I’ve known Craig just over 10 years! (Yikes, I feel old!) We started at CDW together right out of college, and even though we have gone on our separate career paths, it was so nice to reconnect! I took Benjamin’s newborn pics (oh.so.adorable! and yes need to blog those still…) and came back for his 6 month and family pics this winter. Such a sweet family!  I LOVE the little valentine’s kisses… even more since Hannah wanted to get in on the kisses.  <3

For any photographers out there, or anyone looking to understand their camera, here is a little more about how I captured this shoot.  Had to get a little creative with lighting with it being super cold outside, but also lots of gray light and windows looking out into other buildings (love DT Chicago, but give me light and don’t put buildings so close together!!!) We did a lot in their master BR since it had the most windows with natural even light, but there was a small pocket of light in Hannah’s bedroom, just spotlighting a little area and I loved it. VERY dramatic light/dark creating a natural vignette, but super fun to play with. All light for the living rooms shots was from good ole fashioned ceiling lamps and what little light was coming from the windows. Not my fave but even with ISO cranked to 10,000 I didn’t have enough light without overhead lights, so on they went.  If you do this, just be careful with “raccoon eye” shadows that can fall on faces from direct overhead lights.  Try to reposition or stand higher so people are glancing up.  Light will fall more evenly.

I cranked the ISO to 4000 (the master BR was around ISO 1600) and opened the aperture way up, and rolled with it! The photos get a little grainy, but I’d much rather have that than use flash since it tends to distract kiddos.  Most shots are around f2.4.  I prefer to shoot more open, but with limited room to backup and with wiggly kiddos, would much rather have everyone in focus than a blurry mess if people are moving around.  I also try to keep shutter speed above 1/500 for those same reasons, which is why I crank up my ISO up to expose properly.  And I ALWAYS meter off of faces to ensure they are properly exposed, or if anything I will underexpose.  It’s so much easier to lighten post-process, but if I blow out the highlights on faces, there is no way to bring that detail back.

This was a lifestyle shoot so I wanted to capture exactly that.  Sure we get the smiles that everyone wants, but I like interaction shots so much more for these shoots… this is life, not perfect smiling, but cuddling and loving and silliness.

Enjoy, they are super cute and snuggly!!