From left to right: Olivia, Lucas, Cassandra, Rebecca, Franciska (mom), Noah, Isabella, Kevin (dad) & Victoria.

 This is going to be a bit of an unusual post here on our One Way Street Production blog… The family above, with seven beautiful children, and two really wonderful parents, is from Ireland. They spent two nights in our modest 2-bedroom home this past week. This was purely by chance. Not planned in any way (planned by God, sure, but not us). We thank the Lord for this great opportunity, and this is a brief account of how it came to happen.

Here are the kids playing with our son, Phoenix. They really loved playing with them, and he gave them lots of smiles to make everyone feel welcome.

I (Michel) was driving home from Washington, D.C., on Tuesday when I first met the Griffiths. I had gone out to D.C. to cover the National Memorial Day Parade through photographs, print story and video with a team of public affairs Soldiers.

I was just five minutes from home where suddenly the traffic became very congested, much more than usual for that particular spot. As I got onto the ramp to the North Side, I saw a large white van pulled off to the side of the road full of children. A man and a woman were trying to flag down traffic, and I realized they needed some help.

I watched a few drivers pull down their window, ask what was going on, and then drive on past them. I was in the far lane from them, just at that breaking point where I could have kept going and be on my way and leave this family behind, but something moved in me.

“Do you guys need any help?”

“We just need a jump. Battery is dead,” the man said, with a British accent.

“Do you have any cables?” I asked. He held them up for me to see.

It took a bit of maneuvering to turn my car around in that spot, but eventually I brought my front bumper with their van.

“How many children do you have?”

Seven. They had seven beautiful children, and they were stranded on the side of the road. Immediately, I wanted to help them.

I asked him what happened, and Kevin, the father, said they were driving fine when suddenly the battery died on them.

If that was the case, their alternator might have went. And if that wa true, giving their battery a jump might not do them any good. It would die again as soon as we charged up the battery.

Isabella, 2.

But we gave it a try anyway. We hooked up the cables, I started my car, and theirs started right up. We left the cars hooked up for a while longer, and I asked Kevin where he was from.

“Are you British?” I asked.

“I’m from Wales,” he said. “But we live in Ireland.”

“What are you doing in Pittsburgh?”

“We’ve been driving around Central America for the last year, and Cassie, right here…” he put his hands on the shoulders of one of his little girls, “is a Pirates fan. So we drove all the way out here to watch the game.”

I was astounded by the story. In fact, I was in disbelief. This all sounded so crazy and weird. An Irish family travelling around Mexico and Belize for a year and coming to Pittsburgh to watch one of the worst baseball teams in the MLB. I thought for sure he was trying to pull one over me. But then I looked down into Cassie’s eyes and she just gave me a simple, honest nod.

There was no lie in that look. No deceipt.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the Pirates might not win, and that this long drive might end in disappointment. My heart melted looking at her.

Cassandra, 6, is the reason the whole family drove to Pittsburgh to watch the Pirates game.

“Do you guys have a place to stay or wait for your van to get fixed?” I asked.

Kevin said they didn’t, so I asked if they might want to come over our house for a little while until they could figure out what to do. I lived just up the street from where they had broken down. He said that would be “Brilliant.”

I told him I had to check with Heather first. I couldn’t just show up at the house with nine strangers in a van.

So I called her on the phone, told her what happened, and there was a pause. My heart dropped for a moment anticipating her telling me that this was not a good idea. That this was crazy and to just let them go on their way.

But that wasn’t the case.

She was hesitant, but she said to bring them over.

“They can stay on our porch,” I told her, fearing that having that many people in our small home might make her feel overwhelmed.

“No, that’s silly,” she said. “We can host them in our living room and bring up some of the chairs.”

So it was settled. They would be our guasts for a little while.

But now was the moment of truth. We would have to unhook the battery cables and see if their van would still run. If the van died again, I already pictured myself shuttling their family one or two at a time from that spot to our house in my Honda Civic (the whole car was still full of bags from my D.C. trip).

We unhooked the jumper cables and…

Franciska with some of the kids.

The engine kept running!

Now I was afraid the van might die on our short drive to my house. We managed to turn my car around and they followed me home. I kept watching them in the rear-view mirror just to make sure they were okay.

Our home is located in the valley of Spring Garden (between Spring Hill and Troy Hill). Not the best of neighborhoods, with many, many run-down and abandoned homes along the way. I felt a little ashamed that I couldn’t offer them a better place to host them, but I let that thought pass.

We invited them in. A few of the children were afraid of dogs, so we separated Floyd and Blake until they eventually became a little more comfortable with those two furballs.

We chatted for a while and Kevin shared their story. He’s a manager for a public radio station in Ireland, and became burnt out with all the work that he was on the verge of leaving his job, but instead the station graciously offered him a Sabbatical. Take a year off and come back. He was ecstatic at the opportunity, and after some consideration with his wife, they decided to plan a year-long trip to Central America. Witha  budget of 50 dollars a day and seven children they had made many sacrifices over the year, from how much food to eat and what entertaiment they could afford. They started out with 10 sets of clothes per person, and finished with three sets each.

They documented much of their trip on their blog, Crazy Family Family Gap Year. In parts of Europe, a Gap Year is the time of travel that students take after graduating High School before going to college.

All of the children were very timid and well behaved. I offered them some water, and they were so polite that they kept saying they could share a cup of water between the seven of them. I poured them each a cup, but they insisted they would share. It wasn’t unless I handed each of them a cup of water or juice that they would feel okay accepting it. This truly humbled us.

Here I was, thinking our house was too small and our neighborhood was too run down, or afraid that I didn’t have much to offer in our refrigerator, but they were content with a few cups of water.

Olivia, 6.

It was too late to try and find a garage shop to take a look at their van, so we invited them to stay for dinner. We made a large bowl of maccaroni with shredded, melted cheese, plus some chicken, hot dogs and burgers. When the food was ready, I turned off the television (all the kids were so mesmerized by it), and we prayed. I thanked God for the opportunity to give this family hospitality and for their safety.

They all ate calmly and quietly but with an appetite.

As we ate, I talked more with Kevin and asked what they intended to do for the night.

“We were going to pitch some tents, but it’s supposed to storm tonight. So maybe we’ll just sleep in our van.”

I wasn’t sure I had heard that right. “In your van?”

“Sure. We have a nice little system for everyone. We set up a small bed in the back. Then some of the kids stretch out on the seats. Some on the floor. I get the steering wheel and Franciska has the front passenger seat. It’s really not too bad.”

He said this without much ado. So casually, as though it was the most ordinary thing.

After discussing it with Heather, we decided we couldn’t let that be. I showed Kevin our third floor (or second floor, according to European definition). We didn’t have much. Just a single twin bed and a crib. But with some blankets there might be enough room for everyone on the floor. He accepted, and he seemed rather grateful.

He said it was “Brilliant!” It was an expression I really loved hearing him say.

Lucas, 11.

Originally we thought we would let them stay just one night. But the Pirates game wasn’t until the next evening, and we realized they would have no place to sleep again, so we asked them to be with us one more night.

The first morning with us, we prepared them a breakfast of turkey bacon, eggs and Nutella sandwhiches. They seemed to love it. They finished the whole jar of Nutella, which made me happy to see because it was a small luxury they could enjoy.

Before I left for work, we checked Kevin’s van to make sure it would start up again, and I made an arrangement for him to go see a mechanic down the street from us. When he took the van to the garage, the mechanic said there was nothing wrong with the battery or the alternator. They seemed fine. There was no reason for why his battery should have failed while driving where it did.

I personally didn’t make much of that, since stranger things have happened, but I later joked with Kevin that maybe God really wanted his family to stay with us that night.

Noah, 4, takes a peek back on our walk to PNC Park.

When I returned home from work, I bought a few extra large pizzas and some breadsticks. Then we drove and showed the family a place where they could leave the van and walk to PNC Park without having to pay for parking.

We took a stroll along the North Shore and finally left them to enjoy the game. I stayed up late editing photos from a recent weddings until they returned.

They returned much past my typical bedtime (I’m usually in bed by 9 or 10 p.m. since being a daddy), but I stayed up even later until 1:30 a.m.  talking with Kevin.

We discussed politcs and religion, two topics where we disagreed on much. But it was a very respectful and open conversation. We were both honest with one another and we didn’t censor either our own beliefs or those of each other.

He said he didn’t believe in God, but he believed in the way of Jesus. To him, Jesus was a man with very valuable and respectable teachings. I responded (in the words of C.S. Lewis) that Jesus could be only one of three things: Either Jesus was a crazy lunatic for believing he was God, or he was the greatest liar and deceiver that ever lived (therefore, not a very good man worth following), or He truly was who He claimed to be. Afterall, Christ was crucified because He claimed to be God.

My intent was not to convince him or convert him. I simply wanted to share a genuine conviction in my Faith. To be an honorable witness of God. I wanted us to have an open discussion in which we could express our disagreements in an adult and honest manner. Which is exactly what we were doing.

I asked him why he didn’t believe in God, and he said that because of his stance of Science and Reason, he could not believe in God. I told him that I disagreed in the idea that science and reason oppose God’s existence. It is BECAUSE of reason (not inspite of it) that I believe in God (A good book to read on this is “A Reason for God” by Timothy Keller or even the famous “The Case for a Creator” by Lee Strobel).

I told him that there was no “reason” for me to stop and help them with their van other than for my core conviction in God and His call to help one another. Therefore, though reason and science are fundamentally important in our lives and our understanding of the world, there are things that stand beyond logical reason: such as loving charity.

A great verse on this is 1 Peter 4:9-11 –  Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

He admitted that the fact his battery died without any logical explanation did make him consider God’s existence for a moment. I found that comment interesting, but I didn’t pry it further.

Kevin and some of the kids enjoying the TV on our couch.

We received both words of caution and words of encouragement from friends when we told them we were hosting nine strangers in our home. I think it’s easy to mistrust strangers and people in need. There’s good reason to mistrust them. I could easily detail a good number of stories in which I was taken advantage by people I thought were in need.

It is a shame that those things happen. But Heather and I were so incredibly grateful at the opportunity to meet this family. We felt like we were reconnecting with friends we had known all of our life. I finally, just now, was able to memorize and remember all of the children’s names. And we hope to meet them again soon and to stay in touch with all of them. Praise God for his Love, Grace and Kindness, and for giving us the opportunity to share what little we have with a family that had even less in a moment of need.

The whole family in front of PNC Park before the baseball game. I’m not sure what was a bigger miracle: the way that we got to meet this family, or the fact that the Pirates actually won a game this night. (They won 2-1 against the Cincinnati Reds)

Michaela is bright, fun and colorful. Oh and she loves books. These are the photos we took together while letting loose a couple of laughs.

A bit of “Alice in Wonderland” feel in this last shot. It’s just not the same taking photos of someone reading a “book” on a tablet… We hope you love these photos as much as we loved taking them!

~OWSP~

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This is like a one in a million shots. Never have I actually convinced a boy to hug his little sister. That’s like unheard of!

I was actually expecting to get some yuck faces from the both of them

Fighting for the camera!

Love dem big shiny eyes!

 A really enjoyable photo shoot with you all! Thanks again! We hope you love the photos.

~OWSP~

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Look at those sweet little eyes! It just melts my heart looking back at some of these shots. We hope your heart melts too!

This little gal became very sleepy about halfway through our photo shoot, and I don’t mind that at all. Sleeping babies are so sweet to photograph.

She was fighting it a little bit here and then…

Out!  :)

Shh! Thanks little cutie for photographing so well!

~OWSP~

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This place is absolutely gorgeous. If you haven’t checked out the Frick Art & Historical Center, it’s worth a trip. We also had a wonderful family to photograph to match the beautiful scenery. It was really a joy!

What a cheeser! Mom was worried that he might not smile for the camera. No worries here.

So many smiles.

 Thanks again guys for having us photograph your family! We really appreciated it and enjoyed it!

~OWSP~

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This is my first attempt. And I’m so happy I got to watch my niece Meghan and nephew Ryder run the race. They did so good, so much so that my niece Meghan ran a 7 minute mile, beating her mom, my sister, and leaving her in her dust! Ryder came up right at the end in the pre-K category but he ran the whole thing! So proud of these two kids. Here are a few of the shots I snagged!

Love you all! Congrats on getting in shape as a family!

Man! Another awesome engagement photos session in the bag for 2012! We were really excited to photograph Bianca & David’s e-shoot. They’re getting married later this December and they’re holding their reception at the Pittsburgh Rivers Casino, so they arranged to do their engagement photos there. I must say, this is a KA venue! Can’t wait for their wedding. But in the meantime, enjoy looking at their engagement photos. We LOVED shooting them.

(All of these photos were taken with the Nikon D800)

It doesn’t hurt either that Bianca and David are this good looking…

We tried to maximize the golden hour from the sun setting. This slice of light against the wall lasted only a few minutes before it was gone…

I love this balcony. Such a great look. Classy and alluring.

Doing a little dancing in an empty parking lot. Why not…

High five! Photo shoot complete! David was especially happy about getting this over with considering it was one of the longest photo shoots we’ve ever done. But so worth it!

Thanks for being a trooper David. And Bianca you kicked some major photo jojo in these images. You’ll look stunning in a wedding dress!

~OWSP~

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We did this family shoot in Schenley Park by Overlook Drive where you could see the Pitt Cathedral of Learning and the Pittsburgh skyline in the distance.  As always, we got some great looks from the kids, and the parents weren’t too shabby either!

Blowing bubbles is never a bad idea when doing family photos.

What a cheeser! And what a great smile to finish off the post! It was an honor to do your photos, and we finished just in time because just an hour or so later it started to rain!

~OWSP~

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That video will be for another time…

The idea for this specific promo came up when I was driving home from Army duty on Good Friday and listening to a sermon on the radio. Heather and I have been believers in Christ for a few years now, but only recently I’ve felt a fervent desire to really share my faith more openly. After talking with my pastor, Rut Etheridge, I became even more convicted that I should use our photography business to that end.

We didn’t get the video out in time by Easter, but that’s okay. We should rejoyce in our faith not once a year, but daily.

Our goal with our photography business is not to convert anyone or get into a theological debate with other photographers or with the families who hire us. Our goal with our business is to create beautiful photography. Period. But we recognize that this business has been a blessing from God, so we found it only appropriate to honor Him with our business name and a quick promo video.

We hope you enjoy!

P.S. For those photo nerds (like me) who are curious, the main interview and the footage of me with Heather and our son, Phoenix, was all shot with the Nikon D800. The other B-roll footage was shot a couple of months ago with the Nikon D300s.

~OWSP~

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We had a fantastic time in the Strip District doing these family photos. We love it when families bring along a splash of color and a few cute props. And hey, balloons never hurt!

Love the intense look in her eye!

Daddy getting the job done even with his hands full.

Oooh! Reach for it! Such drama in this tiny little moment. Almost like she’s sailing away in her wagon and needs the balloons to sail to safety.

Thanks for coming so well-prepared and with such fun energy for this photo shoot. We hope you love them!

(All photos were taken with the Nikon D800)

~OWSP~

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This is the photo that officially made me fall in love with the Nikon D800.

If I hadn’t taken this photo myself, and saw it online somewhere, I’d be convinced that this was taken with a macro lens. I mean, come on! Look at the details of those sugary flakes. Look at the highlights in the chocolate and caramel glaze. This HAS to be a macro lens shot!

Actually it was taken with a cheap Nikon 50mm F/1.8 from about two feet away.

Don’t believe me?

Here’s the original…

Yes. It’s true. This is the same photo from above. The only difference is that the first shot is zoomed in at 100%

Another impressive thing about the image clarity is that I didn’t bump up the details or contrast all that much (especially not on the zoomed-in crop image). I just did your typical curves and tones edits that I normally would on most other images. In fact, the image came out so sharp and clear straight out of the camera, that I barely messed with it at all.

So how does this compare with other donut photos?

Funny you should aks, because I just so happen to have a photo to compare it with…

This is a 100% crop of the same donuts under the same lighting conditions and the same edits applied as the first image. Also, the lens used is very similar: 35mm F/1.8. I actually find this lens (35mm F/1.8) to be a much cleaner and sharper lens than the 50mm used above.

The camera this time was the Nikon D300s. Don’t get me wrong. I love the D300s. This is the first camera I used to start my business, and if I thought this camera was no good, I wouldn’t have used it to shoot weddings and family photos (for money!) for the last three years.  But the difference in quality is just impossible to miss.

The colors pop so much more brightly. The details are more defined. The clarity is unbelievable.

Here’s a look at the original, full view…

Kinda boring, right?

So why did I photograph donuts, and why do I feel such sweet victory after pixel-peeping these sugary snacks?

In all truth, I snapped the photo of these donuts just because we were waiting around for our next photo shoot to start in the Strip District. I had arrived early with my two assistants, and we had about an hour to kill before meeting up with a family for photos.

In all honesty… right about the time I took the photo of these donuts, I was feeling a little overwhelmed and VERY apprehensive about my latest Nikon D800 purchase, for one BIG reason…

The files are HUGE.

This past Saturday was my first photo shoot opportunity to test out the D800. I was excited and giddy with the purchase. I opened the box just a few days before my birthday. I grabbed a 16GB memory card and popped it into the side slot, and immediately I felt a heavy, heavy feeling in my stomach.

The little display on top of the camera said I had only 200 pictures left on the card.

That can’t be right. I formatted the card, waited for the reading to reset, and… same. Two hundred images. That’s it.

You have to understand that I shoot in RAW. If you’re not a photographer, most cameras nowadays give you the option to take photographs in JPEG, TIFF and RAW. RAW is simply the most information-heavy version of an image, and therefore come out to be much bigger files than JPEG images. The benefit is that the images are a lot more malleable and easy to manipulate to my liking. I then convert the files to JPEG after I make each edit.

The reason I felt so sick to my stomach is because I typically shoot anywhere between 300 and 600 photos on a single family photo session. At a wedding  I personally shoot between 2,000 and 4,000 images.

Typically, when I shoot in RAW with my Nikon D700 (which produces a 12 megapixel image), each image is approximately 10MB in size, and I can fit 1,300 images on a single 16GB memory card. The D800 shoots 36 megapixels per image.

I would have to buy a lot more cards…

Also, because the files are so massive, if you shoot rapidly you BETTER make sure you have fast memory cards. I would recommend cards that can write at least 90MB per second (or 600x speed). If you think about it, that might even be a tad close because this camera can shoot 4 images per second at 45MB per image. You’re looking at a shooting rate of 180MB per second with this camera when you shoot RAW.

But definitely don’t use this camera with a cheap memory card on a photo shoot. It will slow down your buffer rate and suddenly you’ll press the shutter button and the camera will REFUSE to take pictures for a good few seconds.

Photo taken with Android phone

Fortunately today I got some backup. I might even consider a 64GB SD card since this camera can hold both.

As it turned out, the 200-image figure displayed on my little LCD screen was a little conservative. After my first photo shoot that morning, I discovered that I could fit approximately 350 images on a 16GB card. Each raw image is approximately 45MB in size (that’s 4.5 times bigger than the files shot by the D700).

I was slightly relieved by the new figure, but that number was still harder to digest than a full box of donuts. I just shoot so much that a memory card wouldn’t even last me a single family shoot.

Even after converting the files to JPEG, each image turned out to be 10MB in size. If I shot a wedding and included 2,000 images, it would take me FOUR whole DVDs to fit all of the images. That’s crazy! I would have to consider providing USB memory drives for my brides and grooms. Yikes.

So as you can imagine, around the time I took photos of the donuts above, I had lost my appetite (fortunately the donuts weren’t for me. My assistant, Chris Lane, bought them for himself and failed to offer me or Olivia any).

I had some serious problem solving to consider.

But once I pulled up the donut photo on my laptop and saw the amount of detail and clarity this camera delivers, all of my worries about file size seemed secondary. Suddenly things fell into perspective.

I mean, think about it.

Imagine driving a 4-cylinder Honda Civic (let’s say, it’s a very nice Civic with alloy wheels, a speedy engine and a transmission that responds quickly and lets you zip around town without problems). If all of a sudden you upgraded your Civic and bought a Chevy Camaro, you can’t exactly complain about spending twice as much on gas each month. Bigger engine, more power, more gas. The same thing is true with the D800. Once I got over the initial shock of the file size, I knew I was producing a superior quality image and that the extra memory space would be worth it.

Another reason the file sizes are so big, is not just because of the sheer pixel count, but also the quality of the image’s dynamic range. In other words, there is more information and detail retained within the image layers. This is what allows you to brigthen or darken the exposure of an image while still maintaining a clean picture.

Take this image for example:

This is not what I would call a good image. It’s way too dark. In photography terms, it’s about a stop and a half or even two stops under exposed. If you tried to correct his image, you would easily get a lot of grainy dots where the blacks used to be. This is one of many reasons why photographers shoot in RAW.

When I saw this photo, I was actually happy. That’s because it gave me a chance to test the camera’s dynamic range.

This is what the photo looked like after I brought in the “Fill Light” option in Adobe Bridge (for those of you who edit with Apple Aperture or Adobe Lightroom, I think you have the same tool available in your editing pallet).

This is the same exact image after I pulled the details from the blacks. Now, to be fair, most professional cameras can produce images with the same flexibility when you shoot in RAW, but I think the D800 excels without question compared to an image produced by the D300s & the D700. Also notice the quality of color. The skin is not blotchy or grey. It’s nice an pink and it pops.

The D800 has a phenomenal sensor. One thing that has been highly reviewed about this sensor (and the one in the D4) is how well it captures color, but especially skin tone. In the past, I remember how I had to take extra care to bring out the skin tone in my pictures compared to other, more vibrant colors. With this camera, the skin color comes alive all of its own without any additional edits. It produces a super clean shot.

The same is true when an image is over exposed:

For the most part, I’ve noticed that the D800 under exposes images by about a third of stop. This is not an issue for me because that’s how I typically like to shoot when I’m in Manual Mode anyway. However, on this rare occasion the D800 produced an image that made it look like a nuclear explosion was going off near by, thus giving me the picture on the left.

When you have white highlights on an image, it’s a bad thing. It means that there is zero information to recover in the hot spots. I had shots (by accident) photos like this in my past with the D300s and D700 and I had to turn them black and white just to save them.

However, with the D800, this wasn’t even an issue. I brought down the exposure by TWO stops, giving me the image on the right. I thought for sure there would be a trace of bleached skin on the little girl’s forehead… but not a bit. The highlights are a tad bright on her blue hood and at the bottom of the slide, but that’s hardly an issue because the girl’s face is intact.

Again, not to berate my original point, but here is a 100% view of my dog’s nose…

And here is the original image…

So am I happy with this camer?

