The reason I sometimes refer to myself as Uncle Photo is because of these three, sweet kids. Two of them are my God-Children too:) (You'll have to guess which ones). Anyway, I photographed my sister Lisa's kids the other day for a Christmas card image. She wanted one with all three of the kids together. As you know, working with kids is much harder than shooting weddings.... I thought I'd show you the before and after images from one of my favs. Happy Tuesday.
Joe,
As always, beautiful work. But the first picture of those darling children is a keeper!
I know you're preferences for treating an image and I've always enjoyed your before and after posts.
This background is fantastic and while it should by all rights be burned down, I wonder... is it too much?
There seems to be a weight to the picture (of three very happy kids) that could be avoided with a lighter hand...
Posted by: Sean Cayton | November 27, 2007 at 09:18 AM
I love the before's and after's but I just wish you'd drop some hints as to WHAT you did...LOVE the effect above. Awesome!!
Posted by: Ellen | November 27, 2007 at 12:24 PM
As I primarily work with children, more than shoot weddings, and I know how nearly impossible it is to get a great shot like this of three kids together, I'm very curious to know how many shots it took a rock star photographer like you to get this one image? Did you have lots to choose from that would have been good for a card? Perhaps being related to you, these children are natural posers? Lord knows that my kids have had it with the whole, "let mommy take a picture of you" I've been putting off their Christmas session, waiting for my new D3 to arrive to make the session more fun for me!! Joe, did you get a D3? I just received your show and tell dvd and loved it! Will watch it again before my next wedding to get inspired. Saw that you shot Nikon and that you mentioned about switching to Canon due to the noise, which I totally agree with. So, I wondered if you would be getting a D3 which is supposed to have revolutionized that noise issue for Nikon. Let's hope it does!!!
Posted by: Karen | November 28, 2007 at 07:50 AM
Hey Sean, Thanks for the comment. My goal was to really tone down the plastic table the kids were standing on. That's it. I'm impressed you pay attention to my preferences. Thanks.
Posted by: Joe Photo | November 29, 2007 at 05:52 AM
Hi Ellen, I'll be showing more of the "hints" on my Caffeinated Addict Blog in the new year. Please look forward to a redesign as well. Thanks for your comment:)
Posted by: Joe Photo | November 29, 2007 at 05:55 AM
Hi Karen, Thanks for your comments. I shot about 800 images in an hour and gave my sister (who coined the term "Uncle Photo") 200 of them. This was one of the very first images we created. Often for me, the best images of kids are at the beginning of the session. This was a new location for me to shoot at too. Please check my post for November 29th (today) for comments on the D3.
Posted by: Joe Photo | November 29, 2007 at 06:01 AM
Awesome image! I've been following your blog for a few months now and enjoy the info very much! Q - is that a Kubota Action? Or your own? I love Kubota actions but worry about the over use from just about every photographer I know. Things are starting to look the same. I love your fresh approach and killer album backgrounds. Are you building them with vectors or are they pre-layed out?
Thanks for sharing,
Eric
Posted by: Eric Foley | December 06, 2007 at 12:51 PM
Hey Eric, It's a combo of mine and Parker J's actions. I've modified some of his to my liking. As far as the backgrounds go, Most are jpg's and a few are vectors. I build each page from scratch. Thanks.-Joe
Posted by: Joe Photo | December 15, 2007 at 02:34 PM