Here are a quick couple photos I took of Baby Lucas last week, only 5 days new (or technically 4 days since he was born on Monday) & Wow, Jenn looked amazing!!!
I often beat myself up (you have no idea how often) over not having a better lens, better camera, better lighting gear, better talent....that I thought I would beat myself up in front of all 2 people who read this haha. I decided to bore you with a list of things I coulda, shoulda, woulda done to make these photos better. I'm not saying they're right & let me also say, Jenn said she loved them (and so do I), I just feel the need to do this. Kinda saying it out loud, forces myself to just accept what I did, make the most of it, learn from it & move on. I do pretty good up to the moving on part. It's impossible to know everything about photography, so as long as I keep getting better (in my own eyes), that's all that matters.
So, Here goes.....
I coulda set up my flash stand & used off camera flash to light the scene better, I coulda used my tripod to slow the shutter speed slightly to 1/80 to add more light to the image. I shoulda increased my ISO even higher than it already was (my settings were f-1.4, shutter speed 1/100 & ISO 400) or even gone around & turned on all the lights & hoped for the best. It was pretty dark inside the house @ 9 am & dark clouds were dumping lots of rain that morning. Light was not on my side, even with my best low light lens.
Isn't he a cutie, looks so much like his daddy, he's like a mini Dave. The truth is, I went there to meet Lucas, I didn't even have an hour to visit that morning & had even less time for photos but wouldn't have missed it for the world. Super happy I got these few.
For my niece Amanda, Let me go a little deeper into the technical parts. I had Jenn stand in front of her dining room window which was the brightest area of the home at that time, instead of using artificial lights. I was going for a mood shot, but it wasn't going to be easy. My camera hand shakes a little more than the average person, I couldn't go slower with the shutter speed, without my tripod. Lucas was moving a little & with the aperture being wide open (f-1.4) for the most light, I tried to snap the photo when he held still the most, I think I got pretty lucky. (Oh, I had other settings on "One Shot" since there wasn't almost no movement from Jenn & I was being patient with Lucas to hold still for just a second. I moved the focus point to focus on Jenn's eye in 1st photo & Lucas's right eye on the 2nd photo, the part that I thought told the story most). With a tripod, I prob would have been able to go to 1/80 but not slower with Lucas moving. Pop up flash was NOT going to happen & that would have only left the ISO to go up higher, it probably should have been at least 800. In post processing, I turned up the exposure, added an "Action" & these are the outcomes. Are they the best, nope. Are they still nice photos, I think so & I'm my own worst enemy. So when they look back on these photos, are they going to think how I "shoulda done this & shoulda done that"? Are you serious? They will just love seeing Baby Lucas being his cute little self weighing less than 6 lbs & fits in the palm of your hands,... their precious, tiny, hungry, little man. I LOVE these moments!!!
After our session later this week, I promise to post the photos for those who don't have fb. I was honestly just jazzed to get to see this little man & his absolutely beautiful mama Jennifer. Can't wait for my next visit. Thank you for inviting me Jenn, holding Lucas definitely made my day & brought back lots of memories when my little ones, were little ones. These moments don't last long & I'm so glad I was there to capture those tiny musician fingers delicately touching mommies face while expressing the only way he knows how, "I'm hungry".
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