My job and my joy...

 
Was there ever a cuter little lady? What a fun afternoon we had taking photos of this little gal. It was a COLD afternoon and this family of three could only do the photo shoot at noon so conditions weren't perfect but we worked fast, made do, and I think the results were pretty darn good!

 

  I tried to work around the shadows, they seemed to be everywhere ... But we found pockets of consistent light throughout the park and of course my subjects were super photogenic so that was a plus!

 I experimented a bit with black and white for the primary subject *see photo to the right) and used the lovely pink flower for a POP of color. I think it is one of my favorites and while it is not a super original idea it is new to me.

Now this might not be particularly politically correct but I have to say it... I do not have a lot of experience photographing black people.There I said it ...  My boys, who are mostly white, play with friends of all different colors and I do photograph them and they all come out great BUT this was my first "professional" shoot and I wanted it to be perfect! I struggled a bit at first to make sure the lighting worked for both skin tones but as you can see I managed to balance it just fine. I did have to do a  few test shots with each new setting but I would do that regardless of skin tone... I am fairly new to this after all and require a bit more time than the well seasoned photographer.
I have lots of clients of all different colors so I am glad I had this experience and so grateful for really cool people who allowed me a few extra practice shots.

 

  All in all the shoot went well. What I didn't mention above was that when the family arrived they informed me that their sweet babe was getting over RSV, a respiratory infection, and so she was somewhat cranky after only the first few shots. So it was cold, high noon, AND the babe was sick! However one of my jobs (and joys) as a photographer is being able to work well in all situations and create memories and preserve moments in time ... I am grateful that despite a few things working against us on this chilly afternoon many things worked FOR us and we were able to compile some really beautiful shots of a really wonderful family!