still learning {fort lauderdale child photographer}

The other morning, I found that I had some time to fill with Reese.  It was just her and I, with Wayne off studying and the older kids not home.  Those who know me, know that this does not happen often.  I am one of those crazy, running around working moms, with not enough time in the day.  I was feeling creative and wanted to photograph something, and obviously love to photograph Reese.  So, she agreed to be my model, and I got to dress her up and do her hair (we like to play "hair salon" and "spa" a lot).  My thoughts were that I would challenge myself, and go out and shoot in the middle of the day - the time of day that I dislike shooting because of the harsh sun, shadows, raccoon eyes, etc. etc.  Plus, I wanted to shoot in a location that was nothing special and see what I could do with it.  I decided to shoot everything with my 50mm lens at a 1.6 fstop and practice my focusing too.  Even though I have been a photographer for about 10 years now, I am still always learning, trying to be better, more creative. So off we went!  I asked Reese to bring her favorite book and her favorite stuffed animal.  She, of course, chose her Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, and a book that we barely read, but that has a lot of glitter and princesses (;  We stayed within 5 miles of our home in Plantation, and actually made our first stop at the public library.  She loves the library, so I thought it would be perfect.  However, when we got to a nice spot, the sun was so bright, that Reese could barely open her eyes...

So, we walked around the building, used some light shade from the trees, the natural reflectors of the sidewalks and walls and got these...

Then, I asked Reese to walk down the side of the building, and I loved how cute she looked, but she ran back to me with a red ant biting on her foot.  That was the end to our trip to the library.

After a good cry, Reese wanted to go on and do "more pictures."  My little trooper. For our next stop, we literally just went to the Publix shopping center by our house, and used the area behind it where there are some townhomes.  We looked for stairs for her to sit on and read, but were not that successful in finding a good set of stairs.  We managed to get a few shots, but I had to crop the image in very close.

Although, I loved these close-ups...

Then, we found a cute area next to the shopping center with a path and some water, so I had her skip around and sing me a song (it was really cute), and I got these images.

As soon as she was getting really into the skipping and singing, it started to rain.  So holding hands, we ran back to the car.  And that was the end of our photoshoot.  And while I love the images I took of Reese, and was very happy to go outside of my comfort zone during a photoshoot, I just really loved spending time with her.

Always be learning. xoxo