Little Hailey having some fun

Time goes by quickly.  One moment they are little toddlers, and the next minute they are graduating from college.  It makes sense to capture their childhood in photographs when you can, and it doesn’t hurt to get some photos of your killer muscle car in there at the same time.  The whole family was in great spirits, and the kids were eager to get some great photographs taken as well.  I thought it would be great to get some photos of the family with their Mustang out by the USS Hornet.  The same ship that carried the historic Moon landing Apollo 11 spacecraft and astronauts back from their landing in the Pacific in 1969.  It’s a small trip back into time I suppose.  Here are some photos of Eddie, Sharon, Ben, and Hailey, and the classic ’67 ’65 Ford Mustang Fastback.  Enjoy.

Hailey

Hailey & Ben

Whole family

Ben in traditional attire

Hailey in traditional attire

Hailey and Ben

Ed, Ben, and the '67 Mustang Fastback

Ed, Mustang, and the USS Hornet

Family in the Mustang

A blast to the past - '67 Mustang & USS Hornet

Mustang '67

Gold Medal Family | Herb, Reina, and little baby Nikko

OK. Perhaps my title is a little over the top, but a real Olympic gold medal Taekwondo champion, Herb Perez, and his family (wife Reina and their little baby Nikko) were at my studio for a family portrait shoot. Herb and Reina run a top-notch Taekwondo studio in Foster City, called Gold Medal Martial Arts that instructs children and other students in the art of Taekwondo. If you are here in the Bay Area and if you or your kids are interested in getting some amazing training at a first rate martial arts center, then you need to check out their studio. Click the link above to be taken to their website. Another photo after the jump.

Little Nikko-claus

Nikko was in a great mood and happy to share time in front of the camera with his parents.  We started with a few shots of Nikko by himself and then added in Reina and Herb.  My wife, Annie was a great helper as she worked hard to keep Nikko focused on me and my camera by calling his name. When that didn’t work, Herb was sure to use a few claps which led to his “Lotus” pose shown above. It wasn’t a planned photo, but I like their expressions so I thought I would include it here. The other photo is of Nikko by himself (along with a big bear!) having a good time reacting to all of us calling his name. He’s really a cute kid and he has a great smile.

I used a D300 with a 70-200 f/2.8 zoom as my primary lens along with a 17-55 f/2.8 for the wider shots.  I also used my PocketWizards and two ProFoto radio-controlled strobes for lighting. The nice thing about using a radio connection is that you don’t have to worry about sync cords getting into your shot that you have to remove later in post processing.

Image #1 | Give your print a place to shine

Although most of my business is to capture weddings and special events, I do enjoy taking portraits when I can. One couple arrived at my studio to have some photos taken of their toddler and of all of them as a family. When they were shown the proofs from their portrait session, they were excited and ordered a number of custom finished enlargements.

I really enjoyed the photo session, and was happy with the images that they selected.  Many times, a great photograph is begging for a nice frame to turn itself into a fine art piece for a customers wall. I needed to make a custom built frame to give these images a place to shine in their home. The frame has multiple photo spaces in the matte to allow a collage of images to be displayed.

The end result was two 25″x25″ custom gallery style frames fitted with a custom archival mattes. They look great even without the photos inside them. Once the photos were placed and the backing was installed, they now had a nice piece of art that they can hang on their walls. Along with these two custom frames, there were four standard 16″x20″ gallery frames used to show some smaller images. These will look great placed inside their home, and now they can have some long-term images of their newborn son especially as he grows over the coming years.

If you have some nice images that look great on your computer screen, take some time and get an appropriate frame for it. I’m sure you will be pleased with how great that image now looks hanging on your wall.