K & D Maternity Photo-shoot: My Favorite Image?

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Canon EOS Rebel T2i, Tamron AF 28-75mm f/2.8

As I mentioned earlier, I went out of my comfort zone and shot my first maternity photo-shoot (K & D) in over four years.  I love photography, but never claim to be a professional even though I sometimes play one on this blog.  ;-)   But I find doing a "real" photo-shoot every once in a while keeps me on my toes.

My friend and neighbor is having her baby any day, and I was lucky enough to get to photograph the excited parents a few weeks ago. It was very hot that afternoon, and she was such a trooper.  We shot up the road in a field in front of a small historic cemetery.  I was so excited to see the hay bales and couldn't wait to bring the boys out there, but an industrious farmer removed them the next day...

I personally love to photograph friends and family, and since I don't charge anything I feel relaxed and can really enjoy myself.  I figure if I get one decent image then the shoot was a success.  As a paid professional you can't say that to your clients.  ;-) And I also get permission to use the images on my blog. I get so excited to have new photos for my actions and tutorials.

We shot late afternoon and the lighting was beautiful. Because we shot into the sun, in open shade, and with back lighting, I shot the entire thing in manual mode.  I was really excited that I was able to do this so quickly and K even commented that I seemed to really know my camera.  Score!

The one issue I had was editing the images (I used Lightroom 4 and Pretty Presets).  I love artistic edits, but I also know many people prefer simple clean edits.  So I made sure to include the clean edits and threw in extra "arty" edits on the side.  I can never tell what people will like, and often they seem to prefer the images I think are my weakest.

I will post a few of my favorites this week and let you know how I shot/edited them (tutorials!). This image is one of my favorites and I am really curious what K and D (the future parents) will think about it.   I hope they find at least one image on the disc they love.  This is one photo-shoot I can't repeat since their little boy is due any day.

I am so excited to see the little guy.  They mentioned I could do a newborn shoot, but I have to see if they will still want me to do it after I give them these images.  They might run away screaming!  ;-)

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