Hashtag Cute Kids

My dear, dear friend Mandy Johnson has started the coolest brand for kids(and moms) ever!!! Would make fabulous Christmas gifts!! This week maybe I'll post all of my recent cool finds for Christmas...keep watch.

~ Dana

Family

I have been photographing families professionally for over 7 years. In that time, I have learned one important thing: all you need is love to make up a family. There are truly all kinds of families and they all are full of love, wonder, trust, and chaos. And, whatever unique brand of chaos defines your family is worth celebrating(most of the time-ha).

I rarely show the family images from a wedding. They are, after all, usually not very creative or interesting. I'm not saying they aren't important because I do think they are amongst the most important of the images taken that day. I am making an exception today and showing you this image. Whilst editing this wedding, I was struck with how antiquated the traditional idea of family has become. This is a family where the parents of both brides are divorced and remarried. Everyone got along...whether it was just for the day or if they are always that awesome, I'm not sure. Families, afterall--divorced, married or otherwise--are nothing if not complicated emotionally ;) But, they all celebrated the union of two people who are so perfect for each other with joy and enthusiasm.

In this picture, we have two brides, one sister of the bride, one mother of the bride and one step-parent of the bride. Girl Power. And, the modern family. All you really need is love people.

Those are my mushy thoughts for today,

~ Dana

Nightshooting

These images were taken back when we were in Flathead Lake, Montana. I hate feeling restricted when I shoot. I will often hear other photographers talk about the rules they have for photography...specifically regarding ISO. Boo to that I say. Rules were made to be broken. Embrace using your camera to it's fullest. Night shooting is definitely one way to do that. Even though both of these images were taken at night, the results were created two very different ways.

The first image was taken using a tripod because I knew that it would be impossible to hand hold. I removed myself as much as I could from any lightsources--the green light you see at the bottom is the result of a street light fixture at the boat launch. Obviously, I put the camera on the tripod and pointed it at the sky. I played around with the settings until I got exactly what I was hoping for. I've done this enough to be able to guess a good starting point and then keep trying until I get what I want. In the end, the settings were ISO 2000, F2.8, SS 20seconds.

The second image was taken while Jack was building a campfire. The only two lightsources were the fire and the lamp that Bob is holding. I know from experience that I can hand hold nice and steady to a shutter speed 1/30...any slower than that and I will most likely get camera shake. I opened the aperture to f2.8(as wide as this lens allows) and I played with the ISO until I got the desired results. In this case, the ISO is 10,000. It is hard to believe how clean the image is but today's cameras are truly meant to be pushed. At least, that is my belief ;)

I love taking risks in my photography. Thought I'd share one easy way for you to try and take some risks as well.

~ Dana

Island Living

This summer I had the amazing opportunity to travel to a magical island. Most of the time was spent in conversation with a number of other photographers. Some of the time, we took out our cameras and photographed the families who spent their summers there. This is one of those families...plus, a cousin who photobombed their session ;) I would like to go there every summer from now on.