In the Schumacher house, there are cheerleaders for the golfers!

Rory chose her costume months ago. She is a HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL Cheerleader!
Molly ruined the matching pom-poms months ago, so she ended up with Barbie pom-poms.
Somehow, she made it through trick-or-treating under such wardrobe-mismatch trauma!



Mat wasn't eager to pick out a Halloween costume, but he knew he couldn't get candy
without a costume, so he told me I could pick out something for him.
I didn't know what to do with such power!! I kept my evil impulses under control, though.
The costume sections in the stores around town weren't thrilling me at all,
so while I roamed the store looking for inspiration, I saw something:
A BRIGHT RED POLO SHIRT!
I picked it up, got some inexpensive black pants, a $5 golf glove,
and I had myself a Tiger!




Have a sweet weekend!!



~Carey

Last week, Rob borrowed my portable power pack for a photo project.
He brought it back to me earlier this week, and he brought along KAI!
Kai is Rob's adorable little 1-yr-old son.

He was too darn cute, and he thought I was too darn funny,
which meant I HAD to get out my camera and shoot him for a few minutes.

These are my favorites:



And here are a few daddy-and-son shots.
I think Rob should put these as his "about me" pictures on his site. Don't you?



Fellow photography buffs:
CHECK OUT ROB'S BLOG for a very interesting look inside the world of editorial photography!

Happy Halloween!

~Carey

My morning in Central Park was absolutely beautiful on Sunday!
All of the families were so much fun, and the park proved once again
that this is one of my most favorite places in the whole world.

I've almost completed working on the images from the day,
but I wanted to post a sneak peek of the images -- at least one for every family.

What I loved most about the morning was that each family was so unique,
and the photos really ended up reflecting that
even though we were in the same area of the park for all of the families.

We began the first family's session on a cool rock overlooking the skating rink & the city.

Then there was a very cool spot with some pretty fall leaves and great light:

I processed those pictures with the NIK Silver Efex Pro plugin (very cool stuff!)

More Fall color came along with this funny dude:

He (very effectively) earned the nickname "DB" for "Dorky Brother" by the end of our session.

A 5-year anniversary was being celebrated last weekend, too!
Pam and Josh of Looking Glass Studios
came to the park for a romantic session.
I went a little outside of my light & bright comfort zone and processed this picture
with an emphasis on dark contrast:


Baby Connor, with his big boy hair, was a bundle of smiles and the apple of his parents eyes!


You may recognize these next two families from my website.
They were, once again, a BLAST and we all had a ton of fun playing around in the park!
There were pretty girls in color:


silly girls in black & white:


The littlest sister had to be dragged away from the Handsome Cabs.
She LOVED those horsees!


Then we found some leaves for some crazy playtime:


mom & dad joined in, too:


And last but not least, the family who started my New York City adventures!
Mom & daughter .. oh so stylin!


and big sis pulling along lil bro thru the American Elms:


Enjoy!
~Carey

"Dragging the shutter" is a funky photo term that intimidates some newer photographers.
Use a flash (I was using my 580EX) and set your shutter speed on your camera to something slow.
Set it slow enough so there will be motion blur all over.
Set your camera to "shutter priority mode" (on Canon, it's Tv on the dial).
The camera will choose an an aperture setting for you that way,
or you can shoot in full manual and choose both your shutter speed and your aperture.
Use a setting like 1/10th sec or slower. 1/2 sec is good, or you can go even slower!
Your first worry will probably be "I can't hold the camera still enough for that!
And my subject can't be that still, either."

That's what the flash is for!

When you take the picture, the quick light burst from the flash freezes your subject
as if you were taking a picture of them at a quick shutter speed.
But the shutter stays open longer, letting in more and more light and motion.

The results can be really fun!

Here's a "drag the shutter" shot of the famous Joe Dellasega from the Mpix team:

I held the camera still so that the buildings wouldn't be blurry
(the flash isn't powerful or long-reaching enough to freeze the top of the Empire State Building).
Joe is captured by the flash, and even though he was moving around a lot, he's not too blurry.
The cars wizzing by are captured in that cool motion blur because the shutter was open so long!

Here's a shot that Joe got of me with the traffic rushing by, but I'm not blurry because
I was frozen by the flash:


Here's one more fun thing to try if you have a zoom lens.
Freeze your subject with your flash, and while the shutter is open,
zoom your lens in or out! It's a fun little thing to try, and the results can be really cool!


When you get a great nighttime shot "dragging the shutter",
treat yourself to a print on METALLIC PAPER from Mpix!
Night shots with bright lights look AWESOME on Metallic paper from Mpix!

Have fun!
~Carey

Yesterday was our big "Mpix takes on NYC" event, and we couldn't have asked for a better day!
The weather was AMAZING, and the group was full of super nice folks!
Everyone was excited about photography, eager to learn and share,
and the whole morning was a lot of fun.
And did I mention that the weather was AMAZING!??!

I spent a lot of time talking and sharing some tips with the folks on the boat,
but here are some shots that I got during our cruise.

Rick sharing some photo tips on video for Popular Photography:

(I know, slightly corny, but hey, that's me)

Rick & I working on some quick video clips:


Pam doing her best Kate Winslet impression:


Folks shooting the city:


Approaching THE bridge:


If anyone is an Mpix customer and ever had to email them with some questions,
you probably got an email back from John Rank.
Here's the man behind the amazing Mpix customer support:


And this is my favorite shot so far, folks shooting Lady Liberty with an amazing sky
with those cool wispy clouds:


Enjoy!! Today I'm heading over to the Expo for the lady day of the show,
spending some (RAINY) hours exploring the city, then tomorrow I get to have
a blast creating family Fall portraits for six families in Central Park.
Today's weather is yuck yuck yucky, but it's supposed to blow through quickly
and leave us with a crisp clear Fall morning tomorrow -- HOORAY!!

If you want to see more pictures from PhotoPlusExpo, check out the MPIX BLOG, too.

Enjoy!
~Carey