The Way I View…Summertime!

Even though the only beaches I could go to growing up were on lakes, I’ve always loved the beach.  This summer, we’ve discovered that we’re less than an hour drive from Sandy Point in Annapolis, and we’ve been out there a few times with the kids!  Since I’m now used to the ocean, going to the bay, with virtually no changes from tides, is a huge adjustment, but still, this beach, with the bridge in the background is just gorgeous.

We were killing time, waiting for that golden hour to start.  The photographer’s dream — golden glow of sunset.  Except that, during the summer, the sun sets really late around here, and my kids were ready to go long before I was ready to start shooting pictures.  Still, we managed to play silly games and keep them going.

I had an idea in my head for the image I was looking for this particular day, but my daughter, at 3, doesn’t exactly take direction.  Luckily, my 5 year old was willing to be my guinea pig (in exchange for some bribe I don’t remember). Or perhaps willing is too strong a word….

Having put up with five minutes of trying different angles, etc., my son was completely done with pictures — but luckily, sibling rivalry worked in my favor, and my daughter insisted that she get to lie in the sand, too!  (If you follow my Facebook page, you’ve seen the first of this next series).

I had the shots I was looking for — the rest was just gravy after that!

You can see the light getting more and more golden as the photos progressed.  We were exhausted by the end, but the patience was worth it.  The beach, the light, the fact that we could keep the kids up later with no repercussions — so many parts that I treasure about summer.

Wishing your summer is filled with beautiful light and love as well!

Don’t forget to check out Jo’s gorgeous beach pictures (Photography by Jo Lien)!   For some fun, you can follow her link to Susan Edge Photography and then click all the way through the circle!

- Danie

This is my best friend’s little girl. We were playing a very rousing game called “No, silly little one, don’t crawl off the couch!”  It went something like this.

Me: “Okay, baby girl, you sit right here on the couch…”
I grab my camera and back a couple steps away from the couch, madly trying to focus in rather low light.
Baby girl: laughing hysterically, diving for the edge of the couch
Me: throwing camera to the side, grabbing baby girl.  “No, silly little one, that’s not that game!  You don’t crawl off the couch while I’m trying to take your picture.  Okay, let’s try again.  You sit right here on the couch….”

It was a little exhausting, actually (and don’t worry, she was never close to falling off!!!!), but so worth it.  These are actually the pictures from round two, where I discovered that she’d hold more still with a bottle.  It’s all about trying to be more clever than the almost-one-year-old!

More to come, but I just love this storyboard soooooo much!  (It’s meant to be printed pretty large, so the pictures aren’t really less than an inch in size!

- Danie

Coloring is very serious business, as you can see.

Eventually, she decided to rejoin the boys, who had started to watch the movie “Cars” (see previous post with the other two boys).  They hadn’t settled in yet, and apparently the chaos called for an emergency pacifier (aka, sneaking it when I wasn’t looking!).

I find I don’t mind TV nearly as much when my kids decide to use toys to reenact the scenes!

Contemplating the deeper meaning behind the “Cars” cars?

Suddenly, she found herself engrossed in the movie!

My thanks again the extreme indulgence of my good friend for letting me take so many pictures yesterday!

- Danie, Bethesda, MD Photography

Here, however, I can, at long last, show you the results of my “A Morning in School” project.  The goal? As with all lifestyle sessions, I wanted to create a series of images that captured the details of a typical morning in preschool.  Beautiful portraits are wonderful, but when I think about what I, as a mother, really want to look back at when my children are grown, I’ve realized that it’s the little things we do every single day that I’ll want to remember the most.  So my idea was to capture those details, and hand them to my client in a beautiful custom-designed album.

I think the pictures will largely speak for themselves!  Images of the album to come soon!

Stay tuned for images of the album — they don’t do it justice, but you’ll get a little glimpse.

I’m trying to write less so I have time to show more, but just have to add — this next image stole my heart as I was editing.  Just as I opened this image, the soundtrack to “August Rush” started playing on my computer, opening with the words,  ”I believe in music the way that some people believe in fairy tales.”  Ummm…how appropriate for this image!  You can just feel the soundtrack that is running through this child’s mind!

- Danie Smallwood, family photographer

When things got busy this Fall, I cheated a bit and relied on Facebook for some of my sneak peeks.  As a result, somehow I think I forgot to blog about this session at all!  Which is truly a shame, because this is one of my favorite families — yet another repeat client this Fall (thank you wonderful families!)!

The following images, featuring the gorgeous Fall foliage this year in Washington, DC, are those that Kimmie specifically mentioned she wanted to display together; so I reedited all of them to ensure that every image complemented the others — so important for a wall display!

