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5 Weeks, 2 Days, and About 6 Hours

Kadence at 5 weeks and 2 days

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Portrait Difficulties

Kari and Owen with Jenni and KadenceIt isn’t easy to get babies posed for portraits. But it does make for funny faces.

Jenni’s cousin Kari and two kids, Piper and Owen, visited with Kari’s mom, Kathy for the morning and we were able to do an impromptu photo session with her kids. See photos from the session »

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Kadence Photos

Our daughter Kadence, 5 days old
I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that one of the first things people ask for are pictures of our new baby. She is now 5 days old and changing quite a bit. When we were at our postpartum appointment yesterday, the doctor showed us how much the baby’s stomach changes in the first 10 days. It nearly doubles in size!

We’ve been taking lots of photos (over 300 so far), and I got some time between feedings to fix a few up and get them posted. There are currently two galleries, one for Kadence and her family and one for Kadence’s portraits.

I’m currently working on a blog post about the whole fatherhood experience and will post photos related to that soon. Until then, enjoy how adorable our little girl is.

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Swing Buddies

On the swings

We spent Labor Day with the Rommels, which always means there were a ton of kids around. Kids are fun to photograph as they’re usually not shy from the camera if you befriend them—and you’re their favorite swing pusher.

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Baby Hannah

Baby HannahHannah is a little bit camera shy— or rather, David-shy. Every time I look at her and smile, her happy expression usually turns sour and she heads for her mom crying.

In our last encounter, I held her for a short while as her mom helped her siblings pile into the family van. She stared at me cautiously but I think she grew to be comfortable with me. When I handed her off to Jenni, I was able to snap a few shots of her and she wasn’t as camera-shy. Like all her siblings, she has great eyes.

For the first time, I was quite satisfied with the sharpness that came from my newest lens. Perhaps I’m finally getting better acquainted with a zoom lens after primarily using a 50mm prime for over two years.

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Tasha

Tasha pooped on a benchWhen I visited Jennilyn twice a week during our courtship, I always had a fun time photographing her cat. She is the loudest purring machine I have ever met. As we visited her folks for the weekend, I couldn’t resist taking a few new snapshots of our favorite feline.

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Beef for Birthday

Jim's Birthday Card

I incorporated my father-in-law’s birthday gift certificate to Black Angus Steakhouse into his birthday card and wanted to share the final product.

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Inspired to Create

Max Tracks Looking EastI hadn’t explored my photography hobby for a while since we’ve got our new computer. I’ve noticed a pattern in my behavior that after I get a new computer, I’m into a season of video games.

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Playing with Portraits

Memoirs of a Band Geek

I took a Photoshop course this past Monday that taught me a lot about RAW workflow, tone and color correction, and retouching techniques. I thought I knew a lot about Photoshop, but the instructor showed me many great techniques to put more “pop” in my pictures. Ben Willmore was a great instructor and I’d highly recommend him to anyone who wants to see how curves in Photoshop is truly used.

The picture of Jenni was originally shot as a test portrait at my workplace. I’m in charge of doing employee portraits next week, so Jenni was helpful (as always) and picked up some backdrops for me. We tested a green, blue, and black. I couldn’t help but snap a half-portrait with the black since it looked so dramatic. And the end result? An interesting but not terribly useful pseudo-spoof on the movie, Memoirs of a Geisha.

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Fingers in the Grass

Jennilyn's DressI remember seeing this dress from Jennilyn’s senior portraits where she leaned on a tree with her blue eyes looking intently into the lens. She chose the dress because it was her grandmother’s and she wanted to preserve it in a photograph.

As I took photos of Jennilyn in her grandmother’s dress, I was waiting for my camera’s buffer to emptywhen I looked up and saw her sweep her hand across the grass. It reminded me of simple mannerisms that I’ve enjoyed about Jennilyn—that, and she’s full of grace.