Tiny Person Photoshoot: Baby Weston

A few months ago, I brought my camera along for fun to the joint baby shower for Amy & Renee. Fast forward to late August & imagine just how ecstatic I was when Amy asked me to take photos of the newest addition to her family: Baby Weston! One of my goals for this year is to branch out in terms of subjects, and I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to photograph such a cute little nugget! A tiny person photoshoot - what an adventure, right? Because Amy didn’t have a specific plan or style in mind already, I originally planned to capture photographs that were gentle, intimate, and peaceful. Hilariously, Baby Weston had a different plan in mind. I certainly learned a lot of pointers during the shoot, that’s for sure. A few nuggets of wisdom on photographing the nuggets themselves:

• Because of babies’ extreme short-sightedness (only a few feet at this point!), it required quite a bit of extra maneuvering and positioning to try and capture his gaze. This meant lots of squatting, jingling things, and shooting nonstop.
• Many babies find running faucets extremely soothing which isn’t too far fetched, but it was pretty amusing to watch Weston go from crying to “in the zone” the minute we leaned him over the sink. It made me wish I had a waterfall easy access all the time for when I'm stressed (how nice would that be..)
• Cuddly and textured blankets are your best friend. It was so easy to spread one out on the floor & still have it large enough to capture straight down shots & angled depth of fields without catching the edge! You don't get this luxury with "big person" photoshoots, so take advantage of it in this instance.
• Keep the camera on the entire time. I was able to capture so many tender moments between the family just while they were arranging themselves, comforting Weston, or changing his outfit. Some of the photos of Weston clinging to Amy’s shoulder are so much more precious than anything we could have pre-posed.

One thing that I definitely want to improve on is shooting in low light settings. Even with a f/3.2, I had to bump up the ISO quite a bit & the graininess definitely comes across. As I continue to develop as a photographer, I'm starting to consider different equipment options (reflective surface probably would have come in handy here).

Aside from the photos themselves, this photoshoot was the 2nd time that I tried out my new donation-in-liew-of-payment method (get the pun..get it..?). A few months ago I first tested this out by asking Sarah Jane to donate to Krista’s mission trip, and similarly I asked Amy to donate to our church’s new women’s ministry which I strongly believe in. It’s continued to be a win-win-win for all involved: beautiful photos for the “client” // an implied valuation attached to my time & effort that doesn’t commoditize my art // an extra donation to a worthy cause! Beyond that, it’s been wonderful to connect my clients with those in need of the donations, thus helping to form a stronger connection within our community. If anybody else has unique payment systems, I would love to hear them!

The Pear Shape: A San Francisco Collaboration

For the majority of my life, I didn't have a role model. Sure, there were certain people I looked up to, but there was never quite anybody that I wanted to emulate. That is, until I met Lauren. As a naive little freshman, when I was paired with Lauren in the Chi Omega house I was blown away that we were from the same hometown. I'm pretty sure I actually uttered, "What are the chances?!" (A year later I would found out that was 100% planned...) Being the out-of-the-loop freshman that I was, I somehow got it into my mind that sorority rush was the equivalent of an interview. That meant I talked about all things nerdy - my "accomplishments", my educational interests, classes I loved, etc etc. Luckily for me, I was paired with one of the few people who found that absolutely fascinating, and my friendship with Lauren was instantly born. A few rounds of rush later, I was joining Chi Omega and going on the equivalent of speed-dates with sophomores to find my Big only to come full circle and be paired with her! For the past 5+ years of knowing her, she has become my role model in ways I never imagined. Lauren is strong, confident, determined and one of the most accomplished people I know. Only a few years out of her undergrad, she has accomplished so much in her career by merging both fashion and technology. And on top of all of that, she has been running a successful fashion blog targeting "the hip endowed" over at The Pear Shape for nearly two years.

Naturally, in my recent visit to San Francisco, I knew I had to force a photo shoot on her. And wow, I'm so thankful I did. By now a blogging veteran, she is immensely comfortable and fun in front of the camera - making my work as a photographer much easier. Learning from my collaboration with @stylemediator, I knew that I liked detail shots showing off smaller aspects of the outfit as well as tight frame close-ups. I struggled a bit with how to best take advantage of the setting sun - there were certain shots where the sun was far too bright against her, but I was able to fix a few of the issues post-editing with Camera Raw. Definitely head over to The Pear Shape to take a look at the rest of Lauren's gorgeously planned outfits!

Big Sis, Lil Sis: To Kiersten

The story goes that back in the day when I was quite young, my mom gained a little bit of weight and joked to my brother and I that she was having another baby. I started jumping up and down ecstatically, so thrilled to finally have a baby brother or sister. My brother, on the other hand, started bawling and said in exasperation, "AGAIN?!???" When my parents let us in on the joke, the roles reversed: my brother started jumping up and down with joy and I started bawling at the loss. Well, over two decades later, I can say that that feeling has never fully gone away. Despite my love for my older brother, I've always felt a little hole in my heart that's meant to be filled by a younger sibling. I never prayed for it because people generally grow out of that by the time they reach 7, but God clearly knew the depths of my heart better than I did. When I was 17, He answered my unspoken prayers. I honestly can't even remember exactly how I met Kiersten, but as the most bubbly and outgoing sophomore in the world, she somehow managed to infiltrate a group of us seniors that all went to La Jolla High and La Jolla Presbyterian's youth group. Only one or two months after we met, I felt a random little nudge in my heart that God wanted me to "disciple" her. I had only heard the phrase from Christian college fellowships where a younger student was guided by an older one. I really had no idea what it was supposed to look like, but somehow one night, I managed to muster up enough courage and say to Kiersten, "This is kind of random, but can I disciple you?" In typical Kiersten fashion, she excitedly said yes!... and then said she had no idea what that meant. So together for the rest of my senior year, we made our own rules and did what worked best for us. We met once a week at Don Carlos (only the best restaurant in the world) after school for endless Mexican food, and made ourselves little devotional schedules where we would read one bible passage one day, listen to worship music another day, journal another day, etc. It was so effective for the both of us to have someone keep us accountable, and we were able to talk about everything from what God was teaching us in our every day lives to the standard teenage things like boys...and more boys.

Throughout the years, Kiersten has become the sister that I was meant to have in this world. I think what's most amazing is that back when I first approached Kiersten, I thought God was calling me to be a mentor and a big sister to someone younger. And while I've been lucky enough to play that role for the past 5 years, Kiersten has been an endless blessing in my own life in ways I never even knew I needed. Even though she's my "lil sis", she's been one of the strongest support systems for me in times of pain, confusion, heartbreak, and just growing up in general. She's my life cheerleader: always encouraging me in anything I want to accomplish and always believing in me when nobody else does. She's grown so much in the past few years and though I used to make a silly attempt to "shield" her from my own problems, her amazing depth, compassion, and understanding has made her one of the few people I can truly be honest with and never face judgment. I'm beyond blessed to have been blessed with my Lil Sis, and I couldn't be happier to be her Big Sis.

In terms of photography, this shoot was a particular challenge because La Jolla was just. too. sunny. I know, our lives our really rough. But the brightness caused a lot of difficulty with squinty eyes, shadows, overexposure, etc. The editing process took a lot of toggling with the highlights/shadows and whites/blacks functions. Additionally, as cute as her dress is, the neon pink was a difficult color to accurately portray and often cast an orangey-pink hue on her face. All in all, though, being able to shoot at La Jolla Cove with someone as beautiful as Kiersten was such a fun experience! Even after 22 years, I can't believe we're lucky enough to live here.

And finally, my favorite photo: