A New Favorite

Krista and Brian

Yesterday was the photo session and reception for our friend's daughter, Krista, and her husband Brian. I knew Krista back when she was a teenager in the Young Women's program at our church. She's grown up to be a beautiful woman.

We had planned to spend about an hour at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, but it started pouring rain early in the day and the rain stayed all day long with gusts of wind. We found a few sheltered spots to play around in. I love sessions like these where there's no wedding to rush off to, and the dress doesn't have to stay completely spotless!

Hope you like your sneak peek and look forward to showing you more!

Wedding Shoes

Just working on images from a recent wedding. I fell in love with this shot I named "Wedding Shoes". Original, I know. It just reminds me of little girls, daydreaming about their wedding. Dreaming about all the little details, the gown, the veil, the boquet. I don't know that we often dreamed about the shoes, but if I did, they'd have looked like these. Simple, elegant, classy, and not too high of a heel.



I like this one too...

May 16

May 16 was a beautiful day for a wedding! I'm so glad to have kicked off the wedding season at the Loring Pasta bar with Heidi and Dave on their wedding day.

When I first arrived at the location I headed up to the red room. Shortly after I arrived the center piece designer brought up an arrangement. He must not have noticed me because after putting the center piece down and arranging it and then backing up to admire it from a distance, he turned and was startled by me. He said he'd sensed something in the room but knew it wasn't Bob Dyllan because "He isn't dead yet." That got a good chuckle.



This place (and not to mention the couple) is a knock out! So much fun to shoot here. There's color everywhere and lots and lots to look at. The ceremony was held down in the main dining area.





After the ceremony we went upstairs for an intimate reception in the Red Room (which supposedly used to be Bob Dyllan's pad).

Her boquets and the wedding party's flowers were all done by Sadies Fine Floral Design and I have to say these were the most lush beautiful flowers I have seen in a bride's boquet yet. They were fresh and plump and looked beautiful the entire day long.




We did have a little time for some fun shots, I would have loved to have spent way too much time shooting just fun shots, there's so much that the Loring Pasta Bar and surrounding area have to offer.

New Skills

I love improving my skills at Photoshop. Some people may think that messing with an image is cheating, but I love seeing the changes I can make with an ordinary snapshot.
Take the following shots for example. These are from a recent engagement session.

Before:



After:



Before:



After:



So a couple of weeks ago I spent the day at a Photoshop seminar that was super fun for me. The instructor was Ben Willmore. Who is an extremely talented and interesting instructor to listen to. His techniques often get the same results I'm getting, but he goes about them another way, so it's nice to have another technique to apply and play with.
The part of the seminar I was most looking forward to was learning High Dynamic Range Imaging. If you click on Ben's name above it will take you to one of his websites where he has several HDR images. The program he used was Photomatix. I've downloaded a trial version and think I will be purchasing the full version next week. So my samples here today have their watermark on the image.

Here are two of my tries on HDR imaging. The first is my work station, the second is a fire my husband had going one day. Both were made with 3 bracketed images, one dark, one medium and one light(I set my camera to bracket shooting at 2 stops and shot on Aperture Priority). With the right settings in Photomatix an image can be made to look very similar to an illustration.



Something interesting to note is that the DVD case that can be seen in the upper right hand window was actually far back in the armoir, but because of the bracketing it can be seen very easily as if it were forward near the window.



My friend Gina will be in town this next week and we plan to play for a while with some new techniques I'm working on with lighting, so I hope to have some more images to play with!

Maple Syruping

If you get the chance, next January I suggest checking out The Audubon Center of the North Woods Maple Syrup Brunch. It's only one day a year (maple sap only runs for about one month), usually the first weekend in April if the weather has been good for syruping (warm days and cold nights). It's a really fun day and very well worth the drive to Sandstone Minnesota and the $15/adult, $10/child. This is our third year attending and our kids LOVE it!
We begin our day with them by sitting down to a pancake breakfast with 100% maple syrup made there at the Audubon center. It is so yummy! Then they have a program for you, where you get to walk with them through the whole maple syruping process from tapping trees, to gathering sap, boiling the sap down, taste testing, and history of maple syruping. It's very educational. And did I mention fun?

