Sometimes it’s hard for me to visualize how my pictures will look up on the wall. So I designed templates in photoshop that allow me to change the wall color, and put pictures up on a virtual wall so I can get an idea how they all work together.

Above, I’m showing Janet a layout for the sitting area at the top of her stairs. This is a family unportrait as an 11×14 print matted in a 16×20 black frame and three unmatted 4×6 prints in black frames.

Janet sent me a snapshot of the wall she wanted to put pictures on, so I had an idea of the space and where the light would come from. Here’s the snapshot she sent me, below:

I estimated the space needed to hang the frames at around 36 inches wide by 24 inches tall. In most of the examples shown below, my clients would purchase the prints from me, and buy frames from any standard decorating store or frame shop.

Janet sent me this one too, above, and I figured she could use another layout for the opposite wall.

This is a much smaller display, and could either be used on that opposite wall, to the right, or, it could be used on the window wall, to the left of the window, as a full corner of Family Art with the plan to decorate the opposite wall similarly after her family’s next photo shoot.

Janet sent me this one of a wall in the master bedroom above a couch. Isn’t that so cool she has a couch in the master bedroom? I love it! I love being able to visualize the available space, and what the photographs would be hanging above or beside.

In this case, I felt that simplicity was in order, so I chose black and white pictures, and emphasized the relationships between mom and dad and each child.

Isn’t Janet GORGEOUS? WOW!

The side images are ones I know Janet loves: one of her and her daughter on the trampoline, and one of her husband and son checking out trucks in the dining room. These are 4×6 prints matted in 8×10 frames for a larger white mat, giving that wall a little extra contrast and light.

Those frames can be found online and in many stores like Kohl’s and Michael’s. You can also buy mats with smaller mat openings for 8×10 and larger frames at places like Michael’s and Pearl Arts & Crafts.

Above, here’s another way to showcase those same images, but this time, the layout would work well above a king or queen headboard. I changed the wall color just to demonstrate how easy it is to visualize wall displays in different rooms. Notice also that I used 8×10 prints in 11×14 frames for the side images in this one.

Janet also asked for a layout of images for her daughter’s room. I poked through the image gallery from their photo shoot to see if I could remember what the wall color was, and I believe it’s a very soft yellow. I also remember that there isn’t a lot of wall space in her room because of awesome architectural details like angled ceilings.

But there was a nice empty space above the twin bed, on its long side (not above the headboard, but above the bed itself) and there was space above the dresser.

I like big prints because they look so awesome, but Janet could easily take this layout and use smaller images — a 5×7 as the centerpiece and 4×6’s as the side images. Still, I’m certain the larger display will look more like wall art and less like snapshots so I say GO FOR IT!

And then I started to think: What if they painted the wall pink since I was there last? Here you go! PINK WALLS!

Above, a layout for her son’s room. When I was there last, his wall was a neutral taupe color, but this layout would work on just about any color wall because the colors of their images were so great with the colors of the fall leaves!

Applying my new wall display system to other clients, I started to wonder what it might look like for a client who is stuck with white walls in an apartment where painting isn’t allowed. Above, look how easy it is for me to change both the wall color and the mat color in a consultation with my clients!

My new templates are SO easy to work with! I made a huge Photoshop file with masks for the actual sizes, and everything from the frames to the mats to the images are proportioned as they would be for an actual wall display. (Then I sized the whole thing down so it would be workable on a smaller scale.)

Of course, the actual frame size depends on the width of the frame you buy, but this gives you a great visualization of how it might look to put certain images together at various sizes.

Above, the last time was at Kate’s house, she asked for advice on displaying images of her children above her upright piano on a wall painted a deep rust color. At the time, I could only imagine black and white images working in that space, but now that I’ve put it together, I love the colors!

