Brelin's Second Birthday Party

First Event Shoot

A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to be the photographer at a birthday party. My life then got super crazy and I never had time to sit down and get the pictures here. Now that it is summer, I have had the chance to play around on Photoshop and get the photos uploaded. Sorry for the delay!

This was my first event shooting. The experience was great and I look forward to the next event that I will be able to shoot. I was a little nervous that I wasn't going to be able to capture everything (now I know why photography companies usually have two photographers at an event - more eyes to see the happenings). But never fear, I figured I would just follow the birthday girl and take pictures of the event as if it was mine. So I came home with another 650 photos to sift through and find those perfect shots.

Today I am showcasing highlights of the event as well and the new skills I have taught myself with Photoshop. I must say, I have had some fun with this.

This birthday girl getting all dressed up before her guests arrived. Her mommy made the outfit and Brelin wore it well.

 It was a Dora themed birthday party and the colors and decorations were great. Of course the weather didn't work too well with the decorations. Below you can see the girls got some good use out of the balloons in the wind.

  The party was at a public park here in Vegas. Since there is extreme heat here, parks are now becoming more welcomed int he summer because there are splash pads for the kids to play in. This was my first time visiting a splash pad (seeing as I don't have any kids of my own yet, I haven't had the need to visit one). What a great place for a party! The kids sure did have a great time.

 After the splash pad it was time to eat cake and open presents. Brelin was ready for them both! I especially love the picture of her eating her cake. It's as if she was saying "Don't bother me. I'm eating my cupcake!"

 The car was the biggest hit for all the gifts. I was surprised at how well she took turns and shared with her guests. Of course their turns in the car were never as long as hers, but it was her party.

So, in all the party was a great learning experience for me.

Later this week I will be spending time with some girls that are interested in photography. Not that I know what I am doing, but we are going to go out and play with my camera. I am hoping to get practice right along with them!

~Amy J. Gardner

Photographing Teenagers

Calico Basin, Red Rock Canyon

This was my first time dealing with teenagers during a photo shoot. I am not saying that it was a bad experience, on the contrary, it was actually easier to take their pictures. They would listen and wait for directions, usually without comment =) and I wasn't trying to capture whatever I could. That means that I came home with few pictures per child because there were more usable pictures and less random images.

I got to take pictures of the Jones family. These are some of my favorite kids to hang out with - in fact it was like a Jones weekend!! Madi, Bryce, and Regan were great. We just went up to Calico Basin and walked the little path, taking pictures as we went. Since the Jones kids are older, and I was able to capture more usable images, I had a really tough time finding the images I wanted to showcase here. But, I did finally narrow it down to ten that I will share with you.

 I got the idea for this pose from a picture that my sister and I took about 3 years ago.

Wasn't sure how it would turn out when I took it, glad I did it.

 Doesn't she look like a movie star???

 Twins!

The Charlie's Angels pose was Bryce's idea. Turned out pretty nice.

As I look through the photos I take, I keep thinking that I have some really great subjects to shoot. I am learning and practicing the photography, and I still end up with some amazing shots. It really isn't me, it's the people. I am so thankful to have the opportunity to grow in a talent with my friends.

~Amy J. Gardner

Two Years Old!!!

Brelin's birthday pictures at Garden's Park

Here is the last photo shoot I did on Spring Break. It was for Lisa's granddaughter who is turning 2 at the end of this month. This was a great day at the park! Everyone was nervous that Brelin wasn't going to be cooperative, so there were lots of props brought to keep her interest. I was ready to just click away to make sure we found the perfect shot. In the end, Brelin was great. We didn't really have any problems. She even was totally okay with walking around the park with me while GaGa (Lisa) and mommy and daddy were behind us.

When I got home I was surprised to find that my camera captured over 600 images of Brelin!! Most of the images weren't usable but I still had to sift through them all. I managed to trim it down to a nice 113 images for the family. Of course, I won't be sharing them all with you. But I have selected a few of my favorites.

Whitney had gotten the most adorable hat for Breliln to wear.

And boy, did she wear it wonderfully! 

 I brought an Easter basket with eggs, seeing as it was right before Easter.

Oh man, was that a good choice. Brelin loved playing with the eggs. At one point she even dumped the entire basket out.

