alex nguyen portraits

New Blog!

2009-03-30T01:37:00.000-07:00

I have moved my blog! My new blog is located at: http://blog.AlexNguyenPortraits.com and is housed through WordPress. I will keep this old blog for archival purposes, but all my new clients and sessions will be shown on the new blog. :)

Military Family

2009-03-08T22:16:00.000-07:00

I had done a military family model search a while back and got Family B from Fort Lewis interested in a photoshoot. They were willing to drive all the way to me in order to get their pictures done, and were so awesome and willing to work with me on different poses. I have a lot of respect for the men and women who are out there, every day, fighting under the American flag, and I hope that these pictures do them a little justice.

Family "B"

their kids were adorable

sweet moment with dad

sweet moment with mom

sweet moment with each other! I love how it looks like she's placing her hands on her heart

a different family shot

I think I literally went "awwwww" when I snapped this capture

my ultimate bribe is lollipops. I think she was a little too happy about her lollipop and I had to snap a picture of the face she was making

being serious with dad

Go in peace

March Mini Sessions

2009-03-01T23:16:00.000-08:00

Since my Valentine's Day Mini Sessions were so successful, I'm offering up a mini session for this month as well. If you're tired of the same old mall pictures or big impersonal studio photos and want something that really captures your child's personality, then this would be the session for you! Plus, the price is perfect for your pocketbook!

This is a GREAT gift for mom and dad from the kids, or for nice pictures of the kids in their Easter best outfits. You'll get some gorgeous pictures to give out to your loved ones! Here are the details:

mini-sessions will be booked for 30 minute slots for Saturday March 21st, 2009 and Sunday March 22nd, 2009

there will be 5-10 final images to choose from in your proof gallery

mini-session can include up to 3 children only

the mini-session includes 1 8x10 and 2 5x7s

the low price of only $65 for the entire March Mini package!

Mini-sessions will be booked on a first come, first served basis. All sessions will take place at my home studio in Kenmore. If weather permits, I'll move the sessions to a nearby park for outdoor shots. You also get a 15% discount off any additional prints you purchase from your mini-session. Hurry and book your session on my website today!

Happy Half Birthday

2009-02-19T09:27:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe it's already been six months since I had my second little boy. Happy half birthday sweet Albert! You've enriched our lives more than I knew would be possible, and your mom, dad, and big brother love you so very much. I'm sorry you're subjected to mom's camera all the time, since you're the non-moving subject it's much easier to pose you! :)

from this sweet dreamy baby at six days old

To now...

we like to roast babies here

sitting pretty at five months

Contemplative baby

Look, he does actually smile for me sometimes

Old Tyme Villain

showing off his latest trick - free standing at six months!

Miss I - One Year Old

2009-02-18T23:50:00.000-08:00

This mom contacted me through a website called MiNeeds, which is a handy place for people who are looking for a service to get bids from professionals (photographers, lawyers, everything under the sun) and also a great place to advertise your work. She wanted pictures of her one year old daughter taken, and came over so I could capture her sweetness and innocence. At first little Miss I was a little bit wary of me and my camera, but mom and dad were always right there with her, and by the time we got outside she was all smiles. Here's a sneak peek at the results of the photoshoot!

Meet Miss I

with dad

with mom

She had the cutest clothes

Hesitant smile

mom was all ready with multiple outfits!

All smiles outside

Two Sisters

2009-02-14T22:05:00.000-08:00

I had the opportunity last weekend to photograph these two really cutie sisters and their mom. Of course, they were cute separately, but not together. I definately need to work on my sibling photography taking skills! The older sister was a dream to work with, she took direction very well and I had a lot of fun posing her. Her little sister took some working with to get her to look at the camera and smile, plus the ultimate bribe in my bag of tricks - the lollipop. We ended up outside for some family shots as well, and had better luck. Overall it was really fun and I hope their mom enjoys the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

She looked so much older than her age for some of the photos

Looking more like a kid!

My patented method for getting little kids comfortable - peek a boo!
See her peeking?

a BOO!

what most of the sibling shots ended up looking like

a sweet moment with mom

big smiles

my favorite shot of the day

Baby Boy C - 3 days old

2009-02-08T22:07:00.000-08:00

Baby Boy C was born thursday morning, which makes him the youngest newborn I've ever had the pleasure to photograph. He was overdue by over a week, and his mom made the appointment with me hoping to entice him out into the world. I learned a lot during this photoshoot, especially about dealing with a newborn this young. He basically just wanted to nurse the entire time, which was fine, but a little difficult to photograph! Who says that newborns are always just sleepyheads?

Here's his sneak peek, enjoy!

Meet pirate baby, aarrgghh!

Contemplating the outside world

What does big sister think of him?

Sibling love

one with dad. you can't tell he's actually screaming his head off here

big yawn

Miss E - 3.5yo

2009-02-08T20:44:00.000-08:00

I've decided that 3.5 year old girls are my favorite subjects to shoot. Not only do they follow direction well, they actually like having their picture taken and give me real smiles for the camera. I've done three 3.5 year old girls recently and they've all been super-fun shoots! I met Miss E and her mom through PEPS which began meeting when my first son was around three months old. Our playgroup has been loosely keeping in touch ever since then, and it's nice to see our kids "grow up" together. Miss E's mom was nice enough to volunteer her daughter to come over and let me photograph her for my Valentine's Day promotion, and here are some other cute shots that I got during that shoot as well.

serious face

big smiles

another great smile

Peek...

A BOO!

First Blog Contest Winners!

2009-02-08T00:41:00.000-08:00

My first Alex Nguyen Portraits blog contest has ended. Thank you to everyone who voted, and I hope you had as much fun with the contest as I did! Here are the winners:

In first place, with a whopping 50% of the vote, FAMILY D. Congratulations, they received a $125 gift certificate!

In second place, with 38% of the vote, FAMILY H. Congratulations, they received a $75 gift certificate!

And in third place, we have FAMILY I. Congratulations, they received a $25 gift certificate!

Thank you again to everyone who participated! Please remember to spread the word about my photography and services, and your friends and family too could win my next blog contest!

Valentine's Day Mini-Sessions

2009-02-04T00:51:00.000-08:00

I had my first foray into offering mini-sessions, which turned out pretty successful! They were shorter, 30 minute sessions in one location where clients came to me. Since it worked out so well, I may offer more mini-sessions come spring, maybe at a destination such as the tulip fields in Mt. Vernon, or a nearby park. Here are some peeks of the adorable kids I photographed, including a very sleepy but delicious two week old! I was pretty impressed his parents were up and about with him already. Enjoy!

