Sam's Photoshoot

After a week of reading a photography book and watching a bunch of tutorials online, I got with my little buddy Sam and had her pose for me so that I could practice what I learned.  :)  

There were a couple of things that I wanted to try out right away.  And that was proper posture and foot posing.  Here is Sam without instruction.

BAM!  There is my girl with some instruction!!  Great posture and with her weight on her back foot with the other foot cross over in front.  Also her arm is moved off of her arm which shows the true width of her waist and doesn't add her arm to the total width of the picture.  This pose really compliments and shows off her great shape!  I was super excited when I saw this picture!!  I guess the person writing the book I read knew what they were talking about!

Here was more of a candid moment with Tessa that I caught.

Super cute and only slightly posed!

Tessa was outside and gave me an opportunity to try something else that I had read.  It said that with children and pets that pictures look better at their level.  Here is me shooting Tessa at my level with the lens pointing down...

And Bam!  Here I am on Tessa's level!!  I think this is one of my favorite kitty pictures ever!!  So cute!!!

Ok now back to Sam's photoshoot.  There were 4 chapters in my book about posing people's hands correctly... so I really wanted to try it with Sam.  Here was one of my first attempts at it.  Looking at it, I realized that I had made a couple of errors... first her elbow is the main focus in the picture and has the most light in it. 

So I switched to a new angle and liked this picture much more.  My lighting was still off though... so it kind of looks like she was blocking her face from the sun haha.  I should have faced her in the opposite direction, but oh well... learning experience and the picture still looks pretty good.

 This was a my first attempt at posing Sam's hands to play with her hair...

I remembered reading something about posing people's hands with motion.  As I was reading it... it didn't really click, but when I was with Sam I got it!  Instead of having her pose her hands in her hair (like the picture above), I told her to just run her fingers through her hair...  Kyle also assisted by moving the camera into a quicker picture taking mode as well (still need to learn how to operate at DSLR camera.... AND still need to GET a DSLR...)  But anyways... posing her hands with motion eventually gave me the two pictures below.

 BAM!   One of my favorites from the whole shoot!

And then afterwards... BAM!  This shot!

I noticed that Sam was giving me a lot "smile for the camera" smiles.  I wanted to get a real smile on her face.

I remembered that a trick to doing that was to have people make silly faces.  That inbetween the silly faces, people can't help but laugh because they feel silly.

Look at this smile!  BAM!  I was going for a genuine emotion and not a posed smile.

Silly faces for the win!!

Love it!!  Pretty sure this is her new profile picture.

Also I thought her kissy face silly face was a completely cute picture too!

We decided to take a picture to show off her beautiful necklace and newly done nails!  I had read to maximize the viewers attention to the necklace and her fingers that her chin and eyes should be looking away.  Also her hands are placed above and below the necklace which draws the viewers eyes to both pieces!  :)

 I watched a Youtube video by Peter Hurley (who is one of the top 10 headshoot photographers in the world).  And one of his tips was to have people bring the bottom lid of their eye up or to squinch.  This was our result of trying it.  It definitely looks different and it definitely has a model feel to it.

I also read a lot that a favorite pose of a lot of photographers is to have girls look down and close their eyes.  Its supposed to show vulnerability and femininity. 

I had read that fingers are supposed to direct people's attention to a certain feature.  Here you can see that we were trying to feature Sam's eyes in the picture.  We were calling it our America's Top Model pose.

In the past, almost every picture that I took of people was of their whole body.  I was trying to get away from doing that, but after our photo shoot... I realized that I might have went a little extreme, because I didn't have hardly ANY pictures of her with her full body in it!  Whoops!  I'll have to keep that in mind for the next time that I'm taking pictures with someone.

Overall... I call my first photo shoot a success!!  Sam was an awesome model!!!  So naturally photogentic.  And I'm super excited that some of my tips and things that I've learned helped make some of these pictures turn out super cute!  I can't wait to find my next model!  :)

Chance and Amber's Wedding

Chance and Amber got married on June 25th 2016.   Here are some of my favorite pictures from the wedding, and might I add... I took a super lot of pictures!!  :)  Taking pictures is kind of my passion, and especially when I'm at weddings... if I see a "moment" that is happening and I don't see anyone else taking a picture of it... I can't resist myself!  :) 

I was super impressed by how beautiful the decorations looked!  I thought that their head table was gorgeous.  This is so far beyond my ability of creativity...  I could have never duplicated or created this, so of course I was super impressed by it.  I was a little disappointed in myself, because I didn't spend hardly anytime planning the decorations for our wedding.  We pretty much let Carrie Cerinos handle all of it, and now I kind of wish I had been a little bit more creative with our decorations, but oh well.

