Photography has always been an artistic genre which lends itself perfectly to storytelling and documenting human life and culture – after all, photographs are essentially moments frozen in time for all eternity. We photograph all of the ‘big’ moments in our lives – weddings, birthdays, holidays, milestones, cultural celebrations… Yet it’s only relatively recently that […]

Birth Photo Ideas – How To Shoot C-Section Pictures Cesarean birth photography is a genre with unique challenges around light, space, safety, protocols and simple logistics! If you’re completely new to this, head to our Complete Guide to Birth Photography with Alana Prosper first. It details everything you need to know to shoot birth photos […]

How To Create Shadow Pictures Using Dramatic Lighting Hard light is much maligned in portrait photography for various reasons. But what do you do when you can’t avoid it? Embrace it…in the form of shadow photography. It’s a thing, and it’s addictive!   Let Hard Light Be a Superstar! Those of us who love taking […]

DIY Outdoor Smash Cake Photos Capturing your own outdoor cake smash photos is a really fun way to mark the most special day on your baby’s calendar…their first birthday! But…this is a session type that can be hard to nail, and oftentimes people just can’t put their finger on what went wrong. The fact is, […]

Every year about this time I’m starting to think about our annual family photo, because pop that baby into a beautiful frame and it’s pretty much the perfect Christmas present for the Grandparents! And one thing I always think about is… outfits! Whether you’ve booked a professional family session or you’re going to take your […]

Mastering your camera in manual mode is the key to perfect photos and one of the foundations of photography. It gives you total control over the technical aspects so that you can say goodbye to accidentally blurry, out of focus photos that are dark and dingy or jarringly overexposed. But once you’ve done that…  composition […]

Students often ask me “Is it cheating to use auto focus?”  I’m here to promise that it’s definitely not cheating. It’s what we all do…most of the time! When it comes to AF and MF, auto focus is awesome. I honestly don’t know how photographers managed without it for all those generations!  AF mode is […]

When it comes to milestones and big celebrations, having our cameras handy is a no-brainer, but what about the little everyday moments? These moments matter too, perhaps even moreso than the big ones because as our children grow and our lives change, it’s easy to forget all the tiny, fleeting details. So why not commit […]

Natural light is beautiful and abundant, we know that. When you’re trying to take photos at home, I bet you’ve been here before… struggling to find the perfect light, then when you do, the background is cluttered or ugly. I bet you’ve tried every spot in and around the house at every time of day […]

Tips For an Easy Extended Family Photo Session! The thought of capturing pictures of a large extended family is terrifying for many, and I know lots of photographers who make it a policy to decline them.  Those who did take them on chewed their nails in the lead-up, sweated buckets during, and cried with relief when it was over. […]