My good friend Trajan and his wife Micaela have a new beautiful baby boy. He’s has the best smile and I had the blessing of photographing him at his 4 month mark. Here’s a video showing the shoot.
I love photographing babies, and having this baby in the studio was extra fun. He laughed, smiled, and gave me a bunch of cute expressions, and was a good sport throughout. Lighting is always key to making baby’s eyes, skin, and coloring pop, while also keeping them in constant focus. And here in my Utah studio, I have a ton of equipment to make the lighting perfect.
I hope you notice that every one of these baby pictures is tack sharp. That’s not always the case with most photographers. Often they have one eye out of focus, or the nose or outfit is in focus, but the eyes aren’t. And often when they have parents holding the baby then mom or dad or even even all three are all out of focus. But you won’t have those amateur problems here with me. Every picture is perfect, which means they can be printed any size, even enlarged and hung on the wall – no problem.
One idea I love for home art installations for baby portraits are my collages. Here’s one I designed up showing a variety of expressions, along with closeups of his tiny hands and feet.
We had so many great photos of him. The shoot went wonderfully and he just smiled at me over and over. Here’s one of my favorites of him smiling, making a great stand-alone photograph or as a trio.
He was already getting big for my wrap, but I thought it was cute with his feet sticking out.
And this shoot made for a fun excuse to get out my little knit hats and try some of them on him. He placated us by just sleeping soundly during this process.
But then when we changed the studio up for another set of photos, he laughed and played which was perfect for showing his tiny hands and feet.
This little baby was so fun to work with. His personality really showed through and we got a lot of variety. If you have a new baby, give me a call. And if you have a friend that needs some beautiful baby portraits, send them my way. It’s always fun to have babies in the studio and I am a master at lighting them. My number is 801-728-3317.
This week I attended the funeral of a neighbor, dear family friend, and client who passed away at age 102. A couple years ago I created his official centenarian portrait at age 100. I shared some of those images and the stories on my blog, here. They are some of my favorite photographs because of the stories they tell about this wonderful and perfect man.
Years ago, my town was mostly farmers. And because LDS/Mormon leaders are not paid for church service, many of these farmers would regularly have to briefly leave meetings to change their irrigation or do some quick work before coming back to the chapel to teach their assigned lesson. Seeing Wilford with his pitch fork, standing on his farm in dress clothes reminds me of those young memories and of the worth ethic he instilled on his family and many of us youth growing up.
He was a perfect man, kind, giving, and incredibly generous. A small symbol of his character is in these wooden pens that he made with wood brought to him by friends who traveled the world. And he made these pens with a lathe that he made and kept in his barn. I think about him building his own lathe, and I am inspired. There is a solid sense of contentment in this earlier generation that is lacking today. It was the sense that you earn the things by saving for them over time, then you made them last, and continued to fix them. And if you couldn’t afford something or couldn’t make it yourself, you did without. I am honored to have been given one of his wooden pens, and I wore it in my suit pocket to his viewing.
And a few years earlier, I photographed him with his dear wife for their 70th anniversary. They’re now reunited together again in heaven.
I will miss Wilford. The world needs more good men like him. I hope his character, ethics, and love of God continue to be passed on through the generations of his growing family. Here’s a link to his obituary.