Blue is my favorite color. (no big surprise there, duh!)

These are some pics from pics from a recent session on Coronado,

when the sky was a crazy beautiful clear sparkly blue.

Dad is off being Superman (Navy Seal... OK, that's cooler than Superman!),

so we created some great images for dad while he's away from home.

I love these closeups of big sister & little bro enjoying some cuddle time, and I think dad will, too:

Have a great day!

~Carey

Lights
Fill flash
Reflectors
Scrims
Power Packs
Assistants

I don't bring ANY of that stuff to my photo sessions,
and I don't have to when I have awesome clients like that dude up there!

Lugging all of that equipment around would be a pain,
and a lot of "schtuff" makes it harder for a family to casually enjoy their time together.

But sometimes I need some help to make families look even better.

Check out these ladies, for example:

Jennifer there on the right has a big splotch of direct sun on her face.
She's shading her mom, and her mom is shading her sister,
but poor Jennifer had nobody to shade her!

Enter our knight in shining armor, HUBBY!

I didn't need a LOT of shade, I just needed to block that one spot on Jennifer's face.
Her husband stood off to the side, raised his arms in the air just right, and VOILA!

I had him bring back his roll as ShadeMakerSupreme for another shot of some beautiful ladies together:

Here's another fun shot from the end of the session when the family patriarch put on his cool shades:

And some closeups of the beautiful granddaughters

This next one was the final shot of the day, when this little gymnast was itching to show off her skilz

Enjoy!

~Carey

If I had to choose an empty beach or a crowded beach for a family photo session,
OF COURSE I'd choose the empty beach, but crowds don't scare me.
They just require a little extra care, thought, and planning.

Here are four tips for what to do when you want to take pictures on a crowded beach,
but you don't want a thousand people in the background:

1) Choose a mid-range lens instead of a long zoom!
Normally, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my 70-200 lens for beach sessions, but for crowded days,
it's not a great lens to use. With that 70-200 lens, you have to back up from your subject quite a bit.
On a crowded beach, you'll end up with people walking between you and your subject.
For this session, I chose my 24-70 lens so I wouldn't have to be as far away from the people.

2) Choose a location that's uncomfortable for beach-goers.
This may take some walking and exploring, but it's worth it.
This photo shoot had 13 people, so all 14 of us walked for quite a while to get to a spot
that was more rocky and not as "easy going" for beach bummin' folks.
I told the group that we'd need to walk & that it would be worth it,
and they all agreed (they were scared of the crowds, but they trusted me).

You can see the type of location we chose here:

That image leads me into tip #3:
3) There aren't as many people in the SKY!
Everyone at the beach is on the sand or in the water (usually!).
Choose shooting angles where you shoot the water and a lot of sky,
like in that image of the dad with his baby boy up there.
If you find a rocky spot, it's pretty likely that there won't be many people
swimming in the water behind your subjects, too!
In that image, there are probably at least 20 people in the background,
but they're WAYYYYY far away, so you can't even tell.

Last tip:
4) Remember that closeups are great, too!
For quite a few shots, I got up close and created some nice closeups for this family:

I still left the beach & water in a lot of them, like this next one,
so you can see the beautiful beach, but it's not a big huge scenic shot:

So, you have my permission to be a little bummed when you show up to a crowded beach,
but don't be scared any more!!

~Carey

Yesterday I had my first "Headshot sessions."

I decided to schedule some sneaky sessions without announcing them on my blog
because I wanted to see how it would go.

Well, you can probably guess from the title of this post, that they went REALLY WELL!

These itty bitty little sessions are PERFECT for a mom or dad who just wants a great kid picture.

I spent just a few minutes with each child,
found some GREAT light, used my favorite portrait-in-the-park lens,
and created some really fun kid portraits!

This isn't a full-blown family session.

This isn't even a 25-minute mini.

This is a few minutes in the park where I create a few wonderful kid pictures
while my kids play on the grass nearby. And for only $50!

I've had a few moms ask me if they could come to get pictures for themselves or their hubbies.
One mom said, "I just want a great picture for my Facebook!"

What a good idea!

So, if you want one of these "Headshot sessions,"

CLICK HERE

(Email subscribers: the link won't work from the email. Go to the blog online and click the link there)

If you have more than one child, you can change the quantity when you pay.

PLEASE REMEMBER, though, that these are INDIVIDUAL PICTURES ONLY (no sibling/group shots).

Here's one of yesterday's shots:

How cute is she!?

I'm thinking these will go fast, so get your session as soon as you can!

Happy Friday!

~Carey

CLICK HEREto benefit from some bad weather forecasting!!

Last Friday's weather forecast was just downright icky,
so the Mini Platinum I had planned was postponed a week.

One of the families from last weekend's mini couldn't reschedule,
so we decided to take our chances and meet on Friday,
cruddy weather forecast and all.

Wouldn't ya know it...
Friday's weather ended up being stunningly beautiful!

Don't get me started on San Diego weathermen & weatherwomen!!!

I'll have some great pictures to show you from that beautiful weather
once my kids are back in school tomorrow,
but for now, I've got an opening for a Mini Platinum on Friday morning!

CLICK HERE if you'd like a Mini Platinum session on Friday morning,
April 17th, at 10am.

The weather forcast looks WONDERFUL!

Click HEREfor some info on a Mini Platinum session & what's included.

Have a great afternoon!

~Carey