Impressions by Sydney

Lovely Liz

2011-06-12T20:19:00.000-06:00

I love this gal. She is a girl after my own heart. More comfortable in gym shorts than a wedding dress, with a basketball than a bouquet. Yet, look how dang gorgeous she is! Love her!

Family in the tulips!

2011-06-10T21:09:00.000-06:00

Cutest family! I wish I had half as much energy as little Ella has! These two parents definitely have their hands full! She was so stinkin cute!

Ashley and Bryce!

2011-06-10T21:02:00.000-06:00

Cutest couple plus two! Dutchess and Mya came along for some family pictures and definitely added some excitement to the shoot. Memory Grove was beautiful and the pics turned out great!

Beautiful Bride!

2011-05-03T16:05:00.000-06:00

This cute bride was such a riot! I was laughing my face off the entire sitting! This spring has been such a crazy weather roller coaster ride, we really lucked out that the sun was shining that day! But once again, the bright sun isn't necessarily a good thing, and so with the use of a reflector and back lighting, we were able to get some really beautiful bridals!

Blizzard in April!

2011-04-26T09:27:00.000-06:00

I give this bride the "Best Sport" award! I've seen brides fall apart because it was too breezy or too hot on their wedding day. Laura is one tough chick. She braved whipping wind, torrential downpour, freezing temperatures and blinding snow. Even though the weather did not cooperate, the pictures still turned out great. It's crazy though, by the end of the shoot, Laura and Adam still looked fantastic and I looked like a drowned rat! It's a good thing I was on the other side of the camera. :)

Beautiful Olive

2011-04-14T15:24:00.000-06:00

Little Olive has the most hair I've ever seen on a newborn! Cutest baby with the coolest mom, it was such a fun shoot! I used natural light from my windows and I did some in the studio as well.

Beautiful Backlighting

2011-04-04T14:58:00.000-06:00

A classic "rookie mistake" of photography is facing your subject directly into the sun. Next time you are taking pictures of people, either place them in the shade or have the sun at their back (just make sure the sun isn't causing a glare in your lens). Then use a fill flash or bounce the light back into their faces with a reflector, which is what I did with these bridals. (If you don't have one, use a white poster board, they work great) The backlighting gives the "halo effect" that is really quite beautiful!

Cheltsea and Dallin at the Timpanogas Temple

2011-03-26T15:24:00.000-06:00

I love spring weddings! I love that the brides aren't going to freeze to death and that I can feel my fingers! Although the tulips weren't out yet, the weather was beautiful, the light was filtered through some awesome clouds and I got to work with some really fun people!

Little Miss Sassy Pants!

2011-03-23T22:55:00.000-06:00

I have photographed London since she was 2 weeks old and I love this girl! It's way to cold and gross outside so we used my studio and got some great shots of Miss Sass.

Engagements at Memory Grove!

2011-03-14T19:48:00.000-06:00

Cutest couple! We had so much fun at Memory Grove, the light was beautiful, the weather was warm and the couple was really fun to photograph. I love my job!

Little Miss Sara

2011-03-10T08:57:00.000-07:00

I could just take a bite out of this little gal's cheeks, she is THAT cute! Sara's 6 month photo shoot turned out great! I love to see a baby's natural expression.

Baby Brigham

2011-02-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

I love toe-headed babies! Brigham was the perfect model, sleeping the almost entire time! It was a dark day to shoot using ambient light from the windows, but using a high ISO and a slow shutter speed helped me to capture the details of little Brig. I love playing with shadows and light!

Engagements!

2011-02-28T16:24:00.000-07:00

I had a fantastic time photographing this cute couple last week! We shot at the amphitheater across the street from the Timpanogas Temple in American Fork, a great place to shoot in the winter since there are both landscape and architectural backgrounds that we can use.

10 Tips for taking better photographs

2011-01-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

My friends are always wanting tips to taking better photographs of their kids, vacations, etc. I found this article that pretty much sums up what I always tell them. I thought it was a good article, check it out!

