Morton Graduate Portraits

Meet Amie Morton!  Amie is finishing her Master's Degree in Communication at SFA this summer.  I've known Amie for several years.  I met her through her sister, Mandy.  Amie is an athletic, outgoing gal with a heart for adventure and a real enthusiasm for living life to the fullest.

Amie was a little uneasy on our shoot at first, mostly because she's had some bad photography experiences in the past.  We talked for several minutes about her concerns and expectations, and her favorite styles of pictures/poses/etc.  Amie is really easy to work with, and my camera seemed to love her!

We started off in Pecan Park in "the Golden Hour" just before the sun starts to go down.  Natural light is usually best during this time of the day, and today was no exception!  Our random moment of the day came when I was in the middle of composing a shot and a whole pack of disc golfers came right on to us.  I wasn't even paying attention that the bench we were shooting on was at a tee box for the disc golf course!

After the park, we drove over to the SFA Arboretum and spied a few great spots to shoot.  We captured my favorite shot of the whole session on a grassy knoll in the middle of the woods next to Lanana Creek (don't worry, no Presidents were harmed in the making of this portrait session...).  All in all, I think we had a great time out there and I can't wait to see Amie's reaction to the pictures.  Congrats to Amie Morton on the completion of her Master's Degree!

Creativity, Originality and YOUR story.  A thousand words aren't nearly enough...

  

Sterling-Mckind Senior Portraits!

This week, I got to shoot the son of one of my co-workers, Allen Sterling-Mckind!  Allen is a graduating senior from Nacogdoches High School this year.  He's a vibrant, outgoing young man who was eager for our shoot.  Allen had a lot of ideas for pictures he wanted to see, so we had a lot of fun brainstorming our way through the shoot.  We started off at the library on campus, so we could get some classic cap and gown shots by the books.  Allen's mother, DeDe, came along for the shoot, so we were able to bounce some ideas off of her as well, and give her the opportunity to input ideas.

After the library, we headed over to the recently landscaped area on the northwest corner of SFA's campus.  I've never shot over there before, so it was really enjoyable to see some new perspectives.  Allen is a very creative young man, and he had several ideas we ran with.

The shoot ended at an old train engine and the bridge by the ag pond.  I ventured out into new territory on this shoot!  Allen wanted to know if I could do a multiplicity shot at the train.  I've never done a shot like that, but I took all the pieces and researched later how to make it happen in post-production.  You can see the result below.  All in all, I think the shoot was a great success!  Many congratulations to Allen on his graduation!

Creativity, Originality and YOUR story.  A thousand words aren't nearly enough...

Random Fun: Duke and a Beehive!

Earlier this week, I spent some time visiting my folks and my yellow lab, Duke.  My parents have been kind enough to dog-sit for us while we grow some new grass in our backyard.  Duke has been with them for about 6 weeks now, and he seems to be loving it!  I recently purchased a new lens for all my portrait work, the Nikon 24-70 f/2.8G AF-S.  I've also used it for the Victorio Baby Portraits shoot and the teeball pictures for Micah Spradley.  This lens is simply superb!!  I'm flat out amazed at the optical quality it's capable of producing.  I've never done a pet portrait shoot, but practicing on my own dog is plenty of fun.

We are visiting my in-laws for Mother's Day this year.  My brother-in-law, Stephen, is an amateur beekeeper.  As always, I had my camera with us on the trip, and Stephen went out to the backyard to check on the beehive.  It was late afternoon, and the bees were pretty active as you can see in the pictures.

This little friend belonged to a neighboring hive.  He happened upon the hive in our backyard here and was greeted by an army of bees who treated him like an unwelcome intruder.  After being attacked by about a dozen scouts on the front door of the nest, he stumbled around on the grass by the hive just long enough for me to get some great closeups of him.

This is my first time taking pictures of bees, and it's inspired me to get a teleconverter to extend the range of my zoom lenses.  That way, I can get a whole lot closer to things in the future.  All in all, this was a really fun couple of shoots that are in the same album for your enjoyment.

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Victorio Baby Portraits

Last week, I shot some baby portraits for some friends from church.  Their daughter, Alexa, is almost 8 months old.  With all the hustle of life, they haven't ever had pictures taken of their beautiful daughter.

It was such a great morning for shooting!  We went out to Pecan Park in Nacogdoches about 10:00am.  I really enjoy shooting in Pecan in the mornings, the sun and trees work together to create some gorgeous backdrops!

This picture to the left is one of my very favorites of the shoot.  Alexa's eyes sparkle so well here!  She really is a beautiful baby.

Alexa is easily one of the most relaxed and content babies I've ever seen.  Arely, her mother, put a blanket down in the middle of the park and then put her out with a couple of toys.  She just sat there looking at me (completely adorable, btw).  Of course, the most difficult thing about shooting children, or especially babies is that your window to snap a great shot is just razor thin!  I think we ended up with one or two good shots for every ten taken.

This is the first time Ballenger Photography has ever done a baby shoot, and I don't think I could be happier.  Alexa didn't want to smile for the camera, but she has so many great facial expressions that it didn't really matter.  Arely and Fransisco must be some very proud parents!

 

I hope you enjoy the shots!  As always, Ballenger Photography is eager to capture your memories and enshrine them forever in stunning prints for you to enjoy for years to come!  Please click the contact button at the top to get started!

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