Child Photography

All posts tagged Child Photography

Sunday ~ July 15, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 15, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Sunday!

Today’s post is a little about grand children and a fair amount of discourse about photography.  I have four images that go with the blather so if your on Facebook and are interested, click on the link below to go to my blog.

Ben was on call yesterday and so Angie brought the kids over for some play time and lunch.  I love to photograph Addie and wanted to try out a new lens.   It is a Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 105mm f/1.4E ED portrait lens.  I’ve never shot with a f1.4 lens before so I didn’t fully know what to expect.

I have a couple of f2.8 lenses and I know that you have to be careful with shooting wide open or you get a lot of out of focus areas especially if you photographing more than one person in the image.

Gabby was excited to show me her newly pierced ears so I asked her if I could photograph her.  I love the soft bokeh that an f.14 lens delivers but as you can see in this image, that I shot at f1.4 I got her eye sharp but most of everything else including her new ear-ring was really out of focus.  Obviously I need some practice.

I normally shoot in Aperture Priority and as much out of habit as anything I generally shoot at f8.0 unless I’m trying to create some special look with depth of field.  At f8.0 you have a relatively large depth of field and seldom have to worry about your subject being out of focus.  F8.0 is my go to aperture for wildlife since you can aim at the body of the bird and get the eye in focus as well.

I shot this image at f8.0.

Finally this image of Addie holding on to the large pink Bear, called “Boo-Boo.”  That’s the name Angie gave it when she was old enough to talk.  She learned to stand holding onto the bear just as Addie is doing.  The day after Angie was born I went to the toy store at the mall and said I want the biggest pink stuffed animal you have and this is what they had.  I can remember all the looks I got walking through the mall with this thing and at the hospital as well.  Josh found Boo-Boo in the store-room yesterday and brought it up.  Addie took right to it.  🙂

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ June 27, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on June 27, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Hump Day Wednesday for my working Friends.

I’m taking a brief hiatus from the New York trip to show you three images of our grand kids today.

Austin and Gabby enjoyed riding around the yard in their electric vehicles.  No accidents were reported and no property damage.

We had dinner with Angie and Ben Sunday evening to celebrate Ben’s birthday.  He did the grilling and I sat and drank wine.  Bummer that he had to grill his own birthday dinner.  🙂

Addie is now sitting up and is doing a modified crawl.  She is so fun to watch and very expressive.  She was not thrilled with me taking flash pictures.

Enjoy your day and be careful.  More NY images coming.

Monday ~ December 18, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 18, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Monday!

Fun afternoon yesterday.  Gabby’s gymnastics class had their presentation and we got to watch them go through their paces.

It was actually very interesting.  There were three age groups all performing in different areas of the gym and so you could get an idea of the development by age group.

Gabby really enjoys gymnastics class and it shows in the effort she puts into it.

I was very impressed with her routine on the balance beam.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ August 20, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 20, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Happy Sunday!

First, a thank you to my life long friend, Diana!  Thank you for checking on me to make sure everything was all right.  I tend to get in these motivational / creative funks from time to time and it takes a while to get the energy flowing again.

Last night we celebrated Jeanne’s birthday a couple of days early.  Angie and Ben had us over for a birthday celebration and we had a wonderful time.

A couple of weeks ago I gave Josh my little Nikon Coolpix camera that I normally carry on my bike.  He has shown a keen interest in photography and so after getting his Mom’s permission I gave him the camera.  My wish is that he develops a real passion for photography and that we can spend some quality time teaching and learning from each other.

Gabby also likes to take pictures.  This is a little camera that actually takes pictures.  I don’t think you can download the images to a computer but you can see what images there are on the back viewing screen.  I’m sensing a pattern here as I’ve been taking pictures of the kids since day one and maybe Gabby will want a better camera as she gets a little older as well.

This was the birthday dessert from last night.  Angel food cake with strawberrys, whipped cream, and home-made ice cream.  I paid the price for eating this but it was worth it.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Sunday ~ July 30, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 30, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Sunday!

I have three unrelated images for you today.  Well they have commonality in that they are from our Minnesota trip but other than that they are unrelated to each other.

Every evening Mark and Julia would build a pit fire and we all would sit around and watch the kids play and the sun go down.  It was a great time of the day.  On this particular night they had S’mores and I had to capture this image of Austin enjoying his.

I believe this is a Double Crested Cormorant.  I am always reluctant to identify a bird because I’m usually wrong.  I do not study birds but I do enjoy making images of them.  There were some pelicans near by so he kept his distance from them.  I did read that they spread their wings like this to dry their feathers.

The best way to end this blog is with another sunset.  I have about 600 images of sunsets for the trip.  I won’t show them all but I do have to show some of them.  🙂

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Friday ~ November 04, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 4, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Friday!

I have three images for you today all of them are of my favorite little model Gabby.

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We were at Angie and Ben’s last Sunday for dinner and she had been putting frosting on some home-baked cookies.  So I had to do a little touch up on these shots to cover up all the frosting that some how made it from the cookies to her face. 🙂

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She actually likes it when I take her picture and I can usually get a few good captures before she starts posing and giving me the “cheese” smile.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Monday ~ April 02, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on May 2, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

April-29-2016

Happy Monday!

