Lighting was one a 580exII into a silver, reflective umbrella, probably around 1/16 or 1/8 power.  Lens was the 24-105mm f/4 wide open at 84mm and 97mm respectively.

These are my two favorites:

Dad’s birthday.

5DII w 35mm f/2 @ f/2.2, 1/200, ISO 1600

Everything done with 135mm (except #5&6, those were with a 35mm), lowish ISO, usually wide open.

And, Kristin showed me this this weekend. Couldn’t stop laughing!

If you can’t get enough, here’s the first one from a year ago.

Caroline, my sister, came with us to help with hair and make-up and those types of things.

Everything was done with one off-camera flash into a silver reflective umbrella. I chose to go the umbrella-route over the softbox because at 28″ it really doesn’t cover the length full body portraits.

The first two were taken outside on Marconi Drive near City Park. The last two were done inside when we got back. I used a collapsable background on the first, and one of her favorite chairs for the second. All were lit pretty much the same.

It’s true what they say about environmental portraits: 10% photography and 90% moving furniture. This was no different. Care knows.

50mm f/1.4 @ f/3.5, 1/500*, ISO 400

50mm f/1.4 @ f/6.3, 1/200, ISO 400

135mm f/2 @ f/2.8, 1/200, ISO 200

24-105mm f/4 @ f/4, 1/160, ISO 200

*On the 1/500 shutter speed, I used a long E-TTL cable so I could do high-speed sync (which for me is anything above 1/160-200).

I lost a memory card for my camera a few days ago, and it made me crazy. You see, I had a distinct memory of coming home from work, taking it out of my pocket, and placing in on top of my printer. In my mind’s eye my actions were so vivid; I couldn’t believe that it was missing.

You probably wouldn’t understand this unless you were a photographer, but I had images on the card which had not been downloaded to my computer. Big mistake! Thankfully, these weren’t client images, but they were important nonetheless. Here’s why. I had borrowed a special lens from a friend to experiment a bit; it was a macro lens, which would allow me to shoot really close up. I had the lens and spent a few hours out at the City Park Botanical Gardens just thinking and documenting the intricate details of so many different plants and flowers.

It was an amazing day; just God and I out in his creation. Him being himself and me marveling over and over at how creative he is. There are a lot of things that you just don’t notice until you take the time to and point a macro lens it its direction. :) I highly recommend it to anyone.

So, you can imagine how distraught I was when I discovered that I had misplaced the card containing all my precious images and the memories of my day. I realized when I was about to leave for work one morning, so I didn’t have time to really look for it without making myself late. I had to wait the WHOLE day thinking and wondering about where it might be. When I got home, I looked high and low. I went through all the paperwork on my desk, looked behind the desk, under my bed, in my purse, in my car, and in my camera bag. My room isn’t very big, so I was starting to become weary that I couldn’t uncover it. I gave up on it for the night and threw in the towel…still secretly hoping it would turn up.

A couple of days went by as I lamented over the loss (don’t laugh); a photographer’s images are serious business, even if they’re not for a client. :) I racked my brain to remind myself of what I had been doing before it was gone. Then, it came to me; I had been working on a gift for a friend using some fabric. It was the one place in my whole room that I had not checked…in that bag. Once again I had to wait the whole day to come home from work before searching. I looked in the bag and nothing….disappointment. Thankfully, I looked in another bag inside of that one where it couldn’t have possibly been, and it was there. Hooray! I wanted to run up and down the street yelling, but it was late at night. I was so happy that my images had been found.

Immediately, a story came to my mind. In Luke 15:8-10, it is the Parable of the Lost Coin. I felt much like the woman in the story who searched all over for a lost coin. When she finds it, she rejoices with her neighbors and friends. It was an exact representation of my feelings over my lost memory card. I literally wanted to jump up and down. More importantly, the story makes the correlation to how there is rejoicing in heaven when a sinner repents. As much as I cared about my images, God cares so much more for us than any material possession we think we need. He searches us out, he loves us in spite of our failures, he sacrificed his only son for us, he gives unlimited grace in our weakness, and he loves us. He reminds me of his love in the oddest ways sometime…like finding something as trivial as a memory card. I’m am so thankful for a relationship with a God that cares about the smallest details of my life. Amazing!

Here are a few more images that display the great creativeness of the Creator!

Peace and Joy,
Katie

EDITOR’S NOTE: Katie is a long-time friend of mine and a native of New Orleans. She holds a bachelors in Graphic Design, currently works in the Photography industry and does freelancing photography and design.  You can see her portfolio here and her blog here.