In this case, I used my favorite image/frame combo, a 19×13 image in a black 26×20 frame. I call this my “JWS Signature Print.” I special-order these frames because I LOVE them! Displayed under very high quality UV-coated acrylic, the print will last hundreds of years. It’s a very light substance, too, so even though it’s a large frame, it’s not heavy and is perfect for display in a child’s room, family room or playroom! (For blog readers who attend my church, this is the frame I used to display that awesome image from The Last Supper dramatization. It’s still on display in the Narthex.)

Here’s another focal point display idea for a richly painted wall. One large “JWS signature print” surrounded by 6×4 prints in 8×10 frames.

Bookmark the blog and come back often for more wall display ideas!

And remember: when you’ve got beautiful images of your family, you have no need for Rockwell! If you take the time to build a display, I promise that you will cherish your Family Art for decades. Think about all the benefits:

* Beautiful images of YOUR family.

* If you want, you can keep those images up and add to the display over the years, OR, you can update the images as your family grows.

* Trust me when I say that your friends and family will be WOWED by your Family Art! The bigger the better, I say!

Coming soon: more canvas gallery wraps, storyboard displays and other fun ideas! And keep in mind that if you’re having trouble deciding which images will work best together on your wall, send me a list of favorites, measurements of the wall space you’d like to decorate, the wall color or a snapshot of the space you’d like to hang your family art, and I’ll post some ideas for you too!

And to my wonderful clients, Janet and Kate, THANKS for lending me your adorable children and asking my advice about wall displays. I am so thrilled to be able to offer this service to all my clients now! You’re the best!

My Lenten Promise has nothing to do with my dogwood tree, but I couldn’t resist posting that gorgeous picture of today’s bud! I’m having lots of fun every morning inspecting the tree for signs of blossoming.

For all you budding photography pros out there, I fully recommend taking pictures of plants and trees as a way to learn the settings of your camera.


And now…

MY LENTEN PROMISE

February 5 was the last day I let myself waste time doing senseless computer nonsense. Namely, this nonsense was in the form of a photography forum I visited quite often.

When I was first starting out, I needed that forum of professional photography colleagues to help me figure things out. It was a valuable business tool and worth the time I spent searching the forum for answers to the many questions I had.

But as my participation in the forum grew, and I developed friendships with people, I eventually came to realize that I was using “downtime” to sift the forum, entering into thread discussions that really had nothing to do with my business or my photography. In short, I was WASTING TIME!

Considering the fact that I work roughly 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, and still have a long list of tasks to accomplish, I CAN’T AFFORD TO WASTE TIME!

So I prayed about it, asking God to help me control my downtime. The answer came quickly: Ban yourself from the forum, child!

So I banned myself from the forum.

Starting at midnight at the beginning of Ash Wednesday through Easter, I promised myself I would not use downtime unwisely by going on the forum. That was my Lenten Sacrifice.

In my personal world view, though, Lent should not be a time of sacrifice solely for personal gain, but a time of sacrifice that ultimately betters the world or community around oneself.

At first, it was hard not checking out the forum because clicking over to the site had become a habit — something I would do when I just needed a “minute” to myself. Problem was, it was never just a minute!

The image above shows my computer screen and a sticky note I began as a diary of my addiction withdrawal. As you can see, I only wrote for the first three days. After that, I forgot all about it. While I do miss my forum friends, I can’t say that I miss the forum at all.

I’ve become so much more productive and focused during Lent, and I’ve found that I’ve been able to get so much more done! I completed several custom coffeetable book designs which my clients LOVE, scheduled extra shoots I didn’t think I’d have time for, designed birth announcements and thank you cards, revised my contracts, designed a new newsletter, and the list goes on and on!