Look at that pout!

He's going to be a heart breaker for sure

She was very very serious

sleepy head

Hey! He woke up!

Fun fun fun!

Blog Contest Time!

2009-01-24T22:36:00.001-08:00

Welcome blog readers! This is my first blog contest as a thank you to my clients. Please check out the pictures below and vote for your favorite family/child. Voting will start sunday January 25th and end at midnight on saturday February 7th. The winner will be announced on sunday February 8th on my blog. The winning family will receive a $125 gift certificate applicable to any of my photography services which they can use for themselves or give away! Please feel free to come back and vote as often as you like during the two week voting window! And without further ado, in no particular order, are some of my favorite poses from past clients!

1. Family "A"

2. Family "B"

3. Family "C"

4. Family "D"

5. Family "E"

6. Family "F"

7. Family "G"

8. Family "H"

9. Family "I"

Thank you for voting, and please come back on sunday February 8th to see who won!

Valentine's Day Mini Sessions

2009-01-18T19:16:00.000-08:00

I'm trying something new and offering mini-sessions just in time for Valentine's Day! This is a GREAT gift for mom and dad from the kids! Set an appointment for just your children, or for a "mommy and me" or "daddy and me" photo session. You'll get some gorgeous pictures to give your loved ones for Valentine's Day. Here are the details:

mini-sessions will be booked for 30 minute slots for Sunday February 1st, 2009

mini-sessions will be booked on a first come, first served basis

all mini-sessions will take place at my home studio

there will be 5-10 images to choose from in your proof gallery

the mini-session includes 3 5x7s and 1 set of wallet Valentine's Day photo cards

you get a 15% discount off any additional prints you purchase from your mini-session

pictures will be back in time for a Valentine's Day gift

the low price of only $65 for the entire Valentine's Mini-Session package!

Hurry and book your session on my website today!

Models Wanted: Military Family

2009-01-08T09:37:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone who reads my blog! I am looking for a military family for a FREE photoshoot. In exchange for signing a full model release, I will trade you a full photoshoot (complete with photo gallery of at least 20 different poses) and 2 free 8x10s of your favorite poses from the shoot. I'm looking for a family that fits the following descriptions:

must be a full family with one parent in the military (can be mom or dad) and has military dress for the photoshoot. sorry, I'm looking for families where the parent is not currently serving their tour right now

must have at least one child (more is fine as well)

child must either be very small baby (newborn would be great!) or at least walking well

must be willing to travel to me (although I'm flexible on this condition depending on where you are stationed)

If you fit these terms, or know someone who does and would love a free photoshoot, please let me know! You can contact me through my website or directly at alex@AlexNguyenPortraits.com. Thank you and please spread the word.

and because we can't have a post without pictures:

2008 Recap and welcome to 2009

2009-01-04T10:44:00.000-08:00

2008 and the madness of my first busy holiday season has come to an end. I've learned a lot about photography, people, running a business, and the follys of dealing with Mother Nature in the last three months. I wanted to give a shout out and a huge THANK YOU to all my clients who have allowed me into their lives to capture their family memories for them. THANK YOU also goes to my wonderful family and friends who have been so supportive in my endeavors and getting my business off the ground.

I hope that in 2009 my business continues to grow, and I continue to grow as a photographer as well. Please check back for some changes to the blog, and visit my website for its new look and new images in the galleries as well.

Happy 2009 everyone!

And to leave you, a little montage storyboard of my boys from the last year.

Claire - 2 years old

2008-12-18T01:16:00.001-08:00

Claire was my last photoshoot for the year of 2008! I met her at her home because the weather was not being very cooperative for an outdoor shoot. I think I had finally run out of luck with outdoor photography for this Seattle winter! Claire was quite spirited and kept me on my toes trying to get some good shots of her and her lively personality. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Meet Miss Claire

Where's Claire?

There she is!

Pensive toddler

Actually looking at the camera for me

We brought out some books for her

telling me exactly what she thought about the photoshoot

Cormier Family

2008-12-08T07:25:00.000-08:00

I met this family at Discovery Park in Seattle for a holiday portrait session. Once we got to the park we discovered that it was fairly cold and windy BUT it wasn't raining which is always a bonus. The twins weren't really sure about this whole photo taking in the cold, and often the twins would be looking at each other instead of the camera. However, we were able to get a couple of family shots and some nice captures of the kids. I hope you enjoy their pictures!

meet the Cormiers

the kiddos

sweet big brother moment

as you can see, it was pretty windy during the shoot and small people were starting to get unhappy

and one of their oldest. look at those eyelashes!

Mitchell Family - redux

2008-12-08T07:17:00.000-08:00

I had a session with the dad's side of the family earlier this year, and this is the mom's side of the family. I met this family at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens, which I cannot stress enough is so well suited for photographing large families in a great setting. I tried to center the shoot around the one year old, who is the first grandchild and was trying desperately hard to walk around during the shoot instead of pose for me. It was a fun family to shoot because they were pretty amicable to positioning themselves in fun silly poses for me.

The family

Mom, dad, and baby

Grandparents

dad and son

The men

siblings

happy kid!

Raina - 2 years old

2008-12-07T08:39:00.000-08:00

I met this 26 month old toddler and her family at Gas Works Park in Seattle for their photoshoot. This was also my first rescheduled session because of rain! I've not had the opportunity to wander around Gas Works before and it was a pretty neat location. Along with the old gas works factory, there is a great view of the Seattle skyline and Lake Union.

Raina wasn't so sure about having her picture taken, and I had to resort to every toddler bribe I had to get some smiles. Bubbles, my panda Pez dispenser, food, and The Ultimate Bribe Lollipop. Evevtually we got some nice pictures as she ran around the park and I chased after her with the camera. :)

Meet Raina

a sweet moment with dad. This was how she was for most of the beginning of the shoot.

the bribe lollipop in action!

running down the hill

classic toddler

with mommy

Here you can see the gas works plant

The whole family

William - 5.5 months

2008-12-07T08:12:00.000-08:00

William is, by far, the most smiliest baby I've had the opportunity to photograph. The kid is a charmer, with big, wide open laughs and grins I was able to capture on camera. He was not shy about the camera at all, and his parents went above and beyond to get him to giggle and allow me to capture his great personality on camera. He was a hoot to photograph and I enjoyed capturing all his antics.