Love is in the air...

Meet Heidi and Dave. I feel so lucky to be able to photograph their wedding in May. In the meantime it was really fun meeting up with them at the Historic Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis for an engagement session. Aren't they gorgeous?

I'm so happy that it's warm enough to do outdoor sessions now!

The weathermen were so wrong about how Saturday was going to turn out. We were a little worried that we'd be toting around some umbrellas, but as you can see the day was clear and bright and beautiful, what luck! I've never shot down here before, and it was fun trying out a new spot. I'll for sure be back to shoot again.













I hope they remember me when they start having babies, their kids are going to be adoreable!

Collage

9 Day Old L.J.

Meet little L.J. (Little John). Isn't he so sweet!?
I wanted to post these sooner but I was having trouble with my photobucket uploading, but it seems to be working tonight.





I'm not sure how I like the processing I did on this image yet, but it's growing on me :) I can see something like "Baby Magic" or "Johnson's" written above it where my logo is stamped.

In this one he just looks so sweet and peaceful having a nibble on his arm :) love it!



I also took a few snap shots of L.J.'s big brother. Look at those chocolately brown eyes....watch out mom, you're going to have girls on your doorstep in no time!

Newborn Sessions

Something that has been brought up often lately is the subject of newborns and when the best time to have their first session done.

My own personal preference is to have baby's first session done before they are three weeks old. Most preferably in the first two weeks. I have a few reasons for this.

First, in their first week or two babies are in a stage that lasts for a tiny amount of time. Once it is gone, you can never get it back. This stage is where they stay curled up into a little ball. They are relaxed and sleep for most of the time. They are unaware of their surroundings and care very little if they have been put down, or are not being snuggled by Mom.

They still have their peach fuzz. They rarely have developed baby eczema by this time, I see it more frequently in the older babies. They also have not started shedding their hair developing bald patches, yet. They are still wrinkly and haven't filled out with baby fat yet.

I understand the desire to have images of baby wide awake and smiling at the camera, and you will have lots of time for that as they get older. I recommend having another session when they reach six months old and we can get them smiling and giggling. Waiting until they are a few weeks old, and trying to schedule during their alert time of day means waiting until they are fully aware of you, and if you are holding them or not. They worry when you put them down in unfamiliar settings, i.e. my studio, and often spend that time crying and begging to be held again.

I encourage new parents to treasure and capture the tiny newness that newborns have, because it does just last only a few short days, and then fades forever.

Tips From My Newborn Session Handout

In Home Sessions, What You Should Know.
© 2009 Jennifer Klingensmith

Here are a few important tips I'd like to pass along to you.

1. It is best to schedule this session when your baby is under two weeks. They tend to cry less, are more unaware of what is going on and therefore fuss less when placed down. Sleeping shots are most natural for them at this stage, so don't worry about trying to schedule your baby's session at their alert time. If they peek at us I will be sure to try to grab a few shots of that as well. They also don't tend to develop baby acne until they are a bit older, so it's good to get images when their skin is still soft and wrinkly.

2. Warm up your home before the session. For much of the session your baby will be unclothed. Babies are happiest when warm and snuggly. 72-76 degrees is ideal.

3. Choose a room with large windows. I am mainly a natural light photographer, so I try to use the sunlight as much as I can. Also choose a room that does not have colorful walls, if I have to use a flash, colored walls can add undesirable color casts to your images.

4. For up close images of your baby I will not need very much room at all, any average sized room will do, however if you want pictures of yourself with your baby using my backdrops I will need adequate space to set up a background stand that is 6 feet wide. You may want to consider using my home studio for sessions including other siblings.

5. Feel free to add anything to your session that you think might make it more personal or interesting for you, such as baskets, blankets, furniture, stuffed animals or anything else that you'd like.

6. Along with capturing the necessary newborn shots, such as fingers and toes and everything in-between I also come with ideas I'd love to try. They don't always seem like a great idea at first, but most of the time once the image is processed, they turn out really neat! So if I suggest something that you are not too sure about, give it a try! I won't force you to purchase the print, but this is probably why you hired me in the first place, to shoot the unordinary and make it extraordinary.