New Blog | Long Island Family & Children Photographer | Lightful Photography

With the new site relaunch I created a new blog, please follow over to:

http://lightfulphotographyblog.wordpress.com/

Thank you!

Website Relaunch and Client Galleries | Long Island Children and Family Photographer | Lightful Photography

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to make a quick announcement that I will be relaunching my website come July 1st. I'm very excited about this new look for Lightful Photography, but with that comes some technical stuff {blah} so bear with me::

Please note that the site will be down come Tuesday, June 28th to allow the 48 hours to propagate. It may not take 48 hours, but just to be sure, I wanted to let everyone know. Please note that all client galleries will be coming down as well, which means online ordering will not be accessible. If you had a photo session within the last 30 days, your gallery will be reinstated via my new website but note that your login information may change. I will re-send the information to you once it's up and live. If you had a session with me that is passed 30 days, please contact me to have your gallery re-instated if you wish to place an order.

Please also note that this process affects my email as well. If you have difficulty contacting me via email, please call me at 516.242.8465 {oh the horror! I know but I promise I don't bite ;)} OR send an email to my backup account at lightfulphotography AT hotmail DOT com for any emergencies.

Again, thank you for your patience during this transition, I'm very excited to share my relaunch with you!

5 Tips for making your Child's Portrait Session Amazing and Fun | Long Island Family & Children Photographer | Lightful Photography

I was recently asked to share some tips on making your child's portrait session a great one for a blog, so I figured I would share it here as well. Do you have any suggestions or experiences from your session that you'd like to share? I'd love to hear your comments!

5 Tips for Making your Child’s Portrait Session Amazing and Fun

• 1. Speak with your photographer before your session. The pre-session consultation is so important to make sure you and your photographer are on the same page. Discuss expectations, especially how your child likes to interact, any shots that you want in particular and the feel you desire for your session and any props that you would like. This will ensure that everything goes as smoothly as possible the day of.
• 2. Work around your child’s schedule. As photographers, we all would like to have our sessions very early in the morning or at dusk when the lighting is best (if the session is held outdoors) but with young children, this isn’t possible a lot of times. Schedule your session when your child has had their nap for the day, been fed and happiest. The location should be determined based on the time of day you need your session to take place that will determine the best lighting situation for that time.
• 3. Bring a few items of clothing, accessories or personal items. Having a change of clothes, and even a cute hat or accessory can really change up your photos. Also bring anything of significance to you if you would like it to be photographed. This will make your session much more personal.
• 4. Be open to suggestions. As professionals, we know what works best and sometimes we might feel a particular prop, item of clothing or location may not work. I try very hard to tailor each session to my client’s wants and needs, but if I feel that something might work better, I may offer an alternative. Also, take into consideration if you the type of photos you want. If you want only formal, posed shots, be open to some candid photos that really show your child’s personality and how you interact as a family. In turn, if you’re asking for just candid photos, let’s take a few minutes out to get some formal photos out of the way, you’ll be glad that you did and that you have several options to choose from.
• 5. Have fun. Really. The purpose of our photo sessions is to relax and enjoy, so that we as photographers can capture the natural expressions that represent your child in this particular time. Things will happen that are beyond our control, children can be spontaneous and those usually end up being the most compelling of photos. When you look back on your pictures, I want you to remember exactly how your child was and your family dynamic at that moment in time, and I can guarantee that they will be treasured for years to come.

Life After the Alter | Long Island Family & Children Photographer | Lightful Photography

A few months ago I was approached by a fellow blogger, Jenn of After the Alter, about setting up a session for her son's 6 month photos. Jenn's blog about her life "after the alter", being a wife, mother and all the amazing and unexpected experiences that come with it, which we can all relate to! Little C. was an absolute dream to photograph, he was so happy and giggly, but every now and then, I caught a glimpse of a movie star in the making! Such a fun-filled session, and such a beautiful family! Enjoy!

A little Natural Light love...

Ah, natural light. How do I love thee...it's like a favorite blanket, or a cup of hot cocoa on a winter's day.