Meet William. This was near the end of the shoot and he was feeling a little tired

Mr. Personality

look at that laugh!

with dad

checking me out

with mom

family shot

The Skiver Clan

2008-11-30T23:53:00.000-08:00

I met the Skiver Clan at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens, which seems to be my default meeting place for Seattle and the Eastside lately. They were my first big family photo session, complete with three separate little families combining to one giant clan. Two grandparents, two grown siblings, two spouses, four little kids/cousins/grandkids. Whew! The two little school aged boy cousins were extremely adorable and really fun to capture on camera. I also had a lot of fun posing the families in different ways to represent all the different relationships that existed.

The Skiver Clan

My theory that the chance of getting everyone to look at the camera grows exponentially more difficult with a) more people and b) younger people is again proven. thank goodness for lollipop bribes!

Grandparents and grandkids

cute cousins

Siblings and cousins

Family units!

The Blumenthal Family

2008-11-30T21:15:00.000-08:00

This mom and I have been in the same playgroup since our oldest sons were wee little tykes so I was pretty excited to do their family portraits. I met them at my favorite eastside outdoor location, the Bellevue Botanical Gardens where her two boys gave me a glimpse of my future life! Rambunctious but full of brotherly love, I tried hard to capture their personalities in the pictures. The older one was at the age where he was so willing to ham it up to the camera and pose for me, but the younger one had more reservations. Together though they made some very sweet moments I was able to capture and hope their parents will treasure.

Meet the Blumenthals!

this was taken towards the end of the session, I think you can tell the boys are getting a little tired

Do you know how hard it is to try to get TWO toddlers to look at your camera? :)

older brother

I always try to get the mom in a picture alone with a kid, because mom is usually the picture-taker and never in the pictures herself!

brotherly love

The Smith Family

2008-11-30T07:05:00.000-08:00

It's definately the time of year everyone wants nice family pictures done. I've been pretty lucky in that the weather has generally been not raining, which is all you can ask for in the Seattle area. :) I met this nice family at Bothell Landing Park as park of my Holiday Portrait Package. They were very fun and amicable to trooping all over the park to find different shot locations. The biggest factor to work with was the little girl's interest in eating leaves and not smiling at the camera, but I think it worked in our favor. I hope they enjoy the picture as much as I enjoyed shooting them!

The Smith Family

Dad and Emily

mom and Emily

baby on a bridge!

but she's so cute!

one last leaf picture!

Oliver - 9 days old

2008-11-19T00:09:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure of taking newborn Oliver's portraits last week. His mom and I actually went to high school together (way back when!) and reconnected through Facebook. She was kind enough to let me photograph little Oliver, and she also joyfully participated in my eagerness to stage as many hat pictures on babies as possible. The lighting conditions were a little challenging, but Oliver behaved like a champ and pretty much slept through most of the shoot. I present Oliver's sneak peek now, aka The Most Awesome Hat Shoot I've Ever Done.

meet Oliver

Oliver with mom and dad

beanie hat Oliver with a dimple!

I lent Oliver my own apple beanie hat

The Most Awesomely Terrific Baby Hat EVER

baby feet and rings

soft newborn head

baby bottom

kisses from grandma

snuggles from mom

Elizabeth - 3 months old

2008-11-18T22:50:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth's parents contacted me to take portraits of their adorable daughter as part of my Grow With Me package. I was excited to meet her and am pretty excited for her next photoshoot to see how much she's grown and learn. I was also excited that their house had these huge, gorgeous windows that let in a ton of natural light and made for a great shooting area for me to set up.

Elizabeth is only a couple of days older than my youngest son Albert, so I had a lot of practice in posing the three month old. As a bonus, Elizabeth's maternal grandparents were there as well as we were able to get some nice generational shots with the whole family.

Meet Miss Elizabeth

her mom was very helpful in finding different hats to use during the shoot

look at those eyes!

baby feet!

a sweet moment with dad

Mommy and me

three generations

The Vo/Vu Family

2008-11-17T12:08:00.000-08:00

This cute family wanted some shots of their three year old and seven month old boys, along with some extended family shots as well. We were lucky in that even though it had been raining cats and dogs earlier that morning, by the time of the photo shoot the weather was quite decent. The extended family humored my wishes by me posing them on the side of the street for some great fall foliage. These are the two things I learned: 1) the more people involved in a group shot, the greater the chance someone isn't looking at the camera; 2) the younger the person is in a group shot, the greater the chances are that s/he isn't going to be looking at the camera.

Once we got inside and the kids alone, they were much more cooperative and I was able to get some nice shots of the kids along with some candids of the kids with their parents. Here's their sneak peek and I hope they enjoy the pictures as much as I did!

The Vo/Vu family

their cutie 3 year old

their ever so serious 7 month old - I have a hard time getting babies this age to smile for me!

a sweet moment with mom

playing with dad

the extended family. In this shot they actually are standing by the side of the road, what good sports!

The Stubblefield Family

2008-11-15T01:27:00.000-08:00

I first knew of this family once we had our first son Samuel and kept seeing these people walking around our neighborhood with a toddler in a backpack and two Great Danes in tow. We got to know them as neighbors better this year because our sons are in the same preschool class. I was excited to shoot their family pictures this year because they are such a cute family and were very amicable towards fun poses with their dogs. The mom explained to me that family photos including everyone in their family (mom, dad, kidlet, and doggies) were pretty important so I tried pretty hard to get some good moments for everyone.

We headed to one of my favorite nearby parks to shoot at, Bothell Landing, because there's plenty of open area, trees, the nice river backdrop, and it is very dog friendly. I will admit, it was difficult to get all five of them to look at me at the same time for pictures. Being Great Danes, they were bigger than the little boy so they couldn't get too excited or else he'd be dragged off his feet and out of the pose. I got lots of shots with the little boy looking at me and the dogs looking away, or the dogs looking at me, and the little boy looking away. It was a little frustrating, but some pictures did come out quite well. I hope you enjoy their sneak peek!

Meet the Stubblefields!

most of my shots had the dogs looking at each other instead of me!

the "kids"

their cute little boy

the human component of the family

and I finally found a family that would help me achieve my jumping family shot

The Parish Family

2008-11-13T00:26:00.000-08:00

I've been friends with this mom and her family ever since my oldest son was a wee babe. I did their family pictures last year when I was just starting out and learning, and I was thrilled they asked me to take their family pictures again this year. We headed to my newest favorite location, Bellevue Botanical Gardens and walked around the grounds. I'm still working on my color balance issues, and worked pretty hard on getting shots of getting two small kids to stare at me in the same direction at the same time. It wasn't always successful, but made for some fun pictures. I hope they enjoy the pictures as much as I do.

