This weekend much of our time in the studio in-between photography sessions is being spent printing and framing many of our clients orders for holiday gifts.  Its exciting to see everything coming together and that many people are going to be getting beautiful pieces of art of their loved ones for gifts this holiday.

Here are three lovely black & white photographs that were taken in our photography studio in Seattle that I just printed up that I thought I would post. 

It’s well and truly dark this morning so I thought I would post a fun colorful photograph to counter those winter blues.  This one was taken a little while ago and I just finished preparing a beautiful canvas photograph of this for the studio as one of our new studio samples.  There is something that I just love about the energy and color in this.  Such a fun way to start the morning!

I have been wanting to blog these photographs for a while.  They were taken in our photography studio in Seattle and show some of the fun that we frequently have in our studio. Just a brother and his younger sister goofing around and having fun with me working away to capture many of those magic and funny moments.  I just love the energy within these frames and how it captures that developing relationship.

Happy Sunday everyone! 

A couple of weeks ago I got the chance to photograph an exciting new children’s gym in Redmond.  Great Play core concept is based around kids having lots of fun while at the same time developing a love of physical activity that will lead to lifetime of different activities.  The Great Play concept first started in Stamford, CT but now the greater Seattle area has one for themselves, opened by Marie Maxwell in Redmond.

When Marie asked me to come in to photograph her new gym I jumped at the chance, although I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.   Over the years I have been to a number of children’s gym’s, but they are normally focused on one or two sports.  Marie’s Redmond gym is very different and unique.  Great Play’s classes are filled with fun interactive and different exercises that are developed specifically for a child’s age to develop their movement and motor skills.  One of the obviously things that you notice is that the gym is very high tech to enhance the experience for the kids.  The wall’s are basically huge screen’s and then projectors display different scene’s and fun characters that the kids just love.  What I find great about this concept is that as I watched the kids enjoying themselves you could actually see them become much more confident as they did things that they didn’t think they could.  I put together a quick video slide show some of the fun the kids have plus lots of photo’s, just click on the thumbnail below. 

All in all a great fun morning, I had a blast but must admit that I was pretty exhausted afterwards as I ran around trying to capture these young kids who were full of energy.    I’ve added a small collection of many of the photographs that I captured that day below so you can see them as well.

Cheers

Conveniently located in Downtown Redmond We’ve built a new Interactive Arena for Buddy and his friends! Address: 16510 Cleveland St, Suite N, Redmond, WA. Map it. Great Play of Redmond WA

It reassuring to me in this world of electronic games & gadgets how the simplest things are still often the best for young children.  Take these three core ingredients - sun, water jets and grass and see what happens!  

These fun photographs were taken recently and I think it represents many peoples memories of childhood fun in the summer time.  The two brothers were having so much fun and its great to see them both interacting around the water jets. I also think that Mum and Dad (along with the photographer!) were just as happy to get outside and play in the sun after Seattle’s long winter.  The kids went through two sets of T Shirts, but its all good as its summer and they dry quickly outside.  I put together a quick photo slide show set to music so you can see the complete set of photographs of the boys having a blast!.  Just click on the triangle below to view it.  

Here are a couple of photographs from a recent Mothers Day session that we did here in our photography studio here in Seattle.  Working with guys this age is so much fun, but I will also say a lot of hard work.  Figuring out new ways to entertain them and persuade them to try different things certainly keeps me on my toes.  But from their reactions Yasmin, Rubin and Linnea seemed to have lots of fun and it wasn’t too painful for them.  Mum and Dad were standing on the sidelines watching all of the activity and I wanted to post a couple of previews for them before they come in to see the full line up of proofs. 

As the kids get older one of the best things has to be watching their relationship grow and evolve.  Between the games, the laughter, the play fights and of course the occasional tears at its core is their relationship as siblings which is surrounded by love, support and admiration for each other.  Of course parents see this all the time and often when I talk to them before our sessions one of the top requests that I often get is that they want me to capture that relationship which is so special.  I feel honored to be asked to take on such an important task and it’s especially pleasing when clients come back into the studio to review the proofs and they feel like I did just that.  Here we have Neha and her younger brother Aman and its the photograph that we all agreed was the one that showed their relationship in a single print.

OK, back to work for me - happy Thursday!   

Two boys, neither of them not exactly very happy about having their photographs taken.  One was just simply cranky at the whole concept and the other insisted on making silly faces for much of the time and was far from being himself.   My approach is always to let them play, let them be boys and with a bit of luck gradually they forget about where they are for a little while.  Here are three of my favorites from a recent photography session in the studio that I just got done finishing printing. 

Completely adorable in frame!

How about some fun and goofy family photography for this evening’s post.  This totally lovely family actually came into our photography studio in Seattle late last year but they have had an incredibility busy 2008 and only recently had the time to decide what photographs they liked.  I’m just wrapped up printing their photographs and thought that I would share a few of my favorites from the order.  I hope everyone has had a fun and enjoyable weekend.  Here in Seattle we actually had one sunny day before the rain returned again today.  I guess spring isn’t yet here in reality.      

Seattle is still struggling to exit the ever lasting winter that has engulfed the area providing snow showers even in mid April which is so strange it’s silly. Yesterday saw more snow showers and then a couple of hours later a sun break, although still cold.  Then today is Monday, everyone’s favorite day of the week especially if they had a great weekend which I hope they did!

So to try and break all the doom and gloom I thought I would add some fun and colorful photographs to brighten the morning up.  This beautiful young man is Mr Ryan, he came into the studio a while ago with Mum. He was a little shy at first, but as you can see that didn’t last for long and then he was running around like crazy with me having to keep up with him.   It’s times like this when I get to work with such energy and happiness that I’m reminded how much I love this job and I feel very lucky to get to meet such a happy guy and his lovely parents.  These photographs were taken in the studio using a combination of natural afternoon light with a little bit of studio lights, I just love the colors coming out of the hardwood floors and brick walls. 

Ryan actually came into the studio with one of our special sessions that we call New Thursdays!  Its a totally free way for new clients to try us and see if they like working with us and we are getting some great reactions from clients. Details are here if you are interested.   

This Saturday I got the opportunity to spend time with young Noah who was just 17 days old!   I went over to his parents house, Jenny and Steve in Issaquah where we took lots of photographs of the new arrival with him and his new parents.  It was a completely fun time and I think I managed to get some creative shots that his parents will enjoy looking through.  He was simply a dream to work with,  barely a cry for the whole time that I was there.   I just finished backing up the photographs to the server and couldn’t resist having a quick look before getting started with another project.  Here he is laid out, arms stretching above his head as he started to fall asleep. 

I will say after his session and the other projects that I was working on this weekend he wasn’t the only one that was tired after everything was done!

Last week two young brothers visited the photography studio in Seattle for the first time.   They were completely adorable, but yet so different in terms of their behavior and attitude with respect to the camera and being photographed.   Thomas was excited to be there and very comfortable in front of the camera, constantly posing and being a complete ham.   Colin on the other hand was far from happy at being photographed and Mum had to bribe him with a new toy which is spent most of the time playing with.  It made working with them completely different and for the most part they preferred to be photographed separately. 

Here they are together entertaining Mum who was stood to my left. 

Last week I got to meet Ryan for the first time.  This bundle of pure energy is now 15 months old and a whole lot of fun.  When he first arrived he was a little shy and reserved but after a while he started to relax and be himself - it wasn’t long before he was moving around the studio laughing and playing.  He was such a happy young man and a total joy to work with.  

I just finished reviewing the proofs from the session and thought I would post a couple here that I thought captured his energy for his mum to see. 

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. 

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.