Click the picture, or click here, for a fun slide show of MY family! I’ve been really busy lately, and missing my boys so much, that I took lots of pictures of our day.I have to admit, I was following my family around like serious paparazzi, using the flash like lightening on continuous burst shooting. The picture above is THE MOST PERFECT “MAMARAZZI” PICTURE EVER! I love it!
I was trying to prove to a photographer-friend that sometimes a little fill-flash is just right. In the slide show, almost every single picture I took outside used fill-flash. Not all of them are perfect, but keep in mind, every picture shown is straight out of the camera with no tweaking in photoshop.
Take this picture, for example. The flash is set so low it barely makes a difference. It looks perfectly natural, and yet, there’s just a bit of sparkle on the plum. (That plum came off our purple leaf plum — the one that some people swear is a fruitless variety. Uh huh.)Tree fans — also note that there’s a new picture in the slide show of a zelkova at Borough Hall. We lost one last year, but the remaining 13 are looking great this year!
Here’s another great example of a picture that benefited from fill. It was about 3 in the afternoon and the sun was very bright. Without a subtle flash, the shadows on Bradley’s and Gabe’s faces would have been much darker. The fill lightens them up just a tad without making the picture look like it was taken with an on-camera flash.
Speaking of Bradley, he won the Memorial Day poster contest for the 7th grade! Yay Bradley!All of the winning posters are displayed in the window of the Metuchen Savings Bank downtown. Bradley’s is a detailed split screen drawing, war on one side, Arlington Cemetery on the other.It says, “From war… to memory. But something never fades.” (His poster is hard to see in the window because it doesn’t quite fit the window opening.)I’m so proud of him!
Bradley’s friend, Gabriel Francobandiero, won the contest for the 6th grade. Gabe’s was chosen as the overall winner! Congratulations, Gabe! His design will be used on the cover of the Memorial Day Ceremony program.If you’d like to come to Metuchen on Monday for the parade, here’s some details:The parade starts at 10 a.m., rain or shine, at the Pearl Street parking lot. It travels north to Middlesex Ave, then turns right on Main Street, right on High Street, and right on Lake Avenue. The parade ends at Memorial Park, and will be followed by a brief ceremony.By the way, I fully recommend Memorial Day events in Metuchen. It is a highlight on our calendar, and puts us on the worldwide map as a small town that won’t forget the sacrifices that give us so many freedoms.
We love downtown Metuchen! There are so many fun things to do. What’s the Scoop is our favorite place for ice cream.
Variety Village is our favorite place for just about everything else! In case you haven’t heard, there’s going to be a new owner soon.I was in the store today and Tommy (the owner, always smiling, above) was telling me about the expected changes. Tommy, I know for a fact that my kids will never forget the joy of walking downtown to go to Variety Village. It’s so sad that you’re leaving, but I wish you well on your new adventures, whatever they may be.
Back at the Shaver yard, here’s another “mamarazzi” picture. I love it, fill-flash and all!
Speaking of fill-flash, this picture simply would not have worked without it. When you’re working with children, you have to be prepared for anything! And believe me, they don’t give you very many second chances if you miss the shot the first time. (Well, at least my kids don’t.)
Gregory took this picture! Didn’t he do a great job? This one is a prime example of a picture taken at the worst time of day — high noon in full sun with half the subject’s face in shadow. Yuck! But, thanks to Gregory’s subtle flash, the picture isn’t a total loss. I get precious few with me in them, and even fewer with Bradley actually smiling! Thanks, Gregory!
See ya’ll at the parade on Monday!
Peace,
~jules
P.S. The fun day you see in my family Memorial Day weekend slide show was created entirely on foot. I did not spend a dime on gas or get inside a car except to look for my missing flash.
I LOVE LIVING IN METUCHEN!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 12:01 am
If you know Heidi and Rob, email them for the link to their sweet slide show! (Regular blog readers, clients and friends, let me know if you would like to see it too and I’ll send you the link as well. It’s a really great one!)
I know I say this all the time, but I really do love this one!
Another fave.
I’m just going down the list of faves!
These cat’s eyes have not been photoshopped. They really are THAT green!
I planned for a lot of black and whites in this shoot. Heidi said she really loved black and white, so I looked for opportunities to capture stories that don’t need color.
I was loving that train and those skylights!
Family Unportrait
Hardwood floors are great for photoshoots because they always look so clean!
This is a sort-of-typical posed family shot, but what I love about it is the flow of motion from mom’s fun flowery flip flips up to the trees in the background. The tilt helps make this shot a little more interesting than if I’d hit it straight-on. I love all the angles and bricks and stairs too. Nice composition and texture. Plus, mom and dad look great and even though the kids aren’t looking at the camera, at least their faces are in the shot!