Incidentally, Bellevue Botanical Gardens was preparing for its yearly Garden d'Lights. If you live around the Seattle area, definately check it out! They put up tons of strands of lights to make a virtual dazzling light flower display.

Meet the Parish Family. Notice how the oldest daughter isn't *quite* looking my way. the youngest makes up for it with her very determined stare in my direction.

hey! everyone is at least facing forward in this shot! :)

the oldest daughter

My stunning failure at trying to get this family shot. The youngest wanted nothing more than to eat the dirt and gravel of the trail than look at me.

mom and baby

taking a walk with dad

high flier

sweet daddy and baby moment

Jeung Family

2008-11-11T23:46:00.000-08:00

I visited this cute family in their home to shoot some family portraits and more formal poses of their two kids. I have to say, I really enjoyed interacting and taking photos of their older son (who proudly told me he was 4 and 3/4 years old...that 3/4 was very important!) He was a fun kid and I hope that the pictures got some of his spontaneity and goofiness across. His seven month old sister was a different story, I don't think she cracked a smile for me once! She was very solemn about the whole experience. I hope their family enjoys this sneak peek!

The Jeung Family. The dad pulled this great bench out from their backyard for posing for photos.

All smiles

posing with his pals Duck and Cow

Little Miss Solemn

I love the look mom is giving her daughter here

James - two months

2008-10-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

Adorable James and his parents came to me for a photoshoot. He's three weeks younger than my Albert, and it was really nice shooting a baby that would behave for the camera! James was awake the entire time, so we spent a lot of time trying to get him to smile. Ultimately, we were unsuccessful, as he'd only smile when I wasn't taking pictures, but I think I got some nice shots that showed the little strong man's personality. Here is a preview of their session!

Meet James

yes, he did find his hand quite tasty in all the shots

fuzzy baby head!

my best shot at a non-serious look from James

I love the looks Dad and James are giving each other

posing with mom

the mom had this idea for a family shot. I thought it was great, and something they could continue to do every year as a tradition as James grows older.

a more traditional family shot

The Wagner Family

2008-10-23T22:47:00.000-07:00

I have known the Wagner family since I was in junior high and they've always been very supportive and kind towards me and my adventures. :) The daughter is one of my best friends and we've stayed in touch over all these years. I was pleased to shoot their family photos this year at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens on a gorgeous fall day here in the Pacific Northwest last weekend.

The two hardest things about this shoot were a) getting everyone in focus, in a decent amount of light, and making sure limbs and heads weren't cut off too awkwardly; and b) getting the toddler to look at the camera. The two year old was being two and my regular tricks were not getting any sort of responses from her at all. Combined with the large group setting, it was hard getting a shot where everyone was looking and smiling without closing their eyes at me. I had much better results shooting her one on one with a family member being entertaining behind me. Maybe next time at a large family shoot I'll wear a funny hat and have rabbits pop out of it to garner the kids' attention. :)

Onto the sneak peek!

Meet the Wagners

one of the better shots where everyone was looking at the camera

I love the look in her face here

three generations

and oh look! a real smile!

this is my favorite thing about the Botanical Gardens. It comes with its very own hobbit door! Perfect for toddlers!

Apples and kiddos

2008-10-14T23:39:00.000-07:00

Our yard has an inordinate amount of fruit trees for being in the city and a smaller lot. This time of year is apple harvesting time, and I thought they'd make a great background to shoot against. Unfortunately, both my kids had other plans and weren't the most cooperative of subjects, but I did get a couple of good pictures. Yes, all the apples you see were picked from our yard.

If you've been to my website recently, you'll have seen this picture already. For this picture of Samuel, I used my 85mm 2.8 lense with me perched on top of a six foot tall ladder shooting down at him. he refused to lay down in the apples, probably due to the fact that the sky was bright (even though it was overcast). Hence the close cropping.

Albert was much easier to pose. We just laid him in the grass and positioned apples around him. Again I'm up on the ladder shooting down at him with my 85mm.

"mom, what are you doing?"

I moved off the ladder to shoot him a little closer for these pictures. Todd had the great idea to give him an apple so his hands wouldn't constantly be in front of his face.

and finally, a smile!

and what we do with all those apples - make applesauce! Samuel here is operating the apple corer peeler machine.

in action

The Rossi Family

2008-10-13T23:10:00.000-07:00

I met this happy couple at Bothell Landing Park in Bothell on a beautiful fall day here in the Pacific Northwest. The park was a really gorgeous backdrop, with a pedestrian footbridge over to the Sammamish River Trail, the river backdrop, and some historical houses as well. I'm really looking forward to shoot there again.

The wife had told me she wanted some family pictures taken in the gorgeous fall foliage with her, her husband, and their two cutie daschunds. It was my first time photographing dogs so I was pretty excited. I was also pretty excited that this couple were pretty easy going to any suggestions I had, including my obsession to get a picture with leaves falling around them - perfect for fall!

The happy couple

the footbridge

in front of the historic old school house

such good sports to pose for me

laying on the wooden footbridge across the wetlands

family portrait

dogs!

the husband had the great idea to have me shooting while the dog ran across to him. This was my favorite shot of that series

happy autumn

The Larson Family

2008-10-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

I've been friends with this couple since high school, and their son is just a year younger than my Samuel and are good buddies. Melissa has been kind and very supportive of my journey to become a photographer and has let me take pictures of her son and of her family. Her main goal this shoot was to get a family portrait where Jarrett was smiling, and I think we achieved that result.

Meet the Larson Family

I caught him as he was running around in circles at the park

Serious Jarrett

ready to jump

smiling for the camera

The Mitchell Family

2008-10-12T23:46:00.001-07:00

I've known the Mitchell family for a very long time. The daughter and I met on the school bus during junior high, and have been friends ever since. It was my pleasure to take their family pictures this weekend. We met at Martha Lake Park in Lynnwood, which is actually a very pretty little park. It's right by the lake with docks and piers, plus plenty of open green space to play and run around for little energetic toddlers. There were three generations of Mitchells in the pictures, and it was really cute to just see the little cousins together.

