Monday, January 21, 2013

A birthday shoot for a Princess...

Its that time of year again when my dear friend Angie asks me to take pictures of her little girl Shantal. She is no stranger to my blog, and I have been taking pictures of her since she was a baby.

Angie is well known amongst her friends for her elaborate parties, and this year she outdid herself (as only Angie can) in celebrating Shantal's 5th birthday.  Shantal's wish this year was to become a princess. So this past weekend they celebrated with a princess ball theme and a dress that was nothing short of being taken straight out of a Disney Princess movie. Just gorgeous!

This shoot was a lot of fun for me! I had a pretty little girl in a fairytale dress and the foto opps were endless.  It was also another opportunity to once again get some practice using my digital Canon instead of my iPhone camera which I'm getting way to used to using for everything lately.  I took over 200 pictures, and was pleasantly surprised that I was able to shoot it all in manual mode again. This came more naturally for me this time, and I can tell I'm starting to hone in these skills with the more practice I get. My goal always is to do some justice to theme with the pictures I take in the process.

I put the pictures I took into collages just to give you an idea of the different kinds of pictures I took of the party and of Princess Shantal.




 Angie has a great imagination and every thing she makes is beautiful and every detail is taken into account. She had an amazing area dance area with a mirror for every princess to look into and a candy table that was as dreamy as any little girl would like it to be.


Shantal is always to easy shoot. She is a natural in front of the camera and loves to pose, and she just looked so beautiful in that dress. However, she was ready to party so I had to work quick and thankfully I got in some pretty good shots (including one of her shoes of course) before all the guests arrived.

In editing, I used a lot of soft focusing, the sepia tones and some shadows to get the dark background contrast because I felt the dress and color theme allowed for that. I don't use anything fancy and I don't have Photoshop, but Picasa gives me (a true novice) just enough editing tools and ease of use that I can work with to get the looks I want. Again, they're not perfect, and I still have lots to perfect, but I will eventually upgrade as I get better. For now though, Angie is always so sweet to complement whatever I do and appreciate the pictures I take of her little girl and her family in general. 

So Angie, Thank you again for trusting me and letting me do this!

Happy Birthday to Princess Shantal Monique the First!  ;)

 XO



2 comments:

Sandy said...

Thank you so much for your sweet comments. I always appreciate hearing from those who come to visit.

Thank you again!! :)

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