You might remember Cindy and John from our Real Couple of the Year wedding photography contest in February. They were our winners, and we are so happy for them!

Cindy and John are a fantastic couple, and we are so glad that we were able to squeeze their engagement shoot in last weekend (even as the weather conspired against us). Cindy just got back from her deployment, and John is about to leave on his deployment, so it wasn’t hard to catch the joy they feel being around each other!

(I think that might go down in history as my all-time favorite jump shot. John, you are my hero!)

I love this shot of Cindy looking at John:

Piggyback rides are good. But let’s not talk about what happened when John jumped on for a ride. That didn’t end quite so well.

And totally mandatory for me at each engagement shoot–a detail shot of snuggling with a little bit of hazy post-processing.

Cindy and John, we are so excited for your wedding and look forward to photographing you again–thanks for being so fun to work with! With such a cute couple in such amazing places (the Air Force Academy Chapel and the Cliff House in Manitou Springs), we know the results will be incredible! We wish John luck and safety on his deployment!

Poor Carolyn and Jack get bumped to the front of the line because when we returned to our cars at the end of the shoot, their car had been broken into! The criminals didn’t take anything, but broke the window anyway (which almost makes it more annoying).

We were also disappointed when our piece de resistance of the evening didn’t happen. We had planned on ending the shoot at The Tattered Cover (Jack and Carolyn are both in publishing, which makes the fabulous bookstore an even better location) but didn’t think through the fact that on Sunday, they close at 6:00 (instead of 11:00). BUMMER OF BUMMERS.

Jack and Carolyn were fabulous troopers, though, and total pros at engagement shoot posing by the end of the night! We had our fair share of disappointments last night, but it was matched by fun accidents like when we were were misidentified as teenagers, or finding the cool underside of this bridge:

And this awesome wall:

Or this little locks by the river (it looks a lot prettier than it smelled…):

Or this coffee shop (and the kind girl who left her sweet spot in the window for a few minutes while we took a few shots):

And a few more shots for good measure:

A little bit of vintage grunge for this one:

Thanks again, Jack and Carolyn for a wonderful evening! We can’t wait for your wedding, we hope you love this sneak peek, and we hope your car magically grew its window back last night!

I had an OpLove photography session at Palmer Park (one of my favorite Colorado Springs locations) on Saturday. Here are a few of my favorites:

This little girl loves her daddy so much. I love how she looks so much younger in this shot:

When I asked her to steal her daddy’s hat (after hearing that she loves to wear it), she corrected me. Apparently it is THEIR hat, not HIS hat.

He is equally popular with this little guy. I got a ton of great family pictures of everyone exploring the park.

I love portraits of a family walking. In this case, there was a lot of laughing and running.

And this is the inevitable outcome of running and being little. I told them that it was a good thing I have this photo for their lawsuit against me.

For anyone new to the party, this month I’m going over two photos: one good, and one bad, and analyzing a few easy to change things that make the good one different from the bad. We could very easily go longer than four weeks, but, like I said, I am sick to death of these pictures, so it’s time for a change next week!

For one last time, we have the good picture:

And the bad:

Simple Tip – Your Camera’s Flash Sucks

Whether you have a $1000 camera, or a $200 camera, the flash that comes on it sucks. It is very good at exposing your subject correctly, but it is awful at making the photo look natural or beautiful.

All you need to do is look at The Bad Photo and you know instantly that my on-camera flash fired. Why? Nic has a white spot on his forehead (called a hot spot) and there is a horrible shadow behind his head.

In The Good Photo, no flash has fired. His skin looks nice, and there are no unsightly shadows.

In some situations, you absolutely couldn’t take a picture with a point-and-shoot without using a flash. But many cameras fire the flash almost always, regardless of whether or not it is needed. An easy way to make your pictures better is to turn off the flash. Indoor nighttime shots will take on an orange tone, but that isn’t undesireable–in fact, it will usually make you feel warm and cozy about the photo, because in that moment the light was nice and warm and orangey.

Step it Up – Make Your Flash Rock

As much as flash *can* suck, flash can also rock. There are as many things to learn about using as flash as there are about rocket science, and it all starts with getting an external flash. If you have a dSLR, you’re going to want to pick up an external flash. They aren’t super pricey (if you’re a nikon shooter, you can pick up this little baby for $100). The cool thing about external flashes is that the head can be rotated. Why is this cool? Because it enters you into the world of bouncing flash.

When you fire your flash directly at your portrait subject, the light source is small. If you turn your flash head toward the wall behind you (and in front of your subject), the light will bounce off the wall and then hit your subject. Instead of having a small flash-sized light source, you now have a light source the size of the wall! It’s like having a giant soft-box at your disposal.

Soft light is more flattering, won’t give you those “hot spots” like you see on Nic’s forehead in The Bad Photo, and avoids hideous flash shadows.

For more on flash and cool lighting, check out any of these sites (be prepared to start buying more strobes and accessories just as quickly as you collect lenses):

Strobist

Flash Flavor

Scott Kelby

I have so many favorites that it’s a little bit silly and almost impossible for me to start weeding them down. Here are a few of the sneak peeks I made up for her mommy, though! (I feel particularly proud of these shots because I knit the little wrap she is in.)

This next one has a little bit of a vintage feel. I have been playing around with post-processing a few photos here and there differently, and I love the look on this one:

Mallory and her sweet family:

I want to talk about lenses (those I love and those I’ve let go) on one of the photography Tuesdays, so I won’t say much more than: if you don’t have it, you need it.

And share these fun test shots. (I wasn’t the only one who got presents today–Will’s presents from his grandparents’ trip to Disneyland arrived while he was napping, too.)

And one that makes my heart melt. I am very lucky to be the recipient of lots and lots of love and hugs and face smashing.