It is another month for the Project 12 Portraits group.  Can I just stop for a minute to tell you how much I love this group of photographers?  Not only are they all crazy talented photographers but they are also kind & giving women.  Just one more thing to feel lucky about today.

This month the challenge was to shoot a portrait using back lighting and sun flare.  I have to admit that this time of the year is perfect for this kind of shooting.  I love that nice buttery light you get when you shoot just slightly before sunset although I always have to be careful not to get too much haze when shooting this time of day.

I met up with Kimberly Skeen another local photographer  to shoot in a location where we had both been before but not with cameras!  The kids got to explore and we got to chat + shoot.  I would say it was a success all around.

After you look at my images be sure to click through to see what Suzanne Carey, Hattiesburg, MS Photographer came up with for this month!

As you may have seen in January, February, and March, I have joined up with a group of photographers for a monthly portrait challenge.  We have been basing our challenges loosely on the People Pictures 30 Exercises for Creating Authentic Portraits book by Chris Orwig. I am super excited to have another photographer join us this month too.  It is amazing how small our world can become thanks to the internet and social media.  Laura Veno is a Dallas-Fort Worth based photographer who I taught elementary school with many years ago.  We have reconnected through our photography even though we live half a country away from each other and I am so glad she is now a part of our small group.

This month our portrait photography group is searching out garage light. I love the way you can create so many different styles of images all in one place that is easily accessible.

I started in my own garage and used the images in a blog post for finding light in unexpected places showing a bright/happy image and one that could have been more moody had my subject not had a huge grin on his face.

Then I asked a friend if she would be up for a session in a parking garage which is a location I have been eyeballing for a long time.  Thankfully, she didn’t blink an eye or tell me I sounded crazy.  Instead, she asked me which parking garage and what time.  I just love the different kinds of light you can find shooting in a garage (both a house & a parking garage).

Be sure to see what kind of creative portraits the others found using garage light starting with my dear friend, photographer Jessica Holden.

I had the chance to meet this super fun family at Laguna Niguel Regional Park to get some photos for their 2012 holiday card this year.  Their little guy is full of energy and basically only stopped moving when he was offered a snack.  He slowed down just enough not to end up in the lake but that just made the session that much more fun and fast paced.

It is month number two for our Project 12 Portraits and we focused on environmental portraits.

There were some discussions about what this means exactly and although I had some grand ideas {like portraits of a Top Chef contestant in the kitchen} I ended up taking shots in one of the local open spaces.  I love seeing actual orange trees around Orange County since that is what I envisioned should be here even when it isn’t really the reality of this place.

I love the open space, the flowers, the pathways, the orange trees, well, you get the idea, right?  Here is what I got there!

Be sure to visit Melissa Deakin Photography| Buffalo, NY Child & Family Portraiture for some amazing environmental portraits {seriously, you do not want to miss her photography-it is stunning} then keep making your way through the 6 person blog circle.

In 2012, I participated in a blog circle with a fabulously talented group of photographers from Clickin Moms. We have decided to continue on for 2013, shooting new themes each month.

This month we focused on close up portraits.  There is a great blog post on Clickin Moms about shooting close up with some tips if you want to give this creative exercise a try!

There are so many wonderful things about shooting close up and one of my favorites is when you can see the detail in your subjects eyes.  Like in this image.

Follow the circle all the way through starting with Krista Campbell, Northwest Arkansas photographer next.

Along with five talented photographers from all over the county, I am super excited about a new personal project for 2013 that is completely focused around portraits.

Each month we will be posting a portrait based on the chosen monthly challenge. Through some brainstorming sessions we have come up with no less than 20 wonderful ideas for the monthly challenges (that we are working to narrow down!).  In July, I wrote a book review on Chris Orwig’s book People Portraits: 30 Exercises for Creating Authentic Photographs and this was the perfect reason to get it back out again.  If you are interested in improving your portrait skills, his book is easy to read with lots of short and simple activities to help motivate you to practice.

I have always been intrigued by people and faces so this opportunity to explore capturing different types of portraits with alongside other photographers is inspiring.  This month we are starting with window portraits.  Mine happens to be a {low light} window portrait which required me to bump my ISO straight up to 6400.  Even though my subject was facing the light from the window the sun was just about to set.  My intention was to just check the focusing on my camera after picking it up from the Canon service center but my little guy fell sick so we weren’t able to try again with better light.

Therefore, {low light} window portrait it is!  Be sure to visit Krista Keller | Danville CA Child, Family, Senior Photographer to check out her window portrait {I promise you will be inspired}.

I had the gift of photographing this little guy for a friend of mine when he was just under 2 weeks old.  He slept just about the entire time I was there sweet as can be with his two older sisters loving on him.

The theme for the Project 26 blog circle this time is “life is beautiful”.

I loved thinking of all the possibilities for this prompt especially around this time of year.  Thanksgiving and the holidays provide a wonderful push to remember all those things we should be thankful for throughout the year.  Be sure to take a few minutes and go through the circle starting with Krista Keller | Danville CA Child and Family Photographer to see what kind of beauty she has found.

I decided upon some images I took about a month ago that I had been envisioning for quite a while. When we moved to Orange County last year I was surprised to learn that there are very few (if any) orange groves left here.  I just (mistakenly) assumed that because of the name there would be fields of orange trees and I was sad to learn that wasn’t the case.  Because of my job I have been able to drive in and out of various neighborhoods and parts of southern Orange County.  During one of these drives I found a small little patch of orange trees and all I could think about was coming back to photograph someone near those trees right at that golden hour of the day.

In my head I had the whole thing planned out.  Including a drink from an Orange Crush soda straight from the bottle.  These are my favorite from that evening (I should have realized how hard it would be to get him to put down the Orange Crush after getting that first sip!).

Life sure IS beautiful.

When we headed out to get some pictures this evening I was aiming for some yummy back-lit shots in the park. But, when we got there the sun had moved behind the clouds and was setting faster than I had anticipated. Although the sun didn’t cooperate like I had planned it did provide this gorgeous pink glow and I loved the moments I caught while the sun set. Both of these were shot with the 85mm using manual exposure. I used spot metering off his face to set the exposure because of the pink sun (shining on his face) and the darker background. I did minimal processing on them in Photoshop.

In my opinion, the beach is one of the most wonderful places in the world.  Hands down.  There is nowhere else that calms my soul the way sitting on a quiet beach will.  When we woke up early and I saw the weather looked amazing I thought it would be great to try to capture the sunrise at the beach.  What we got instead of the sunrise at the beach was fog at the beach.  Still, it was wonderful.  Here are a few of my faves from a foggy morning at the beach instead of a sunrise at the beach.  I guess another trip to catch the sunrise needs to happen soon.