Believe me, this is quite a feat when there’s a full landscaping team across the street with huge lawn mowers making a serious racket! I might as well have been invisible.
Blink. When you open your eyes, Heidi, those boys will be taller than you.
Take it from a mom with two little boys, one of whom is a head taller than her now. I swear it was just yesterday that he was standing on his tippy toes to peek through a window with his little brother by his side.
Sure wish I had a picture of that.
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 11:22 am
I took these pictures last November on leaf-raking day.
Congratulations to michelle, Steve G. and Dawn!
Each posted a comment in almost every card design in the STIFF COMPETITION for a free family session.
I went through and re-checked all the posts and found that Steve G. missed one, michelle missed one, and Dawn missed one. It was a very hard contest, I admit! Thank you all SO much for playing!
To show my appreciation to you for keeping that eagle eye on my blog, each of you may take 30 percent off the creation fee of your next family session! All you have to do to redeem this little “coupon” is reference me back to this blog post when it comes time for you to book your session. Just click the title of the post, then copy and paste the url of the blog post into your email message to me at the time of your booking. The coupon never expires!
So, this post is for bob and Stacey — the two remaining contenders in the competition for a free family session. CONGRATULATIONS, BOB AND STACEY! YOU ARE FINALISTS!
Bob and Stacey posted comments in every one of my card designs! WOW!!!!!
Thank you to ALL my readers for checking out my blog and helping me boost my google rankings!
Every time you visit my blog, google counts you as “traffic” to my site, and the more traffic a site gets, the more popular google thinks it is! Plus, every time a reader posts a comment, my site gets “updated” with fresh content in google’s eyes. This is another factor that keeps my site high in the rankings. Thank you to ALL my blog readers who give me lots of traffic and post comments! You’re the BEST!!!
So, on with the show, er, uh, the contest…
Bob and Stacey…
…to win the free family session, you must follow the directions EXACTLY.
1. Your response must be correct, as judged by me. If neither responds correctly, the one with the CLOSEST answers wins.
2. You must EMAIL your responses to me in the form of questions, like on Jeopardy, before midnight, May 8. My email address is shown on the blog, and within my main web site.
Here are the Jeopardy-style answers, both with visual hints within this blog post:
A) A non-growing item of special significance in the Tree Grower’s Diary.
B) The number of leaf bags Bradley, Gregory and Gabe accumulated on November 26, 2007.
Good luck, and there is no guarantee that ALL the leaf bags are shown in the picture!
One more thing: A very special thanks to Brad, Gabe and Greg for all that raking! You guys are the BEST!!!!!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 12:47 pm
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 8:15 am
The winter contest rules stated that the three holiday card designs that received the most comments would be entered into a finalist round. We ended up with FOUR finalists because there was a tie.
So, pick from the numbers below and leave a comment with your vote for the ONE CARD DESIGN YOU LIKE BEST.
What’s at stake? The family with the card design that receives the most votes will win a gift voucher for my online store worth $150! It can be used toward anything in the store, or toward a new family session in 2008. So tell your friends to stop by the blog and vote for your favorite design!
To enter a vote, click “comments” below, enter your valid e-mail address, then your first name, initials or nickname in the “name” field. Type the NUMBER of the card you are voting for. You may vote ONCE per e-mail address. In case of a tie in the voting, I will add in the number of comments from the original card posts to determine a winner. Voting ends at midnight-NJ-time on Saturday, May 10.
GOOD LUCK!
There was also a competition among blog readers to leave the most comments relating to card designs. The person who left the most would receive a FREE FAMILY SESSION in 2008. You guys are GOOD because there was a 5-way tie! So, I’m going to keep counting and just see if any one of them falls out of the contest by not noticing this post. Sneaky, huh? If there is still a tie, be on the lookout for a tie-breaker in the form of a trivia question. I will post the question as soon as I determine that there’s still a tie.
ALL WINNERS will be announced on Mother’s Day!
HERE ARE THE CARD DESIGN FINALISTS 
DESIGN #19: “JACK’S FIRST CHRISTMAS”
Click here to see the rest of this card and read the original comments on its design. Be sure to click your browser’s “back” button to get back here!
Click “Comments” below to vote for this design. Write “#19″ in the comment field.
DESIGN #3: “BEAUTIFUL IN BLUE”
Click here to see the rest of this card and read the original comments on its design. Be sure to click your browser’s “back” button to get back here!
