Heather, Jon, and Macey (aka Maniac)

Heather and Jon wanted some photos with their dog Macey, who they affectionately refer to as Maniac. She's an Australian Shepard mix who started off with a lot of energy at the beginning of our shoot, and wished to run free, as it was her first visit to the beach. She calmed down as she got used to the environment, and hung out by herself while we snapped some shots of just Heather and Jon, including an anniversary shot with last year's photo. As with previous shoots at this beach, we were lucky enough to have a big ship go by during our session.

On a personal note, prior to now, I’ve done all my editing with Windows Photo Gallery (free for Windows users).   It is quite powerful for a basic tool, and I highly recommend it to Windows users who want to improve their straight out of camera (SOOC) photos (just make sure you download the latest version).  This program has served me incredibly well, but I’m ready to take my editing to the next level.  I purchased Adobe’s Lightroom, which is the gold standard editing program for professional photographers, and took a class on it, as to be honest, I had never seen it in use before, which was kind of intimidating for me.  The class was great, and I’m proud to say this is my first session edited in Lightroom! 

A before and after is included so you get an idea of why photographers edit, and you can too!  We brighten colors, lighten shadows, increase contrast, crop, reduce noise, sharpen, and obsess over which of the 10 photos of a particular pose is the best for you!

        

Michael and Nicholas

I wanted to do this shoot in a new location for me, so we went down to the South side of John U Lloyd State Park and enjoyed the boardwalk as well as the beach. The boys were very sweet, and pretty well focused on interacting with my camera.

    

Hayleigh and Hayden

Hayleigh and Hayden's mom had seen photos I took for a friend of hers and contacted me for their holiday portraits. We met at the Long Key Natural Area & Nature Center in Davie, because I wanted to try a new location for their photos. I really liked the green gate with the spiral garden in the background, as well as getting the spiral garden ceiling.  Hayleigh gave us tons of smiles when we discussed her favorite foods, and Hayden got a kick out of his mom playing a wild game of peek-a-boo.

    

Tom, Carolyn, David, Victoria, and Madelyn

This was the 2nd of the three shoots from Robbins Park on Saturday morning, and the final set of edits to be completed. What more can I say?! All three of these shoots were amazing, and it was so much fun to work with these families who were as into getting great, creative, and fun portraits as I was, and it shows!

    

Sylvia, Jorge, Katrina, JT, and Rosalyn

This was the first of 3 shoots at Robbins Park last weekend. I love the pop of turquoise in their outfits, which looks great among the brick and white picket fences around the lodge on the North side of the park where we explored for our photo shoot. Katrina was excited to see her friend at the end of their shoot, JT took a break from climbing trees and catching lizards to pose for some pics, and all Rosalyn wants for Christmas are her two front teeth - too cute!