New Site

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K.S.M {Sneak Peek} | Grand Rapids Baby Photographer

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On Friday I had the extreme pleasure of photography little Mr. K who is 5 months old. Mama brought him to my home and we had fun snapping some shots!  She brought this adorable bear hat and matching diaper cover for Mr. K to wear and he looked so darn cute in it!  He's the youngest of the bunch so we also got some of him in his "little brother" outfit.  He was so patient and just soaked it all in and after a few minutes he really got to talking to me.  :)  Here are some of the shots from our session.

And did I mention that this little boy loves his feet?

PS - It was my second time shooting with my new D90 which I LOVE!!  Post a comment and let me know how you like the photos.

L.M.A. {Sneak Peek} | Grand Rapids Newborn Photographer

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I had the extreme honor of taking photos of this adorable little miss on her one week birthday. She was a joy to photograph and her parents were amazingly patient!  The Grandmas were around to watch and we got some great shots with them loving on baby L as well.  Here's a sneak peek of our time together:

Thank you so much Marcy and Paul for letting me take newborn photos of your little lovely!  I had so much fun and I can't wait for you to see the rest of the photos from the session.

The Little Girl in the Red Hat

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These photos were taken just for fun the other day because I love this little girl (my "niece") and I love this little red hat from Briar Rose Crafts & Things.  Check out all her other awesome baby accessory creations here.

Best Face from January 2011 | Grand Rapids Baby Photographer

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iheartfaces is having a People's Choice contest this week for their challenge.  The category is Best Face from January 2011.  Here is my entry:

I absolutely love the expressions in this photo - definitely the best face of January for me!  Dad is totally the focal point of this image - I love his pride in baby girl and how genuinely overjoyed he is to be holding her and interacting with her.  I also adore baby girl's face!  She's staring at her mama (not pictured) and just totally soaking up the love and attention she's getting from her daddy.  She's one happy girl.  If you like my entry, head on over to iheartfaces and vote (I'm entry #429). And while you're there, check out all the other AWESOME entries!  It's truly humbling to see all the talented photographers out there.

Awesome photo frames | Grand Rapids Baby Photographer

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I just stumbled upon these photo frames and find them adorable!!  They come in a wide variety of sizes and colors! I contacted the company for information on how I can provide these for my clients.  I'll let you know what I find out.  See how cute your baby would look in a frame from The Organic Bloom. 

This week I learned...

UPDATE: This site is no longer in use.  If you've landed here, please head on over to www.elephantshoephotos.com to check out my new site.  See you after the jump! Thanks! 

This week I learned how to set up a private online image gallery for my clients.  Clients, now you can click on the "Clients" tab of my website and enter the Keyword and Password I assign you and you'll be able to view all the final photos from your session as well as order prints through the professional photo lab I use.  Pretty fun stuff!

I also learned that I love square crops.  Take a look at these cute square crops from my session with baby K the other week.

Again, doesn't he just have the cutest faces?! I can't get over them.  :)

My gear | Grand Rapids Newborn Photographer

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After much deliberation and discussion we (my husband and I) have decided to upgrade my gear.  I'm ecstatic!  I've been shooting with the Nikon D60 which we purchased a year and half ago (just before our wedding) with two kit lenses. More recently I added a Nikkor 50 mm f/1.8 to my collection and I LOVE it.

The only drawback is that my D60 doesn't have an automatic focus switch in the body so I have to manually focus when using my 50 mm lens.  I can do it, but it's tedious and slow and when you're with a precious baby you don't want to worry about whether or not your shot is going to be in focus.  I'd rather worry about the lighting and my settings and the bokeh, and, most importantly the sweet baby's expression and posture. :)  So, I'll be upgrading my camera body to this beautiful thing (which also shoots VIDEO!!):

...as soon as I can find an outstanding deal on one.  You know me...I hardly ever pay full price for anything!  Wish me happy shopping!

Life is Precious | Grand Rapids Newborn Photographer

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I just read an amazing and moving story on Joy's Hope and it made me think about these words in God's book. Life is so precious and beautiful. It comes from the Author of all that is good. Each baby is hand-crafted and formed. Reflect on this with me tonight.

 

Psalm 139

 ¹ You have searched me, LORD,
   and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
   you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
   you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
   you, LORD, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
   and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
   too lofty for me to attain.
 ⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
   Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
   and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
   the night will shine like the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you

   when I was made in the secret place,

   when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;

   all the days ordained for me were written in your book

   before one of them came to be.

¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
   How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
   they would outnumber the grains of sand—
   when I awake, I am still with you.
 ¹⁹ If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
   Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
   your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
   and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
   I count them my enemies.
²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
   test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting.

A dear friend lost her Grandpa tonight. I recently lost my Grandma (and got a reminder of the fragility of life from my other Grandma this week) so I know how the heart-ache feels but at the same time we rejoice that they lived long full lives and went to be with Jesus in the end.

