I have been photographing the Harrod family (with FIVE sisters) for many years, including the three youngest girls’ senior pictures. There is a new addition to the family – a BOY!  His mom and dad just recently moved from Shanghai to the Bahamas and they were in town for a quick visit. So it was time for an updated family photo with new baby/nephew/grandson Jonas.

I have NEVER photographed an 8 month old who smiled for the entire time he was photographed! (Well, he actually slept the first half hour). His mom told me that he LOVES being photographed and would smile and I thought, “hmmm, right. We’ll see about that”. Seriously, the moment I picked up the camera after arranging the group, Jonas began SMILING! And he didn’t stop! All I had to do was squeak his toy giraffe or call his name and his adorable face was wreathed in smiles. He is the cutest baby I have ever seen!

I would set up shop as a full-time baby photographer if they were all this happy!

My favorite photos are Jonas surrounded by his mom and 4 aunts (I called it the Jonas Sandwich) and also the one where he was gazing at his grandfather. (I was told he was a little intimidated by men with beards, but – though he didn’t smile – he did NOT cry).

 

Oh my gosh – I’ve been wanting to do a “trash the dress” photo shoot FOREVER. Somehow, all my brides are reluctant to do this! So I was estatic when Olivia showed up for her outdoor session with her prom dress in tow and told me “I don’t care what happens to it now”.

“Are you willing to sit on the waterfall with it?”, I asked her. Beter than this, she said she would go IN the pond with it!

When she got out of the water, I cautiously eyed all the tuilling to make sure there weren’t any fish caught in it. Whew – safe.

I love all these shots. And had fun doing some different Photoshop effects on them. Thanks for being the best sport, Olivia!

Trey and his friends go way back. They’ve been on many basketball, football, and hockey teams together. They wanted to have a special photo shoot to commemorate their friendship as they are all now seniors playing together for probably their last year. Trying to find a date when these eight guys were available was quite the challenge! Then Trey’s mom had a great idea: what if the moms came and we did a group photo? We all know how much time, love, encouragement, and enthusiasm the moms have spent watching their sons’ games over the years. (Oh yeah – and driving!)  As a former “hockey mom”, I also can identify with the bittersweet emotions you go through during their last year playing a sport. You realize how much you are going to miss the camaraderie and social life that is an extension of your child playing on a team.

So it was fitting that we made this photo session happen. Afterwards, I joked that they all should go out to dinner dressed alike. “Oh no”, Sheila (Trey’s mom) said, “the dads are barbequeing for us tonight”. Fun!

We recently added a new tool to our photography arsenal: a ring light. You may have seen one of these in a print ad, book cover or on TV. They’re everywhere these days, and we just love ’em!

To get an idea of its effect, we made Molly sit down for a few shots and model for us. What do you think?

If you’re coming for senior pictures, be sure to request the ring light this summer. We want to try it with some sunglasses, too, so don’t forget your shades as a prop.

Our annual Open House offers our student reps (ambassadors) the opportunity to bring in a big group of friends and take “buddy photos”. Several reps brought really big groups this year. These are so much fun to photograph! The most popular group photos include: pyramids, pileups, giant group hugs, and – of course – jumping. I started doing these jumping photos many years ago with wedding parties and it was a natural progression to do these with families and high school seniors. You get some of the more lively personalities competing for the highest/best jump!  I’ve also found that squeezing people tightly together ALWAYS produces great natural smiles. (Of course you have to first ask if they all like each other – especially families ha ha!)

Something new we agreed to do this year was to go to a PARK and photograph one of our ambassador’s prom groups. I was told that there would be “from 20 – 50 kids” in this group.  !   Saturday dawned bright and sunny, but as the day progressed, the sky got darker and darker. Tornado warnings erupted in the nextdoor county. As Jack and I drove to the park, a cell phone call from Adam’s mother (who organized the photo outing in the park) diverted us to a restaurant and THEN (as we sat in the restaurant’s parking lot in a hail storm and deluge of rain) we got the call that the group was instead meeting at one of the girl’s houses.

