Miss M | Marietta GA, Holiday Mini Session Portraits

I've known Miss M for the last 3 years. I didn't get to shoot her holiday session last year because I had a newborn babe (little A) of my own and had taken a break to spend some quality snuggle time with him. So this year when I saw her, I was pleasantly surprised to see she was all grown up - even taller than me (yeah yeah I'm not tall only 5' 6") ! Here are a few of my favorite images from the session. I think the one I liked the most was where she gets kisses from Jack. You can find the rest of the session here.

Baby T Newborn Session | Baby Photography

This little precious little bundle of fingers and toes, was hardly 2 weeks new but he sure gave me a workout getting his pictures. Here are some of my session favorites.

He looked SO tiny placed on this team flag and I had to get up on a step ladder to get this shot. But it was well worth it !

This is my version of "The Thinker". He definitely is deep in thought.

Have I mentioned I love capturing all the details of soft squishy newborns on camera ? Probably in every newborn post right ? I captured it right on time too because immediately after this shot, he peed on mom. I still have to complete a newborn shoot where the mom, or dad, or even me, haven't been peed / pooped on.

This was amongst the last few pictures I took in the almost 4 hour shoot. He wasn't a happy camper what with me trying to position him every time he fell asleep. After trying several places, I decided to put him on mom. And thats where I got this pose. Soundly asleep. Finally !

Metering Light. For FREE !

I not-so-recently  came across a really nifty app to meter light. We know that the display on our dslr lies every single time to us when we're chimping. Unless we're actually looking at the histogram on the display and not the picture. How does it lie? Its a combination of our brain and our eyes. When we look at a scene, our eyes are programmed to overcompensate. The same applies to when we are looking at an image in the camera's display. To top that, the way our brain is wired, since "we've" taken the picture, it obviously tells us there's nothing wrong with it. So unless we check the histogram on the camera display we're being fooled. Come to the rescue - light meters ! A top end one with all the bells and whistles sells anywhere between $250 and $400. So, if you have that much to spend, by all means go ahead and invest in it. However, if you are trying to save money for other gear (think fast lenses) then here's a great option thats FREE. Does it work in all possible scenarios? No it has its limitations. But it works most of the time. Oh and did I say its free?  So what is it? Its an iPhone App called Pocket Light Meter.

Here's an example of how to use it and what it does. Forgive the lack of a better subject. Then again, the subject was delicious enough that I had to eat it all up leaving only crumbs.

Note that since I shoot outdoors and indoors, I have an approximate idea of what ISO I need. But here's my thought process (I do something similar for each session. Since this was shot indoors, I knew I had to bump up my ISO past its minimum of 100. I usually like the ISO to be 400 inside my home on bright sunny days since I have tall windows with lots of non-direct sunlight . It might very well be different in your home depending on the amount of light outside and the amount and direction of light coming in to your setting. Next, at the back of my mind, since I was shooting with a 50mm so I knew I did not want my speed to drop below a 100 at any cost.  I also like to shoot open and from my experience I've learned that my 50mm's sweet spot is f2.8. Yes I lose out on a few stops of light but my image is sharper at f2.8 than at f1.8. So here's the Pocket Light Meter app screen on my phone.

Yes I was aiming at the appetizer plate. And the crumbs. Lets not get into what the crumbs were left behind from. I put in the ISO of 400 and the aperture of 2.8. The app showed me the "Time" which is the shutter speed. As you can see its over 1/100. So I pick up my camera and take this picture after dialing in these settings. This is the raw original SOOC.

Here's the exif data

And here is the histogram.

The clipping on the histogram corresponds to the shadow in the bottom right corner but overall, as you can see, it is quite evenly distributed. If I would have increased the ISO to 500, I would have parts of the plate blown out. However, with the focus of my image being the plate, I was content with my shadows being clipped than the plate being blown out.

If you haven't downloaded this app yet, go get it NOW !

XOXO
~Miraz

Baby Z 4 Days New ! | North Metro Atlanta Newborn Baby Photographer

I had a 4 day young sweetie pie visit my warm and cozy studio a few days ago. (Yes I do forewarn all parents to be ready to walk into a very warm climate for their session since sweet little newborns get cold easily !) Here are a few of my personal favorites. I hope you enjoy viewing these images as much as I enjoyed capturing them !

XOXO
~Miraz

View the rest of her gallery as a slideshow below or visit my website here

Easter Session Minis

I am excited to announce, I will be doing the easter mini sessions again this year. However, I have limited availability. Hence, if you'd like to book your easter sessions, please  contact me  sooner rather than later. Details are below. If you are would like an alternate day, please ask. I'll definitely try to accommodate alternate date requests based on interest.

And as always with my holiday sessions, if you refer 3 friends who sign up for it, YOUR session is FREE ! Woo Hoo !

Yikes its been a month !

I can't believe I haven't blogged in over a month. To compensate, I have two posts to add today. Yay ! First, a Belated Happy Valentine's Day to all my followers.

Watch for the next blog post about the upcoming easter minis.

Easter Mini Sneak Peak - "Little L" {Woodstock, Roswell, Marietta Children's Photographer}

Last week I shot a few Easter mini sessions. Here's a sneak peak at the first one. This little guy was as shy as he was adorable and just wouldn't break the ice to pose for me. Although I had a cute Easter scene set up, I realized he wasn't going to sit there and let me take my shots. So I did the next best thing - I shot him unposed ! I put on a long lens and kept my distance and clicked away when he didn't quite expect it. Here are a few pictures showing his different moods . The only time I got smiles from him ?? Either when I put the camera away to play ball with him or when I asked him to pose with his Mommy ! Moms and beach balls are perfect recipes for getting the giggles and smiles :-)

Baby C 3 Month Pictures {Woodstock Baby Photographer}

I have had the excellent fortune to capture Baby C's journey from being a grapefruit - when he was inside his mom's belly for the maternity shoot, a precious little newborn and now as a 3 month old ! I am lucky his older sister and my daughter are good buddies who love playing together so I get to see him inbetween the "scheduled" shoots as well. He was a very cooperative baby for most of the session other than a little while in between when he got a little mad - probably from being sleepy. Best of all? He loved the feeling of my shaggy throw/blanket that I laid him down on his belly !