I had three family photo sessions booked for this weekend and I just happened to get a full day of sun to work with. I should probably go out and buy a lottery ticket, because this doesn’t happen too often around here in November. I love shooting in what is called the “golden hour”. It’s the hour before sunset when you can shoot directly into the sun and use it for a hair light. I should have had about 20 more minutes of it to work this evening, but in the blink of an eye the clouds rolled in and it was gone… maybe until April.  Here are a few from one of the sessions. I would put the others up but I’m too tired. Well, that and i have to go de-flea my dog. Frick n awesome…

Well, I finished processing the third session from this weekend just in time to leave for Palm Springs. This little cutie is a co-works daughter. I have been trying to use more natural lighting lately. I really don’t think you can beat it when comes to photographing babies. The top photo is taken next to a window and the bottom is flash. The problem is you need a lens that can handle the low light. Speaking of which,  I have a nice two week break before the photography stuff starts picking back up again so I decided to ship off my 24-70 2.8L to canon to get it fixed. It will focus in auto mode, but it wont in manual. Clearly this is something that needs to be fixed before wedding season! I’m already in the hole $40 with shipping, hopefully it wont be too much to fix!

My wife and daughter were out of town this weekend, so I booked 3 photography sessions for Sunday thinking I would have all the time in the world to set up, shoot and process photos. Daylight savings got the best of me again… I ended up rushing out the door because I forgot about the time change and had no more than 20 minutes in between each session. On the bright side, I have been waking up at 5:30 and fighting off the urge to go to sleep at 8:30 J I’m starting to think Arizona has the right idea by forgoing the whole time change thing. Anyway, here are a few from the first session. You may recognize Lauren from some of my other posts. She has a new brother on the way; I defiantly look forward to taking more photos of the two of them!

These were from a family shoot last weekend. I really prefer to shoot outdoor family photos, but the weather just doesn’t  allow for it in Oregon during the rainy months. One of the other primary reasons for my preference though is that it really is a pain to set up my studio lighting for every session. I envy the photographers that have studios with their strobes set up and ready to go, quite literally, at the the flip of a switch. What makes it even more difficult is that I offer to set up my gear at customers houses. I’m really only taken up on this offer when kids are involved, because it is so much easier to bring the photographer in rather then pack up and head out to the studio. Now, all that being said, I think you get better results when the kids are comfortable at home.  This was a fun session. These two are six years apart, just like my brother and I. Oh the times ahead of them…

I’ve been using my flashes a lot  lately as a result of cloudy weather and earlier sunsets.  This weekend I wanted to try to stay away from the flashes if possible, so  I scheduled this quick family shoot for 4pm thinking we would have enough light for some outside shots. However, I forgot Daylight Savings ended Sunday morning which pushed the light back to what was the equivalent of 5pm! I thought I was screwed, but in the last few moments of daylight the clouds broke on the horizon and we got about 3 min of soft setting sun. I had to fight the urge to take the easy way out which would have been simply pointing them into the sun and shooting. Instead I used it as a back light and used my flash to fill in on the front side. This is something I probably wouldn’t have thought about doing a year ago…

This little cutie is just as much fun to be around as she was a year ago. I’m soon going to be in the business of watching kids grow up, so I was excited to see her again. Just like last year, all she did was look at the camera and smile. I was finding chocolate frosting on myself several hours after the shoot, so I’m sure her mother is still finding it on her!

I have been a bad blogger this month. This has been primarily due to two reasons. First, my computer room is freezing. The room is nice and cool in the summer, but in the winter the walls offer little help from the cold temperatures. I’m not joking. I just realized that I left an empty Coors can in here yesterday and the mountains are still “cold activated”. Second, I had a really busy October and November in the photography biz. It’s been nice to take a little break. Speaking of which, I was looking for something on television this afternoon and came across one of my favorite movies, “Memphis Belle”. It’s based on a true story of the first B-17 crew that finished their tour of duty in Europe during WWII. It made me think about this particular photograph of my grandfather. He passed away this summer and I was given some of his war keepsakes;  including a photo album that he put together while in the service. This photo stood out to me. I love it because my Grandfather was very gentle by nature; he was clearly hamming it up and looking tough in this photo.  Also, if you look at the bunk beds, they are clearly just regular beds with the top one turned upside down and strapped to the bottom. I hope those on the top bunk weren’t squirrely sleepers, because that’s a long fall!

Oh man I have been a bad blogger lately. October has, and will continue to be very busy.  Ashley and I were in Bend last week to see our new niece, Emalyn. Such a cutie! She’s already proving to be just as photogenic as her older brother. I didn’t think he had a chance vs. the Costco hot dog, but he proved me wrong.

Here are a few images from a recent photo shoot with my nephew. Technically these were for his 2nd birthday, but we were around 6 months late taking them. I bought a painters backdrop and washable finger paints for him to play with. My hope was that he would go wild; which would make for some really great shots of a kid being a kid. At first he was a little nervous about getting paint on himself right in front of his mother, but once she started to smear it on him he cut loose. I have one more posted in the “faces” portion of my website. www.hauserphotography.com.