Baby Mondays: Sweet pea

Sweet Peas might be on your grocery list this week, but you might not find this special variety at the local market. She was such precious little girl, her parents are very lucky to have such a calm, content and easy going first born much like mine was 9 years ago. I loved creating this photo and the double take from the customers who would then ask if that was a real baby on the shelf, Sweet Pea's Mom practically grew up in this little corner store so they welcomed the idea, I couldn't have just walk into a Publix or Winn-Dixie , rearrange their shelves and put a naked baby in the baking isle without going through miles of red tape. It's been a couple months, I wonder if she's eaten her first jar of peas yet.

2010 Portrait Giveaway Winner!

Thanks to those of you who entered , all comments and emails received by January 28th 10:00 pm were entered and the winner was randomly chosen at 9:25 am January 29th, 2010.

Congratulations to the winner of the KMP 2010 Portrait Giveaway....

 erinlangley said...

We love Peaks Island, Maine!
-Erin Langley

January 13, 2010 9:57 AM

Baby Mondays: Sweet S....lumber

Who wouldn't love this photo, it's enchanting and mysterious, it's beautiful and peaceful and one of the hardest photo sessions I have ever done and right in my very own diningroom. This tiny 7 day old bundle was bright eyed and bushy tailed for most of the shoot, we couldn't believe that after 4 hours of cuddling, feeding , burping and more feeding Baby nugget wasn't going to sleep in this log. Wrapped and cozy like a burrito from the chest down, padding and music wasn't enough and even a pacifier could coax him to the land of nod, but the pacifier did buy us the split second of time it took to get one frame and it's priceless. A special thanks to his extremely patient Mommy Miranda.

Sally + 2 adorable kids!

Love these faces, Love this location , Love It!

This Baby Monday is... Easy to Love

At 4 weeks old this Baby Love was as sweet as can be and a great sleeper! No drama with this one, this was Baby Love's third photo shoot and it went off without a hitch , he was a real pro by then and after setting the scene for over an hour in their sitting room off to the land of nod he went, so perfectly asleep in his father's guitar case it was a shame we had to wake him up at the end of the shoot.

Easy to Love  © KMP 2009

I wonder if he'll grow up to be a musician like his Dad?

The simple black background

Such a love of mine, whether in black&white or color, indoors or outdoors, a simple black background can make a portrait and can be achieved with out the use of artificial back drops.

Placing a child by a window with strong light allows the wall in the background to go dark and makes a great simple black&white portrait. Above Abby was in her families diningroom which had deep brick colored walls which when converted to black and white the wall looks black.

If the room has shutters or curtains opening just a portion to allow enough light to come through and illuminate your subject. Above, Ms. B. was in her diningroom with all indoor lights off and one of the plantation shutters on the rooms windows open for just the perfect amount of light need, shutters are great since you can change the direction of the light coming through.

 

In an outdoors setting a dark or black background can be achieved using a shallow depth of field and making sure there is no light hitting the background , the photo of miss K. above was taken in their backyard, a fence and some bushes were behind the her in this photo.

Again another outdoor portrait this time shot with a focal length of 200 at 2.8 to drop out the background which was a group of trees, the subject was lit by light coming through a break in the trees, awesome!

Here is an example of a controlled setting with a black cloth background and a large soft box lighting Baby S. due to the 5 inches of rain we received that day, this look can be achieved with window light if  the weather permits.

Baby, I love Mondays!

Welcome to the start of baby Mondays, blogging about adorable newborns and the pleasure of photographing these tiny bundles, the good the bad and the I would sleep no matter how much you sing, hold or feed me. Enjoy!

Today is all about the first moments of life. (photos are intentionally blurred and viewer discretion is advised)

Aidan's birth October 2004(that's me)

I thought I'd share a personal story to start off Baby Mondays. After having 2 previous children I  felt like an old pro and it was at this time I set on a quest to make this delivery different, being a photojournalist I'd seen it all, well almost all, my camera had never captured a birth from the Mom's perspective but it was more than that it was about bridging  my life and career about having that connection of being both a "Mommy" and a working photographer. Now you might need to have a cool doctor like Dr. S to have it be okay with the them and I'm not going to write a long post about the pains of labor since mine are all under 3hours long,  the photo was taken by my husband who too is a photojournalist so cameras in hand we went in to meet son. This was a once in a lifetime event for me, Aidan is our only son and the next delivery I chose 100% natural birth and discovered the true meaning of "blinding pain" take my word , it's real. 

the moment of awakening

 first breath of life

Notice the halo around Dr.S, Thank you for 3 wonderful and safe deliveries and Dr.V for the other.

Where did you come from, baby dear?

Out of the everywhere into here. 

~George MacDonald

To read the poem in it's entirety  click here: Where Did You Come From, Baby Dear?

Rad Actions!

Here's how to get some quick and easy changes to photos using some awesome photoshop actions click  Totally Rad Actions!  and find out.

Recipe:Slice like a Ninja 100%, Lux 30% and Boutwell Magic Glasses 100%

Recipe for B***** Black & White 100%

After                                           Before

Recipe: Troy 100%

After                                         Before

Recipe: Troy 100% and Super Fun Happy Actions 40%

  

 Recipe: Troy Action 100%

before

less than three weeks to enter my "totally rad" giveaway, open to anyone wanting to have fun time and some great photos to show for it!

80 Years!

I would like to give a special thanks to my Grandfather who's influenced my life and career more than he will ever know, remembering how as a young girl I thumbed through his hundreds of  black and whites he stored in Kodak boxes on a shelf upstairs, each image printed to perfection with shades of gray, black and white coming together to preserve his families life and the lay the seed for what would be my future.

Smile

 My children with their Great-Grandfather's Rolleiflex ~2010

It was 15 years ago he handed down to me his 1950's Rolleiflex while I was in college studying photography, what honor it is to use the same camera he had used to take some of those hundreds of photographs, what honor to have him as a role model. Happy Birthday Pappa!

2010 Portrait Session Giveaway!

The Giveaway winner is:

 erinlangley said...

We love Peaks Island, Maine!
-Erin Langley

To celebrate my 15 years in Photography and the start of a new decade I am giving away a FREE Family or Kids portrait Session Package(your choice), open to any one within 50 miles of the Eastern Shore or visiting on Holiday in 2010. All you need to do to enter is: Leave a comment at the bottom of this post about your favorite family vacation destination, deadline for entries is January 28,2010 at 10:00pm (central). The winner win be announced on January 29,2010 by email so please make sure you information is correct and one comment/entry per household please.

**I have spoken to several who do not have an account (google,ect.) or are unable to leave their comment entry, to solve this problem simply click email me here on the right column of my blog and leave your favorite vacation getaway via email, please make sure it's labeled GIVEAWAY and I'll make sure your comment is included to be randomly select on January 29th, thanks.**

Good Luck and thanks for visiting my Blog.

~Kate