When I first started out, I shot in natural light, period. I purchased a speedlite last year for a small wedding that I did, and I have had a love-hate relationship with it ever since. Don't get me wrong, using external flash devices can provide some amazing creative lighting concepts, it can truly is an art form, but I have yet to master this on-camera, I'm not afraid to admit it. After months of practicing and countless classes, manuals, and so forth, I still refer to my EX 580II as my nemesis. I have done some off-camera flash work and have been happy with the results, and have time to time used it as a fill flash, but I prefer to shoot in natural light whenever possible.

Case in point, my dear friend, Regina of Cloud Nove Events, was in need of updated portraits for her website. She wanted a certain look for the pictures and was able to secure the Crescent Lounge in Astoria, NY for the location.

Walking into the lounge, it was a photographer's dream. Vintage furniture, dark wood, an exposed brick wall, and huge floor-to-ceiling windows with velvet curtains. While I squealed like a tween girl at a Justin Bieber concert, I felt this panic in me that I was going to have to do a little more than fill flashing to properly light the place.

Getting my settings right proved to be challenging. I tried bouncing it, angling it, turning down the flash exposure compensation, and even tried using my Gary Fong Collapsible Lightsphere diffuser to no avail. It just wasn't working, I wasn't getting the results I wanted. Regina was patient as ever, maybe because she's worked with me so many times and she knows how crazy I get with getting my in-camera settings. Finally after about 20 minutes of tinkering, I finally just detached my flash and threw it down in my camera bag in exasperation {well, not really threw it, it is a $500 piece of equipment! Yikes}.

I decided to go all natural light with this one, we drew open the curtains, and in retrospect, if I did manage to get my flash working the way I wanted, I don't think I would have been as happy with the outcome of the photos. Let's face it, the lounge was meant to be dark! There was so much mystery lurking in the shadows and perhaps if I had illuminated it with the flash, it would have lost some of that character that Regina wanted in her photos. Perhaps if I get another opportunity to shoot there, I can play around and experiment, maybe with off-camera lighting.

Some of my favorites from the session::

{Product Spotlight} 6 x 6 Boudoir Album

I finally took the time to create a sample album from the boudoir collaboration and I'm so excited to share this in our product offerings!

This is a product spotlight of a 6 x 6 square flush mount album, similar to wedding albums, which is a perfect size for my boudoir session. Other sizes and options are also available::

Every album comes gift wrapped in a brown box with a natural tie, ready for giving. :-)

A perfect touch for boudoirs, each album comes in it's own "lingerie" style boutique bag. Hot. Okay, moving on... ;-)

The bag featured is called Bordeaux, which has a deep red fabric and raised black velvet floral design. There are six (6) bag options available, from classic black to fun prints such as damask. Bags are only available with albums, not coffee table books, sorry!

Some bags have the option of a Satin liner with ribbon closure, or a velvet liner with knot or grommet tie closure. It's all about the details, love it!

Albums have many options so they can truly be customized to your personal tastes, or even the feel or theme of the session, from the type of cover material right down to the type of paper used. Because I was doing a sample album for the boudoir collaboration, I wanted to keep with the vintage feel of the session, so I chose a padded vintage leather cover in charcoal. Other cover options include fabrics, floral fabrics, suede, leather and even custom photo covers.

Album closed

Album pages are adhered to heavy card stock with lay-flat pages and no middle gutter.

Album design can be simple or complex, with the ability to use panoramic styles.

Close up of the texture of the paper used. For this sample album, I upgraded the paper to Pearl paper, which gives iridescent sheen to the pages and has UV Coating for further protection.

And there you have it, a beautiful album ready to give and cherish for years to come! I'm so excited to introduce this into my product line up, I'm all about personalizing, and this product completely exceeded all my expectations!

Behind the scenes of a collaboration shoot

In honor of this very special collaboration, I figured I would write a "behind the scenes" blog post with the details of how it came to be, what my thought process was on it, and why it is so important and personal to me. I very rarely post why I do things the way I do them, but this session was the essence of why I love my work so much. I always knew I wanted to create great images, and like any creatively-minded person, I find myself doubting my work and abilities at times. This is the only way that we get better as artists. The strive for perfection, but not always obtaining, it moves us forward. I don't even think there is such a thing as perfection, it is a part of human nature to have flaws. Our flaws is what makes us unique, and imperfections are beautiful. I try to bring this out in my subjects, as well as myself. The day I stop learning and striving to make better photographs is the day I should hang up my camera straps. In reality, by doing this, I feel like I'm making myself a better person in the process as well.