I really thought that their Mr. and Mrs. cups and signs were cute.

I know Amber had this cup with her all night.  Definitely the perfect cup to drink from for the night!

Here is a lay of all of the decorations on the table.  I loved how all the center pieces were different, but they all had similarities so they tied into each other really well.

Here is a close up of two of the center pieces.

Even the silverware looked really pretty!   The details in everything were really well done.

Details... such as... real lemons in the water pitchers...  I have to mention this, because I thought it was kind of funny and I specifically took the picture of this so that I could tell the story...  So without further ado...  Amber bought a big bag of lemons that she wasn't sure what to do with, and we were kind of laughing about it.  Then we were talking about how her sister had a bunch of lemonaide mix, so she told Amber that's what they would fill into the pitcher.  Then Amber was like "Oh!!!  And I can put real lemons into it!"   Good story, right?  Maybe it's one of those... you had to be there for it...  :)

 

Here is a picture of Amber's beautiful dress.  She kept saying all night how thankful she was to Joann and Bridget for letting her have the dress.  She really looked so good in it!  

Here is my favorite picture of Amber getting ready.  We almost had a bobby-pin disaster... of not having enough of them.  But leave it to Deb to have an entire package of pretty and sparkly bobby pins in her purse!  Deb to save the day!  Haha!

While she was getting ready, her mom and Eric were hanging out in the next room over.  Love this picture of them!

Here are some pictures of other people that were at the wedding.  Sky and Aunt Linny

Aunt Mary and Dianne.

Cody and me!!  <3 br="">

The Arnoldines.  I think that this has been one of my MOST popular Facebook pictures that I have posted.

Except... for maybe this picture!  <3 br="">

 

Neal and Deb.  I think this might be one of my favorite pictures of them!

Me, Cody, and Deb

 Brandon and Brianne

 Aunt Linny and Aunt Renae

 Jess and Chico

 Aunt Vicky and the next couple to get married!!  Cody and I can't wait until August for Reggie and Holly's wedding!

  

Uncle Ted manning the grill.

 

Cousins!  <3 br="">

 

Now onto the ceremony!  Here is the spot where Amber and Chance got married.  When I first came over on Friday I saw just the logs sitting there without the bench tops on them and I was a little confused.  But once I saw it all put together... I thought it was genius!  Such a cute idea!  I think that people sat on those benches almost more than they even sat at the tables underneath the tent.

 First came out Cody and Deb.

Then Amber's mom and Eric.

Then Amber's brother escorted her down the aisle and gave her away.  <3 br="">

The ceremony itself wasn't very long, but it touched on all the bases that you would want to it.

Cody had a hold of the rings.

Here he is presenting them with them.

Here is Amber placing the ring on Chance's finger!  <3 br="">

Mr. and Mrs. Charles!

They are such photogentic kissers!!  Love how this picture came out!

Amber the ceremony they went straight into their first dance.  Chance had his computer hooked up to a speaker system and it worked out great because it wasn't hard to hear the music playing at all.

Ahhh!!!  I think this is one of my favorite pictures ever!!  SO cute!  I think that this is probably the best picture of the 3 of them that I've seen from the wedding.  :)  I just love Eric's little suit and his big smile!  He was dancing around them while they were dancing and it was so stinking adorable!

I was just so impressed by how good of a baby Eric was the whole weekend!  He was in such a happy/good mood.  We actually got some snuggle time with each other and he sat on my lap watching Youtube videos for over an hour!  <3 a="" adorable="" aunt="" baby="" being="" br="" eric...="" good="" hurt="" making="" melanie="" nbsp="" ovaries="" re="" s="" stop="" such="" sweet="" you="">

After the first dance, Cody and Krista went up front to sign the marriage license as Amber and Chance's witnesses.

Here is Cody signing.

Krista signing.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles with their witnesses.  <3 br="">

Amber and her mom 

Amber with her sister-in-law and new baby nephew, Fox!

Mom and brother.

Chance with his mom.

Current and future Charles women!!  :)

Family photo!  

I wish we would have gotten one where we pulled all of us in.  Davey and I were kind of left out of these pictures.  I also wish we would have gotten one with the kids in it too.  If I would have known how the night was going to end... I probably would have stepped in more to make suggestions on picture combinations, but oh well...  I guess we'll get them another time.

Other family picture!

Love this one of the 4 of them!  I'm pretty sure a recent picture of all of them did not exist, and this was on my "photo to get" list!  Booyah!  Got it!

Just like this picture was!  I got this the night before at Shaver Hill!  Not quite all sisters... but pretty much!  Booyah!  Crossed off another photo bucket list picture!