Psalm 39:4

Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
      Remind me that my days are numbered—
      how fleeting my life is.
 ⁵ You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.
              
              Interlude
 ⁶ We are merely moving shadows,
      and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.
   We heap up wealth,
      not knowing who will spend it.
 ⁷ And so, Lord, where do I put my hope?
      My only hope is in you.

Wonderfully Innocent | Grand Rapids Infant Photographer

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The challenge over at iheartfaces this week is Innocent Wonder.  I couldn't help but think of this picture of baby K when I saw the category.  He is wonderfully innocent.  When I put him in this laundry basket with this blanket he just stared and it and stared at it.  And then he grabbed a chunk of it in his hand and wouldn't let go.  He was amazed by it and I assume he was mesmerized by the softness and the texture.  Oh the joys and simplicities of being a two-month old.

P.S. Don't you just love his long eyelashes and button nose?

Photography Props | Grand Rapids Baby Photographer

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I'm super excited because I just ordered the cutest photography prop and I can't wait to use it in my next shoot!  It's a lion hat...check out Briar Rose Crafty Things on Etsy!

I can't wait to receive it!  Thanks Christina for sending it over.  I'm looking forward to using lots of your awesome hand made items in the future.  :)

K.N.D {Sneak Peek} | Grand Rapids Infant Photographer

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I just posted the sneak peek of my photo shoot with K.N.D. to facebook but here is a sampling of some of my favorite shots from the session.  This baby was so expressive and had so many great faces to capture!  I had a blast!

He and his gorgeous mom are pictured top right.  K.N.D had such long eyelashes, gorgeous blue eyes, and a super cute smile so I tried to capture those details top left and middle.  His daddy is a musician and a music teacher so I couldn't resist the shot on the bottom of the collage.  Enjoy!

This week I learned...

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This week I learned about masking in Photoshop and I experimented by merging two photos into one.  I took this picture of my husbands tea...

which showed the steam rising off of it.  And then I took this picture of the beautiful tea bag he used to make this tea...but I lost the steam!

And I didn't realize it until I got the images on the computer.  So I decided to learn to merge the two and I watched some tutorials on masking (I can't remember where they were or I would post them for you) and did some color correcting and the final result was this:

 

Heading Home

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Sadly, our vacation is coming to a close.  Here is a little recap of the relaxation we enjoyed on our mini-vacay.

 Top left: It snowed last night and it was gorgeous!  I didn't have my tripod so I did my best to capture the glowing street lights downtown without one.  We enjoyed a lovely dinner out with family just before that photo was taken.

Top right and middle left: Sasha. She's beautiful. I have nothing more to say than I love that puppy. In the words of my brother, she's a noble beast.

Middle right: enjoying some tea (Jason's) and coffee (not pictured) on a snowy day is one of the best feelings.  We drank our tea and coffee and read magazines in a bookstore for a few hours yesterday and it was wonderful.

Bottom: My two loves. My hubby and my baby puppy.  I couldn't ask for more.

 

We also enjoyed a lot of delicious food this weekend also.  Two of my favorites are above (sorry for the bad quality, these were taken with my cell phone): fried ice cream from Red Mesa Grill and pot stickers and lettuce wraps from Red Ginger. Yum yum!!

Photo Sphere

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I'm having a lot of fun reading other photographers' blogs.  I stumbled upon this post from Ashley Sisk and just had to try out her tutorial.  Here's how it works. You start with a photograph of a landscape. I didn't really have a landscape so I chose an outdoor scene of some trees at my parents house that I love.

Then, according to her tutorial you need to crop the image so that the width of the photo is twice the height.  It should look something like this:

 Next, I followed her instructions to distort the photo into a square (make sure you don't constrain the proportions).

This is all seeming very strange so far, I know, but just bear with me.  It gets really cool in the end.  So once you have your distorted square image, you need to rotate it 180 degrees (so it's upside down).  After that, you go to Filter--> Distort--> Polar Coordinates (make sure it's set to 100%) and you'll end up with something like this:

Then you'll just need to do some playing in photoshop to come up with a nice final result. I used the patch tool and the clone stamp to get rid of the divide line, rotated the image until I liked the orientation, and did a lit bit of color editing and this is my final result.  I think it's beautiful.  It reminds me of an ornament made of flowers.

Let's see you try it.  Give it a shot and leave a comment back with a permalink to your post.  Happy editing and thanks Ashley for the inspiration.

Vacation

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I finally finished editing photos from my shoot with A.J.S.  (on the night before we leave for vacation) and I wanted to show you my favorites.  Post a comment and let me know what you think.

We're going to Traverse City for a mini vacation and you know I'll be bringing my camera so look for some posts with my favorite winter scenes from up north coming soon!

-Emma-
________________________________________________________________________
*EDIT*

I submitted the bottom photo in the storyboard to iheartfaces for their Winter Wonderland photo challenge. Wish me luck.