Seacoast NH Dance Photography

I took two trips in March, which meant I spent half the month not taking pictures. (Yes, I don’t bring my camera on trips..because..well…vacation). However, I do spend a lot of travel and down time taking online training classes and daydreaming about pictures I’d like to make. 

The brain is funny, it doesn’t seem to have an “out of office” mode.

When I came home I immediate started texting people about doing some creative photography. And then my friend Julie (Julie Freitas Photography), contacted me about photographing a dancer because she was itching to do some dance photography and knew I’d be down.

Because I was in ultra-creative mode when she contacted me, I jumped right on it and planned an editorial style shoot before really asking her what her vision was. Oops. Once I planned the editorial shoot with my girls at Max Charles, I realized that Julie wanted to do more traditional ballet pictures.

So..two shoots. The more dancers the merrier as far as I’m concerned.

This beautiful ballerina came up from Massachusetts on a school day (sacrificing her first lacrosse game), spent an hour with hair and makeup, and then came to the studio for pictures. (Oh, and the rainbow scarves? Those were given to me that morning as a gift by an aspiring photographer! What amazing timing?!)

That April morning we woke up to flurries and the idea for the “Spring in New England” was birthed.

After we photographed her dancing and leaping I sat her down for a portrait. I can’t tell you how much this portrait means to me. I adore it.

A few weeks later we had a second ballerina in the studio. This time my friend Julie came up to shoot, and our own Sarah joined in on the fun as well. Since they are both newborn photographers, shooting someone leaping and dancing was a new challenge!

Iona is a ballerina from NH and she was full of grace and adventure.

So much so that we tossed one of our maternity gowns on her and draped on of our crazy fake tutus around her and stood in awe of how magical she made it all come together.

Ballerinas are magical.

NewCastle NH Family Photoshoot |Chacon Family

Happy Fall Y’all! Isn’t that what they say down south? It sure feels like were living in the south lately with these warm sunny days we’ve been enjoying! Its Lynn here putting up a quick blog post to help me soak in a little sunshine from a sun filled family session. On this rainy dreary day, I needed a little does of sun.

I met up with this sweet family one day mid September. As was the way this fall just seemed to go we had a gorgeous night to head to one of my favorite little spots out on New Castle.  This little lady had the most infectious giggle! And can we talk about her adorable Unicorn dress?! I think we all could benefit from owning a dress like that…how can you not smile when you are wearing a dress with a rainbow unicorn on it! If you’ve ever had me take your photos you know I love trying to get a couple with kids and JUST Mom, and then kids and JUST Dad. I think its great how kids react differently sometimes when they are sitting with one parent or the other. Im also wondering if we need to start holding  a contest when I take these pictures to see who can get kiddos laughing more–Mom or Dad?

Dad really got this little lady going!I don’t know what silly jokes he was whispering but it sure got her laughing. Buuuuttt Mom had her cracking up pretty good too!

Ok I will just call this one a tie! 🙂 Although truth be told, this smily girl didn’t need ANY help in that department. I am not sure there was a second we were together that she WASNT smiling. Maybe its the unicorn dress!!! 🙂

We had a special treat on this beautiful night; Grandma was in town from Illinois and we got to photograph her with her daughter and granddaughter. I don’t know about you, but generational photos are so special to me. 

I hope that this little (BIG) dose of sunshine and silly smiles did something to make your humpday go by little faster. Thank you to the Chacon family for spending some time with me and allowing me to freeze time with you for an hour. 🙂

Fall Fashion Photoshoot | Portsmouth, NH

Somewhere buried under lots of fun photoshoots are pictures I took about a month ago for our fashion friends at Pretty Little Things, with hair and makeup by Redhead Studio.

Our fashion partner, Michelle, who owns Pretty Little Things is the brain-power behind these shoots.

I basically just show up with my camera.

The concept behind this particular shoot was a glamping vibe with a retro feel.

Michelle is always pushing me to produce images that are beyond the boundaries of my normal portrait work.

Which I love and hate.

I love shooting differently; utilizing lenses that don’t come out of my bag much, and new lighting techniques. These shoots are an opportunity to me to grow, practice and learn. Last year I actually learned a whole new off camera flash system doing these shoots (which I now utilize with ease). Which is freaking awesome.

Then there’s the matter of editing. I love clean edits. However, editing styles are subject to trends (thank you Instagram filters). Several years ago it was a low contrast matte look, then a pastel light & airy edit, now it’s a dark, contrasty film look – all so fun and wonderful…but I want my photography to look timeless. So this is where I bite my lip and work on edits per the shoot’s vision board.

I take a deep breath and then use photoshop techniques to create an edit that will give the photo the desired look and feel for the shoot …which I jokingly refer to as “ruining my pictures”.

Although I sort of fuss about it, if I’m honest, it’s a nice creative excursion for me. Creating film-like effects has forced me to use different editing tools and learn more about Photoshop.

Learning is always good and playing photography reminds me that this is more than a job, it’s also a hobby.