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Getting Ready For Gabriel

In my exploration of different types of photography, one of my many goals was to try maternity photography. I was all set to shoot Crystal, who was also the subject of my first wedding shoot (I thought it would be fitting to shoot her again), but as I explained in this post, life took an unexpected turn and that opportunity passed. Back to the drawing board. I asked my wife if she knew anyone and she presented me with one of her clients, Tamara.

The challenge was to explore the different popular poses, lighting methods, and themes in maternity photography while looking to create something new. I started off by searching through popular photo sites like Flickr and 500px for the work of other photographers to see what they are doing. I also wanted to prepare Tamara for what I expected from her, so my wife and I picked our favorite photos and shared them with Tamara. I was hoping that by attempting the tried and true in maternity photography, but applying my style and lighting techniques, I’d get inspired to expand on what’s been done before and find something new. Get inspired, build on that inspiration, and then veer off into a new direction with what you’ve learned. That’s been a pretty good road map for me creatively.

This shot above has been done a million times before. The old “heart hands” as I like to call it. It’s cute, it’s got hands (which are always interesting photographically), and it’s got a touch of sentiment behind it. If you search the internet for maternity photos, you’ll find hundreds of the same type of photo. Still, I set up the shot and do it almost as if it’s an exercise. While I’ve got Tamara and her husband in front of my camera, I’m able to work with what I see, and because I’m liking the hands, I setup another tried & true photo of dad kissing mom’s belly. This time, I want to see their hands. This photo is all about the hands graphically.

Another shot I see usually taken from the mother’s perspective is the shot of the belly with their feet up against a wall and crossed. I decided to try a variation of that and had Tamara look back at me while lying on her back with her feet up and legs crossed. Since I was using a backdrop, I had no wall! This was a situation where help is 100% necessary and my wife Amy was playing the part of photo assistant. I had Amy hold up her legs and on the count of three she let go and I quickly snapped the photo. As you can expect, this position is anything but easy for a girl just weeks away from giving birth to pull off!

Building off that shot, I grabbed the blue bed sheet that we later used in the photo at the top of this post as well as baby blocks. This time I let her keep her feet down as the blocks were now a major element in the photo.

Since we had the blocks out and the mother on her back, I got her 1st born involved. He had just taken a bath and didn’t finish getting dressed yet, but I though it would be cool if he left the shirt off, just like mommy! We spelled out his new brother’s name and had him play with the blocks. His smile is genuine, because what kid doesn’t want to play with blocks?

I also have him pose with his brother in this shot as he listens for little Gabriel’s heartbeat. I love the contrast of his hand with his Tamara’s as well as the catchlight in his eyes.

Another shot I really love is the low-key rim-lit shot of a (seemingly) naked maternal figure. The photo up top is one example using two lights, and the one just below is shot using one light source to create a dramatic image with shadows. The beautiful curves of an expectant mother is one of the most stunning subjects one can photograph. I say seemingly because she’s got her bottoms on as well as being fully taped up on top. The illusion is always more interesting as it leaves more to the imagination! Sorry to spoil that for ya…

The rest of the shoot was done using natural lighting. I set up this scene in her front window with the theme of waiting. At this point in her pregnancy, it’s about all she can think about – the waiting.

The sun was getting low in the sky, so we took advantage of the golden hour and hurried outside for a family shot. As I was shooting the family together, we got one magical moment where the dogs stopped, looked at the camera, and posed. It was amazing!

Tamara was spent. She was such a trooper as we tried different poses, set-ups, and wardrobe changes. After hours of shooting, she was ready for one last setup – the bubble bath.

This leads me to what I think is my most successful shot of the day. This photo screams maternity. An exhausted mom relaxing in the tub, feet up, candles lit, and a grin on her face that glows with the anticipation of the chaos that will be upon her and her family in the coming weeks. Right at this moment she takes a minute to enjoy the best part about being a woman, the gift of life.

Mutts, Music, & More

Today was the 1st 2nd Sunday on King Street for 2012 in Charleston, SC. The weather was perfect for Charleston’s monthly block party. Last time I shot one of these, I decided that I needed to focus on shooting more dogs the next time I go, so today was that next time. Let’s start off with the most interesting dog I saw today, a Toy Australian Shepherd:

Here are some other stand-outs that we saw:

There was also plenty of music courtesy of Shrimp City Slim, Sollie “Puddin” Jenkins, Michael Lindsey, and accordionist Matt Lohan (pictured at the top of this post). Here’s some shots of the musicians on King Street:

Some stores brought their wares out onto the streets…

And restaurants their food…

There were plenty of interesting people from all walks of life enjoying the unseasonably mild weather. It felt more like early fall than early winter.

We had a great Mediterranean lunch at Taziki’s Restaurant, but had to cut our trip a little short with the news that Amy’s cousin gave birth to her daughter over at MUSC. Crystal was the subject of my very first wedding shoot a couple of years ago! Here’s a shot of her with Kegan in the hospital:

Congrats to the proud parents! After we left the hospital, we stopped by my brother-in-law’s house over in James Island to check out his girlfriend’s new chicken coup. While we were there, there was one of those phenomenal Charleston sunsets, and I used my iPhone to capture this shot of the colorful sky through the trees:

Second Sunday On King St.

Late last year, the city of Charleston decided after the success of the “Do the Charleston” festival to regularly close King Street to traffic on the second Sunday of each month so that the pedestrians could take over (you can read more about the origins here). Today I was finally able to bring the family for an afternoon downtown and also to do some street photography.

The diptych above was a group of people watchers in Ye Ole Fashioned Ice Cream and Sandwich Cafe. They were having a blast commenting on what everyone was wearing, and I told them I was turning the camera on them next!

1/100th of a sec | f/4.5 | 62mm | ISO 200

It didn’t take long for me to start looking for some decent light and interesting people to shoot. It was mid-day, so the light was harsh and three quarters of the street was in shadow. I found that the slivers of light between buildings was a great side-light opportunity and looked for opportunities to use it.

I also looked for people who were doing just ordinary things, like eating some lunch…

…or drinking some coffee…

…or talking on the phone…

…or walking their dog…

…or flipping me the bird while double-fisting some beverages…

…or looking as happy as can be…

…or just as pretty as can be.

I was hoping to get a lot of shots of people dressed up as characters from the “Where’s Waldo” series as there was an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the most people dressed like Waldo in one place (more info on that here). Unfortunately, they fell quite short of the record. I did grab a shot of these two festive Wandas:

As with any outdoor Low Country event, the dogs were out en masse. I think the next time I attend one of these Second Sundays I’m gonna focus on capturing the dogs – there were so many awesome dogs out.

Getting down to the dog’s perspective makes for an interesting composition:

These dogs looked really excited to be out and about:

I also made some black & white shots – I knew when I shot this one that it would be perfect as a monotone image – the contrast and negative space are just shouting to be devoid of any distracting colors.

All in all, I had a blast and cant wait to do it again. I have a hefty set of photos on my Flickr stream if you want to see some of the other shots I made today. Street photography is a fun and exciting way to exercise your creative mind, and you end up meeting interesting people in the process.