When we arrived, there were nearly 100 people inside the house. The street was lined with cars as far as we could see. Somehow we got the group all posed nicely and all the parents took turns photographing the group. At the very end, the storm passed and the sun came out (good old Minnesota weather!) and we arranged the group for one last photo – outdoors!  

Jack videotaped the groups so that we could include this in the slideshow. I think this turned out to be a really fun project! Look in our Facebook album to see ALL the buddy groups and be sure to watch the slideshow.

Two weeks ago, we photographed Adam and Trey, our first ambassadors from the Class of 2012. This past Saturday we did a “180” and photographed Anna from Apple Valley High School, Jessa from Lakeville South, and Lindsey from Eagan. We had FUN! The ambassadors are the students who represent our studio to their classmates. They are chosen because they are involved in many activities and know a large percentage of their classmates. We try to have a girl and boy ambassador from each of the areas’ large high schools.
To see the slideshow and album from each of our reps, look under the ‘Senior’ tab – Class of 2012 ambassadors.
Here are some of our favorite shots from “Girls Day” last Saturday –

Trey from Lakeville North and Adam from Eastview were the first ambassadors we photographed last Saturday. Molly and I did the still photography and Jack was in charge of video. Video is something new we are introducing this year: We are adding some video clips to our still photographs and making slideshows that combine both elements. We are loving the results! (Check out our Facebook page to see Trey’s and Adam’s “fusion” slideshows – our very first attempts!) Now we just have to learn how to operate with more “cooks in the kitchen,” i.e. more photographers in the studio jockeying for their ideal vantage point 🙂 It’s a good thing we have two BIG studios!

Both boys play sports at their respective high schools and brought some sports equipment to use as props. It always makes it more special when the seniors bring items to personalize their session. Here are some of our favorite shots from the two sessions. Enjoy!

As I’ve said in the past, a child usually reaches the magic age of reason at 4 years of age. That means you can bribe them, as in, “I have a toy/treat for you when we’re done”. With children younger than 4, a photography session can be hit or miss: a 3 year old is totally egocentric and does exactly what HE/SHE wants to do…. or not do! A younger child also has a smaller attention span, and all of my stupid puppet tricks, songs, and silly shenanigans fail to impress after about 10 minutes. (Did I also mention that, with very young children, the photographer has to be a good sport about losing a large quotient of dignity?)  Ya gotta get the shot FAST. I always ask the parents to rate the shots they want taken in order of importance so that, hopefully, we capture the most important grouping before the magic wears off.

Jake was truly as good as gold for a 3 year old boy. I had his complete attention and cooperation for the full 10 minutes. Then, the comedian in him came out, and he discovered that he could make funny faces, put his head down, or put his hands over his face. Hey – he wasn’t crying or misbehaving, but he was getting the attention that 3 year old boys love!

Now that we are doing slideshow presentations for the first viewing, I’ve discovered that the “blooper shots” add much interest to the slideshows! They certainly aren’t what the parents will choose as their wall portrait or Christmas card, but the slideshows are alot more fun!

Here are some perfect examples of photographs suitable for a framed wall portrait, and some funny ones to add some spice to the slideshow…..

Vanessa, from Woodbury High School, has been a gymnast since she was a very young girl. She and her mom wanted to do an entire session devoted to gymnastics, since she has many different outfits, props, and a letter jacket that she wanted to feature in the photographs.

It is always fun for me to do a “specialty” session. Even though I don’t know very much about gymnastics, Vanessa helped to give me lots of ideas about poses. It is very handy that I have 2 large “hi key” areas (one is 16 feet wide) when the photos involve action – in this case, flips, leaps, and jumps! She had so many beautiful outfits to choose from and the most ENORMOUS medal collection I’ve ever seen! See the photo below with all her medals – WOW.  Like I said, this was an exciting session with Vanessa, her mom, and me all contributing to the creative effort.

She just picked up the proofs today. Both she and her mom were very pleased with all the photos and gave me their permission to share them on my blog.