 

So I am looking through all the images that I have, trying to find the best ones, and suddenly something dawned on me....Brelin reminds me of when I was her age. I am not saying that we look exactly alike, but there are definitely similarities.

Check out these two pictures of me, and see for yourself. The one is of me and my grandma!

              

Yep, that's me when I was 2 (on the right) and almost 3 (on the left). Like I said, not exact matches, but similar, pretty similar.

 Brelin and Gaga!

Changing outfits with mommy. Brelin didn't like the way the grass felt under her feet. Whitney was having a difficult time getting her to stand so that the outfit change could happen.

 Smelling flowers.

I think one of my favorite moments of the shoot was trying to get Brelin to smell the flowers. She didn't quite understand what we meant. She would hold the flower (not to her nose) and then make the smelling noise. We would keep telling her to smell it, because she wasn't doing it right, and she would look at us like, I am! Finally, her dad showed her how to bring the flower to her nose and smell, and we were able to get the shot we were looking for. It was great!

 I love the smile. She was having a blast running with the ribbon.

 Playground time. Getting ready to go up to the slide.

 Swings....a girl after my heart. I love the swings.

No wonder Lisa posts pictures of Brelin on facebook constantly.

You can't help but fall for this face.

I hope you enjoyed these pictures. It was really hard to choose just a few. Lisa asked me, "How am I supposed to pick one?" I just smiled and said, "Oh I know what you mean." 

Keep checking back for more posts. I have a few activities that the family did over break to share and there are a couple more shoots coming up. Like Brelin's 2nd birthday party!!

~Amy J. Gardner

Year Birthday Pictures

Ella & Caroline at JW Marriott

Over Spring Break I had the privilege of taking pictures of Ella & Caroline again. The girls had turned 4 and 9, respectively, in January, and the yearly pictures needed to be taken. Raegan had picked the most adorable outfits for the girls and wanted to take them somewhere there were flowers. So we met at the JW Marriott Hotel in Summerlin. I love this location. I had only been there for a friend's wedding years ago and had forgotten the treasure that it was. There were some great backdrops that went wonderfully in the pictures.

Another great thing about Spring Break was that I discovered this great editing program (okay it's pretty basic, but I am still a novice with all of this) and I played around with it. So the prints below are ones that I have edited and put different filters on.

 There was this great swing and bridge set off to the side. Just perfect for pictures.

Caroline was such the model.

She was ready to change positions without me having to ask her.

Made my job so much easier.

Miss Ella was just a doll. This time around was so much more fun with her.

She had to cutest smile, but it was quick. I am so happy that I was able to catch it.

What adorable sisters!

This shoot was so much fun. It really makes a difference when you have great subjects to capture.

Now I am off to work on pictures of Brelin. My goal is to have them up by Wednesday. We'll see how realistic that is. The problem is that Spring Break is over and I have work I have to do now. Bummer!

~Amy J. Gardner

First Shoot

Willows Park with Ella & Caroline

Back in November I walked into my co-worker and friend's classroom and found her online searching for a photographer so that she could get pictures of her girls for Christmas cards. I immediately told her that I was available. I had been wanting to start taking pictures but I hadn't found any opportunities to do so. She willingly said yes and we set a date.

We decided to go to the Willows Park (it just so happened to be the park John & I got engaged at) because there were lots of trees and we were hoping for some great leaves. This is what I saw when I got there:

I'd say that we were good on the leave front. This made me so excited and I couldn't wait to get the girls in the leaves. There were all these ideas running through my head. Which was a good thing because on my drive over I was stressing out as to what I was going to do with these girls. I had never posed people for pictures before and I didn't want my friend to be unhappy with the results.

Turns out, things went wonderfully. I gave the girls a little direction, and they took it from there. Boy, were these girls great subjects to shoot. Here are a select sampling of the pictures I took:

 There was a great rock wall that served as our back drop.

 Ella was a tough one to get to focus on the camera.

But she sure did have some great candid shots!

 Caroline was great in helping Ella out. She truly loves her sister.

 I wasn't sure if the girls were going to have fun with the leaves.

Once I asked them to start playing with them, it was difficult to get them to stop.

These girls made the day so much fun. I was on a photography high and I couldn't wait to do it again.

Remember: "There are no rules to good photographs, there are just good photographs." ~Ansel Adams

Hope you enjoyed them!

~Amy J. Gardner