One difficuly I had during the shoot was getting both kids to look my direction at the same time and getting smiles. I finally settled for just getting them to both look at me and one of them to smile. I'm also still working on posing, positioning, and shoot bigger family portraits without them looking too stiff or forced. The weather was a bit on the colder side the day of our session, which made finding non-forced poses difficult as people did not want to stay outside for very long. Hopefully with more practice I'll be able to shoot shots that are as fun and candid as my baby portraits.

Meet the Mitchell family

Mom and Dad Mitchell

I love the look on his sweet face

baby tossing!

cousins

Dana and Idris

2008-10-08T23:45:00.000-07:00

Dana is a good friend of mine who is getting married. I met her and her charming fiance Idris last weekend at the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle. They agreed to be my photography guinea pigs and let me shoot their engagement portraits. I was pretty excited, as I'd never been to the Olympic Sculpture Park before and it was a pretty nifty place. Dana and Idris were really great to work with, and pretty willing sports to do whatever I directed of them. I am kicking myself that I didn't bring along my sheet of "interesting and artsy engagement poses" and as such, felt that I had a lot of stiff, formal poses for the portraits. However, I did get some nice shots of the two of them, and definately had a lot of fun in the process. Hopefully they did as well!

The happy couple

such great loving looks they gave each other

Dana, Idris, and of course the Space Needle

they are both great dancers

at the end of this little dance set Idris picked Dana up and I snapped this shot

checking out the view of downtown Seattle

overlooking Puget Sound

and my favorite shot of them

David - four months old

2008-10-06T23:31:00.000-07:00

Our good friends recently had a baby and wanted to get some pictures of him in his baptism outfit. Since they were going to be here for pictures, they were kind enough to let me practice some other shots on him, including some fun hat shots and naked baby shots. David was a great little trooper, enduring the outfit changes and being entertained by two women, a wildly dancing man, and a highly curious three year old. Here are some of his pictures!

meet David

the baptism outfit, aka "pilgrim David"

mr smiles!

who doesn't love a baby in a hat?

one last picture

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

2008-10-01T22:05:00.000-07:00

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep is an organization which does infant bereavement photography and helps families capture memories with their beloved infants after they have passed. I am proud to state that I'm a volunteer photographer for such a wonderful organization.

With the Month of October being recognized as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, The Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Foundation holds its Annual Fund Drive for six weeks starting in mid-September and ending on October 31.

President Ronald Reagan enacted Proclamation 5890 in October of 1988 to recognize that each year, approximately a million pregnancies in the United States alone end in miscarriage, stillbirth, or the death of a newborn child. Reagan stated, "A national observance offers us the opportunity to increase our understanding of the great tragedy involved in the deaths of unborn or newborn babies. It also enables us to consider how, as individuals and communities, we can meet the needs of bereaved parents and family members... " To read the full Proclamation signed by Reagan, click here.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO NiLMDTS.

If you are in a place to make even a small contribution to NILMDTS, please know that doing so will continue to allow the organization to provide improved resources, training, communication, and other tools necessary in support of our amazing contingent of professional photographers who provide the gift of free remembrance portraiture to families in need.

Our next project we are working on is an online, interactive webinar version of our Formal NILMDTS Training taught by Co-Founder Sandy Puc' allowing anyone in any country with access to a computer to complete the course online. Donations help make programs like this a reality!

Your Donations Support the Organization in Many Ways -

By supporting the continued education of our volunteer photographers

By allowing us to further our outreach to hospitals and hospices across the world

By offsetting the costs associated with outreach efforts including Formal NILMDTS Traingin Seminars

By supporting the Family Forum which creates a productive and supportive haven for healing

By supporting the Photographers' Forum which provides a helpful environment for our member photographers to express their feelings and receive advice on the various issues that they face in this noble work

By supporting the day to day operations of our Headquarters Offices

Holiday Portrait Special

2008-09-16T21:15:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year, when the leaves change, and the air smells crisper, and you start finding yourself thinking about how close the holidays are coming! This year I'm going to offer a Holiday Portrait Special for family portraits. Perfect if you're looking for a good gift for the parents or grandparents, and also for that great shot in the holiday card or newsletter.

The Holiday Portrait Special will include the following:

Consult with me to get an idea about what you want in your pictures

One hour photography session

up to 6 people can be included in a session (additional people in each session will be $25 each)

proof gallery will be available within one week of the shoot

includes two finished 8x10s

includes a CD of 5 high resolution images for your personal usage

$99 for the package

As an added bonus, I give a $50 credit towards any package/print order to any referral which books a session with me. If you refer three people who book a session with me, you get 50% off any photography package/print order. So get the word out! :)

You can visit the families gallery at my website for more examples of my family portraits.

Breastfeeding

2008-09-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

I thought a lot about adding pictures depicting nursing or breastfeeding on my website. Originally I had included a nursing picture in my gallery, but after a couple of pointed comments about "seeing that sort of thing" from people, I took it off because I didn't want to appear offensive. I'll let it stand that I'm an advocate of breastfeeding, but more to the point, I wanted people who were looking to capture that nursing relationship with their child to come across my site and go "hey, I want something like that to remember these moments with my child".

What I didn't want was someone coming across my site and going "hey, those aren't pictures I want to be seeing on a prospective photographer's website" or "hey, those are inappropriate pictures". I was a little torn between treading the line of artistic expression, and not alienating prospecting clients. In the end, I realized that I couldn't please everyone, and the more true-to-myself photos I showcased in my portfolio, the more comfortable I would be with the types of clients that would be booking sessions with me. Long story short, I included two nursing pictures in the newborn category and hope that you find them as sweet and touching as I do. Let me know what you think about them. :)

My little family

2008-08-19T00:12:00.000-07:00

Albert is almost two weeks old! I can't believe how the time has flown by. I bullied my husband into taking pictures of the baby with me. For the whole 20 minutes I had them captivated, he kept apologizing to the baby stating "I'm so sorry, you're going to be hearing that noise often" when referring to my camera shutter clicks. :) Things I learned - directing strangers is way easier than directing your own family. Strangers will take heed that you might actually know what you are doing. Family just sighs and asks if you know what you are doing. Overall though I thought we got some nice shots of Todd and the boys.

I love how Todd is looking down at Albert, and how it looks like Albert is smiling up at dad (even if it is just a gas smile)

Big brother

and for my favorite shots, baby body parts!

soft baby head

Todd's hands with Albert's feet

I think I had about 10 seconds to try to get this shot. It wasn't easy positioning a newborn, and a three year old in a still posed hand position!

My boys!

Introducing...

