Getting ready to bring their first child into this world, Branden and Laura wanted to get some nice photos taken of them before baby Carlyn arrived. Actually, it was more like Laura wanted some nice photos taken, Branden was harder to convince.
Rather than approach this as a typical maternity shoot, I approached this as a couples portrait shoot. Because of this, I didn’t really get too many shots of just Laura’s belly, or anything of that nature. Instead, I just wanted to get some nice portraits of this beautiful couple (and their pugs).
We went to a park near their home for the shoot. It was a nice day and it wasn’t too cold to have some outdoor portraits made. I set up using my Westcott shoot-through umbrella on a light stand with my Lumopro LP160 speed light. Initially, I tried to keep my speed light as my primary light with the sun as my fill. This brought the ambient light surrounding B&L down a little for a nice contrast. For the standing shots, I killed the ambient light as much as I could for a nice low key lighting set up using just one speed light. The third set of shots were more candid while they walked the dogs. These were shot with natural light.
I had a great time snapping away. My lovely wife, Cheri, played the role of assistant / dog walker during the shoot. I am grateful for her, otherwise it would have been a more difficult session.
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