But the accomplishment of which I’m most proud is the rehearsal tapes Web site I developed for my choir. Using rehearsal tapes provided by our director, I developed a system for uploading the music so that anyone can practice our anthems at home with the choir director singing each part — soprano, alto, tenor, bass — as a separate mp3 file! Members of the children’s choirs are enjoying it too because they can sing their church songs at home for their parents! It’s great for me because now I get to spend any “downtime” learning my alto part! The director loves it because she’ll be able to spend less rehearsal time teaching notes and rhythms and more time on precision and balance. I LOVE IT, and the feedback I’m getting from the choir members, from age 4 through 74 is that the rehearsal site is WAY COOL and SERIOUSLY HELPFUL! I can even download the songs to my iPod and sing on the train (inside my head, of course), and one of the choir members volunteered to burn CDs of the music for choir members who don’t have computers!

YAY!

My Lenten Promise turned out to be a grand success!

Plus, I’ve had more time to take fun pictures of the beautiful trees God gave us!

I don’t know about you, but I think that bud is dangerously close to popping!



Thank you, God, for giving me the Biblical example of Christ’s sacrifice, empowering me to thoughtfully examine my place in the world and what is expected of me, and to realize that Your gift of time on earth is not to be wasted.

Amen.

Coming tomorrow on my Walk: A Day of Reflections

In the Living Dramatization of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” an event at my church last night, worshippers entered the Sanctuary just after Jesus spoke the words from Matthew 26:21 “…Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me.” This is the point at which Leonardo created his famous painting, and the point at which the dramatization began.

I was in the back balcony, taking pictures only during the songs with no flash. I took the picture above with my Nikon D3 on ISO 6400, f/3.2 at shutter speed 1/160 seconds. Focal length: 52 mm. The lights in the Sanctuary were very low; the actors on the edges were in shadows creating quite a lighting difference between “Jesus” in the center, and “Simon” on the far right and “Nathaniel” on the far left.

You can see the picture above as a 13×19 print displayed in the First Presbyterian Church of Metuchen Narthex on Easter Sunday.

This one realistically depicts the lighting, and how far back I was, except the camera makes it seem as though the chandeliers were bright, and they were actually dimmed quite a lot.

I could switch lenses and get closer too.

“Jesus,” right, stared straight ahead for entire length of the program.

The dramatization explored the instant emotional tumult the disciples might have felt just after Jesus spoke of the impending betrayal. One by one, each man broke his pose and delivered a soliloquy revealing his inner thoughts, ultimately questioning who the guilty one was, and each one ending with “Is it I?” before resuming his pose in Leonardo’s painting.

When I said I only took pictures during the songs, I lied! Yikes! I did take this one during “Philip’s” monologue as a way to illustrate the point of the dramatization.

We either need a slightly shorter table, or a spotlight.

In this one, I did a little photoshop work to see if I could even out the lighting by blending two versions of the same picture. I bumped the exposure up for the end with “Simon,” and darkened the side with “Matthew,” but I didn’t bother disguising the line between the two exposures because I think it looks kind of interesting, like a rainbow. I’m sure you can see it.

Here’s what it really looked like, with no exposure tweaking in photoshop. If you go back to the image at the top of this post, I bet you can’t see that line. I photoshopped it out on the picture I wanted to make as a big print. Sneaky, huh? (But it’s possible you can see a subtle line in the print.)

Click here for a little slide show of the split second after the actors finally were allowed to break pose.

To all involved in the production: EXCELLENT job! From the costumes to the backdrop to the acting, posing and music, it was a very moving service. Thank you for all your hard work!

Yesterday, I promised an update on the dogwood’s progress. Will she blossom in time for Easter? I seriously doubt there’s any chance we’ll see even a hint of blossoming by Sunday but I’ll keep watch, just in case.

Above, that’s her mugshot for today. Not much different from Monday, except the sun has gone away. Coming tomorrow on my walk through Holy Week: my Lenten promise.

As the legend goes, dogwood trees blossom at Easter. With cross-shaped bracts, petals tinged blood-red at the edges, thorny crown in the center, the blossoming tree does get me thinking. Every year. Like clock work. (See 2006 post about watching the dogwood tree.)