So, how did all this come to be? Well, I actually met Monique of Voleur De Bijoux on Twitter {social media is a wonderful thing, isn't it?}, we were mutual "followers" of several people. I looked at her jewelry pieces on her Etsy shop and knew that they were special. At the risk of sounding cheesy, they "spoke" to me as pieces that really fit with the type of photography that I love to do. Artistic, unique and non-traditional. I reached out to her, and told her how much I loved her pieces, and that I would love to work with her on a possible shoot. To my surprise, she said yes! I was completely excited, but how would I be able to make this work? I'm a children's photographer, I couldn't possibly use the pieces in my normal sessions. I had no idea, until I struck me that it would be perfect for a themed boudoir session. Am I boudoir photographer? Heck no. There are so many amazing photographers who ROCK this specialty. So I was presented with the task of figuring out how to make this work, and making sure that it represented me.

I contacted my dear friend Stacy of About Face Artistry and asked her if she was interested in expanding her editorial makeup portfolio. I told her about the project, and she was all for it. Now on to finding a model that represented the look I wanted, but someone who was also comfortable with a boudoir-style session. At the time, Stacy was running a contest for her next "face" for About Face Artistry, and there was a slew of entries of her past clients. Nosing through them one day, I came across a photo that struck me, and I knew she was the one I wanted for the session. I contacted Stacy, pointed out that photo and said "I don't care what I have to do, I need her to be our model!" Jillian had the exact look I wanted. She has this fiery auburn hair, and piercing green eyes. She could take on the look we wanted and run with it. To top it off, Stacy mentioned to me that Jillian had done boudoir photos before and probably would be comfortable with this type of photography. It all started coming together. I just needed her to say yes! So after a few days of stalking Stacy {"Did you talk to Jillian yet? Did you talk to Jillian yet???"} we got the word that she would love to participate. The project was a go. I emailed a photo of Jillian to Monique so she can work with some inspiration of what our model looked like, and within a few weeks, I had 10 sets of one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry in my hands for the shoot.

The day of the shoot was a tad hectic. Stacy and I couldn't meet before hand to go over the pieces so that she too, can be inspired by them to create the makeup looks. I arrived at the location about an hour before the session was scheduled so we can brainstorm. I knew I wanted two makeup looks, a soft and fragile type look and then a more dramatic siren look. I've worked with Stacy plenty of times to know all I had to do was say what I was shooting for {"I want her to look like a delicate wallflower"} and she goes and works her magic with her brushes. I trust enough in the people that I work with that it's not a wise idea to "box-in" in their creativity. This was just as much an opportunity to step out of normal work for her and Monique as it was for me. In going through the jewelry, we determined which pieces fit the "soft" look and the "dramatic" look. So, without further ado {aka my ramblings!}, here are some of my favorite shots from the session, as well as some product shots that I did::

Lamartine::

This piece is called "Lamartine". A two piece necklace, as soon as I saw the beautiful teardrop pendant, I knew I wanted to do a bare back shot, draping it down. I have to say that photographs just don't do these pieces justice, you really have to see them in person.

A shot from the session using Lamartine::

My inspiration for this shot was from a photo in Christina Aguilera's "Stripped" album {don't hate, that girl's got a mean set of pipes on her}. It was a black and white photo, bare back shot of her sitting on her feet with her hair draping down her back. That photo always struck me, it was very simplistic and beautiful. I wanted to recreate something similar but put my twist on it, as well as feature this wonderful piece.

Jouve::

Jouve I saw as a more fun and flirty piece, fit for someone with a lot of style, whose not afraid to take some risks. This piece fit perfectly with Jillian's coloring, and the soft look that Stacy created, the rose petal colors, played up the green gems and Jillian's eye color impeccably. Stacy also had this amazing hat with peacock feathers, which suited the feel that we wanted to capture, so we decided to use this as another prop.