Girl power!  Love these ladies!!

It was supposed to be a "girl" picture... but we love our little boys too.  <3 amber="" br="" had="" have="" if="" in="" it="" nbsp="" only="" too...="" we="" would="">

Ahhhh another adorable picture!  If that's not a Kodak moment... I don't think I know what Kodak moment is!  Eric was playing in Amber's dress all night and it was just too cute. 

Ah!  See what I mean?!?!  Too cute!!

I have to show this picture because it's too funny...  Now I was there... so I know that he tripped and Amber was trying to catch him in this picture.  But Cody captioned it and said "Get out off my dress... SLAM"  It does kind of look like she's pushing him into the ground haha.

Here is my other adorable nephew!  <3 br="">

  Mrs. Charles and Mrs. Charles!  And sisters!!!<3 br="" nbsp="" sisters="">

Sisters!!!  Love this picture of them!!

I'm so sad that we didn't get one of Amber, Krista, and I!!  We were only talking all day about us all being sisters now!!  Darn it!  But I am so happy that Krista and I were able to help out and step in to help Amber throughout the day/night!  I've always wanted a sister!  So excited to have two of them now!!   I guess I'll have add a picture of the three of us to my "photos to bring into existence" list...

I took some up close pictures of Amber and she just looked so beautiful!  She really has that "new bride" glow to her.

Here is a better shot of her in her dress.

Love her flower crown!  It blended in with the decorations on the table and really helped tie everything together.  So pretty!

All this talk of my nephews... can't forget my lovely niece!  Favorite niece that I have!!  <3 br="">

*Bride Glow*   They are so adorable!

Couldn't resist taking pictures of them together!  That's a momma's love right there!

More momma love!

Daddy love!

Family love!

Love this picture of Rick, Amber, and Eric!  I wish I would have gotten one of Rick, Chance, and Eric.  3 generations of Charles men!!  This is going to go on my "photo to get" list!  

Cody with his new sister!

Their cake looked AMAZING on this table!

Cake close up!  I loved how they put the flowers into it as well! The cake was made by the bakery in Hancock!  It had white and chocolate layers and had cream cheese frosting.  I know that Amber and Chance had some cake left over!  I hope that they froze it for their anniversary.  I know that was super exciting this year for Cody and I during our anniversary.  :)

So at about this time in the night... I somewhat "officially" became the photographer!  

So when I'm trying to take pictures really fast... my camera freezes up!!  So I was trying to get the perfect pictures of them feeding each other the cake, and I was pressing down on my camera button... but the camera wasn't taking pictures!  I was like AHHH!!  NOOO!!  So here is the picture I got... it's Chance eating the cake... but not Amber feeding it to him.  :(

I was in panic mode because I wasn't getting good pictures of them cutting the cake and there wasn't anyone else to there taking pictures encase I missed something!  I almost wanted to yell for them to slow down, but I didn't want to ruin the moment... so I just tried the best that I could.  Here is Amber eating the cake... but darn it... missed him feeding her too!  I guess this just proves my point that I need a better/more professional camera that has a faster shutter speed so that this doesn't happen to me again!

It's a good thing that people that are newly married kiss for a long time period (Or I might have missed this one too!).  I remember at our wedding, I was worried that our first kiss after being married wouldn't be long enough, but in the moment that's not a problem at all!  Same held true for Amber and Chance!  :)  AND they were nice and didn't smash the cake in each others face!  I read a statistic that 95% of marriages that have a cake smash in their wedding end up getting divorced!

At first, Amber was trying to cut up and help serve the cake... but I refused to let her!  I told her to go and mingle and I recruited Aunt Renae to help me cut up the cake.  She cut it and I helped get it on a plate.  Then we recruited Robin to help deliver the pieces to everyone.

Here is Eric enjoying some cake with grandma and Kelsie! 

The cutest sound you will ever hear is a baby laughing.  Aunt Vicky was playing with Eric and the napkin that he was holding, and he was just cracking up and laughing so much!!

Everyone around was laughing at how sweet he was!  Love this picture!

 

Father and his new daughter!

Girls dancing the night away!

Girls dancing!  #boysaretocooltodance

Amber and Chance were thanking Uncle John for making the long trip to come to the wedding, so got a photo op!  <3 br="">

Overall... I'd say that we had a pretty successful night!.  The weather was absolutely perfect... Amber and Chance both looked great...  the decorations were beautiful... everyone enjoyed the food... and everyone REALLY enjoyed the keg!  I think that Amber summed it up pretty well on her Facebook post...   "It was a beautiful day to celebrate love! In the end, that's all that matters."