2008-08-14T22:33:00.000-07:00

Introducing the arrival of Albert Tien, our newest addition to our little family! Born ten days before his due date on August 7, 2008, weighing in at 8lb 8oz and 21 3/4" long. Big brother Samuel has been a big help and we all are in love.

Complete Flickr set with better resolution pictures is here.

Albert Tien

He has daddy's dimple

wide awake

his Elvis impression

baby feet

proud big brother

Izzy - 10 days old

2008-08-12T22:50:00.000-07:00

Meet Mizz Izzy.

She's the cutie daughter of a woman in my DDC (due date club) who ended up being born in July instead of August. Her mom was gracious enough to let me come over and practice taking some more shots of her newborn and her other gorgeous children. I was fairly excited to be taking pictures of other brown eyed kids like my own, and working with more indoor natural lighting. I really enjoyed working with this newborn because it was my first session that didn't involve a lot of crying and sweating (on my end and theirs!)

Izzy and her brother, check out those cheeks!

showing off her 'tude

sweet sibling moment

followed by this...

she was pretty alert for a 10 day old!

look at all the cuteness!

More about me

2008-07-31T20:24:00.000-07:00

If you like my blog, drop me a comment, please! I track my visitors and am highly amused at the diverse global range of visitors who come to check me out. :)

I realize that I don't talk about myself much, so I'm using this blog post to rectify that situation. I'm Alex, 31 turning 32 on saturday, and besides being a mom and a wife and a budding portrait photographer, the biggest thing going on in my life right now is being 38 weeks pregnant with our second. Yes, that is right, I am a girl (I've had a few clients be confused about that). :) Due to my rapidly approaching due date, I'm taking August - September "off" from scheduling client shoots, but I'll be scheduling shoots again probably mid-September onward. In the later fall I also plan on having a Family Portrait Package special in time for the holidays, which I'll update more about later.

In the photography realm, lst weekend I purchased the spiffy Slik Sprint Tripod since our other tripod broke in half. It's super light and very accomodating for my photography needs (which are pretty much learning about self portraits and self family portraits). I set it up to take a couple of maternity pictures of myself to document for this pregnancy. For this setup I had my backdrop with the black velour draped over it, and a ball suspended by twine from the ceiling to "focus" on while I set the self timer. Note to self: much purchase remote trigger soon.

self-portrait at 37 weeks

out, baby, out!

Samuel wanted in on the picture taking as well. the composition is a little off, but not bad for a last minute 3 year old addition :)

a recent shot of Samuel

and my husband

So that is me and my family in a nutshell. I hope you enjoyed this blogpost and always, comments are welcomed!

A very new baby

2008-07-28T23:59:00.000-07:00

Some friends of mine had a baby last week and were gracious enough to let me come over and take pictures and pose her. Shooting newborns is really, really hard work. I don't know about these other photographers that can just pose the sleeping newborns - this is my third shoot and they all screamed bloody murder during the entire 2-3 hours I was shooting them. :( I managed to get a few shots that weren't of a screaming baby though, and will chalk it up to more life lessons in photography. :)

meet baby girl Gwyneth, four days old

don't let that fool you, for most of the shoot she looked like this:

baby head

baby feet

ok last baby feet shot I promise. you can see how unhappy she is in the background

when she was happy, she usually was eating her hand

and an outdoor shot - it was such a nice day not to take advantage of the sunshine!

Website is back online!

2008-07-26T14:21:00.001-07:00

My website is back up and running, hurrah! :)

Hannah - a photowalk photoshoot

2008-07-25T17:32:00.000-07:00

Hannah is our neighbors' daughter and was gracious enough to come out with me this last weekend and let me pose her in different areas of Seattle. It's very different shooting a teen than a baby or an adult. It's really nice to have someone stand still, make funny poses, and do things like climb trees to get the pose you want. :) I had a lot of fun and hope she did too.

Originally I wanted to go on an art walk around Seattle, find graffiti and fun things to shoot her in front of. Unfortunately, even at 10am we were dealing with full sun, and I don't have reflectors or another person to provide some shade or relief from the harsh shadowing the sun was throwing up on her face. We ended up at the Sodo Art Corridor, which I highly recommend to anyone in the area. It's about three blocks long and full of artwork on old buildings that run along the old BN train tracks. After about an hour there, we headed over to the Botannical Gardens in Bellevue to find some shade and relief from the sun. We settled in the Japanese Yao Garden and took some fun posed pics. I had to deal with the green cast from all the foliage, and maybe next time I'll try calibrating with the grey card first to see if it helps with the color casting!

The Sodo Art Corridor

a closeup of the moon so you can see how gigantic it was. Hannah's head barely made it into the picture

Hannah

look, a smile!

At the Botannical Gardens. I'm still playing with my BW conversions, and I think these turned out pretty good

I love the bokeh in these shots

BW conversions

and my favorite shot from the photoshoot

Website down

2008-07-25T12:52:00.000-07:00

Currently my website is down. We're working on fixing the problem, but if you try to go there it just times out. Let me know via email if there are any problems or hassles and I'll try to resolve things. Hopefully we'll have it back up and running by this weekend. Thanks for all your patience!

Another squishy newborn

2008-07-24T17:56:00.000-07:00

April from this shoot graciously allowed me to come back and take pictures of her three week old son. As I remembered, newborns did take extra time to shoot, and I'm still working out the logistics of family posing with a newborn. Originally I had him set in the boppy but he was so tiny that I feel he kept blending in with the background instead of looking like a family member! Also, the amount of pee this kid could generate was amazing. I finally gave up and left the diaper on him because it was guaranteed he would pee, then pee again, as soon as the diaper came off! Overall, it was a very enjoyable shoot as April let me pose her little man in all sorts of funny positions as I was trying out different ways to pose a squishy baby. :)

and yes I do have a slight obsession with feet. :)

meet Jack!

mommy and baby

I love this pose and how she's looking down at her baby

nekkid baby with dad

dad and baby

baby feet

how a newborn and a two year old's feet compare

sadly, how Jack felt about most pictures involving his sister

Squishy newborn shoot

2008-07-08T08:22:00.000-07:00

Becky, my willing and cooperative maternity model from this shoot came back with her newborn baby boy and let me practice taking some shots with a squishy delectable newborn. He's about 2 weeks old in these pictures.

