there some significance for anyone in the family to have that particular setting and/or building in the background? If not, that would be my one nit. I really like all the shapes and columns in the close-ups and individuals and smaller groups, but on the larger group shots, especially the ones where you can read the name of the building in the background, it makes me wonder at the significance or connection between the subject and location. It almost looks like they're posing for a graduation from preschool/kindergarten shot!
Anyway, you've got another great job and success under your belt with these! Congrats!

Moogle Pepper

I think in #5, that boy is up to something wily!

I can't say anything... cuteness... attacking...

I .. submit!

photogmomma

Stunning! #3 and #6 just blow me out of the water! Awesome, awesome shoot! And what fun, I'm sure!!

jeffreaux2

Super cute kids! And those outfits are great in pictures! Looks like you had nice soft light and very willing subjects.
I really like #9 as the group shot! Their expressions and the way her scarf is flying around are just great.

I agree on #9. The scarf, and hair flying are awesome. Lucky really. I was shooting so many frames that I kept getting the dreaded "busy" message. The cards were even hot when pulled from the camera. I filled 2 1/2 2 gig cards in about 40 minutes. On this shot though....all the planets lined up!!

Is there some significance for anyone in the family to have that particular setting and/or building in the background? If not, that would be my one nit. I really like all the shapes and columns in the close-ups and individuals and smaller groups, but on the larger group shots, especially the ones where you can read the name of the building in the background, it makes me wonder at the significance or connection between the subject and location. It almost looks like they're posing for a graduation from preschool/kindergarten shot!

WE set this up about a month and a half ago. She originally asked for this location. I tempted her with others, but she kept coming back to this one. I was willing to meet her wherever she wanted, but was seriously worried about...being able to find a place to park, and foot traffic since it was a weekday and school is in. In the end, the parking was a non-issue. The foot traffic was an issue, but not a huge deal. I had to wait for people to exit the BG a few times, but there were also some people who saw what we were doing and walked around us. The things I was concerned with was no big deal. The mother went to school here. The family lives about 2 minutes from the location...about as close as you can be without living on-campus. She has never said so, but I get the feeling that there is some significance. This is the second time I have worked for her at this location.

Anyway, you've got another great job and success under your belt with these! Congrats!

Thanks Elaine!!!

jeffreaux2

Moogle Pepper wrote:

I think in #5, that boy is up to something wily!

I can't say anything... cuteness... attacking...

I .. submit!

He does look like a little stinker....up to something there doesn't he.


THanks for commenting.

jeffreaux2

photogmomma wrote:

Stunning! #3 and #6 just blow me out of the water! Awesome, awesome shoot! And what fun, I'm sure!!

er....out of the water?....or out of all that snow?


Thanks for looking and taking the time to comment. I hope you all are thawing out up there.