Above – we’d gotten off to a tricky start, with little boy I absolutely fascinated by the Fall leaves.  Of course, we all were — that’s why we wanted to photograph in the Fall! — but it was no easy task getting past that intense concentration!  But, of course, we still managed lots of great images.I love a family that includes their dog in their family photo. 

One of my favorite things about photographing the G family is that they always include their dog, Sadie.  Isn’t she beautiful?  As a dog parent myself, this image just tugs at my heart, full of the trust our pets have for us.

Did I mention that I got these printed on metallic paper and they kept all the brightness and life that our backlit LCD monitors show….  Stunning!

- Danie Smallwood, Photography by Danie

I had this amazing idea earlier in the school year to bring in a couple of my cameras and let the kids see what it’s like to use use an SLR camera, while I used my third camera to take pictures of them doing it.

It was an awesome idea, I thought.  Planned it out.  Told the teachers.  Then wondered, would insurance cover two four year olds colliding on the playground, shattering lenses?

But I needn’t have worried.  It was a great time, and I achieved what I considered my main objectives:

• to give the kids a sense of what it feels like to hold such a heavy camera (even with fixed lenses on there, the Nikon D300 and D700 are heavy cameras)
• to show the kids how to put their eye right up to the viewfinder and take a moment to see what they were going to be taking a picture of
• to teach them the proper grip for the camera (aka, left hand wrapped under the lens, bearing the weight, fingers carefully not blocking the lens; right hand, 3rd, 4th and 5th fingers wrapped around the grip, pointer finger on the shutter button)

I’ve seen many adults shoot with a poorer grip than these kids had!

Here’s another look at a great grip (this one’s my son!).  As you can see, the grip was very important, because these kiddos were too little for the strap to be of any use!

Aside from a fun time, an unexpected benefit is that I now have dozens of pictures of myself, with camera in hand.

So, if you ever need pictures of yourself, just grab your nearest preschooler….

(A couple of these kids have a pretty good sense of composition, too — or else, seriously good luck.    You can see some original-crop pictures on my Facebook Page.)

A huge hug and thank you to the preschool teachers who facilitated this and so many other fun and new activities for these eager little minds!

- Danie

(To protect the artist from unauthorized reproductions, I’ve added the borders in the above image, and cropped the edges of the original painting.  The result doesn’t quite do the painting justice, of course…. )

And my thanks to Sarah Gaw Consulting, for some invaluable help in the post-processing. Not only is Sarah a great photographer herself (see her work here), she’s also runs a consulting business near Boston, Massachusetts, helping photographers and other artists learn post-processing with Photoshop and Lightroom, create file management/organizing systems, and general studio management.  In short, she’s really a photographer’s best friend (and quite literally, mine, since middle school! See, there’s my disclaimer…).

I was at an awards ceremony for my sister, who was graduating the next month from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA.  While she was showing her art show to my husband, I stayed outside with our doggie and my daughter, neither of whom were actively welcomed into an art gallery, of course.  (Though my dog is significantly better behaved than a lot of people in those situations, but I digress.)

This portrait will always remind me of her propensity to just sit down in the middle of sidewalk.  And the pacifier hanging out the side of her mouth is just so, well, Rheta!

But as much as I love that image, it’s the next sequence that I am drawn to over and over.  And if each stand-alone image is, perhaps, not quite as strong as that portrait above, still this day-in-the-life lifestyle photography captures a sequence of events I’ve seen unfold a million times.  This kind of lifestyle photography is no doubt my favorite — and nothing captures it better than a storyboard!  (Except, perhaps, for an album, but then it’s harder to hang up on your wall and email to eager grandparents!).

There she is, just shooting the breeze, looking, actually, a little indecisive about her next mischievous move.  So, she smooths out her skirt, clearly using the time to think.  Suddenly, she remembers that a few minutes earlier, I’d talked her into taking out her paci, and putting it in her purse.  In panic, she checks her purse for the paci.  Not there!  She looks closer.  She rummages around (I’m reminded of Mary Poppins opening her carpet bag and drawing out a lamp).  And finally she emerges victorious.

That’s the power of a storyboard.  A single image just can’t capture all that action.

So which one goes up on the wall?  Well, in a true “cobbler’s son has no shoes moment”, uh, probably neither. {Aside — my daughter has no shoes here, either!}  I’d have to get them printed and off my computer, right?  (Ever said that to yourself?   Don’t worry — I’m GREAT  at printing for clients!).

Happy summer!

- Danie, child and family photos in Bethesda and Charlottesville

Day in the life sessions are the perfect combination of the beauty of portraits, but the personality of a lifestyle session.

Nothing like a cool bath to stave off the heat in this weather!

- Danie Smallwood, Silver Spring, MD child and lifestyle photographer