Shots using Jouve::

This shot also used the Jouve piece, and really played on the bold colors of the bra set. Again with the more fun and flirty aspect, I decided the edit the photo a little more non-traditionally.

Belleau::

Belleau was another piece that fit the soft look. The colors were amazing, and I loved the intricate detail of the workmanship on it.

This shot was a perfect example of that delicate flower look that I wanted to create. Jillian's eyes are so expressive and she just looks ethereal.

However the "delicate flower" look doesn't last very long when you're in vixen lingerie! Another amazing shot that really shows off Stacy's artistry. And just to add, I barely had to retouch Jillian's skin, her complexion is just flawless {insert green with envy here}

A few more favorite shots using Belleau::

Ambroise::

Another exquisite yet simplistic piece. I saw this as something that you can wear with jeans and or with an evening gown. Very versatile and elegant!

Session shots::

This shot was for me, I'm not gonna lie, lol. I love using mirrors but my vision for what I wanted to create didn't really pan out the way I had hoped. Instead of making it something that it's not, I just went with it, and edited in a more edgy manner because I felt like it suited the over-all emotion of it. Sometimes things don't work out the way you think it will, but hopefully I can take something away from it as a learning experience and what to do next time. :)

Another shot using Ambroise::

Camille::

Ahh, Camille. This was the piece that was the whole reason why we were all there. For lack of a better word, the cornerstone of the entire session. Stacy and I dubbed it the "transitional" piece, meaning that this was going to be photographed in both the soft makeup look and the dramatic look as well. I didn't want to make a pretty photo, I wanted to make a photo that someone would look at and say WOW. The jewelry had an air of aristocracy to it, something of regal nobility. The shot needed to convey that.

"The" shot::

This is by far the image that I am most proud of. Is it perfect? None in the least, I can already rattle off to you the things that I probably could have done to make it a better photo, but again, live and learn and apply for next time. I'm extremely proud of it, nonetheless, and I feel like I captured what I wanted to express. Many who've seen this told me it reminded them of American Beauty, but I actually got my inspiration from an episode of America's Next Top Model {who says you can't learn anything from prime time TV?}! Yes, really, I watch America's Next Top Model. And no, it's not for the model cattiness, it's for watching the photo shoots and the critiquing process. Okay, so maybe it's like 90%-10%, the cattiness is just a bonus. :P Anyway, there was an episode where famed photographer Matthew Rolston shot the girls from above through a pane of water, giving them a underwater goddess look. I thought it was interesting, so I wanted to shoot from above looking down, minus the water and the sea creatures, of course. ;)

More shots using Camille::

Leloir::

I have to laugh about this just a little, because I literally had to pry this piece out of Stacy's hands. She just loved it. And yes, when I packed up, I made sure she didn't run off with it. That's all that is really needed to be said about this one, it's just gorgeous.

Session shots::

Lautreamont::

Another fabulous pendant piece, this reminded me of old Hollywood glamour.

Session shot::

Another one of my favorites. Non-tradtional in the sense that you don't see the subject's eyes, it just needed to be in black and white. I didn't see it any other way!

Bourdelle::

I love love love turquoise with gold, and again, I saw this as an old Hollywood glamour piece. I decided to use black elbow gloves as props in shots.

Session Shots::

Chartier::

I don't think there was a piece that I didn't want to run off with, and Chartier was no exception! I love the layered look, and that includes my accessories. This two-piece necklace set had so many aspects to it, really fun and unique.

Session Shots::

Gautier::

Gautier was one piece that I didn't get a chance to photograph entirely. We were getting crunched on time, and I was able to only get the photojournalistic style shot that I wanted, but not the more up-close to see how elegant this piece is.

Session shot::

And there you have it. I can't wait to coordinate another project like this. The experience was amazing, fun, and challenging. I was truly honored to work with such wonderful and talented women. Again, another huge THANK YOU to Monique, Stacy and Jillian for being such incredible participants in the project. I hope you love the images as much as I do!