Tiny Little Dancer

Here is just another look at the summer special and all the great images that come from a 30 minute shoot. These sessions are such a great value, you will always end up with a little bit more than the flyer says you will. 

And by the way this is Emily, she is a beautiful client of mine, her and her mom have been clients since last year when I first shot Emily's dance recital and then we did posed pictures after that. Her dance recital was amazing. And this year Emily has begun ballet too!! I am letting her get plenty of practice before I take her to the wildflower fields for some beautiful ballet shoots. 

She comes from a line of very strong willed women from her mom to her grandmother. This family is amazing and I am proud that they are my clients. Emilys mom is taking Emily on her first cruise to Honduras around to the Bahamas or some place lol 

They are just a great family all around, they are a family that is close and that sticks together. Emily as tall as she is, is only 11 years old, but she is smart and polite, she definitely already has the pose of a ballerina for sure. Each of these 30 minutes sessions finishes up in the allocated time and still there are always extra pictures and when I am done the clients have not even broken a sweat yet, so it is the perfect session time. 

Look through the images below and consider booking your session today before it is gone and no longer available!! You can email cynthia@unobstructedstudios.com to set up one of these summer specials.  

Christmas In July

 Normally July is known for these kinds of lights and not Christmas lights but this year fireworks are going to be the Christmas lights of the summer. And that is because it is Christmas in July!! Exciting news and exciting things have happened at Unobstructed Studios this year and after many many years of hard work and blood, sweat and tears, I am very happy, even more than happy, I am proud to announce the launch of the first annual Christmas is July Contest, and it is a contest like no other.
Backstory: I was approached by a private donor that is preferring to remain private, a person that shares the same beliefs as I do, one that feels that tit is very important for photo of your family to not be considered a luxury item anymore but something that every family needs, something that every family should have. And although I have a low rate it is still un-affordable for some people, that is why the money was donated. In my years as a photographer I have given away plenty of shoots for discounted and even for free and i simply can l=no longer afford to do it and still be able to pay my own bills and operating cost and this upsets me more than anything because I am so passionate about helping people and families. So you can imagine my joy when I was given the money by a selfless person to provide a session for a family that cannot afford one themselves.

Entering: You can enter your family into this contest or you can enter someone else, in order to enter you have to email Unobstructed Studios with the subject of your email as Christmas in July. In this email you need to include your name and how many people are in your family and what your family consists of, is a mom and dad and a 4 year old or what not. We need to know how many people and of what age your family entails. Or the family you are nominating. In your email, a brief description of your family and why it is that you feel that you should win this session, if you are entering another person or family you need to included in the email why they need to win. Maybe you are entering someone who is a single mom and she works more than one job to make ends meet and never asks for help from anyone and she really deserves this. Maybe you know someone that recently suffered a major loss in their life whether it was the loss of a loved one or maybe they had a disaster strike their lives, maybe they were victims of a fire or a robbery, the private donor that is sponsoring this family wants to be sure that they are truly helping someone. You have to use your own judgement when entering this contest and you will know if you are entering it for the right or wrong reasons. The deadline to enter this contest is the 15th of July and every single entry will be reviewed by the donor of the funds and they will be the one that had te final word in who wins the session. The session is an hour long family session that will yield 30 images on a dvd and included copyright and printing rights.
So, if you know someone that could really benefit from being entered into this contest enter them!! You have until July 15th to enter but please don't delay!! If you have any questions you can email contact@unobstructedstudios.com and I will gladly get back to you promptly with answers. If you want to enter your family or another family email that same email contact@unobstructedstudios.com, if you want to match the donation so that more than one family can benefit from this contest email that same email address. You do not have to even match the dollar amount that was originally donated, but if enough donations come through than we can continue this contest and bring more nice things to deserving people.
I would like to add this little disclaimer to anyone entering, I do understand that some of the information in your entry email may be personal and should not be shared with the general public. No one will be viewing these emails but myself, the photographer and the one person that donated the money for this session. I do not want anyone to feel like I cannot be trusted with their information, it will all remain private and if there is anything that is put out there for the public to see, say if you were to be the one to win the session, I would first inform you that you win and ask you what you are comfortable with the public knowing. I understand and respect people and their privacy.
Please by all means, share this contest with anyone you like, the more entries the better!! We want to spread the word and get this information out to as many people as possible and give as many people as possible a fair chance at wining!

Baby Blues

Normally a blog would feature one family at a time but not in this case, this is a story more so about a process than anything else. I cannot even tell you how many sessions I have shot, how many different types of sessions and how many different events etc, in 2011 I shot over 250 sessions for example and I have been at this photo game for many many years. I have a vast portfolio, when people want a job done for free they come to me and say this will be a great addition to your portfolio, well chances are, it wont be, because I have done so many types of things that my portfolio is actually too big, but that is great in reality. 

You put a child in front of me and i can make magic happen, you give me a grown man that hates to smiles and is known to be combative in photos, no problem at all. Give me someone who cannot read and just bought a DSLR camera and I can have them have it mastered in a few sessions. Try to hand me a newborn child and I won't even hold it. I will cower and try and run the other way. Now, don't get me wrong I love them, they are precious little babies and they have the cutest little feet and fingers. They are beautiful beginning of life reminders of how life is an amazing thing. I have shot a handful of newborn images that have turned out pretty ok but they have taken hours to shoot and I personally am not really happy with them. Some of which I have asked to re-shoot for my own self esteem lol I have been unhappy even though my clients have been satisfied. Newborns are my weakest link. I have brainstormed, I have read books and articles I have consulted other photographer friends. So, instead of just accepting that I am not good at something and that it does happen and all that jazz. I have launched a huge effort to fix this problem. This includes heavily discounted newborn sessions, these sessions are an investment any session is but especially newborn sessions. So I have marked them down to under $100 and they are still that same prince now. 

