Tag / field

I spent an incredible week in Prague – 10 sessions and just an amazing array of inspiring locations.  Here’s a small peek from the Czech Republic!

On a very stormy and cold Winter day in Bellingham, Washington, I was given the fantastic opportunity to shoot a beautiful young lady.  The tree in the background is very special – it is home to the city’s bald eagle and he was flying around us carefully to make sure we weren’t going near his nest.   My little model and her father were troopers through the cold rainy day and worked hard to give us the beautiful images from the day.

This one was my favorite from the day.  A simple one light set up.

Photographing the children of other professional photographers can be a very mixed bag.  Most of those children are hounded with a camera from the moment they are born and they would rather do anything than have to take more pictures.

But these two lovely ladies were different.  Both daughters of respected and prominent Columbus area photographers Gwen Z Photography and Elizabeth Esthi Photography, these girls were out to have fun and play and even pose!

I don’t think a midday full sun shoot could get any more fantastic than this – they were such a treat and it was a pleasure to shoot alongside professionals that day.

We used two locations that day: a farm (with beautiful rustic old barn) and a field of naturally growing wildflowers.  My vision for the shoot was pure Summer joy:  all the things that make Summer in Ohio a magical time full of warm magical memories.

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Fall is just starting to dust the foliage in Southern Finland and I was really looking forward to capturing the colors of the season with this session. I had a lovely family to shoot – and for me, the challenge was to make sure that every image I shot really showed how remarkably kind and sweet this small family is – and to make sure their love came through clearly.

We started in a beautiful forested area by the lake. Of course, with a lake session the challenge is to photograph but still make sure no little ones decide to go swimming. But the lake is also my lighting source, especially on an overcast day like that afternoon. And although I love the diffused lighting, I also have to make sure not to flat light them so that I destroy the dimensionality and toning of the photographs. But that is the challenge of professional photography – to shoot so that I am always optimally positioned for the best light possible (and avoid trees growing out of people’s heads!)

I am so happy when families are completely on board to make the best images possible. Mom and dad brought changes of clothing for everyone and even picnic supplies for the middle of the shoot. And their little one was kind enough to bring me grapes to eat inbetween the photographs! It gave us a wide variety of images and felt like a series of images taken over several days rather than a short hour or so.

One happy aspect of the lake location is the abundance of blueberry bushes. We were able to find some blueberries to keep the little guy happy and even a little froggie appeared from underneath a bush, much to our delight. I’m not sure the frog shared our enthusiasm for the photography but at the very least, he is now a professionally photographed star!

After the shoot, we tried to get some images in the local wheat and rye fields (and look for some horses to say hi to!). But the area had been recently harvested! Fortunately, we were able to head out to a nearby field of sunflowers and do some picking! The field was next to a freeway and new subdivision – making it a challenge to keep whizzing trucks, telephone poles, light posts, and newly constructed duplexes out of the images! Not to mention that all the sunflowers face the sun – and in order to get their front, I had to put the freeway into the background! But when I saw the images, I can see that it was totally worth it and the bright golden sunflowers really make what was a cold Autumn day seem like a bright golden Indian Summer afternoon.

We finished the session in a field of golden dried grass lining the freeway onramp. Their little one had a fun time hiding behind a clump of grass and then popping up and running to surprise mom with a big hug. I love those images best, I think!

This is what I love about shooting in Finland – all these little spots in locations only a kilometer from each other but so diverse. From forest, to field, to grasslands, to shoreline.

So much love

Singing nursery rhymes off key!

Sunset in the Fall

A moment at the lake

In a field of blueberry bushes

A frog surprises us with a visit!

Deeper into the older growth forest

The sunflower field

Playing in a field!

There were so many wonderful places to photograph there that I have to break this into two posts!

This first group was taken around the greater Sammatti region, in and around the TurunVäylä.

And a “HiidenKirnu” – Troll’s Churn.

I always try to incorporate the texture of the location I am shooting into the actual shots themselves. This particular texture, one of my favorites, is from a surprising source (shh, it’s a secret!)