Things I learned: newborns DO take a long time to shoot, between the crying, sleeping, nursing, feeding, and all the resting inbetween. :) Also, use less slippery fabric around the boppy because the baby kept slipping down on the fabric I was using. I read somewhere that using a bean bag was best with newborns because it conformed the most to their little curved shape. Overall I was pretty happy with the shoot and learned lots about posing such small babies.

and now onto the picture sneak peek! :)

how he spent about half the shoot, in various stages of unhappy

ahhh bliss

look, we even got some awake shots!

gassy smile

with mommy

with blocks

baby head!

baby hand

The S Family photoshoot

2008-07-03T23:06:00.000-07:00

I met this family on location at Idylewood Park in Redmond. I don't think I've ever fully explored that park before, so Samuel and I headed out there early to check it out. If you haven't been there, definately go! It's got a great open area for frisbee, picnic areas, an awesome play ground, and the best part - a real sandy beach with a swimming area maintained by lifeguards! It was a beautiful place to shoot family pictures.

My biggest hurdle for this photoshoot was their cute little boy - who would not smile for me. I tried all my usual tricks - food bribes, Mr. Panda the Pez Dispenser, making clacky noises. The parents even tried to help by playing peekaboo behind my head. This worked great except for family shots. I was a little bummed I didn't capture very many smiles and instead got a lot of pictures of a solemn little boy. Next time I'm coming better prepared with maybe bubbles or some sort of talking toy to try to capture the toddler's interest!

Here's a sneak peek at some of their pictures. :)

the only smile I got from the little boy - the dad was jumping around behind me making quite the show for this to happen

my "artsy" family shot I was trying to emulate from all the nifty posts I see on ILP

Dad playing with the kiddo

same shot, testing out the "vintage lomo" action. Not sure what I think of the bright color overexposure for this particular shot

here is mom looking thoughtful for me. she was a very cute pregnant woman!

Pensive, thoughtful toddler

playing with his favorite puzzle, but still no smiles!

mom and dad!

Newborn, siblings, family - oh my!

2008-07-01T00:31:00.000-07:00

This family was probably the most diverse group, age-wise, of people I had to shoot yet in a session. First, there was the delightful newborn who was about 7 weeks old. She had three older brothers who were 5 and in their teenage years respectively, plus a family friend, and mom and dad. Whew! Lots of people to line up and try to find good poses for.

From this shoot I learned that I need to step back further in order to get everyone in focus (and boy would it have been nice to have a wide-angle lense to capture the surroundings better!) especially when I had the f/stop lowered to let in light. The shoot was on location at their house, with the newborn being extremely non-fussy and letting me snap away. The mom was super-helpful in staging everyone and getting everyone ready and smiling. I even got a few captures of the dad and baby together which I thought were sweet. Hopefully they'll enjoy their pictures!

the very sweet baby D

look at that cute smile!

are you looking at me?

everyone loves baby toes!

and my favorite picture of dad and baby

April's family and maternity shoot

2008-06-25T07:47:00.000-07:00

Another shoot I did last weekend. This is a sneak peek at April's pictures, mainly because her little girl was so cute. These were all shot on their deck or in the backyard in the evening light. I learned to take snacks with me to bribe kids to hold poses or generally smile at the camera (with permission from the parents, of course). This time I took animal cookies (my stand by) and a panda pez container. The panda pez container was a HUGE hit, I pretty much could get her little girl to do anything I wanted by promising her a pez from Mr. Panda. :)

Here is April and her little girl, it was nice to capture the moment between the two of them.

we let her little girl draw on April. Yeah, I don't think I'm going to be doing that one again. She was a little young to understand "pretend" drawing and was doing her best to try to fill mommy's belly button with lipstick. :)

one of April and her husband.

They were a great family to work with, really easy going and easy to pose. I can't wait to finish up the rest of their pictures for them!

Becky's Maternity Shoot

2008-06-24T23:57:00.000-07:00

Becky was kind enough to come over and let me pose her for some maternity shots for my website. She was a really cute model, and great with direction. I had some fun changing up different backgrounds, trying to see what worked and what didn't work (mental note - green background is really hard to work with and difficult to keep unwrinkled).

I also learned how to put a watermark on my pictures, yay! Hopefully she will enjoy her pictures as much as I enjoyed shooting them for her.

she was kind enough to let me draw on her

the quintessential "hands forming the heart" belly shot

me trying to look at it more creatively

and one of my favorite shots of her

Busy week!

2008-06-20T09:39:00.000-07:00

Wow, this week has been super-busy photography-wise for me, so sorry about not updating. I had photoshoots saturday, a botched one sunday, monday, wednesday, and then yesterday was sunday's reschedule. Whew! Once I look at all the pictures I'll do some blog entries about what I learned during each shoot. Next week is calmer, I only have shoots scheduled monday and thursday! When it rain, it really pours.

Part of me super-excited to have all this portfolio building under my belt, but part of me is scared that all I'm doing is taking crappy pictures that people won't be happy with! Someone on another board I'm on said that the more experience you have, the more confidence you'll take with you to your shoots. :)

And to leave you with a picture, here's something from me wrangling with Samuel for a good Father's Day picture. Again, working with the white seamless background and a semi-cooperative 3 year old.

the storyboard we ended up giving my husband as his gift (thanks Amber for the help!) She pointed me here to a storyboard template tutorial which rocks!

bigger version of the storyboard here

Yeah I'm talking to you anonymous commenter

2008-06-16T15:13:00.000-07:00

I got this email yesterday from the contact page of my website. I'm sharing it with all of you because it's part of my journey into becoming a Real Live Photographer. :)

fromphotographer@yahoo.com
toalex@alexnguyenportraits.com

dateSun, Jun 15, 2008 at 7:51 PM
subjectYour pictures
mailed-bybox213.bluehost.com

hide details 7:51 PM (19 hours ago) Reply

Contact Phone Number:
Mail Content: Your post production stinks! I can\'t beleive you actually think these are good enough to charge people for! Your white backgrounds are blue, the one of the girl with the green background is terrible. It looks like you went crazy with the eraser in Photoshop. You should NOT be in business and should take some more time, a lot of time to practice more. Your pictures are horrendously out of focus and dark.

OMG I am appalled.

And that's it folks. No other contact information (googling the email address provided, if it is his/hers real address, links to a Umi-yama on Deviant Art), no links to his/her website, no constructive criticism about where to learn more post production techniques, no follow up on what I should do to better my art. Interesting, just a lot of snarkiness, unhelpful criticism and lastly, an OMG (which makes me think this is a woman but I'll be open that it could be a guy as well).

