For All Seasons

Often one of the disadvantages of being a photographer based in the Pacific Northwest is that my family on the East Coast does not get very many opportunities to interact with my daughter. This is understandable, especially granted the distance and the fact there is pretty much a continent between us. Yet one of the fun things I can take advantage of as a photographer is sending my family photos that I've taken of my daughter. Most of them I tend to tweak. Some more than others. But all of the photos are appreciated by my family when they arrive in the mail.

And then sometimes I end up with a photo that I love, but the picture needs a little something... more. Like this photo, for example.

Shot last month during a barbecue, it captures the exuberance and joy that comes with childhood. However, the dead grass and chain link fence don't make for the most appealing background. Certainly not something that I would feel content to send off in the post.

On top of that, one of the projects that I am working on for my parents is a photo montage that demonstrates my little girl in all of the different seasons that come with this Pacific Northwest weather. And since I like the image of my daughter playing (minus the background and dead grass) I decided to improve it a bit with a little bit of post-production work.

An image from the shoot I did in Point Defiance Park seemed appropriate for a new background. The image I had in mind was this one specifically...

Now I understand that I could simply take my daughter to Point Defiance Park and encourage her to play with her bubbles all over the scenic and beautiful lawn, but I doubt I could capture that same expression on her face. Some things simply can't be re-photographed. Children's expressions are one of them.

So with a little bit of ingenuity -and a lot of post-production effort with Photoshop- I was able to combine the best of both images, get creative with some layer masks and tweak a few elements here and there to achieve an image that I would be thrilled to send away to my family. This is the final image:

Definitely captures the fun of the brief summer season the Pacific Northwest grants us, and I can say this is truly a photograph that I'm more than enthusiastic to send to my parents and grandparents. I may not have too many opportunities for my daughter and family to spend time with each other, but as an accomplished Pacific Northwest photographer and post-production artist I can definitely Photoshop the right image to deliver a dynamic photograph!

Feel free to leave any thoughts or comments below. Cheers!

Mother and Daughter Point Defiance Photo Shoot

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to photograph a session with a mother and daughter in Point Defiance Park. Working as a family portrait photographer in Tacoma at times yields fun and exciting opportunities like this one. The daughter in this session had recently had her birthday -and believe it or not, within the same week as my little girl's!

The excitement that both mother and daughter brought to the photo shoot was great for me. It allowed me to continue to be creative and utilize all of the fun tools that I bring with me to each shoot. I even got some snaps in with my new Holga lens, plus my complete fav -the Lensbaby Composer. More photos will be on their way soon.

The image I am focusing on tonight has a very simple concept. Mother and daughter, silhouetted while playing under a tree. The photo was quite easy to capture, yet, as always, the more difficult task is to now determine which version of the image I prefer. I enjoy "mixing my own paint," but each shoot is different. I can't rely on the same standard effects each time I crank up the computer to edit my family portrait shoots.

Here it is without any major adjustments. An increase in contrast and vibrance, is all.
Adding some colorization to the shadows, while washing out some highlight detail.
Similar to the first, with a slight hint of extra shadow detail.
Going for a vintage look with the highlights, some shadow detail in the silhouette.
Adding a vignette, along with custom tone colorization to highlights and shadows.

With as much fun as we all had last week, I want to deliver some amazing photos to accompany the fun time we all had shooting a mother and daughter family portrait shoot in Point Defiance park. For now, I'm still in that phase where I'm debating which image adjustment I like best. Comments are appreciated!