Okay class, today we’re going to play show and tell. Since starting this Blogging 101 exercise I’ve told you I love taking photos, hell it’s even in my About Soapboxville page, but I haven’t shown you any of my photos.
Make no mistake about it; these are not, by any means, the best of my bunch. Practice makes perfect and I almost never get to take portrait photos, my normal photographic focus is landscapes, and oceans, and the occasional city skyline when I get the chance.
The following photos represent me being brave and stepping out of my comfort zone, they represent what is now becoming a passion. Shooting portraits is hard; people expect things of you, landscapes do not. People expect things like well-composed, bright, and clear photos they can use for things like engagement announcements, their yearly photos with the Easter Bunny, and beautiful photos of their beautiful newborn baby girl. You don’t have to worry about disappointing oceans, there is nothing I’d rather not do than disappoint anyone.

This first photo is from my very first portrait shoot, which was an assignment for the digital photography 101 class I was taking two years ago. One of our last assignments was to shoot portrait photos, so using Annie Leibovitz’s Disney Dream portraits as my inspiration I enlisted my best friend, headed out to a local park and spend a wonderful afternoon shooting photos of my beautiful best friend in a beautiful gown.

This second photo is from an engagement photo shoot I did for my then soon-to-be sister-in-law and brother-in-law at Love Park in Philadelphia. Not wanting to disappoint them with mediocre photos I bought a new camera and learned to do spot color in Gimp to add color back in to this photo.

This next photo (above) is probably one of my most proudest achievements. With two weeks to go I was asked to be the photographer at a fundraiser Lunch with the Easter Bunny benefit for a local girl suffering from Leukemia. The professional photographer wasn’t available to shoot the photos so I was asked to pitch in and take the photos. People were paying for these photos, this was a first for me so I freaked out, bought my first speedlight, and read, read, read, and read some more, then practiced, practiced, and practiced some more. I was so worried about disappointing the families paying to have their children’s picture taken with the Easter Bunny or hurting the fundraising effort by providing substandard photos. As it turns out, buying that speedlight was a great idea because as it turned out the photos with the Easter Bunny station was set up way in the back corner of the room with no lights at all.

And this last photo is of my very beautiful newborn baby cousin’s feet being cradled in her mommy’s and daddy’s hands. I could have done a better job with this one; I accidentally cut off some of her daddy’s hands.
So, there you have it class, my new but not often indulged passion, portrait photography.