10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits
Discover the secrets of stunning portrait photography in this tutorial. by Darren Rowse

1. Alter Your Perspective

Most portraits are taken with the camera at (or around) the eye level of the subject. While this is good common sense – completely changing the angle that you shoot from can give your portrait a real WOW factor.

Photo striat

2.Get up high and shoot down on your subject or get as close to the ground as you can and shoot up. Either way you’ll be seeing your subject from an angle that is bound to create interest.

Photo by TeeRish

2. Play with Eye Contact

It is amazing how much the direction of your subject’s eyes can impact an image. Most portraits have the subject looking down the lens – something that can create a real sense of connection between a subject and those viewing the image. But there are a couple of other things to try:

A. Looking off camera – have your subject focus their attention on something unseen and outside the field of view of your camera. This can create a feeling of candidness and also create a little intrigue and interest as the viewer of the shot wonders what they are looking at. This intrigue is particularly drawn about when the subject is showing some kind of emotion (ie ‘what’s making them laugh?’ or ‘what is making them look surprised?’). Just be aware that when you have a subject looking out of frame that you can also draw the eye of the viewer of the shot to the edge of the image also – taking them away from the point of interest in your shot – the subject.

Read more: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/10-ways-to-take-stunning-portraits#ixzz1CFrgiupB

Photo by monicutza80

B. Looking within the frame – alternatively you could have your subject looking at something (or someone) within the frame. A child looking at a ball, a woman looking at her new baby, a man looking hungrily at a big plate of pasta…. When you give your subject something to look at that is inside the frame you create a second point of interest and a relationship between it and your primary subject. It also helps create ’story’ within the image.

Photo by paulbence

3. Break the Rules of Composition

There are a lot of ‘rules’ out there when it comes to composition and I’ve always had a love hate relationship with them. My theory is that while they are useful to know and employ that they are also useful to know so you can purposely break them – as this can lead to eye catching results.

The Rule of Thirds is one that can be effective to break – placing your subject either dead centre can sometimes create a powerful image – or even creative placement with your subject right on the edge of a shot can sometimes create interesting images.

Photo by reportergimmiÃ¢â€žÂ¢

Another ‘rule’ that we often talk about in portrait photography is to give your subject room to look into. This can work really well – but again, sometimes rules are made to be broken.

Photo by Bukutgirl

4. Experiment with Lighting

Another element of randomness that you can introduce to your portraits is the way that you light them. There are almost unlimited possibilities when it comes to using light in portraits.

Side-lighting can create mood, backlighting and silhouetting your subject to hide their features can be powerful.

Photo by Bukutgirl

Using techniques like slow synch flash can create an impressive wow factor.

Photo by diskomethod

5. Move Your Subject Out of their Comfort Zone

I was chatting with a photographer recently who told me about a corporate portrait shoot that he had done with a business man at his home. They’d taken a lot of head and shoulder shots, shots at his desk, shots in front of framed degrees and other ‘corporate’ type images. They had all turned out fairly standard – but there was nothing that really stood out from the crowd.

The photographer and the subject agreed that there were plenty of useable shots but they wanted to create something ’special’ and out of the box. The photographer suggested they try some ‘jumping’ shots. The subject was a little hesitant at first but stepped out into the uncomfortable zone and dressed in his suit and tie started jumping!

The shots were amazing, surprising and quite funny. The shoot culminated with the subject jumping in his pool for one last image!

While this might all sound a little ’silly’ the shots ended up being featured in a magazine spread about the subject. It was the series of out of the box images that convinced the magazine he was someone that they’d want to feature.

Image by TeeRish

6. Shoot Candidly

Sometimes posed shots can look somewhat…. posed. Some people don’t look good in a posed environment and so switching to a candid type approach can work.

Photograph your subject at work, with family or doing something that they love. This will put them more at ease and you can end up getting some special shots with them reacting naturally to the situation that they are in. You might even want to grab a longer zoom lens to take you out of their immediate zone and get really paparazzi with them.

I find that this can particularly work when photographing children.

Photo by phitar

7. Introduce a Prop

Add a prop of some kind into your shots and you create another point of interest that can enhance your shot.