Click “Comments” below to vote for this design. Write “#3″ in the comment field!
DESIGN #5: “CENTRAL PARK”
Click here to see the rest of this card and read the original comments on its design. Be sure to click your browser’s “back” button to get back here!
Click “Comments” below to vote for this design. Write “#5″ in the comment field!
DESIGN #11: “EVERYDAY MIRACLES”
Click here to see the rest of this card and read the original comments on its design. Be sure to click your browser’s “back” button to get back here!
Click “Comments” below to vote for this design. Write “#11″ in the comment field!
Want to send this contest post to your friends? Click here to link to the post or to copy and paste the url.
Oh, and by the way, these contests are meant purely to drive traffic to my site and increase my Google rankings. I DO NOT harvest email addresses from comment posts in order to send you email messages about my business. If you would like to subscribe to my newsletter, click here.
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 7:07 am
Click the picture, or click here, for Ed and Susan’s slide show. When the show ends, it will jump back here where you can answer a question and win the family an 8×10 print!
The little sister is adorable!
See? (Love that pokey lip!)
The big sister has an unmistakable “Shirley Temple” look.
She was digging through the costume box by the window. None of those pictures are posed. I was just hanging out on the couch chatting with Susan while we watched her daughter putting costume pieces on. I love every one of those shots.
It’s always a good idea at a family shoot to plan a family activity like dying Easter eggs.
I think people sometimes feel a little awkward at family shoots (at first) because they’re not sure what they’re supposed to do.
Other than dying Easter eggs, here’s some ideas: have a tea party, build a gingerbread house, roast marshmellows on a chiminea, play a game like Twister or CandyLand, dance to some lively and slow songs, play catch, make up silly rub-your-tummy-and-head-at-the-same-time-as-you-wiggle-your-toes games, tell jokes from a silly jokebook, have a box of accessories handy and have fun trying on different looks.
Young children pretty much ALWAYS love to read books with mom and dad. I love this picture of the little girl on the way down the hall with her books.
I have fantastic memories of playing in the hallway with my brothers when we were children. We would turn off all the lights and shut all the doors so that it would be completely dark. Then we’d turn the lights on our Hess trucks and pretend we were on the highway at night. Little did I know I’d grow up to live that scenario every night for 20 years! (I used to drive home on the Turnpike every night at around 2 a.m. Now I leave earlier so I get to take the train! Train beats the turnpike ANY day!)
So many people ask me what I did to a picture to make the eyes so bright. Here’s my secret: LIGHT must be shining deeply into the eye. That’s what brings out the color. In this case, the only light source is a large window, which she is facing. If you were to look really closely at this picture, you could see that there is a little tear under her right eye. I just love how expressive she is. (She wanted some of her toys that had been banished to the basement in the “great photo shoot house purge” that most of my clients, a-hem, enjoy. That’s what I need to do — hire a photographer to come to my house so I’ll be forced to clear away clutter!)
One of my goals at any family shoot is to get a picture of the whole family. We try to get that out of the way early in the shoot so we don’t have to worry about missing the opportunity. I personally challenge myself to get a new “unportrait” for my collection of family unportraits. Above, there’s one.
LOVE this one!
This one’s my fave.
This picture would get the “clip stand” treatment if it were my family! I’ll explain the “clip stand” treatment in a blog post soon. You’ll LOVE it, so be sure to bookmark the blog.
Win Susan and Ed an 8×10 print! Here’s today’s question: In the slide show, there’s a close up of the older daughter’s hand with her father’s hand. What does the sticker on the little girl’s hand say? (They were looking through her 1st year scrapbook. It’s such a cool shot!)
Susan and Ed, I hope you love your slide show as much as I do! Your girls were so much fun to work with!
Peace and happy Sunday,
jules
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 8:26 am
This is one of my all-time favorite slide shows. If you know this family, and would like to see the show, leave a comment or send me email and I’ll hook you up with the link. It’s so much fun!
We shot at the grandparents’ house at Bradley Beach. Isn’t this the SWEETEST picture? I LOVE it!
This is not FAIR! I want a shot like this of me and my boys!
He was kind of shy most of the day, but at one point he suddenly turned and smiled at me! Yay!
Love this one too, wind-blown hair and all!
The light streaming in the window gives this picture almost as much warmth as his sweet smile. I love this picture!
HATS are so great at the beach! They keep long hair at bay. They provide a little shade for the face. And this particular one provides texture, color and shape! Love her fun smile too!
Plus, hats instantly change the mood of a photograph. This image would look really nice with an aged texture added in photoshop. I’ll mess with that one day when I get time and put it up on the blog for you if you remind me.