A couple of images for you today.  The 3rd woman in my life.  She has become the little poser now.  We were celebrating Angie’s birthday on Friday evening (a day early) and were at their home.  After dinner I decided to take some images to record the evening.  I pointed the camera at Gabby and this is the pose she gave me.  She had a fair amount of cheese on her cheek (which took a little Photoshop skills) but I’m use to that by now.  🙂

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I think it was Windows 98 (or maybe 95) that came with the desktop image of a field and a cloudy sky.  That image was viewed by millions of people around the world.  I was out taking pictures last week and came across this scene.  It reminded me of that desktop scene so I had to grab a few images.

That’s it for today.  Lots of chores to accomplish today but I’ll get some time in for photography as well.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ December 22, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on December 22, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

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Happy Tuesday!

I had a fun morning yesterday.  I had arranged with Angie to shoot some photographs of Austin since I  really had the chance to do that.  I took one Nikon SB910 speed light, a 2 X 2 softbox, and a reflector to her home.  As you can see from this first image Gabby was most helpful in working with Austin.  He is such a happy little guy it was hard to find a time that he wasn’t smiling but I managed with this image.  🙂

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Normally Gabby is not fond of posing for me but she cooperated somewhat for this image.  I gained a new respect for child photographers after the session yesterday.  As a Grandpa it was a hoot but as a photographer trying to get a wonderful image it was a real challenge.  So I had this vision in my mind when I went over there of what I wanted to capture and how I wanted to do it.  I wasn’t successful but came away with some really nice images.  I’ll show those at a later date.

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Josh was in preschool so it was a little easier to control the situation but any semblance of control was just that, a semblance.

I had a lot of fun with Gabby and Austin.  I want to try some more because it is good practice I just need to lower my expectations and enjoy the Grandpa angle.  🙂

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

Tuesday ~ September 29, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 29, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

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Happy Tuesday!

Saturday after Josh’s soccer game we drove out to Schuster’s Picking Pumpkin Patch, south of town.  What a neat place for kids and adults.  I had a lot of fun there and perhaps I will talk a little about that at another time.

One of the things I’ve notice about Josh is that he is often in deep thought.  I would love to know what is going on inside the little head of his.  His vocabulary is well beyond his age and his thought processes are complex at times.  Then of course he is a lot of the times a five-year old child.  🙂

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I decided on black and white images today because the first image of Josh that I processed just didn’t speak to me in color.  Once I got started on a black and white image I couldn’t help myself.  🙂

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It wasn’t necessarily my intent to document the wonderful relationship between Josh and his friend Avery. But almost every picture I have of Josh Avery is right there.  They talk with each other a lot and they helped each other pick out their respective pumpkins.  It is a great friendship that hopefully will endure over time.

There are so many things to do at the pumpkin patch.  One of the highlights is taking the wagon ride to the actual patch.  They stop in the middle of the pumpkin patch and you can go look over the pumpkins and pick the right one.  Josh and Gabby both found the pumpkin they wanted.

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There are so many sexist things I could say about this image but I won’t.  🙂

We spent a couple of hours at the patch and I was ready for a nap.  The place was inundated with kids and lots of kid noise. There are so many things for them to do including a corn pool.  I’ll show you a picture of Gabby later when Mom said she couldn’t go into the corn pool.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoy your day.  As always thanks for stopping by my blog.  Be careful.

Sunday ~ June 14, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on June 14, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

June-13-2015

Happy Sunday!

Yesterday was a fun day despite the crappy weather.  It was the 10th annual Grandview Gallop.  This is the first year in memory that Angie or Ben didn’t run in the event.

This was all about Joshua.  He and Ben ran in the children’s one mile run.  We arrived at the race about the same time as Angie and Ben.  Josh was pumped and very excited about his race.  I’m not sure any of us thought he would be able to run the entire mile but was sure that he would finish.

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There were a variety of age groups that ran in the event.  Many parents ran with the smaller kids and as Ben and Josh went by our vantage point we made sure he heard our encouragement.

Ben said at one time Josh said, “I’m getting tired Daddy.” and Ben replied, “It’s a good thing you have your fast shoes on then isn’t it.”  To which Josh said, “Yes it is.” and then he increased his speed.  🙂

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He finished the race in a very respectable time of 10:04 and had a huge grin on his face as he crossed the finish line.  Not quite as big a grin as his Dad had though.

Josh couldn’t wait to tell us all that he ran the entire time.  Ben confirmed that he indeed did run the entire mile without walking or stopping.  We were all impressed.

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His trophy was this red-white-blue Popsicle and he displayed it with pride for all to see.

I saw a lot of young people feeling very good about themselves and the wonderful sense of accomplishment.  It was a heartwarming event for all who attended.

We hung around and watched the regular event as well.  It was a fun morning spent with Angie, Ben and the Grand-kids.  More images later.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your Sunday and be careful.