Yes you might run the risk of taking too much focus away from your main subject but you could also really add a sense of story and place to the image that takes it in a new direction and gives the person you’re photographing an extra layer of depth that they wouldn’t have had without the prop.

Photo by Mrs. Maze

8. Focus Upon One Body Part – Get Close Up

Get a lens with a long focal length attached to your camera – or get right in close so that you can just photograph a part of your subject. Photographing a person’s hands, eyes, mouth or even just their lower body… can leave a lot to the imagination of the viewer of an image.

Sometimes it’s what is left out of an image that says more than what is included.

Photo by Bukutgirl

9. Obscure Part of your Subject

A variation on the idea of zooming in on one part of the body is to obscure parts of your portrait subject’s face or body. You can do this with clothing, objects, their hands or just by framing part of them out of the image.

Doing this means that you leave a little to the imagination of the image’s viewer but also focus their attention on parts of your subject that you want them to be focused upon.

Photo by BigBlonde

10. Take a Series of Shots

Switch your camera into ‘burst’ or ‘continuous shooting’ mode and fire off more than one shot at a time.

In doing this you create a series of images that could be presented together instead of just one static image.

This technique can work very well when you’re photographing children – or really any active subject that is changing their position or pose in quick succession.

Image by diyosa

Baby Jacob - Ambient light

2011-01-19T01:51:00.002-07:00

I had such a great time today photographing baby Jacob. At one week old, Jacob was the perfect model! I used ambient light from the window and a low shutter speed to capture Jacob's details. Too often I see people use their flash on close-ups of their kids, giving them the "blown out" look. Turn off your flash and experiment with the natural light - I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the result!

16 Questions You Should Ask Your Wedding Photographer

2011-01-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

· Will you personally be the photographer for my wedding?

· Are you a full-time photographer?

· How long have you been a photographer?

· What is your “style”?

· What is your experience in photographing weddings? How many weddings have you photographed?

· Have you handled events of my type and size before?

· What are the reasons you think I should hire you?

· What makes your photographs different than other photographers’?

· What type of equipment do you use? Do you have back-up equipment?

· What type of indoor lighting will you use (if necessary)?

· What if you’re not able to be at my wedding for whatever reason? Do you have a back-up plan?

· Do you provide a written contract?

· What type of post-wedding photo editing do you complete? Why is this important?

· How long will it take to get my photos?

· Do you include the disk/digital negatives?

· Are the files high resolution?

Victoria and Alex's Wedding

2011-01-05T21:09:00.000-07:00

A December wedding with an awesome couple! Although it was freezing cold, Victoria and Alex were so much fun and I think I was able to capture the happy atmosphere of the day. My favorite shots tend to be the ones that show the personalities of the couples.

2010-12-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

Coming soon:

Please visit again soon!

Impressions by Sydney

Lovely Liz

Family in the tulips!

Ashley and Bryce!

Beautiful Bride!

Blizzard in April!

Beautiful Olive

Beautiful Backlighting

Cheltsea and Dallin at the Timpanogas Temple

Little Miss Sassy Pants!

Engagements at Memory Grove!

Little Miss Sara

Baby Brigham

Engagements!

10 Tips for taking better photographs

My friends are always wanting tips to taking better photographs of their kids, vacations, etc. I found this article that pretty much sums up what I always tell them. I thought it was a good article, check it out!

10 Ways to Take Stunning PortraitsDiscover the secrets of stunning portrait photography in this tutorial. by Darren Rowse

10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits

1. Alter Your Perspective

2. Play with Eye Contact

3. Break the Rules of Composition

4. Experiment with Lighting

5. Move Your Subject Out of their Comfort Zone

6. Shoot Candidly

7. Introduce a Prop

8. Focus Upon One Body Part – Get Close Up

9. Obscure Part of your Subject

10. Take a Series of Shots

Baby Jacob - Ambient light

16 Questions You Should Ask Your Wedding Photographer

Victoria and Alex's Wedding

10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits
Discover the secrets of stunning portrait photography in this tutorial. by Darren Rowse