I have been a fan of the Lensbaby series of lens for ages.  I wrote up my first impressions of the lens here a number of years ago, but simply put the Lensbaby is a selective focus lens.  Basically it allows you to isolate certain parts of your subject while the rest of the photograph is blurred.  What is different from other lens is how you use it.  There is no auto focus or zoom functions that most modern lens have, you manually focus the subject by gripping the lens and twisting left-right-up-down to find your focusing point.  I know that it sounds weird and when my clients are watching me use it they often wonder what I’m doing, but the outside of the lens is made of a rubbery type plastic that allows you to twist it in multiple directions. 

Using it is far from a science, especially with subjects that are moving because the results are somewhat unpredictable depending on how you are twisting and holding the lens, but in many ways its one of the most creative lens that I have. Its almost a pure artist lens and allows me to be completely creative in ways that other lens don’t - its almost freeing me from the modern world that we live in when I’m behind the camera.  As such its pretty much always in my kit bag or out in the photography studio ready and I like to use it on most of my sessions for some of the time to give the clients some extra choice of photographs that they can select from.

These few shots here were of Newborn Hanna with the eyes as the primary focusing point. 

Seeing as I posted a shot of Jester in the studio it seemed like I should post one of Miss Georgia Jones.  Jones - as she likes to be called isn’t nearly as visible as Jester in the studio, she is a little shy initially and it takes her a while to become comfortable with folks.  If she does pay you a visit it’s most likely towards the end of your visit.  Here she is from Sunday, resting, or should I say sleeping, right in-between two frames that I was building.  Its funny how they each have their own spots that they love to hang out in.  Initially when I sneaked up on her with my camera all she could do was just lift her eye and yawn at me.  Nice life they have for sure. 

I was reminded this morning how much I love watching the facial expressions of newborn babies.    There is something really special about watching these little guys and capturing their funny smiles and grins as they develop.  You have to wonder what she was thinking as she grabbed onto her Mum who was deep in conversation.  Then we have those babies eyes, so bright, wide and clear in their young age.  This little lady is Hanna and she was visiting Seattle recently and her Aunt brought a photography session for her sister as a gift.  One of the things I need to do today is upload the proof’s for mum to see.  

I need to make some tea and get on with the day. 

Young children and especially newborn babies always take my breath away.  There is something priceless about this time that is so special that it always leaves me in awe at life and the miracles that it can bring. 

So imagine how happy I am to get the opportunity to photograph two newborn twins!   These two beautiful girls, Sophie & Mason came into this world a little while ago and are doing really well after their initial care and attention from the amazing folks at Swedish.  They have been home for a little while and I got the chance to capture some of that magic last week. 

Here are some of the proof’s from the many photographs taken.   

On this Valentines Day I thought I would post this very cute photograph of a young couple very much in love.  Here we have Nicole and Stephen from last week’s session and I love the intimacy of this photograph as it captures a special moment between the two of them. 

Just a quick post to wish everyone a happy valentines day. 

Nicole and her boyfriend Stephen came into the studio last week to have some photographs taken.  I’ll post the shots of them both soon, but before then here’s a few of her.   Nicole is this super high energy and bubbly person that never seems to have a quite moment and as such has this large array of facial expressions that very much match her mood.

The crazy facial expressions is what most people see, but I wanted to grab something different - a little more thoughtful, a little more reflective and maybe even serious.  It was hard work at first as Nicole didn’t necessary feel comfortable in front of the camera but after a while she relaxed and we got something that I really liked.  One of those is posted above, toned in black & white which I thought was appropriate for the shot.  A few of the many other proofs below.      

Jenny came into the studio on Friday for her second maternity session.   She first visited the photography studio back in November and we had decided to do a second session to capture the growth of the belly as her pregnancy involved.  Right now she is about five-six weeks away from her due date and everything is going very well. The session was very relaxed, Jenny brought some breakfast snacks as we did start out early that day!

Although this is such an obviously thing to say, it’s incredible to see the amount of change that has happened with the belly in the last three months.   It’s hard not to get excited as you see how happy they are with the pending arrival of their first child and I feel very honored that I get to capture some of that onto film.   Here are a few of my favorites from Friday, in part chosen to show the large amount of change from last time that’s shown here.  I do love the ‘baby’ photograph above! 

Angelica came in last weekend to look at the proofs from the photography session that we did the week before.   I also got to met her husband who came along as well which was lovely.   We sat down in the presentation room and reviewed the photographs on the big screen.   It’s a quick and easy process and we soon narrowed down the list to three favorites that they both liked.  Angelica tended to align more for black & white toned photographs, although I gave her the color ones as well in case she needs to use them in her marketing materials.  Here’s two of her final selection.  Quite lovely. 

This past weekend I was sorting through some photographs thinking about what new prints that I wanted to get framed up for the studio.  With the new year we have been doing a bunch of thinking about rearranging the studio a little and I still have a bunch of printing that I need to get to.  

This photograph is on the short list and it makes me smile when I look at it.  I think that every parent of a four or five year old spends much of their time entertaining their child at this stage in life where so much seems new, interesting and worth investigating.  They have a tendency to wear you out with that constant energy that seems to keep them going don’t they!    And then, almost by magic they have those little quite moments in-between all that energy where they get all thoughtful.  To me capturing those moments on film is an art form in its own right as you really get the chance to sneak a glimpse of the child that isn’t often visible to everyone.  Here we have Miss Olivia in one of those private moments engaged in her own thoughts as I worked away with a long lens so as not to distract her.    

Welcome to my web site and thanks for visiting. We have put together this quick two minute video for you as an introduction to our photography studio, our unique approach to creating original pieces of art and of course our photographs.

After watching the video please check out our services section that includes our free session for new clients. We also offer a number of packages that might be perfect if you are expecting or have a newborn baby. We have heaps of photographs for you to review and even have our exclusive promotions email list where we send out offers about once a month.

Please let us know if we can answer any questions and good luck with your search for a photographer.

One of the major personalities of the studio has to be Jester.  He adopted me a couple of years ago at a time when I was doing a lot of international travel and I wanted someone to be a friend to Miss Jones.  He will have his third birthday coming up in April.   

He mostly makes most appearances on my other blog which has a nice write up on why he named Jester here which also gives a good sense of his personality.  But seeing as he is often present during our photography sessions I thought he deserved a quick post here.   

This photograph was taken with a 16mm fisheye lens.    Fisheye lens are extremely wide lens that creates a distorted image because of its hemispherical lens design.  Although not typically used for portrait photography because it distorts the image which obviously is often the face its something I will often grab if I want to try something different.   In this case I was on the floor and the ever interested Jester decided to approach me.  His noise was only an inch or so away from the camera when I took this and I love that his face looks so big and that he’s almost floating on the floor.  A very cool shot for a very cool guy!  OK - back to work!

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