I believe you cannot have a successful newborn session with out a Mom that is on board and willing to help at the session in more than one way. And being that there are times that the baby needs attention and you cannot be constantly taking pictures during the session I have graciously thrown in lifestyle images to these sessions too. Whether I have children or don't, whether I want children or not, this doesn't mean that I do not like them. Quite the opposite I think kids are great, there are some kids I value more than adults and some that are smarter too. I am not afraid of kids at all but I was scared to death of newborns. At a recent shoot I was holding a four month old baby for my client when the little girl tried to catapult out of my arms to get back to her mom, apparently kids do that!?!?! I was so scared I have yet to pick up a child since then. 

A child safety is more important to me than my own and that is one of the reasons that mom must be on board. There are many pictures of newborns you look at and think awww but you don't realize that a hand or finger has been removed from them because a few day old baby cant hold up their head on their own and things like that, or that there is a heating pad under the blanket they are on to keep them warm and comfortable. If your photographer does not practice safe photographer, they shouldn't be in business. So when I decided to make this effort to investigate and improve my newborn photography, I looked into every safety precaution I would need and implemented it. So then I moved on to props....

Props are expensive no matter what you are shooting but newborn props blankets hats and headbands can go off the charts. So, to cute some of the cost down, I am making my own with in reason, if I can do it I will if I can't I will buy it. My mother used to crochet when I was a kid and she taught me some stuff so I am using what I know to learn more and practice and then I can make a few hats and a few blankets. So many newborn sessions are about variety, never using the same prop in the same year that I have a hard time paying 50 bucks for a one time use blanket or hat. If I can make some myself I can save a little money. And this is also one of the reason s that newborn photography is normally about 300 plus dollars.

Thus far I have completed one hat and I am halfway through a blanket custom made for newborns.
So basically I have begun embarking on a journey to perfect an area of photography that scares me and I am far from done, newborn sessions will continue to be discounted until I feel I am comfortable enough to whip one out in under 5 hours. I cannot thank these parents for the patience they have shown me as we trial and error through this process together and keep in mind that if you know anyone that is having a baby and looking for newborn images, Unobstructed Studios has newborn sessions under $100.
It was a hard step to admit that I needed to improve on newborn sessions but once I did I felt better about taking on the job to improve them. I have already learned alot and I can already see a change in the image outcomes. Aside from obvious developments about temperature etc and things I have studied to get better, I have learned a few things that you won't find in a book at all.
No matter what two always follows one. And if you don't know what I mean by this you probably have no kids. Boys, pee a lot more than girls and two always follows one.

When a newborn is not feeling it and just really won't go to sleep and just is kinda fighting dosing off and all, they will find a way to show you they aren't comfortable, and after you feed them, let them go one and two and burp them and put them on a heating pad to keep them warm and do everything you can to make them comfortable and fall asleep, after all that, if they don't want their picture taken, even at 4 days old, they will find a way to let you know. Sometimes, they will use their fingers to tell you :) {see right image}
If there is an animal in the house at the time of the newborn shoot, they need to go outside or in another room where they cannot be near the newborn, that is a no brainer, but the lesson I learned was, if you are going ot limit or cut off their access to the room the baby is in, you should make sure that the animal cannot even see in the room you are in with the newborn, especially in the event that the baby cries, because that dog will flip the crap out and he doesn't know he is being loud and keeping the baby up he thinks he is protecting the baby and he or she is, they are being great protectors, but they don't realize I am not doing anything wrong. The beautiful boxer mix to your left is such a sweet little dog named Annie, and she was my friend before and after the session but during the session, this was Annie staring in the window at me and the baby. And when that baby cried because she wsa hungry, Annie didn't like me anymore and Annie tried to get in the door herself, with out the courtesy of using the door knob. I am thankful dogs have no thumbs :)
Newborns are beautiful little reminders of how precious and magical life is. Buuuuuuuut sometimes those beautiful little reminders need something to help us remind us if it is a beautiful boy or girl. And that my friends, is where all those adorable and expensive hats and headbands come in. But, I am getting alot better at those hats!! Sometimes it is as easy as the color of the blanket you are putting them on. But, I did realize very fast that green blankets are always going to be a no no because they produce the worst color skin tone on a newborn, There are just so many things to learn and in 10 years I am still going to be learning them I am sure. But I did learn some good things too, as much as the whole picture is amazing, sometimes the details are just as beautiful and important, especially those little toes!
Whether awake or asleep, a baby is precious and sometimes they wont sleep no matter what you try, no matter what you feed them, no matter how warm you keep them or how quiet the room is, and if you choose to take images with them open you are still going to get amazing images that you will love forever and get to look back on and remember and smile.
And alot of times some of the best images are not the posed ones, and this has been part of my mission statement since day one, life is candid and crazy, it happens fast and its dramatic, every single time I do a newborn session I cannot leave with just posed images, I cannot do it, it goes against everything I am as a photographer and person. There are always wonderful posed images of course and those will look amazing over your mantle, but there are also the moments of mom rocking her baby back to sleep or a little girl that is so caught up and captivated by her little sister that she just sits there and stares at her. Those moments are more important than posed ones, they always will be and they will always be there too. You wont see me turn my camera off until I am walking out the door because I do not want to miss those candid moments, and I am sure y'all don't want me to either. If anyone you know is having a baby in the near future and would like to take advantage of the newborn special rates like these two families did, please email me at contact@unobstructedstudios.com