someone's having twins...

... and no, it's not us. Becca and I experienced another first this past month: maternity photos. In about an hour-and-a-half, we put together about 50 shots inside and outside of Rachel and Brian's home and had a great time doing it. Yeah, it's always a bit stressful to shoot something you've never done before, but once you get going... And when you have such a great subject (or two... or four, in this case), it all comes together.



All of our inside shots were taken using two Alien Bees (except the silhouette). The outdoor shots shown here were all done with a prime 1.4 (if I remember correctly) ranging from wide open to f/8, no artificial light.

smile, it's the weekend.

It's official: our weekends are becoming more and more like weekdays. But it's nice to be busy. Reminds me of a recent Facebook status update by one fellow Hazelwood Central alum: "(Paula Rhodes) isn't crazy about weekends, but acknowledges that this is odd. Every day is potentially a weekend as an actor, and she looks most forward to the days she works."

And so, this is how we kept ourselves busy this weekend (in addition to hanging out with Los Maddox and Los Morgan to score some killer Mexican food):




Kinda' wish our blog lent itself to something more than just squares. Some pictures just weren't meant to be chopped down to a 1x1 box... Oh well.

one last thing before you go...

Before the Mattei family sends their son (yup, the one in the suit) away for a two-year proselyting mission for the LDS Church ... Pictures. 262 of them. We avoided heavy downpours and endured gusty winds last evening at the park and came away with some good stuff despite the odds. And since there's not a lot of time left between right now and when Greg ships off to Boise, it's good thing the weather held out. Whew.

chrisse

It's nearly impossible to shoot outside in the summertime in St. Louis. It's practically impossible to do just about anything outside in the summertime in St. Louis. Except this summer. Yesterday, we had a high of 80, and today shouldn't be much different -- not bad for the middle of July! And while it was a little warmer the day we took these pictures of Chrisse at the QRP, it wasn't bad. Whew. This year, I love STL summers... and these pictures.

barbecue crossing

We saw the strangest thing this evening, and Becca handed me the camera and told me to "RUN!" Immediately, I booked it across the street -- 30D and 70-200mm lens in hand -- and came upon this strange site...

Only thing missing: a yellow caution sign with two guys pulling barbecue grills behind them. PRIZE ALERT: We'll ship a summery picnic surprise to the person who converts the STOP sign into the best/funniest/coolest BBQ Crossing safety sign. (I'd do it myself, but where's the fun in that?)

PS, moms and dads, they looked both ways before crossing the street.

ltl kds r fn

Not going to lie... Taking photos of kids isn't always easy :) but it's so worth it with their funny, happy expressions. Ready, aim, shoot, focus, repeat.

These were all shot by Becca: Zoom approx. 70mm; Shutter between 1/300-1/500 seconds. Converted to B/W in Lightroom except the second one in the sequence (and it shows a bit...)