I’m a week late posting this, but better late than never!  The family had a blast this holiday…too many meals, just the right amount of gifts, and some good cheer.  I thought I’d post today in black and white.  It kind of bucks the trend of showing everything in full, over-saturated color, as seems to be the rage these days.  Anyway, here are the boys and my lovely wife on Christmas morning.

For you photographers…24-70mm lens (shot wide in many cases for a documentary feel).  Straight curves conversion to B&W.  Added slight noise and darkened edge slightly.

Gosh, I can’t believe how cool today’s couple was.  Bella and Justin are just the nicest people you’d ever want to meet.  Bella came to me after a less-than-satisfying experience with another photographer–we won’t name names because I don’t even want to know.

Anyway, they wanted some pictures in their full wedding gear, so we headed out to Las Olas this morning to get some fabulous pics.  Despite me walking them around for almost two hours and one dress change, they were still as motivated on the last shot as they were on the first!

The first shot is pretty clean while the other two are just fun edits.  Check out Justin’s glasses in the second pic.  More to come later!

OK, so my mom’s been on my case about family portraits.  I love you, mom!  Fortunately, I was able to corral the family together for some simple, individual headshots.  I know, it’s not exciting, highly-creative stuff, but we’re long overdue for pictures and it was a bit easier to focus on the boys one-on-one.  As they enter the teen years, they’ve developed a certain self-consciousness and are doubly shy in front of the camera.  I was shy…am shy…so I understand.

Besides, we did a little creative shooting earlier in the morning with Liam…more on that in an upcoming post!

Anyway, here we are.

Liam

Luke

My wife, Karen

Yours truly.

Oh, by the way, with the exception of just a little white balance adjustment, these are straight out of the camera.  How I do love my new D3!  Note to photographers: these were all taken outside, in shade, under the corner of an office building.  I’m not a big fan of upward light–and you can see a bit of it here from the reflection off the marble floor–however, it actually softens the skin quite nicely.  I like it.

If you’re wondering why the background on my portrait is different, it’s not that I want to stand out.  We actually took mine earlier in the morning.  After I’d taken the others, I forgot to have my wife reshoot me.  Darn it!

Kids go through spurts of interest in different activities.  One of our boys, Liam, asked me if he could play around with the camera and lights.  We did just that.  It wasn’t technical or artistic or groundbreaking…it was just plain fun!  I may have helped a little, but for the most part, it was all him.

Monday was an awesome shoot at Moquila Grill in Boca Raton.  Moquila is a killer restaurant that serves the absolute best guacamole salsa dip as well as some of the best desserts around.  You should definitely check it out.

I’d been asked to shoot some images showcasing the new coffee Moquila is serving, Boca Java.  We had a few concepts in mind for both inside and outside before arriving and spent the morning working it.  I also managed to get a few shots of the desserts for the restaurant.  Let me just say that product shoots are so difficult to get right.  Who knew inanimate objects could give me more attitude than people.

I also snuck in a few fun pictures for the two models helping out.

Thanks to Erika, the manager, for graciously allowing me to disrupt her morning, to Max, Moquila’s chef, for creating such amazing desserts, and to Michelle and Mike, part of the staff, for stepping in as my terrific models.  You folks are great!  Thanks so much.