Mullins Family Photos - Making photoshoots fun, for Everyone.

Getting a man to spend time posing for photographs, gives him a strange feeling of uneasiness. I tend to get this from woman who ask me to photograph the family. "I want to but, my husband hates to get his photos taken." This is true for most all men. Then comes the struggle;  GETTING him to the sitting.  He finds it completely frustrating as his wife or mother dresses him. Even the idea of spending money to have a photographer take photos, sends a man spinning into chaos.
For me, the great part of all this knowledge is, I don't really care anymore. My goal is to have the ladies to let go, and the men to come to the sitting in a, sort-of decent mood.

I was watching Bolt (The Disney/Pixar Movie) today and up came the scene, "The Dog Face" and I suddenly realized that the scene where Mittens gets Bolt to do the dog face, sounds allot like me when posing guys. I feel like I know what they are thinking.... "Your a degenerate creature of darkness" and I reply back with "Yeah, yeah, granted. With that said, all I'm asking you is to tilt your a head a little!"

Here is the scene:
http://youtu.be/iWNAwgiJ5tM

I photographed once again at the Brigham Young Home yesterday. This is a frequent spot for most photographers but new for me. See my post on that subject.

The family, the Mullins, are neighbors of mine. The father is my Bishop of the ward (my church) I go to (just a little pressure, to get this one right). Jordan, one son, is leaving tomorrow to serve a two year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (double pressure).
Five men and three ladies (and a friend) all showed up. With a little guidance, and laughing with them, they eased up. It was really fun. If one makes the comment most all photographers hear, "I hate getting my photo taken." I say "Yeah, most people do." Then I tell them to trust me and everything will be alright. It's a good conversation to have. It is always my rule to let the family play.
If I didn't let this family play, I think they would shrivel up and die or explode, truly. It is their personality to play and so I had to let go, and go with the flow! It all worked to my benefit.

We had a lot of fun yesterday and I don't think anyone thought I was a "degenerate creature of darkness." :) At least I hope.
Thank you to the Mullins, I had a great evening, hanging with you!

Wait for the slideshow to upload and then hit play or click on the link below.
http://shareephoto.myshowit.com/mullinstfamilyphotographs

Focusing on Capturing Emotion and Not my Insecurities

I have photographed Connie, a dear friend and her family, for years. They have always been pleasant with me. Even better, they appreciate my style and approach. But Monday, was where the photo stars were in perfect alignment of what I value in technique, putting away my pride and focusing on the art of capturing emotion of a beautiful family.

Being from Southern Utah, I have only photographed at the Brigham Young Home in Downtown St. George, twice. Monday was the first time for Connie's family. My resistance to photograph here, was out of sheer pride. This is a popular location, and with our over-saturated market of portrait photographers, I am VERY eager to separate myself from feeling like another photographic drone.  Since I have retired I feel less inclined to have the same worries I used to.
I had a BLAST photographing at this location!
Shame on my insecurities and pride.

Any location can become unique, based on the photographers skill to make it original. That is the freedom of personal style.

TECHNICAL Craft
I photographed Connie and her family at 7pm in the evening, it was beautiful evening light. I shot at 400 ISO and the images ranged from 5.6 to 3.5 Fstop at about 125 to 60th of a second. I used my Cannon Speedlite with the Gary Fong light diffuser. I shot about 140 images, deleted about 15. I narrowed the slideshow down to about 44 images. And YES, I always shoot in RAW with my EOS 50D. I processed the images in Lightroom and did one or two touchups in Photoshop. I strive to have sound images so I limit my time on the computer, yet I still spend at least a couple hours processing, editing the sitting, making slideshows, putting logos on the web images and getting this blog prepared.

My Approach to Capture Emotion and Play
The children ran about and played. I stay away from the traditional "porch group shots" simply because I think they look LAME. I focused more on creating natural, relaxed poses, with point of focus compositions. I shot whatever seemed to come natural and worked to mold the family so they all look their best together. The kids seemed to immediately, feel comfortable with me. I seized the moment and brought them in, talking softly and giggling with them. I relished, that they were ultra relaxed with me. We played for a while and then immediately focused on a few family poses. Connie and her husband have quite a bit of trust in me, so they backed off and became silent observers as I played and photographed the children. Afterward, I let them play as a famly and would occasionally gather them in together. It proved to be a good experience for everyone.