(Queen of the sand pile.)
The moms were having a little, a-hem, ISSUE with the kids always making bunny ears whenever I pointed the camera at someone. “STOP MAKING BUNNY EARS!” was begged over and over and over.
So I cracked up when I turned around…
… and caught some mom bunny ears!
These next three shots are so typical…
The men (and the oldest boy) are half asleep in the living room watching television.
The women are in the kitchen chatting and cooking.
The girls are hanging out in the “beauty salon.” One by one, they called people into the “salon” for manicures and massages. Note to all future photography clients: Everybody needs a massage after a beach photo shoot! They are SO MUCH FUN!
Thanks everyone! I pray you love your slide show as much as I do!
Peace,
jules
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 1:01 pm
This picture of Harry is so cute! He has a great expression. His hands are perfectly positioned (no thanks to me — sometimes I get lucky). The colors are bright and bold. And best of all, the lighting is perfect! What makes it so perfect? He is laying on the floor in front of a large window with sunlight streaming in onto the hardwood floor nearby. Harry is looking in the direction of his mom, who is standing in front of the window. Look how sparkly his eyes are!
We photographers LOVE eye sparkle!
And sometimes it’s awesome when the light comes from behind!
Sometimes we don’t really care about light because what’s happening is the more important thing. I tried desperately to get Lily to look at the camera, but she was SO into her jewelry box that I finally relented and just took pictures of her playing. The result: a classic shot!
I brought lollipops with me. Note to self: when bringing lollipops to a shoot, make sure to reveal them AFTER all the close-ups are finished!
Harry was baptized a month or so before this shoot, so we thought it would be cool to get some shots of him in his baptism outfit. Don’t you just LOVE this child’s hair? I swear to you, it really does grow like that! It’s AWESOME! Unfortunately, Harry had been in his white outfit for only a minute or so when a minor disaster struck…
…and he needed to be immediately changed. That happens.
Andrew was being all shy with me when I first got there. So I played his game and hid under the counter too. Gotcha!
He wasn’t shy for very long though.
So basically, here’s how to shoot for sparkly eyes: HAVE AS MUCH FUN AS POSSIBLE and just go with the flow because happy children have happy eyes, and happy eyes are sparkly eyes!
Peace,
jules
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 7:02 am
Remember Sophie?
Mom’s maternity session is here
Sophie at 8 weeks
Her baptism
On Halloween
Her Christmas card
Oh, and she was Baby Jesus in the Christmas pageant too!
So be on the lookout for “Sophie’s First Year” baby book coming soon to the blog!
Above, take a good look at that pretty red sweater because in a minute it’s going to be icing.
But first, the “1″ candle is very tasty.
Look at that! She’s offering her cupcake to her big sister!
YAY!
I think she likes it. Hey Mikey.
YAY!!!
Happy birthday, Sophie!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 11:48 am
This is Peanut.
She lives in an apartment building in Manhattan. I always wondered what it would be like to be a small child growing up in Manhattan. Sure she has access to many a playground — there’s one at ground level at their building, and a big one with lots of great equipment right across the street. But Peanut loves to play in the hallway! I LOVE this picture!
This is in the playground across the street. It was really cold that day and Peanut couldn’t seem to decide what she wanted to do. I love this picture for the emotional uncertainty on Peanut’s face, and the watchful, yet patient eyes of her parents behind her.
I love that picture in black and white too and couldn’t decide which I liked better. I LOVE her red coat, so I had to present it both ways. The black and white would look awesome as part of a wall display on a richly colored wall. But the color one would look great on a white wall. Which one do you like better?
Isn’t she adorable? So sweet too.
Hanging with dad on the roof. (Literally.)
This is almost all of Peanut’s family…
…Peanut’s new little baby brother- or sister-to-be is lovingly called “Sushi.”
Peanut is the little girl’s nickname. “Peanut” was what they called her before she was born.
I love this picture! It really shows off mom’s true figure!
I love this one too! So much great light in their apartment! I think it’s so cool when moms-to-be document their pregnancy with beautiful photographs!
I love this one of mom and dad’s hands around the baby. Beautiful light and shadows, and I love the rings too.
Peanut loved playing with mom and dad on a fun Sunday in New York!
She has such gorgeous eyes!
Can’t wait to meet you, Sushi!
Their slide show is private, but if you’d like to see — it’s SO fun — just email the family for the link!
Peace,
mamarazzi
Oooh, one more! Isn’t this the coolest “mamarazzi” picture? LOVE IT!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 9:04 am
