Today's Child 2012 - # - Sunday's Child Snapshots

Constructive critiques welcome here :)
Please feel free to tell me what you really think. I want to know:
1. What I should keep doing
2. What I should stop doing
3. Different perspectives on what I've done (for artistic ideas in the future)
Sometimes in this community, I feel like I'm in over my head among so many very talented artists.

gallery pages: << < 7 8 9 10 11 12 >

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Wednesday
June 20, 2012

Bed Time Routine (Bath, Story, Prayers)

My favorite images are the ones that capture relationships. I guess that's because we were made for relationships. Our lives are defined by them and we really cannot live without them. This is our God-daughter, Kristle, enjoying a bedtime story with Celine and Andrew. I was preparing the bed for Kristle. But my heart melted and I had to stop what I was doing and take a picture. Relationships really are everything.

Tuesday
June 19, 2012

Anastasia's Quince

A few weeks ago, Celine's best friend, Anastasia celebrated her 15th birthday. In the Mexican culture, a girl's 15th birthday is her most special. It's her Quinceañera (Spanish for "15 years"), the celebration of her coming of age into womanhood. It can be an exorbitantly expensive event and many families go into debt to give their girls the very best celebration. And in all the commotion, it's easy for a family to loose sight of the things that matter the most for their girls. Anastasia's parents had been worried for the past few years about her faith getting buried beneath all the other stuff and had considered forgoing the celebration completely. But her aunts would not hear of it. They toiled and planned and insisted that their niece have the best the family could afford. And it turned out beautifully. Between her aunts and her parents, Anastasia had the traditional Quinceañera but with an emphasis on the spiritual things. Every gift presented to her had a deep spiritual meaning. This is Anastasia posing for a moment with one of her aunts who planned her party, set it up and served through it. Because of her efforts, I think it is one of the most meaningful images from that night. I haven't finished processing the images yet. I've put them on hold temporarily out of sensitivity for Anastasia. Just a few days after this night, she was hit in the face with a softball while playing catcher. She lost one of her front teeth and the dentist is still working to save the other. But does it change her beauty? No way! The dentist did such a good job on the braces that it's hard to tell there is a tooth missing. And her smile.... dazzling. I'm so proud of this young lady. Her attitude is going to take her a long way in this life!

Monday
June 18, 2012

As a graduation gift to Michelle, I told her we would have one of her senior portraits (of her choosing) printed on a standout. She's having a hard time choosing. I'm thinking about suggesting this one because she had so much fun posing for the city night shots (and she can hang it on her dorm room wall without looking too attached to her high school pride).

[edit by david] We've been up here before:
Dominic's portraits
Capitol and flags
City lights

These were all taken from the top floor of the Brackenridge Hospital parking garage in Austin, TX:

Sunday
June 17, 2012
Happy Fathers' Day!

They're going to make us an offer we can't refuse.

This was from a youth night at our church back in May. The kids were broken into "designer" teams and each team had to put one of its members on the catwalk. This team went with the Godfather theme. I figured it would be a good Fathers' Day post.

Saturday
June 16, 2012

♡ David ♡
What do you think, color or faded? I wonder if we are dating ourselves posting stuff like this. Nah... but I think David would have fit in perfectly in the 1930s. Don't you?
Post note: I totally forgot to credit Celine for making her dad the bow-tie! Thanks, Celine. I think he likes it.

[edit by david] Actually, he loves it... He wore it last night out to dinner because Jacci made him dress up for the occasion.

The real story behind the bow tie is (Well, now, actually I can't remember why exactly I wanted one other than wanting to try to get a vintage portrait look.) that I found a pattern on the web for a bow tie. I gave it to Celine and asked her to make me one. She says the material she pulled was on top of the scrap box but I know it was a Providentially driven selection.

Andrew liked is so much, he had to have one, too. His ended up being a black with pink polka dots. As my parents were traveling to see my brother in Rochester, MN earlier this week, I had Celine make two matching sets of ties for my brother and his son.

Friday
June 15, 2012

Porta Fidei

This is the bottom of an old door resting against a wall on the sidewalk outside of an antique shop in Wimberley, Texas. I haven't taken a picture of this kind of stuff in quite some time. But this door caught my eye because of the youth conference we are planning for January, 2013. The theme is "Porta Fidei" Latin for "Door of Faith". When I think about the "door of faith" I wonder how often people think about how they enter into their faith, (regardless of what their faith may be). Do they see the cracks in the wood left by the ages of adventure and discovery? If the door is still there, it must have survived the test of time in these discoveries. Are the nails that hold it together about to come out? Or are they so deeply embedded that nothing could ever loosen them? How many layers and colors of paint are evident, the cosmetics, remnants of having caved in to the pressures of social demands and fads? And the rust... What kind of impurities have festered through the ages, weakening the whole structure, making it a challenge to even open the door? One thing I know for sure, no matter what your door looks like, God never changes. Just our perceptions of Him do. And sometimes, it's only because of what He allows us to experience as we encounter that door.

Thursday
June 14, 2012

Not too long ago, a friend of ours said "I've never seen Andrew be serious about anything accept the punch line". He nailed our Andrew's personality. I started Andrew's senior portraits yesterday. Care to guess how that went? Let's just say we found some props for the occasion :)

Thank you to all of you who left such kind comments about yesterday's portrait of Celine. She is and always has been an amazing part of our development in portrait photography. Her endless patience is priceless to us.

Wednesday
June 13, 2012
Celine on the Riverbank
So many of the pictures we take of Celine show her pensive side. She portrays it so well as a teenager. And because David and I spend some of our time in youth ministry (as well has having six kids of our own), I am always drawn to the images that reflect the inner struggles of a teenager. But Celine really is a very happy and peaceful teenager most of the time. So I thought I'd share a shot that portrays that side of her beautiful, growing soul. What a joy it is to be on this journey through the teen years with her.

Tuesday
June 12, 2012

Chlorine, not Dominic's best friend... And yet he continues to swim for another 1/2 hour.

[edit by david] The light was an SB900 fired wirelessly using Nikon's CLS through a 33" umbrella. I don't recall if I was holding the flash and umbrella on my poor man's painter pole adapter or a light stand with the legs collapsed. I began with the short handle but then put the light on the light stand so I could hold it out over the water.

Wednesday
June 20, 2012

Bed Time Routine (Bath, Story, Prayers)

My favorite images are the ones that capture relationships. I guess that's because we were made for relationships. Our lives are defined by them and we really cannot live without them. This is our God-daughter, Kristle, enjoying a bedtime story with Celine and Andrew. I was preparing the bed for Kristle. But my heart melted and I had to stop what I was doing and take a picture. Relationships really are everything.