From my google analytics page, someone from Prairieville, LA spent considerable time on my site yesterday (almost 19 minutes), much more than the average Washington person (who spends about 3 minutes). They found my site through the Livejournal meet_other_moms community. Now, I don't know if this is the person who wrote the email, but considering they had to take time to peruse the pictures and then write the email, I'm thinking that it could be a matchup.

I know I need work on my post production skills, esp. when it comes to the white background. Heck, I just got Adobe CS3 about a month ago, and while it's crazy fun and can do lots of things, I have a lot to learn. I'm still in what they call the "portfolio building" part of my photography, and most of my shoots are for fun, for friends, and to learn more about my camera, photography in general, and what works and what doesn't work. I set up my website because I was doing a lot of photoshoots and darn it, I needed some compensation for my time. :) Double heck, I just learned the other day that my camera was set to underexpose by 1.3 stops (once I figured out what buttons to push I fixed that right away)! no wonder a lot of my pics were coming out dark!

I'm learning about how to take my camera to its utmost abilities, how to better myself as a photograher, and I'm very upfront that I still consider myself a newbie that is just starting out. And I take all constructive criticism, helps, hints and information that comes my way gratefully and with a grain of salt because everyone has a different idea of what is "good" and what isn't good. Oddly enough, the most comments I get from my photos is that my pictures are very clear and in focus. I know that during my upload some of my pictures are grainy due to resolution issues which I've been trying to correct. I'm actually proud of my ability to shoot a clear, focused shot.

I bring this back around to you, Anonymous photographer@yahoo.com, and state that your email and comments were not that enlightening to me. How about showing me examples of your work, and your website? Or steering me to areas where I can get constructive criticism? I already belong to several photography forums, including I Love photography and theLivejournal Photographer community. If you (or the general "you" populace) have other places to recommend, I'd love to hear about it.

Cheerio!

Natural light

2008-06-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

My favorite light to work with is natural light. I'm pretty lucky, living in the Pacific Northwest we get such awesome diffused, natural lighting. People often say to me, boy it's too bad you don't get sun, it must make it hard to take pictures. What are you talking about, these overcast skies are great for setting your exposure and nice, even lighting! I'd take overcast over straight sunshine with harsh shadowing any day. :) Or maybe because I'm just starting out it's easier (and cheaper!) to use what nature has given me then shell out money and time to learn how to use a speedlight or studio ligthing proper. ;)

These were taken while we went camping at Moran State Park and on the ferry boat coming back to the mainland.

I love how if you look into his eyes you can actually see the trees and sky reflected behind him. This was taken at dusk at the campsite. 50mm, f2.8

On the ferry boat, light streaming in from Samuel's right hand side. 105mm, f4.5

by this time, Samuel was done with me trying to get him to look at the camera. I love the bokeh in this one. 175mm, f5.3

"no more pictures mommy!" 80mm, f5.6

So there you go - natural lighting at its best in the pacific northwest.

Samuel and the seamless

2008-06-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

I've been practicing taking pictures on the big white seamless. Here's my first attempts a few months ago. My poor son was not really a cooperative model, no matter what the pictures look like. :) Shot with my D200 using the 50mm and my 28mm-80mm lenses.

Someone pointed out to me that the background isn't actually white, it's more "bone" colored. And who the heck knew there were SO many levels of white out there!

What I learned from those is that:

use a grey card or the white background to "set" my white balance

shadows aren't necessarily a bad thing

getting an actual "white" background will make it seem whiter

get more of a differential between the background and my subject (ie more light on the background, or less light on his face) to make it really "pop"

So, we're onto me dragging Samuel back on the seamless for another go-around. Here I'm using Superior's Arctic White instead of the Savage bone white I had before.

I made the mistake of setting the WB on my camera first on the background, then adding a reflector light. It made my coloring totally orange, which I tried to adjust in CS3 but you can still tell it's a little off.

here he is without the reflector light, just natural light from the living room window

trying out the BW conversion

this picture has all the "wrong" things going for it - it's too centered, I cut off his chin, his eyes are a little soft, but I love, love, love his cheesy smile

So there you go. Obviously I still have a long way to go but I think I'm getting the hang of the whole shooting on the seamless. My husband even bought me a piece of plexiglass to put on the bottom to soothe out the whole wrinkling issue I was having as well.

Brady- 5 weeks old

2008-06-06T12:07:00.000-07:00

This is my friend's five week old son. He was still in that awake an hour/nurse/sleep cycle so I got a few good shots of sleeping baby. I didn't get any good shots of him and his older sister together, so I think I'm going to have to work on grabbing the older kid's attention more and then posing the newborn. If I wasn't already pregnant this kid definately gave me baby fever. Did I mention the adorable sleeping?!

Shot with my D200 50mm

sleeping baby. he's propped up on the boppy (the best invention by man EVER)

baby butt! the diaper covers I use come from Andromeda's Attic if anyone is in the market for cute cloth diapers or diaper covers.

Photoshoot - Amelia

2008-06-05T08:42:00.001-07:00

This is the little sister of a girl in Samuel's playgroup. She's almost two months old, and pretty alert for a baby! She wasn't the happiest during the photoshoot, but I managed to get some non-cranky baby pictures as well as cranky baby pictures. :)

taken with my D200, 50mm f2.2-f2.8

on my white seamless on a blanket. that blanket was pretty nifty, we just turned it to pose her towards the light and she didn't care one way or the other.

see look, a smile! or, a gas bubble. one or the other. :)

me working on my B&W conversions. This one I just did with channel mixer, I'm thinking of using an action next time.

my "artsy" attempt

this is on the black velour background. I couldn't justify spending that much more on black velvet when the velour was $10 less per yard. I think it works just as well.

Photoshoot - Cecilia

2008-06-04T15:03:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine from Samuel's Little Gym class was kind enough to bring her daughter over and let me practice some techniques on her. Cecilia was a dream to work with - she followed directions to a T and was a total ham for the camera! I wish all kids were this easy (including my own!) Her only wish was to take pictures with her fancy dress, where her personality really shined through. What a cutie!

These three were taken with the 50mm at f2.8 and f2.5

say "cheese!" and finally using my green seamless. That sucker is huge, it takes up my entire living room!

in her "fancy" dress, using the smaller Superior arctic white seamless

First post!

2008-06-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

First post! This blog will mainly be used to bounce photography ideas off the general masses, show case off recent photo shoots, and update people about what's going on with the website and business. Speaking of business, I've been working hard on www.alexnguyenportraits.com and hopefully (fingers crossed) it will be up and functional by this weekend. Hooray!