The most important thing here, was that the family felt secluded, relaxed and themselves, this way, I could focus on emotion. I love being able to ANTICIPATE a moment. To allow my personality be a tool to help the family loosen up, and truly be themselves. To create a portfolio of happy, intimate images.

I am glad I put away my insecurities for this one. The images are beautiful.

The portrait slideshow will take a minute to load. I hope you enjoy! It is beautiful, with a song by Ben Folds, called The Luckiest. http://shareephoto.myshowit.com/huntfamilyphotographs2

I photographed the area after the sitting was over about 8:30 pm For this I bumped up the ISO so I could have more depth of field, since I had no tripod on hand. Scroll down to see those images. 

New Artwork - "Cultivating Positive Flowers"

"Cultivating Positive Flowers" is a new pice of collage art I created this week. I included it on my "Ces't Inspiré" page of my blog. 
The flowers were taken at a farm in South-Central Utah. A beautiful place I love to visit often.
My Tools and Downloads:
Photoshop CS
I downloaded this Photoshop Storyboard or Book Template
I read up on how to make your own template from Digital Image Cafe
I downloaded this free romantic font: http://www.dafont.com/champignon.font
I downloaded this watercolor paper off of flicker: http://www.flickr.com/photos/schmod/419640051/

• I took 13 of my favorite flower images and enhanced this images in photoshop using dodge and burn and levels tools.
• I arranged all the images in the collage and included the water color paper as the background image. 
• I then found a really awesome talk on "The Atonement" on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints website by Bruce C Hafen.
• Although I minored in French and lived in southern France for a year and a half. I am not inclined to translate all too well. I love the way French words sound and look, I wanted to use the words around the image to make this a themed piece of artwork. So I found an online Translator: http://www.freetranslation.com/
• I chose a portion of the text and copied it and pasted it into an online French translator.  
• “My past life was a wilderness of weeds, with hardly a flower strewed among them. But now the weeds have vanished, and flowers Spring up in their place. We grow in two ways—removing negative weeds and cultivating positive flowers."
• I arranged the words around the collage. I copied the words again, a little larger and gave them an opacity of about 40%.
• I flattened the image in photoshop and viola an image for my wall.

I hope you enjoy it!

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Snapshot vs Fine Art

I took these images with the Kodak Easy Share C813. The first image is of Snow Canyon, Utah and the next is at Pink Coral Sand Dunes, Utah. It was fine using this little camera while I was out hiking and 4 wheeling with my husband. No need to take the big camera. Except the guilt I feel when I see the "money shot" and I don't have my 4x5 land camera with a stock-load of black and white negative film on hand. Oh well, that kind of shooting will have to sit on the shelf for a few more years while I raise my young children.

I am no real landscape photographer, but like to try my hand at it when I am out. I took 3 shots of the area and then stitched the images together with Photosop CS4 to get the wider angle. I keep it simple. Sun behind me, look for a focal point and shoot shoot shoot! There is no excuse anymore to not get your shot. When your digital, your not worrying about cost of film or the extra roll your processing while standing in the dark listening to John Denver bellow out another power tune at 4 am (now I am getting personal).

Try to experiment with different angles, and view points. Digital lends the perfect opportunity to advance your skill in a much speedier way. You can literally see your work seconds after shooting. So try to allow the digital format make you a smarter photographer rather than a lazier one thinking the same thought all lazy photographers think (I can fix it later in photoshop) which we all know is really not the "easy way out."

It is important as always to view photography as an art form. By recognizing that the various types of cameras, paper and processes are tools to create what you visualize in your minds eye. Just as a painter would use his brushes, canvas and paint. You as a photographer would use your photography tools to create an image. Your not going to get the same result with different tools. It doesn't make one tool wrong, you just have to know your limitations and abilities. If you want to call it art at least have the decency to work on fine tuning the craft and understand how to best use that tool. This eventually will help you differentiate your snapshots from your real works of art. I think it is good practice to pick up a disposable camera and try to come up with creative images using something so simple as a disposable, just to stretch your thinking.

