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
Click the picture
— or click here —
and turn up the sound for the slide show from Jack’s “day in the life” session.
When the slide show is finished it will jump back here where you can answer a question and win print credits for Jack’s family!
Above, Jack is a 6-month-old man of many hats. Isn’t this the FUNNIEST picture? I LOVE it!
Here’s another hat. Cute smile too!
Hat number 3.
Four.
Five. I LOVE this one! SO classy!
But rest assured that there’s nothing weird hiding under all those hats!
The man-of-many-hats also has fantastic eyes. Here, we are showing what it’s like in Jack’s day when he eats. Eating (or feeding, can you see the spoon?) is just one element of a “day in the life” session — the other elements being…
…bathtime…
…playtime…
…naptime.
(I LOVE that picture!)
We also plan, as part of our “day in the life” session, an outing. The other stuff — feeding, bathtime, playtime, naptime — is routine. So the outing can be anything. It could be a trip to the grocery store, or a walk to the duck pond. It could be a drive to the shore or lunch at a sweet cafe. It could be an exploration at the Discovery Museum or a swim with the sharks at the Aquarium. Point is: it should be something unique to you and your family, or some place you regularly go, that you would like to document with beautiful pictures.
In Jack’s case, our outing was the trip to pick out the Christmas tree. I LOVE IT! It’s something ordinary, and yet, it’s a beautiful memory that many of us share as being a sweet time of family togetherness.
This is what I love about family lifestyle photography — capturing those moments that you might not ever even think of capturing, or can’t simply because it’s frankly hard to carry a 7-foot Christmas tree, pay for it, load it atop the van, hold a baby and take family pictures all at the same time!
HERE’S TODAY’S CONTEST!
Jack’s family will win a $30 print credit thanks to the first commentor to answer the question correctly.
QUESTION
From where was the Christmas Tree purchased?
SIDENOTE: For those of you in Jack’s extended family that might be reading this, if you haven’t yet gotten them a present, one thing I KNOW they would love is gift credits for my store! Mom wants prints — lots of them, maybe even a big canvas, and maybe even the chance to upgrade Jack’s First Year book to include more pages from
his newborn shoot, his baptism, Halloween, and the shoots we’ll be doing next spring and around his first birthday. So if you’re stuck for ideas, I have a (not-so-secret) list!
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 5:02 pm
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 4:15 pm
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 7:25 am
Click the picture — or click here — for the slide show from Claudia and Anthony’s day-in-the-life session. Scroll to the bottom of the post for a TREE-RELATED contest question and be sure to leave Claudia and Anthony a comment!
I love the image above — natural smile, beautiful background, rich colors in the dress and wonderful texture too, the headband flower — oh yeah, and SHE is beautiful too!
I usually get the best pictures of children looking right at the camera when mom and dad are preoccupied with something else. In this case, I took the older girls on a little walk around the duck pond.
Love this one.
In these shots, we are standing under an old train bridge in the middle of the woods. Not sure which element shows more “attitude,” the graffiti, or my model who took direction so well, but I really love the images! Notice how in the bigger picture, I’ve shot it so that the graffiti blurs out on one side for a seriously off-center picture. I do that because it makes a more interesting composition than a centered picture sometimes, but it can also add options to album designs. Since Claudia and Anthony booked a day-in-the-life session, they’ll be getting a coffeetable album. I was thinking of using that blurred background with another picture (or two) on top of it, sort of like I’ve shown here.
In this sequence, the little girl was watching a train go by, and blowing a kiss to all the commuters. How sweet.
If you didn’t watch the slide show yet, there’s a sequence around this shot that cracks me up. (She was looking for birds.)
Claudia, I TOLD you you looked beautiful! Remember when I was saying, “Hold it! Hold it! The light is PERFECT!” Here you go — proof!
I got a lot of pictures of Anthony playing with the children, but I love this one best because it’s such a real, unposed moment that shows connection and love.
I can’t resist the baby bottle shots! That moment will go away before you know it.
Sometimes when I’m shooting into the sun, the diffused flash can really make a difference in being able to catch both the sun and the child’s face. I love the sparkle!
She loves the monkey bars!
TODAY’S CONTEST: You can win Claudia and Anthony a free 8×10 print of any image from their full gallery by naming the kind of tree my model is sitting in. I’ll give you a hint: the splotchiness on the bark is not just from dappled shade. Have fun solving the mystery!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 9:51 am
We went for a ride down to Point Pleasant to celebrate the big ONE. Isn’t he cute?
What a great way to celebrate a special birthday!
Before we left, though, we read books, ate some breakfast and went to the park with grandma and grandpa. If you know his mom and dad, e-mail them for a link to their slide show! That one got the absolute highest compliment ever when Bradley said, “They’re going to love their slide show, mom!” (What? My 12-year-old son complimented my work? No WAY! WOO HOO!)
We had a grand total of about 10 seconds with the sunglasses on.
Remember the days when you took your 1-year-old to the beach for the day, and you spent a good portion of the day standing by the car while the baby got changed and fed in the back? We used to do that all the time in my family.
I love this shot!
Love this one too. I dragged the shutter to get the Twister zooming by in the background. Hardest part of this was getting the baby to stay still!
And then we went home for bathtime….
… a favorite show…
…and finally, bedtime.
This little boy was the perfect little model, often smiling, always looking at the camera, always making some perfectly appropriate expression. I hope we do this every year!
posted by Julie Walton Shaver at 9:24 am
