Our Colorado Springs senior portrait rep ad went live this week. We are looking for Senior Portrait Reps that are graduating in 2009 (current juniors who will be seniors this fall) at Colorado Springs, Falcon, and Peyton high schools.
If you made your way here from the ad, welcome! Our senior rep program has a bunch of great benefits:
If you’re interested, please email me (traci@realphotography.com) or call 719.495.8820.
We kicked off our engagement portrait season (get ready for lots more sneak peeks in the coming weeks) with Meg and Matt’s engagement portrait session in rural Colorado Springs (otherwise known as Peyton and Falcon). Now, not every couple would get excited when their photographer asked if they would be up for a drive to the middle of nowhere, but Meg and Matt were! And they even brought props! Balloons and records and two dogs, of course!
You might remember them from our wedding contest, and they are just as fun as everyone said. They are a fantastic couple and we wish them the best!
I have lots more I want to share, but since they have been waiting so patiently and Carolyn and Jack already got their sneak peek, I thought I would post these:
It was windy and cold and the mountain shot that we had both hoped for was ruined by a giant hazy cloud (nothing really went as planned this weekend), but Meg and Matt followed me around as I came up with other ideas and we had a great time. Having balloons always helps (and they sweetly sent me home with the balloons for Will–which he loved–thanks guys)!
Cozying it up by the side of a barn. They got plenty of honks. (We were probably the most exciting thing that has happened to Peyton since the Walmart was built in Falcon.)
And this last one I love for the different look–a beautiful sunset feel. (In this version I’ve left the puncture wound on his hand from earlier in the shoot when Meg fell off a rock and somehow Matt ended up injured!)
Thanks for kicking off our engagement season, Meg and Matt (and for spoiling me with goodies–that lemon tea is heavenly)! I’ll most likely be posting more later this week!
I have more to share from Baby Mallory’s newborn session from last week. Sharing baby photo goodness will help drown my sorrows about my business credit card info being stolen.
Thankfully the credit card company was on top of it…although instead of contacting me, they let me stand there telling the guy at Barnes and Noble–”Seriously? I really don’t think it could possibly be declined. Run it again. There must be something wrong with the machine!” and I had to call THEM to find out what was going on. Will be watching the rest of my accounts even more carefully (as if poor Nic doesn’t already get enough calls with me freaking out “OMG! Someone stole our info! There’s a $70 charge from yesterday and I didn’t go anywhere!” only to be reminded that I went to Target and bought whatever it is that one spends money on at Target).
OpLove is a non-profit organization run by photographers to give back to the military community. Families with a deploying military member are offered free portrait sessions by OpLove photographers.
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. 
Hello Week #3 of Photography Tip Tuesdays!
This month we’re examining two snapshot portraits, and why one works, and the other doesn’t. Photography Tip #1 is here, Photography Tip #2 is here.
This is our bad photo:
And here is our good photo:
Simple Tip: It’s called “portrait” orientation for a good reason
When you want to print a sheet of paper the hotdog way, you select “portrait.” When you want to print it the hamburger way, you select “landscape.” It’s right there in the name, yet the vast majority of snapshots of people are horizontal prints (probably because it’s easier to hold the camera that way).
A very easy way to improve most of your compositions is to turn the camera, remembering that “portrait orientation is for people, landscape is for landscapes.”
People are tall and skinny, and so they fill the frame better when the photo is vertical. In the bad photo, Nic doesn’t fill the picture. He is the subject, but he’s swimming around with a bunch of clutter. In the good photo, Nic fills the frame.
Stepping it Up: All rules were meant to be broken
Finding ways to break this rule can lead to very interesting compositions. Most of the time landscape orientation portraits are showing a beautiful landscape, like this engagement portrait:
Close-ups can be very interesting, though, too, because it usually leads to cropping the face in an unexpected way:
If you’re going to use a horizontal orientation, though, it’s important to remember to watch your composition. You most likely will be creating some white space, so you’ll want to make sure that space really is white (and not full of a lamp or china cabinet as in The Bad Photo) and that you utilize the rule of thirds to keep things interesting. (More of the rule of thirds next week for our “simple photography tip.”)
