spending time with ... the h sisters.

we skipped.
we read.
we beautified.
we called out to the birdies.
we played with our puzzle (briefly).
we loved each other.
we were adorable.

spending time with ... the F. Family.

Two brothers.
In a new home.
Filled with lots of love.

Introducing the F. Family.

spending time with ... the 'b' family.

I love when I walk into a home I have been in before and there is a new addition to the family. My former 'solo' client is now a big brother. It was a super fun, casual session- just the way I like 'em!

{wind} ... an I Heart Faces monthly photo challenge.

I'm East Coast. We have had more wind, rain, sleet, hail, snow and damaging storms this year than ever before. And we are STILL waiting on Spring.

So wind, blow winter on out of here already! Thank you kindly.

Photography + music come together on Instagram!

I love to marry the music in my head with the images I shoot.

Last week I posted an image to Facebook where I had readers guess what 1980's song was racing through my head when I filmed it. The response was insane! And sparked a cool contest idea...

I put together a super fun 1980's music/image contest that kicks off this Friday and will run every Friday in April.

How do you play?  First, hop on over to Instagram and follow JellyBean Pictures HERE.

Then, 'tune in' to my IG page every Friday at 5pm EST in April and I will post an image that harks back to a 1980's tune.

Simply leave the song title that matches the image in the comments under the image and the first correct guess will win a copy of my 47 page {don't} say cheese manual. {don't} say cheese is packed with tip + tricks on everything from how to get children to smile naturally, to finding the light indoors and out and more.

It's the perfect read for the beginner to intermediate photographer.

Need an example? When I shot this image I had Kate Bush's new wave hit, Running Up That Hill in my brain.

Have fun, good luck and hope to see you Friday!

STOP! Are you killing your SOOC?

I'm coming off of my second class of critiques at Chic Critique and a month of mentoring and I'm starting to notice a common theme among a lot of students: taking a perfectly great SOOC and slapping it down with edits and over processing.

For the most part, unless I'm shooting in the dark or for a certain 'effect,' I'm a clean editor. Clean with a pop is how I describe my style.

What are clean edits? Exposure adjustment, WB adjustment/color cast adjustment (if applicable), removal of anything 'foreign to the face', cropping and sharpening. That's it.

If you nail your SOOC pretty much in camera, is there really a need to do anything else?

When shooting indoors, other than B&W conversion and an occasional add of haze if a window is involved {see below}, I'm a firm believer in stopping there. An indoor photo is far different to the eye than an outdoor photo. When you go super crazy editing an indoor photo and laying on actions etc. it starts to look out of place. Like the eye 'wants' to see the image more 'raw' and 'true to life.' That is in part because if you are shooting indoors 9/10 times you are shooting lifestyle or in my case as I call it, documenting.

See these two images below? All I did was a color cast adjustments from mama-to-be's shirt and  a little soft center fill and sharpen. It was even cropped that way in camera.

I'd kick myself a few years later if I applied an action. Why? Because clean NEVER goes out of style. The fads will come and go in photography (matte color, B&W matte, blur etc.) but clean will always stand the test of time.

{Shot w. 35mm, 2.2f 1/640, ISO 200}

For this shot, I captured this little nugget fresh from a nap. Mom was just starting to pull up the shades, and I walked in with settings I thought may be able to capture her expression when she realized I was there. Slightly underexposed, I upped the levels, adjusted white balance, evened out her nose color a bit with hue/saturation, unsharped mask and was done.

{Shot w. 35mm f 1.8, 1/125 ISO 800}

When I do deviate and do something aside from clean edits and B&W is when a window is involved. I love the look of haze and while I go for it mostly in camera, I apply a bit more when I want that haze to really shine. Add to that the removal of a few distracting wires and a sharpen, and it was done.

{ Shot w. 35mm f3.2, 1/400 ISO 800}

So next time you get a good SOOC shot, STOP. Take a breath. Look at it. And pat yourself on your back for nailing it and getting some of your life back. Because as fun as editing may be I'd much rather be shooting, or hanging with my little girl  than applying action after action and diluting what was already a pretty darn good picture.

spending time with... the H. family.

Last Fall, for Holiday Minis, I had a couple and their son drive to Westchester from NYC to be filmed. I was flattered. When I met H. he was a ball of non stop energy and had the cutest little guttural laugh. It sounded like an older person's laugh in a tiny body. It cracked me up the whole shoot. Fast forward to this year, and H. is now a big brother. I was invited into their NYC home to capture their latest addition and celebrate H.'s birthday. One of my most favorite moments of the shoot was when H. was not happy that I was taking a break from playing with him to film his baby brother, so Dad took H. to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He loves doing that and it left me some room to work with baby. I was in the nursery when I caught sight of the bathroom shot. Since H. just celebrated the house was filled with balloons... and they were taking over the apartment so they threw some in the bathroom. Hysterical.  Good times.