You betcha!

Am I going to have to figure out some problem solving in terms of memory storage and media delivery to my clients? For sure. But that’s hardly a compromise considering what we’re getting in return.

CONCLUSION:

Of course I wish that Nikon would come out with a Firmware update that allowed you to take 24MP images with the D800 in RAW, but if in the meantime I have to spend some extra money on memory cards, I’m not too upset about it. Fortunately, unlike film, memory cards are a one-time expense. Quality memory cards are not cheap, but at least I don’t have to buy more and more to replace old ones.

Will I shoot with the D800 always and at all times? Probably not. I still have the Nikon D700, which I feel it’s still one of the best quality cameras out there as far as built quality, performance and image clarity. I might stick to the D700 for family shoots and add on the D800 for weddings (especially the posed photos).

There are still a few minor issues that I’m picky about as far as the ergonomics of the D800. Much like other complaints around the web, the grip does feel a little small in my hands (and I don’t have very big hands) and the mode button is a stretch to reach with my index finger. But those are things I can get used to. Also the battery life is not as bad as I anticipated. The battery is rated for 900 pictures, but I was able to take 1,600+ images with 20% of battery life to spare.

I know a lot of you are disappointed I didn’t cover the camera’s ISO capabilities. Let’s save that for my next review when I have more images to show for it. So far I mostly shot in daylight with good weather, so I didn’t really have to put the ISO to the test much.

I will say I took a few shots of our son, Phoenix, at 3200 ISO. The images came out more noisy than the D700 produces at the same ISO range, but given that the photos are so sharp, you can apply some noise reduction and image smoothening and still come out on top.

Again, keep in mind how much data and info this camera produces in each image and equate that to how much you can do with it in post production without feeling sorry.

Even though I never got to eat those donuts, I have a very good taste in my mouth after purchasing this beast!

~OWSP~

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We met Gina and Chris a year ago when their son Eli was just a few weeks old. We were so happy when they called us to do family photos a year later! We took them up to Grandview Park which has a great view of the city. One you don’t see often, since most people just go to Mt. Washington. It was a pretty brisk morning, but they were troopers! We set up a little playschool picnic and just giggled and had a great time!

Thanks so much guys for thinking of us again and bearing with me and the chilly morning weather! Hope to see you again!!

Michaele is our newest little nephew and certainly a cutie. He was rather easy to photograph for a newborn because he’s got a pretty strong neck for being so young so he didn’t do a whole lot of face planting like the usual baby. We loved photographing him and stuffing him into this tiny suitcase for our first shot.

For this entire shoot we used studio lighting. Just a pair of SB-600 strobes facing each other in a cross-light fashion. One through a small softbox, and the other bounced into a silver umbrella. I mention this for those photographers out there following our blog.

Lighting is something we are beginning to value more and more in our photography, especially when it comes to baby shoots. Which is kind of bringing us to a bit of a dilemma. On one hand, we love producing clean, intentional shots where the lighting sparks into the baby’s eyes and the images come through sharp and well-executed. On the other hand, though, we’re worried of getting pulled in more and more into a studio style of photography. We pride ourselves in delivering documentary-style photography, especially with our family shoots. But we’ve noticed that with very young babies there is a constant tug of war we’re trying to fight with in our style.

Do we stick to our original passion of photo-journalism and find a way of making that excel with babies, or do we give in to the fact that studio lighting simply delivers a better image?

I think we want to master both, and my hope is that as we continue to progress and grow, we can blend these two styles and shape them into our own signature photography.

~OWSP~

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Meet little Atticus. He’s got a rad little hairdo, pudgy cheeks and a big brother who loves him.

~OWSP~

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The last time we did a photo shoot with the Maurer family for the blog, Elia was just a newborn. Now she’s a beautiful two-year-old little girl with a personality and smile all her own. This is what we really thrive for! Watching children grow is a beautiful thing!

~OWSP~

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