Backgrounds are important

This morning I had the pleasure of capturing Morgan and Alex maternity session; their baby girl is due the first of May and we were blessed with a beautiful location to capture memories for them.

I tell everyone that contacts me about portraits that the background is such a huge factor to me in making their photos stand out.

We were blessed with the beautiful surroundings of The Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, you do have to pay a fee to photograph in the gardens, the money they raise from the photography fees is to help with the upkeep of the gardens.  money well spent if you ask me because I was in Awe of the beauty.  We only photographed in 2 of the Gardens, the South Garden and Japanese Garden, but 2 hours later we walked out of their with enough photos that the family will be looking for awhile trying to decide what to choose.

When photographing remember to look and do research on your background so you can capture the most amazing photos for the clients.  Their paying hard earned money and should not walk away unhappy

Cowgirls at work

I gave myself a really good self project thats going to keep me busy the rest of March and April.  I am calling it Cowgirls at Work.  I wanted to focus on the hard working women out there that hold down jobs, raise families, compete and have to do the work around the farm/ranch.

Today I met up with two ladies (Top) Jessica Logan with Cowgirl Recon getting fence out and put up to keep some of the cattle out of her Recon Training area.  This lady is not afraid of hard work, I think i would of been looking around for someone to help me unload all that fence, but she just jumped up there and took care of business.

Bottom Photo:  Sarah Jo Salter is a local trainer and sells horses on consignment as well as gives riding lessons.  She has an amazing family and the cutest little boys that I hope will be part of my Tiny Cowboy Tiny Cowgirl model Call in a few months.  She works so hard to keep her customers happy and even more important her family.

This project is just in day 2 and I've photographed 3 different ladies and i am enjoying it so much already.  I can't wait to get to the last day so I can wrap up and start working on the video I am putting together and put a book together as well.

Give yourself those self projects, make time for it so you can enjoy your time with strangers, and hopefully make life long friends along the way

1D champion

This past Saturday in Weatherford Texas I witnessed and photographed 368 of the best athletes around make a run for the $2,000 added money, trying to earn points for BBR world and some of the WPRA ladies even were there to win some money to make it back to the NFR.

Nina topped the field with the winning time of 16.5 with a flawless run.  She’s been on a roll racking up wins and money all over the state.  Out of Stephenville Texas Nisa is one hard working lady that is very well respected.

Find her on facebook if your looking for a trainer, and the next race at PCA (Parker County Arena) will be April 21, another $2,000 up for grabs and another great race will happen that day.  This facility draws them in from all over.

PHoto orders were sent to Arkansas as well as northern Oklahoma.  Make plans to be there

Variety and Versatility

Today was Variety and Versatility day for me.  i started my day photographing a cattle little girl and some Easter photos.  She did really good and was so happy to have a bunny to share her session with.  10:00 am sun was going to cause a few problems so we found a pretty shrub as background and added the FLASHPOINT600 to help me over power the sun.  Next stop was a little cowgirl for her business card, banner sponsor photos.  i’ve Photographed this young lady for a few years and it’s amazing to see her grow up to be such a responsible young adult.  Love the ADORAMA FLASHOINT600 as my main light source.

I ended my day with a recent College graduate and some photos in 4pm daylight to see if I could work on overpowering the sun and working with light as backlight and the mainlight is the 600 to light up the face.  I was very happy with the results I got from the 3 sessions and plan to tackle more of these projects to work on my versatility.

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Website www.joHPhotography.com

Light

Light is something I’ve been slowly discovering the past few months.  i use light regularly in my barrel racing photography, but portraits is something i’m still new to and still trying to perfect.

I think i put more practice time in than actually working jobs, but in order to get working jobs you need to practice, and practice some more.

The photographers that make light look so easy must of practiced twice as much as I have, so it’s time to practice some more to learn how to use light.

I prefer a natural setting in my portrait photography using light to enhance the subject without it being over powering.  I definetly need more practice, but in time I will be where I want to be as a portrait photographer

Projects

My year so far has been filled with quite a few projects, I set a goal earlier this year to work on things I am not comfortable with and get comfortable.  I wanted to be able to tackle any project that may be put in front of me.

Studio lighting is one of my weaknesses but after watching a lot of videos to work on my studio lighting I gave it a try today.  I was happy with my results and can’t wait to continue working on this project.