Jenna Cole Photography-Chicago, IL » Lifestyle and Wedding Photographer

Last week I took some time to spend some time on some personal stuff. A group of women from church were getting together with their kids and their cameras for a 4th of July themed shoot down in Deep Ellum and asked me if I wanted to come along. On the drive home I realized how much I needed to take some time for myself, to take pictures for myself. To build my portfolio, to push myself to grow, or just to have some fun taking the kind of pictures I want to take.

The shoot involved a blue wall, enormous slices of watermelon, bomb pops, 6 kids, and 4 grown-ups with cameras in hand.

Look at that anticipation!

I’ve never seen watermelon cut this way, but it was perfect for these pictures. As you can imagine the kids barely made a dent in their slices, partly because they spent so much time picking the big black seeds out of their slices.

Yeah she’s a cutie, and I admit to picking favorite subjects.

THAT SHOT!

The gravel on the hands. The baby ferociously attacking the watermelon.

I couldn’t resist joining in on the fun, although I found myself a smaller piece than those logs you saw above.  Thanks Emily for grabbing this shot of me.

Didn’t you LOVE Bomb Pops as a kid? Look at the boy on the right.

Love this angle, although I wish it didn’t look like the stick was going up his nose, haha.

The red lips. The blue juice dripping down the arm. Love it!

Yes, they are twins.

Juice on the nose and juice on the chin signals ultimate satisfaction.

Sharing is caring.

Yes I know we are looking directly up his nose, but try to focus on the eyes instead. So happy and bright and cheerful!

We knew the Bomb Pops would be messy, but were we prepared for this?

One last sweet lick.

We’re talking about making these themed photo shoots a monthly occurence and I’m already getting excited about the themes we’re brainstorming. I’m pushing for sprinklers, water balloons, and a slip n’ slide!

Baby Talmage only gave me 20 minutes or so before he made it clear that he was done with photo time. I think his mom would appreciate me telling you that he is usually a very happy baby. I think it was the giant black camera being shoved in his face, and my insistence that he look to the light at all times which made him appear kind of grumpy. I was just trying to show you how gorgeous his baby blues are!

SOOC Shot!

The before:

The after:

Just goes to show what a little cropping, lightening and brightening can do. And I didn’t touch his eyes. They are really that blue!

Baby toes on damask.

That Shot! I love little tears in little eyes. Does that make me sound cruel?

Again, I didn’t touch his eyes with my magic photoshop brushes. Mom wanted me to capture how blue they are, and I think I did it with this shot.

Baby Talmage is happiest on his changing table. I thought that was funny. I like how it looks like he is flexing for the camera in this shot.

And a big yawn from baby means we are done!

Thanks to mom and baby for putting up with me for this spur of the moment shoot (I only gave them an hours notice!) This is probably the last baby you are going to see for awhile, until the end of April I only have engagements, bridals, and weddings scheduled. I’m booked through April, but email me to schedule your own shoot beginning in May!

The White’s are a family from my church, with two of the cutest kids I have ever seen. They are so cute I can’t even sit in their general vicinity in the chapel during sacrament meeting because I end up just watching them the entire time instead of listening to what is being said from the pulpit.

The baby shoot from yesterday was so composed, I worried that I wouldn’t be able to adjust quickly to different situations. Little Eli definitely had me running around like mad the entire time, flipping the settings as fast as I could. I burned some calories and got some good practice in.

These are all shot on manual, and only edited in Lightroom. If you aren’t using Lightroom…. what the heck is wrong with you?

May I present, Baby Audrie.

And Big Brother Eli.

We jumped from the dining room right to the bedroom. Eli was sweet enough to jump up and turn on the lights at one point, as I had been complaining about how dark it was. Of course, he still wouldn’t smile at the camera for me.

We decided to go to the park. We put on our shoes and socks and headed out into the very overcast day. I was happy not to have to deal with any harsh light or shadows!

Two hard things to take pictures of: Kids on swings, and kids on slides.

Why hello little darling!

I had to turn the camera on rapid-fire to get this shot. Not looking at the camera is Eli’s “thing”. My thing is clapping when I get really excited. Audrie’s thing is looking cute with her mouth hanging open all the time.

I love her little tights that look like they have shoes attached to the bottom.

Eli, please sit on this bench and take a nice smiling picture to send to Grandma. Please smile for us. Please?

What if we give you some fruit snacks?

Cheesy grin? Check. Not looking at the camera? Check. The best I can get? Check.

Yeah, let’s introduce the crying baby and the fruit snack hungry kiddo into the picture at the same time.

Let me show you how babies work.

They go from happy!

To bawling.

To happy again, almost as fast as I can take the picture. And I’m pretty darn fast.

Out of the 4 people present at the park, 2 were crying by this point (I won’t say who they were), so we decided to head home. As I was packing up my stuff we decided to put little Audrie on the chair in the living room to see if we could get one happy and sweet picture out of her. I think we were pretty successful.

That Shot AND SOOC shot are one and the same this session. Look at that sweet little tear. Sniff.

Here’s the before:

And the after:

I loved the way she propped her feet up in this shot. Do you think they sell those tights in my size?

We ended the day by trying to get a nice shot of mother and daughter together. I’m in love with (the mom) Abbie’s  hair color, and I hope they ask me to do family photos for them one day so I can get her in more pictures. Don’t you love the way it pops against that sweater?

Abbie, Eli, and Audrie, thanks for spending the afternoon with me. I’m glad we made it through snack time and a few bumped knees at the park, it was really great to get out of the house and come over and play with you.

We started little Camdon out on his tummy, which didn’t work out so well because it made it too easy for him to smush his face into the blanket instead of looking at us.

I’ve decided I’d like to try something I’ve never seen another photographer do. I’m going to post a Straight Out Of Camera Shot (SOOC Shot), in every post. I hope that doing this will keep me from relying heaviliy on Photoshop to create beautiful photos. I think that Photoshop is a great way to enhance photos, but I never want to be relying on it so heavily that I can’t be happy with the photos as I take them. You know?

So here is my fav SOOC shot for this session. I think it’s pretty good for my first time with the camera.

I sharpened the eyes, warmed up the color, brightened the midtones a little, a tiny bit of cropping, and removed a few blemishes. I think it’s my favorite shot from the session.

Hahaha. Funny baby.

THAT SHOT!

Babies can have so much attitude. I love the half smirk on his face that says “Hey crazy lady, I ain’t gonna look at the camera and smile for nothin.’”

I can’t wait for mom to get these letters up on the wall so we can photograph him in his room below his letters. This shot wasn’t really working for me until I ran the Totally Rad “Old Skool” on it. I said I didn’t want to rely on Photoshop, but that doesn’t mean I’m against adding a little extra sometimes.

Isn’t the dog on his bum the cutest little touch?

Shooting little dogs is quite possibly the most difficult thing ever. They hardly ever sit still! Little Lexi was a good girl and sat down for just a moment to pose in a portrait for me. I definitely had to speed up my shutter when she came into the picture!

We did a few with Jill and her baby, which made me realize how much harder portraiture can be when you introduce multiple subjects. Of course, having a model as gorgeous and comfortable in front of the camera as Jill is definitely made a difference for me. Thanks to Jill and Baby Camdon for putting up with me for the afternoon.

There are a few more shots in my flickr set here. Please go visit if you would like to see the rest!