© Spellbound Images by Wendy - All Rights Reserved
Yesterday was my Grandson's 7th birthday... and I always try to celebrate with my children, and grandchildren on their special day. I have 10 grandchildren, some in school and some not. A couple days before the party my daughter messaged me and asked if I could bring along my equipment and take a few pictures of her youngest daughter Lileigh, who is not in school yet. She was looking for something to go along with the older kids school portraits. Even though I'm not a fan of typical school portraits I understood what she was looking for, and why.
My daughter lives in a nice apartment... however it is filled with furniture and kid stuff... not to mention we were having a birthday party! So room was a little bit of a factor. To pull it off we cleared a spot of toys and candy in the living room. I pulled out my blue backdrop from the van, which was about the same color as the other kids portrait backgrounds. Instead of putting up my stands I just had two of the guys hold the backdrop up behind her, about 4 feet away. We used a small table to sit her on, and I brought along my light stand with flash/umbrella bracket. I set this up about 2 feet away from my subject... camera right, and had my daughter hold my silver reflector at a 45% angle to camera left. I captured this one with my wide angle zoom lens.
Now Lileigh may only be 3 years old, but since she's MY grand daughter she knows exactly how to pose... she knows what Nana is looking for, and even though everyone else was running around having a great time, she sat long enough for me to pop off 4 shots, and smiled beautifully!
When I returned home I went to work in the digital dark room to recreate the texture in the background from the other children's portraits, although it's not perfect, it is a pretty good match. I removed some boo-boo's, softened her skin just a tad, brightened her eyes, and did a quick overall sharpen. Wa la! A pre-pre school portrait.
I wasn't sure what to call it at first since she isn't in pre school yet, but my daughter thought pre-pre school was the best name for it. I remember when I was younger, and we did school portraits, my mother was allowed to take my younger sister to the school to have her portrait done... why don't they do that anymore? Something to think about if you're a school portrait photographer.
Love, Laughs, and Photographs,
Wendy
Images captured with the Olympus E500, on Lexar digital media, with the Zuiko 14-54 wide angle zoom lens.
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