So keep shooting photographers! Go crazy till your hearts content. You can make it happen. -Sharee

Truthful Expressions

Have you ever looked in someone's eyes and known truth? Seen a keen sense of who hey really are? I know that sounds presumptuous, but as I have had the chance to photograph portraits I often have people in a very venerable position. Most of my clients are not very accustomed to being in-front of the camera. So I look to find that moment (and literally sometimes, it is only a split second) that they relax and give me some what of a look that is real. I see them. Sometimes they try to fake it, they give me poses and forced looks. I try my best to pull them out and get them to relax. Mostly I talk allot and help them not feel like they are not on display. It is more about a conversation and spending a moment together.

So during the sitting I get to see a glimpse of who they are, they let down their guard for that moment and I try to snap and capture their expression, before they know what I have done. This is a very philosophical way of looking at things, but it is my process, my way.

The real beauty for me is after the sitting. I get to look over my work again and process the images. I get to study their faces and relationships. I get to really know peoples faces. No wonder, I get attached to my clients! I look at the way their faces are shaped, the way they look best and sometimes a look that is their worst. I look for their prime features and through the processing I try to pull out their best, and to me it looks; sincere, mostly happy, an inner calm, secure, confident.

This is what we want to be right? SO I look for those qualities in each person. With some people it comes naturally and with others it is a real pain to try to work it out of them. Either way, I enjoy the process and generally crash after a photo-shoot and needing some serious unwinding. I really try to put all my emotional effort into this process.

One great thing I love about photographing for friends and family is being able to photograph year after year the same people. I get to see their progression. It is really an inspiring thing for me to see families grow together and their bonds deepen. Even when weight or wrinkles accumulate, there is a kind of beauty that just permeates their whole being, that seems to emulate goodness.

One of my favorite persons to photograph is my friends handicapped son TAY TAY or Taylor. He is Autistic. and sever for that matter. I have a 30 year old severely handicapped sister whom I adore, so I have always felt an attraction to children with disabilities. Taylor is like my adopted nephew, since his mom has been a dear friend and like a sister for over 22 years.

I feel bad for people who have never had someone with a disability or syndrome that is close to them. Those people will never know how it feels to have a child like this adore a moment with you. For me it is looking into a persons eyes and seeing purity for as long as they live.

I love my parents who have cared for my sister for all these years as well as my friend and many other friends who have children who are handicapped. For only they know the immaculate LOVE that surrounds these special people AND since they get to serve and labor over these particular children for the remainder of their lives, they get to experience a purer kind of love. I can't imagine how that must feel. It must be a remarkable gift for these parents to feel, if they really take on the task of really LOVING their child.

So as a bystander, I get to spend small bursts of moments with them. I get to pull from them expressions that are really them. This takes much effort and patience. It take quietness and simple playing. But for a moment (like anyone else) I get to see and photograph them, really them. As though everything for one moment registers in sync and total perfection. I am not looking to make them something they are not. I am simply trying to capture the best them, like anyone else would want. Then, for the next few days I get to marvel over their perfect innocence displayed all over their faces.

Photographers Lesson: ANTICIPATE THE MOMENT!

Do you take a peek??? I am serious, I am talking about the little viewfinder on the back of your camera. The little screen, the little magic thingy that allows you to see what you shot seconds after you shot it. Do you stop and look at the picture you shot immediately after you took your first shot? I knew it. Your guilty as charged. Well, STOP IT! Stop with this maddening addiction. You heard me. It IS a serious addiction. An addiction to look at every image just after it is shot. You want to see if you caught it. Then you gloat, you gloat, like a little cat just after it caught its first big, fat juicy mouse.

Okay, I will ease up a bit, and admit that I do it too, SOMETIMES.

Let's get serious now.

