Project Mom {week5} "The Littlest Sox Fan"

It is here! Baseball season is upon us!

While I have to say, we are far bigger football fanatics than baseball here in the Pudlo house, we still love a good Sox game! This week, Project Mom is a tribute to the Red Sox! Here's one of the littlest Sox fans you will meet, sporting all of the fun attire he gets to wear for the next few months. :)

All shots taken with my BEAutiful 50mm 1.4 lens... best lens on the market for portraits I'm convinced!

f1.7 1/80 sec ISO 200 natural light to the right

 f1.7 1/80 sec ISO 200 natural light to the right

 f1.7 1/250 sec ISO 200 natural light to the right (we shot this right near the glass doors, which is why we have a higher shutterspeed here... which I'm learning is so crucial when photographing little guys... they move quick!)

f1.7 1/80 sec ISO 400 shot in my living room... not as much light, thus higher ISO
light was from a window to the upper right of my little guy.

Project Mom {week4} "Big Boy"

Lets start by saying, what a week we have had! I decided that for this post of Project Mom, I would take some portraits of my little guy in his "big boy" outfitt since we have had quite the "big boy" week. Not only did little man get his first tooth, but had his first spoon-fed solid meal, learned how to blow rasberries (and did so for two days solid...), and really got his belly-laugh down! I simply can't believe how fast he is growing...

The images below were captured in my studio with my amazing new 50mm f1.4 lens which just came in the mail yesterday! While my old 50mm 1.8 lens has been good to me this past year, I must say, my new toy is far superior. So crisp, beautiful bokeh, an extra extension of "aperture power"... boy was I missing out!

Anyhow, here is my handsome, goofy, adorable little man... what a personality on this guy! :)

f3.2, 1/60 iso 200, natural light on left, studio fill light on right

f3.2, 1/60 iso 200, natural light on left, studio fill light on right

f2.8, 1/60 iso 200, natural light on left, studio fill light on right

f2.2, 1/60 iso 200, natural light on left, studio fill light on right

Project Mom {week3} "music time"

Some of you may know that my first career was teaching music in the public school systems of Massachusetts. I sing, play the piano, dabble on the guitar and a few other instruments... but one of my first loves has always been the piano. When I found out I was pregnant with my little guy, I made it a priority to get an actual acoustic piano in the house (aside from the electric keyboard that I had been using for portability and convenience) because I wanted my son to grow up experiencing the sound and feel of a real piano.

When my Sam was born, I began using music and the piano as a means of soothing him from day one. I would hold my sweet boy with one hand and play with the other while singing to him. As my little guy has been growing and is now able to hold up his own head, we are really able to jam out together! :) Sam loooooves to sing... really. We make piano time together a daily habit. It has been such an amazing experience to hear him howl and hoooo as I sing to him... and I have joyfully shed many tears listening to my son sing back to me :) What a precious gift it has been to share music with my amazing boy!

I wanted to capture my son's love for music time. In the image below, my husband is actually the one holding him. I'll talk about my camera settings and post processing under each image...

This image was shot with my wide angle once again at 20mm, f3.2 and iso 800 (yes I have been pushing my iso limits on these very dark rainy days!) The ONLY thing I did post process was convert to black and white, adjust the curves, and boost the contrast a tad. There were no eye or skin enhancements... my kid is just that cute :)

18mm, 1/25, iso 400... post processing is the same as above... Love love love those precious little fingers...

20mm f3.2 iso 800 ... look at that little hand on the keys :)

Project Mom {week2} "wide angles"

For this post, I decided to do some lens experimentation! Typically when I shoot portraits, I gear my camera up with my 50mm f1.8 lens (I am very much coveting the 1.4, but lenses do cost money!). It is my lens of choice for all of my newborn and baby shoots because of its crispness (prime lenses are typically the best in this area), flexibility with stretching a darker location (more open aperture settings), and most fun, its ability to produce beautiful bokeh or background blur, drawing more attention to your area of focus!

This past year, my hubby surprised me with the wide angle lens I had been yapping on about (he is so good to me). It was instant fun when I attached it on to my camera! Wide angles have a way of stretching the perspective, making things closer to your lens seem larger than other things in the picture! Wide angles also have a way of fitting more into the picture... these are the lenses that are typically used to photograph whole rooms, often used during wedding photography while a bride is getting ready.

So I asked myself, what would happen if I used a wide angle for some of my baby portrait photography? I decided to experiment on my little guy of course. The shots below are of him in his nursery, our favorite room in the house (I'll post pictures of it here as well). The first one is taken with my wide angle while the second was taken with my 50 mm prime... such fun results! I have decided that I need to break out this lens more often during my baby sessions... Its just too cool!

Project Mom {week1}

As a photographer, I follow many other photography blogs and am constantly plugged into various forums in order to learn new things! Constant learning is so essential in the digital photography field as is constant practice! Before I had my sweet baby boy, I prided myself in being able to pick up my camera every other day to work on my technique... now-a-days, I find this to be a more , lets say, challenging task...

I recently had a discussion with a photographer friend who has embarked on what she calls "365". In an effort to be a better photographer, she decided that she would daily pick up her camera and have a featured shot of the day to blog about. I thought this was an absolutely fabulous idea and have really enjoyed seeing her grow in new ways with each post! I felt so inspired! I thought about ways in which I could implement something similar for my own practice and growth. "Project Mom" is what I came up with!!

Project Mom initially formulated in my brain as being a daily thing as well, focusing my attention primarily on my son and all things mommyhood. I thought, "what an incredible gift to be able to give to my little guy years down the road... a daily documentary of his first year!" Than I snapped back into reality and realized that some days, I'm lucky if I have time to take a shower. Ha! Instead, I have decided to make Project Mom a weekly thing. Through this, I hope to learn some new things, develop my technique in new and unique ways, and capture this incredible time in my life with photographs!

So here are my images from this week. Thanks again to my photog buddy who inspired me and gave me a push to keep using my camera on my off days!

Play time!!
I was shooting with my super wide angle lens for some cool depth of field perspective and lots of beautiful bokeh with an open aperture!

taken with my sigma wide angle at  f2.8, 1/40, at 18mm.

Portrait practice!!

I find that with my new studio, I am booking toooons of babies and children with parents wanting fun and unique portraits! What better way to stay in practice! This was a new shirt that Dad came home with one day... can you tell we have a Star Wars fan in the house?

taken at 20mm, f4, 1/160 iso 800 in natural light studio on a drearier day... (light was tough!)