It was a beautiful Spring day with blues skies and the blossoms and magnolias were at their peak, Priscilla and I decided to make the most of it. She wore a dark navy blue top and also had a red wrap. They worked well to contrast with the white blossoms. Priscilla was at her best and worked her poses naturally. The late afternoon sun in the background brought that lovely kiss of light on her hair. All in all a great days work…!!!
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Shooting Chaitra and Chinmay for this maternity shoot was a blast. They were super prepared and had several great ideas on how they wanted to be portrayed. We did the shoot nearing sunset at Burke Lake Park, VA. The evening was cloudy so did not get to see any golden skies but the cool weather really helped keep the energy up. Chaitra's lovely pink dress added some real pop to the photos and the props they brought along really came together to tell their story of how excited they were for their baby girl and could not wait for the big day when she joined their family.
Had the pleasure of shooting two great models - Cameryn and Kamylia..!! They were first time models but I would never have guessed. They were complete professionals and made the shoot a breeze. They were completely at ease in front of the lens unlike most of us and the result is what you see below - just great pictures.
Today I stumbled upon a car show at the local Silver Diner. Good to see these great cars lined up and all shiny.
Remembering all those who died so the rest of us have freedom - lest we forget. #arlingtoncemetery #arlingtonnationalcemetery #memorialday
I attended a great show of the Blue Angles today at the US Naval Academy Annapolis, MD. Weather could not have been better - clear sunny skies. Great to see these great pilots in action in their great looking rides - F/A-18 Hornets and the C-130 Fat Albert...!!
All of us need a vision, and time to time we need to re-evaluate them to see if we are on track to meet it.
In my case, photography is a passion and I have come to realize that just having passion is not enough. Passion, Vision and Commitment (PVC) go hand in hand to make our dreams come true.
On Astronomy Day - May 14, 2016 - I made an effort to bring my PVC to fruition. I had actually marked my calendar for May 7th, way back in 2015 knowing (using the Photo Pills app) that it would be a New Moon day which would allow me to have the least light pollution in my quest to capture the Milky Way in all its glory. When that day arrived, the prediction was for cloudy skies over the Shenandoah Mountains - the closest dark site near where I live (check out Clear Sky Chart for a location near you) so I had to push it out to the following week and lo and behold, May 14th arrived with clear skies and it happened to be Astronomy Day as a bonus...!!!
I made the 63 mile trip to one of the viewing points on Skyline Drive and arrived at 1:30 am, just in time to see the moon disappear below the horizon. I set up my Nikon D750 with the Nikon 24-70 mm lens on a tripod and set it at 24mm, f/2.8, ISO 2500 and 20 second exposure. I used my radio trigger to open the shutter so as to limit any vibration. My selection of the exposure was arrived at using the 500 rule explained well here. It was windy and cold and I was barely warm but stuck it out for an hour shooting several shots and ended with a panorama shoot consisting of 11 photos each with a 20 sec exposure. The Nikon D750 has excellent ISO performance that got me almost noise-free images even at ISO 2500....!!!
So here is what I came back with (all 11 images stitched together using Adobe Lightroom CC) and it will soon be on my wall at home, as a large glass or metal print..!!!
I recently had the wonderful experience of shooting Jen and her 7 month old daughter Vivian at my home studio. They were both the ultimate models and made the shoot go so smooth that my strobes (flash) and memory card buffer could barely keep up.
Hope you like what you see here as much as I did and if you do, click the Like/Share buttons below - feel free to click any image to see the larger versions of all images:
