Aidan's First Portraits

When my clients contract me as their wedding photographer we do three things. 1) We welcome them into the Portrait Corner Studio family, 2) Instantly they are placed into our "Lifetime Clients" program which guarantees them free future portrait sessions, and 3) We start our "Four Phase Wedding Plan" with them.

I tell my couples that I don't just want to document their wedding day, but I want my services to cover these four major events in their relationship: Love Story (a.k.a. engagement session), Wedding, Maternity, and Family portraits. A number of my clients have gone through this plan, and Justine and Amed Avila (along with Aidan) are the latest family.

Meet Aidan. She's absolutely gorgeous. Actually, she made her debut on a previous blog during Justine's beach maternity session (click here to view) although she wasn't quite ready for her grand entrance. Well, here she is and this is Aidan's first portrait session. To maximize her session, Dana created the still images while I videotaped the session.

Congratulations, Justine & Amed. She's beautiful and I look forward to more portrait sessions with Aidan.

Aidan spent most of her first portrait session
asleep, but she still put on quite a posing show.

Aidan's grandparents.

Amed with his daughter.

Justine and Aidan.

Amed wearing his professional diaper changing gear.

To see a recap of the video session click on the "Play" button below.

Still VS Video - The Blurring Line

Some amazing things have been happening in the digital photography world. Still cameras have been endowed with the ability to shoot high definition video as well as still images. Leading the way in this phenomenon is the Canon 5D Mark II. I've seen some videos created by the camera and it's mind blowing what it is capable of creating! The HD video clips are captured at 1920 x 1080 resolution on compact flash cards.

In reason months I've seen the lines between still photography and videotaping blurring into one medium. Instead of avoiding this convergence of styles in photography I'm embracing it with much enthusiasm. The only difference is that as a still photographer I'm gravitating to understanding the video side of the spectrum. So, with the recent addition of video to our photographic services I'm pushing the envelop on my video equipment. That's how I came upon with the idea of photographing a portrait session by using my video camera as a digital SLR.

After reading the specifications on what size images my Sony HDR-FX7 video camera can capture to a memory stick, I scheduled a shoot with my makeup artist, Krystal Cordo. I was amazed at the quality of the results and wanted to share them with you. The neat part about this experiment is that the following images were taken while the tape was rolling. So, I ended up with both high-definition video and still images in one shoot and from the same camera lens and angle.

Because the video camera was set to high-definition,
all of the images are horizontal, wide-screen format.

Although it was a steamy day,
Krystal's makeup was impeccable.Surprisingly, all of the images were sharp as a tack.

To see a slideshow of all the images, click PLAY below:

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Jessica's & Larry's Love Story

Several years ago I had the pleasure of photographing Jessica's brother's wedding (Oscar). So, when it came time for her to hire a wedding photographer to cover her special day she elected to use our services again. That's an honor for me because it speaks to the fact that we must have done a fabulous job back then. Apparently, Jessica wanted the same quality for her wedding.

100% of my Love Story sessions are photographed outdoors because there are so many venues available and I like to explore at least two different locations and have two clothing changes. Well, in anticipation of getting rained out, Jessica begged to have the session in the studio setting. After much resistance I finally gave into her wishes. What a great decision because we got the opportunity to create some emotional images of Larry and her that are both sensitive, romantic, and passionate.

If you want to see two BEAUTIFUL people, feast your eyes on Larry and Jessica below. Their wedding is in a couple of weeks and I can't wait!!!! They definitely will be one of the hottest wedding couples for 2009.

Larry is a firefighter, so he likes
to sport his professional look.

My goal for Jessica was to get

him to smile. I think we did it!

The tenderness of Jessica is deeply
expressed in the touch of her hands.

When a man loves a woman...

This is the passion that I so much

wanted to capture of Larry and Jessica.

I love the strength of Larry's embrace in this

image and Jessica's acceptance of his manhood.

To see the entire session of Larry and Jessica click Play below: