Flashback Friday: Leaves and Friends and Hiking in the Fall Colors

As I was organizing my hard drives this past week, I came across a long-lost impromptu shoot I did of my friends Zach and Clare that I knew just had to share.

A bit of back story to these photos: Sometime this past October, Mr. Man and I were on a hike with our friends Zach and Clare at Rock Creek Park.

I just happened to have my camera on-hand incase we saw something beautiful when Clare mentioned that she was wondering if I could find some time to good photo of them for their Christmas card this year.

The leaves, the crisp cool air, the impromptu-ness --- I just couldn't resist the moment and suggested we should just take those photo here and now!

Sometimes, spur of the moment things are wonderful, right?

Morning Sessions and Cute Toddler Smiles

Sometimes I find it strange how much I enjoy sunrise shoots, considering how much I hate mornings.

Maybe its because I feel super "carpe-diemy" after getting up so early -- or maybe its because morning shoots usually mean fun time with young families, which reminds me of my older sister's family -- but either way, its something I really love doing as part of my freelance work.

Earlier this summer I had to wonderful opportunity to shoot a mini session for a professor of mine from my undergraduate studies at the George Washington University. I was pretty pumped when she asked me to take some family photos of her, her wife and their adorable little boy Brinton.

It was actually the first time I got to meet Brinton, although I had seen plenty of photos of him growing up on his Instagram :)

I mean, isn't he just the cutest little man you ever did see?

During the shoot Brinton kept wanting to wave at the garbage truck drivers -- it was so so adorable.

Oh morning shoots, how I love you so :)

Sunflowers on Sunsets: A Friday Afternoon Adventure

There's something sort of magical about sunflowers during the dog-days of summer, isn't there?

You see them in the grocery store, at the farmer's market -- even peaking up over the fences of neighbors who have the luxury of a garden. They've always been a favorite of mine, sunflowers, so cheery and bright!

I remember when I was growing up (I think I was four or five), I begged my mum to let me grow a small batch of sunflowers in our yard. One of my favorite childhood pictures is of me standing in front of those tall, wonderful flowers, looking so proud at what I had grown...

As I've grown up and moved into the big, bad city, I don't have many opportunities to see sunflowers in their natural habitat anymore-- unless I seek the opportunities out, that is!

A few weeks ago I was reading online about how the Maryland Department of Natural Resources's McKee-Beshers WMA plants a few huge fields of sunflowers each year as food for the local dove population. Cue social media perusing, gawking at other photographer's photos, frantically emailing friends to see who would come along with me on my search for these epic sunflower fields... and before you knew it, I had a date on my calender to visit the beauties.

While we didn't get there during peak bloom, my crew and I did have a wonderful (HUMID!!) evening walking among these bright, cheery flowers. Here's some of my favorite snaps:

The Art of the Headshot

Growing up, I always thought photographers were people who spent all day shooting beautiful, glamor-shot like headshots of people in big, airy photography studios.

The way TV represented the industry, photographers looked like they had the coolest, easiest funnest job in the world (oh, and every single one of them knew how to make any person look amazing) and I loved everything about that.

Fast forward to today, and I'll be the first person to tell you that my warped view of the photography industry and the ease of taking a basic, good headshot was 100% completely and totally warped.

See, as an event-journalism style photographer, I find posed photography challenging. Taking headshots, shooting family photos, etc. isn't exactly hard -- but it requires a different type of thinking and approach than event-based shooting.

That being said, I'm currently trying to amp up my portraiture and posed photography skills, and have recently had a couple headshot shoots to kick off my campaign to improve my portraiture skills.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of shooting a mini headshot session with the lovely Susan Gasper who lives and works in Washington, D.C. We headed to the Rosedale Conservancy in Cleveland Park for her photoshoot and captured a few really nice shots on a bright and sunny April morning.

Later that same week, I did an evening mini headshot session for a dear friend of mine, Moira Dhaliwal, at the gardens near the Smithsonian Castle. She really wanted to capture the blooming magnolias in her headshots, as well as some of the interesting surroundings.

All and all, I'm happy with the work of these two shoots, although I'm constantly trying to improve.

Photographer friends out there, what tips do you have to make my natural light posed photography even better?