Incidentally, I took the picture above with my Nikon D3 today on ISO 100. Nice performance on the low end of that camera’s range.

Any bets on whether she will blossom by Sunday morning? Check back tomorrow for an update.

But the red maples are all aglow today! This is my October Glory red maple.

Here’s another one of my red maple.

And here’s the sad little purple leaf plum. Why sad?

Check out her support brace: electrical tape and an old piece of lumber, put there by Mike in a last-ditch effort to save Gregory’s Tree from the ax.

Incidentally, this is not my recommended method for attempting to correct a leaning tree. To be clear: I wanted to cut the tree down, but Mike said he couldn’t bear cutting it down and was going to try to straighten her. I said, “Whatever,” and washed my hands of that sad little tree. Father, forgive me.

She has quite a lean, just one thing in her long list of problems.

Coming Tuesday on my Holy Week walk: something to do with the Last Supper, God willing.

Lots of pictures of Alex’s Christening below, and if you didn’t get a chance to see the sweet slide show yet, please email the family for the link.

Above, his eyes are beautiful!

I love the lights and the colors in the Sanctuary.

Capturing moments like this one is what I love about lifestyle photography.

This one was taken from back in the pews. As I’ve mentioned before in this blog, when I shoot religious services, I never use flash, and I try to be as invisible as possible. I only take as many pictures as I need, and I never use rapid fire shutter release in a place like this. To me, the most important thing is for the worshippers to experience the moment and not be distracted by a photographer. That said, if the family wants me to capture moments during the service, I will do my best to keep my shots as real as possible without being a distraction.

Not using flash allows me to take advantage of the natural light too! Beautiful.

After the service is over, though, my focus shifts to capturing all the other people capturing posed group shots.

I sneak in a few of my own too.

After the service, I found some nice window light for a quick portrait of mom with her sweet baby.

Love this one.

At the reception at the Saltwater Grille I obviously had a lot of window light to work with!

In this one, I isolated the designated baby-rocker. I love the simple white background, which is really the bay outside the window completely blown out.

You can see the bay in this one, and the snow on the deck. What a gorgeous sunset.

This is a nice portrait of the grandparents by that big window. (More “mug for me” shots in the slideshow.)

This little girl and I became fast friends.

I couldn’t help following her around. She reminds me of my niece, Hope, when she was that age.

Isn’t she adorable?

He’s only two months old in these pictures. Time for a nap.

And a lot of looking around to check out all the people checking him out.

I love this shot of the baby snuggled in dad’s arms.

This one is nice too. May God Bless you, sweet child.

We’ll be seeing a lot more of this family over the next year, so if you’re in their circle of family and friends, be sure to bookmark the blog!

If I had to pick a “best” season for headshots, it’s NOW. Why? Well, let’s take a moment to reflect on Kate’s cat, above.

She is perfectly happy sitting in the sun for her headshot. If it were summer, she’d be too hot. December? Too busy buying cat treats for kitty friends. Spring? Too many new little critters to chase around in the pale green leaves (which cast an icky reflection on human skin. Ew). Fall is good too, but second to fall, NOW is a great time!

If it were summer, do you think I’d be able to get Kate to wear that GREAT red sweater?

Plus, since I come to you for headshots, you don’t even need to leave the comfort of your own home (read: full access to your wardrobe). AND, I can’t help capturing the animals while I’m there. Check out the pets portfolio on my main web site. I LOVE shooting animals!

Wait. That didn’t come out right.

Take it from a pro: the best place from which to take snow pictures is the bedroom window.

These were taken last Friday, the first official snow day of the year, but I’ve been so busy I couldn’t get around to posting them until today.

They are eerily similar to pictures I posted last year! Take a look here.

Isn’t he cute? (Sweet too! He’s my Big Cricket!)

He does have moments of strangeness though. (Mike’s making a snow angel when Gregory suddenly decides to brush the snow from his dad’s face. Ew!)