There is a lesson to learn here. You are missing the "MONEY SHOT." Your distracting yourself from what is going on in-front of you. If you’re at an event, a wedding, taking family photos; people are interacting all around you and they have some very interesting ways to communicate with each other. They are called "REAL MOMENTS." These real, honest, photographable moments come AFTER a comment, AFTER a silly face pose, AFTER a kiss, AFTER a hug, AFTER a first dance. Are you catching my drift?

So what happens when you silly photographers gloat over what you thought, was your money shot? You miss the "MAJOR MONEY SHOT" because it always comes AFTER you have taken the 1st shot and (while your checking your little, magical screen).

Please folks.

ANTICIPATE the moment. It is possible to do this taking pictures of only one person. As you talk to them, have a conversation that revolves around them, as you shoot, the “real them” will eventually shine through.

It is very natural for people to freeze up and “still themselves” for a very STILL photograph. Because you are shooting still images, does not mean you have to keep people “still.” Sure. Take the still, ultra posed shots. But then spend your time capturing real moments....

This is how you do it.

1^st Open your eyes. Yes, open them. Think about it. In baseball when an outfielder is hit a fly ball, does he close his eyes just as he is about to catch the ball? NEVER! They are wide open. Hence the saying…”NEVER, take your eye off the ball.” Well people, the same goes while you snap, snap away. Keep your eyes open as your looking through the view finder. Watch what your subject is doing WHILE you take the shot. You will know if you missed the shot and you need to immediately need to try for something again.

#2 Once again; ANTICIPATE the moment. It is like watching a movie in real time, as you practice you will see emotions build, then you see when people are just about to do something…anything. You WILL see it. Keep your beady eyes open and PEOPLE WATCH. No more turning inward and looking at every shot you took. (I understand you do it sometimes…and that is okay. Be sure to only look on DOWN TIME. THIS IS WHEN YOU CAN TAKE THE RISK. Still, I guarantee, you will still miss something, when you peek. J

#3 Make a moment happen. I do this by telling couples to kiss, families to hug, people to walk toward me, kids to make a funny face...then I wait. I wait for the moment. It is called play.

#4 And for crying out loud, do not freak out over missing a shot. Let it go, and move on to the next moment. Simply find another one, there will be another perfect shot, I promise. There always is.

#5 ONCE AGAIN, don’t turn inward and look at every shot. Start learning how the shot looks, when yo took it because you kept your eyes open. You can do it. This is what photographers had to do in the “olden days” in the "great wide world of film cameras" (oh how I miss them).

#6 Keep shooting. So what, if your not natural at picture taking. The more you shoot, the more you will learn. Eventually, you will perfect your craft of photography. It is okay if you don’t end up as a world famous photographer, at least your children, family and friends will thank you at the end of the day when they VALUE the images most. Then, you will be world famous to them. Isn’t that what matters most? J

PS here are a few technical tips. When shooting people in movement, your images will become slightly soft, if you are not careful. Be sure to make sure you have plenty of light and your shutter speed is at least at 125. If you are in a low light situation...then pop that flash. Pop that flash even outdoors during mid day. It is okay to override your autoflash on your camera and turn it on all the time. Have fun.

Good luck. Here are a few examples of those truthful moments I have taken. GO TO my facebook fan page to see the images:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=413394&id=208868310547

Look UP!

Listening to my sons prayers are so honest and often take me by surprise. Like when he says, I promise, I won't squish frogs or like tonight: "Please help me see my favorite things in the clouds."

His sweet prayer brought back many of my own memories as a kid, cloud gazing. It seemed to lift my spirits when I felt helpless or sad. My game forced me to look up! Sometimes, that's all we need.

Below is a recent southern Utah sunset I captured.

Also, there are two more images I played with in Photoshop years ago. 

My model was: my son holding a ball, my backyard sky and a wet tea bag for the texture. I overlaid all the images and sepia toned it all in photoshop to create the unique look.

There are many things we can find in clouds, I highly recommend forcing looking up at the clouds. Take a camera along to capture it and convert your cloud image to black and white. You may find your favorite thing!