My friend (and coworker) Matt recently adopted a baby daughter, Gracie, and asked Michelle and I if we would take a few family portraits at the Dallas Arboretum. This was right about the time of the yearly “Dallas Blooms” festival (where the Arboretum plants shedloads of flowers) and we just couldn’t pass that up. So, we headed down to the Arboretum one Saturday morning earlier this month and took a handful of posed and candid shots of Matt and his family.
As it turns out, I had just recently bought my Canon 85mm f/1.8 lens and this presented a great opportunity to put it to use. I stuck with the lens throughout the morning and I was really pleased with how things turned out. Admittedly, the focal length took a little getting used to — I had to remain about 20 ft away from the subjects even for sitting-in-the-grass types of shots. It wasn’t long, though, before it all became second nature.
Oh, one last thing — in the photo set on Flickr, you’ll see some shots from Michelle and some from me; as you might guess, the ones labeled “Photo by Alex” are the ones that I took.
“Second nature” is right; I remain impressed by your beautiful work! I could hear the shutter clicks from 20 feet away–awesome! :)
My favorite shots of yours are this one and this one and this one… there are so many! Great job of course! :)
Nice shots Alex (and Michelle).
More contrast on the b&ws though!
Thank you both your kind words. Out of curiosity, Adrian, do you have a favorite technique for adding contrast? (I typically use a Curves Adjustment Layer in Photoshop for that kind of thing, but I’m always open to new ideas.)