Bwaaaaa-ha-ha!

Bradley is a very reluctant photo subject these days.

But who can resist a smile on a Friday snow day!

This short squirrel movie
stars Twirly, a squirrel so-named for regularly feeding happily from the “squirrel-proof” bird feeder while doing gymnastics. When the little show is finished (be sure to turn up the sound), it will twirl back here. Feel free to leave a comment telling me to get back to work already and stop watching the twirling squirrel.



Or, for a completely different diversion, click here to read an excerpt from “Boyhood Days in Old Metuchen” by David Trumbull Marshall. In this chapter, Dr. Marshall wrote about a squirrel he was obsessed with when he was 12, circa 1877, right here in my town. I love the last two paragraphs from that chapter the best:

“I tried for a long time to take a photograph of the squirrel on the outside and the two cats and the dog on the inside, but to get the combination of two cats and a dog and a good light and the proper hour of the day and time to make the exposures, took me more than two months.

“I put my camera on a step-ladder outside of the window and rigged a string from the inside of the house to the trigger of the camera, but what with not having a white background for the black cats and what with the scraping of the string on the window-sill and what with two or three neighbors’ cats trying to catch Susie from the outside, I had some job getting even so good a picture as I did get.”

I HEAR YOU DR. MARSHALL!! Squirrels and photographs, who can resist?

When The Oprah Show needs a jaw-dropping focal point for a room-remodel, they call the same company I use for printing photographs on canvas.

At least, that’s the rumor I heard. The segment, Nate Builds a Dream House, will be on today, so be sure to watch!

The canvases shown here are not on Oprah though. These are in my clients’ home. Special thanks to Tracey and Mike for letting me come over to photograph their wall displays! The montage above is made up of six 12×12 canvas wraps. These have natural canvas edges, a design choice we made partly because the original images didn’t have a lot of room for cropping on the top and bottom.

This one looks stunning in black and white. Sixty inches wide by 33 inches tall, it has the image wrapped all the way around the edges. These gorgeous canvasses are considered the Norman Rockwell of home decor these days. It’s great because not only do you get beautiful art for your home, you also get treasured heirlooms that can be passed down for generations. I LOVE canvas wraps! Can’t wait to see the one on Oprah today!

Thanks again, Tracey and Mike, for letting me photograph your beautiful home!

I don’t know a whole lot about basketball. Somebody help me. Is that kid in blue fouling my kid? (Mine’s the one in the green shorts.) On the other hand, blue boy did a great job blocking the blocker so that our yellow team could get a good shot! Woo HOO!!!! GO TEAM!

Gregory jumps and shoots! YAY! Despite his height, Gregory is probably the youngest member of the team and is just learning to jump and dribble and shoot. He is still somewhat confused by the aggression of basketball, having been told a million times over the last 7 years not to bump into people or get in anybody’s face.

THIS kid has it down though! He runs fast, shoots, scores, blocks and has a great time hanging with his dad, the coach. And he’s two full years older than Gregory.

Balancing the ball on the head promotes coordination. Fellow mamarazzis TAKE NOTE! When photographing your child’s basketball game, be sure to get the shot of your child looking intently at the coach! (Even if he is balancing a ball on his head at the time.)

Mamarazzis (and dads with cameras too), also be sure to capture the little brother on the sidelines. Helps if the team is in the background!

It also helps to have a big LCD screen on the back of the camera so as to entertain little brother. We mamarazzis have a name for the practice of letting people see the image on the back of the camera — it’s called “chimping.” Used in a sentence: I took the little brother’s picture, then I let him chimp. Kids LOVE to chimp!!

And Gregory LOVES basketball! (Loves it when I put bball posts on my blog too. These pictures are from last week’s game. Can’t wait for today’s game!) Yay Gregory! I love you! And I LOVE to watch your games! Thank you, coaches, for giving of your time and talent so that my child can play and learn! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!