Autumn

This is my favorite time of year. I love everything about Autumn, and although it may not be the Autumn I remember as a kid, to me this shoot feels like it. It rained the entire first half of the shoot, which meant the kids were wet and dirty about .5 seconds after getting out of the car. The rain finally gave after I sang my "rain rain go away" song and then the good stuff started to flow. My nephew Hunter may be the most gorgeous blue eyed boy I've ever seen. He had a blast, between eating the grass, and making music on the tin house, he was in heaven. It's still the best feeling to see that wonder in a child's eyes, and his eyes were filled with it. Hunter just turned one last week and I tell you this past year has flown, I'm so happy to be his Aunt, he really is such a happy, sweet, and simply perfect little guy.
Most of you may remember this location from our family shoot last year. We were lucky enough to have The Renee Hindman photograph our family, she is simply the best child photographer out there, check out her website and book her at http://www.reneehindmanphotography.com/

Truth

So recently I had an inner dispute. I was angry at myself for making my model in my last shoot look like something she wasn't. I tweaked the heck out of the pictures until she no longer looked at all like herself. That night when I emailed the pictures to her she started crying with joy because I had "made her look so beautiful." I was sick over it, I had done something I told myself I would never do. I wanted to redo them, to take the ones I gave her back, to tell her that she didn't need retouching, that she IS that beautiful. Without even realizing it I had done something I hate most about my business. I've always wanted to be a photographer who caught the truth whether it was beautiful, quirky, odd, or down right hard to look at. Let's face it, we all love looking at beauty, and I try to find that in everything I shoot, but I crossed the line on that one. I think if we all knew the truth, especially us women then we would have much healthier relationships with ourselves. So for this shoot I wanted to show you a before and after. Tesla, my model, is stunning, and she was stunning before makeup, wardrobe, lighting, and retouching. Most of you know I am an amateur to fashion photography, so I'd like you to know I am still learning retouching, now just think about how much more manipulation the pros can do. As photographers our responsiblity is to capture truth, unfortunatly there are many who make fortunes on lies. Frankly, I'm done with the lies.
P.S From now on I will be including a "before" picture.