“The love of a family is life's greatest blessing”

     This time of year, people are trying to get their holiday photos prepped to mail to family and friends.  Each family has their own unique goals and ideas about what they want to capture.  I encourage light filled locations, and a stunning outdoor backdrop.  However, this family knew that their pets were important to them, and they wouldn't travel well.

They also love being at home, so they chose to shoot on their balcony.

Everyone was relaxed and comfy and the photos conveyed sweet, loving connections.

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     After all, family and friends is what the holiday season is all about anyway.

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P.S. There are so many avenues for creating family holiday cards in our digital age.  You can chose custom printers, TinyPrints.com, Cocodot.com, Minted.com, and this particular template came from Shutterfly.com

“There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence

Photography is all about light, and the light at this ocean front location, quite literally, gave me cold chills.  

I arrived early to our pre-planned location, Plan A,  and the giant eucalyptus trees were blocking the evening light.  Thank goodness for texting, I sent this family a quick,  "911, we're changing locations!" text.  Plan B was in full swing.

I headed away from the trees, and toward the Pacific Ocean, and spotted this warm, sunset light.  A quick call, and we were shooting within 5 minutes.  As a bonus, this garden setting provided us with the perfect prop, a sweet dandelion.

These children were so relaxed and even playful.  We had a mellow photoshoot, and we were all pleased with our quick thinking and location change, and the photos. ;)

“There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million.” ~ Walt Sreightiff

     It's such a pleasure to work with children.  These sweet siblings were on their way to soccer practice after their photoshoot.

They were poised and ready to model, which resulted in relaxed, happy portraits.

They both had bright, blue eyes, which popped with the setting we chose.

We shot, we scored... and they scurried away to soccer! ;)

I, who have no sisters or brothers, look with some degree of innocent envy on those who may be said to be born to friends. ~James Boswell

I had the good fortune to photograph a sweet sister and brother duo this weekend.  They were so sweet with each other.  I marvel at children and their wonderful personalities and how they express themselves in their portraits.

Their mother said they collaborated on the wardrobe choices, and the clothing they chose suited their personalities and accentuated their eyes.

In our pre-appointment, I suggested shying away from beige or white clothing, and suggested choosing fall colors.  Our photo shoot was successful, and the children looked great in their portraits.

"Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose." ~ "The Wonder Years"

"Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose." ~ "The Wonder Years", originally uploaded by Abby Lanes.

Welcome to my photography blog. In these days of social media, I've been through several name changes and ideas with blogging. It's time to settle, and I plan on leaving this blog name and address in place.

Photography has been a passion for me since I was 11 years old. I can remember the first photo I took. It was of my friend, and neighbor, Sue, She had curly blonde hair, and a bright, happy smile. I'll never forget the excitement of seeing the print of my first photo, printed with that 70's film processing tinge of golden yellow, and in the days when prints had rounded edges. The photo itself is long gone, but the love of photography stays with me to this day.

I hope my photos uplift, inspire, or spread the joy felt while taking them. Thank you for visiting Abby Lanes Photography - The Blog ;)

Sisters and Sunlight

These playful sisters were photographed during magic hour, one hour before sunset.

The sunlight casts a warm glow on their faces, and creates a relaxed mood.  

It is important to remember that the warm light does change the hue of the clothing. These dresses were actually a  bluish shade of purple.  

The sun warmed the dresses and turned that shade more burgundy. 

This photoshoot was for the family holiday card, so the final portrait was converted to black and white to give it a more holiday appearance.  

Off with their head!!! ~ Queen of Hearts

Off with their head!!! ~ Queen of Hearts (Happy Halloween!), originally uploaded by Abby Lanes.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Being a visual person, i love the colors, the costumes, and of course, the candy.

Enjoy your day, and remember to get some memorable portraits!

There's something strange and powerful about black-and-white imagery. Stefan Kanfer

     In my first high-school photography class, I was taught to photograph portraits with black and white film. Then we retreated to our chemical fragranced dark room, and waited patiently as our photos came to life in our lab.

     Fast forward a few years, to this well developed age of digital media, and voila, black and white happens at the push of a button.  

I edited these images with various photoshop actions.  This one has a black and white haze, from The Florabella Collection.  http://florabellacollection.blogspot.com/2009/11/florabella-actions.html

This one is from Mandy Chiappini Photography, and is a Fairytale black and white action. http://mandychiappiniphotography.blogspot.com/

I felt this photograph had a sweet vintage feeling, so I added a free TTV texture from Skeletal Mess, on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/skeletalmess/sets/72157611177099692/

There are so many things you can do, using actions, including unifying clothing choices that don't necessarily match in color.  This one has a softer, more sepia tone, which brings this three generation grand-mother, mother, and grand-daughter trio even closer.  One thing is for sure, digital phototgraphy and editing give us so many choices, and feels less like you're a mad scientist in a lab, and more like you're an artist at a pixel easel. Happy shooting and editing everyone!

Family of Five

     Photographers are lucky when they get to work with a family on more than one occasion. I had the good fortune of photographing this family's children a few years ago.  This time, they wanted the whole family to get into the act. 

  They wanted a chohesive look for all five of them.  A nice way to unify a family is to make complimentary wardrobe choices.  Luckily, their mom, has a knack for chosing just the right colors, fabrics, and styles to make a photo pop.

We shot in two locations, and with one wardrobe change.  The pink and black and blue jean combo worked so well with the 1920's Spanish style architecture at Malaga Cove, in P.V.E., CA.

And the knitted earth tones worked well at the Wilderness Park setting, in Redondo Beach, CA.  Another plus, we had a relaxed session, and enjoyed our time together, which shows in the photographs.

“The heart has reasons that reason does not understand.” ~ Jacques Benigne Bossuel

If you're around me for very long, you will find that gardening is another passion that is a nice companion to my love of photography.  This week I'm taking you on a garden tour. First stop; my rose garden! The more I garden, the more I realize roses are my favorite flowers.

“The heart has reasons that reason does not understand.” ~ Jacques Benigne Bossuel, originally uploaded by Abby Lanes.
Earlier this year, I added new bareroot roses, and this is the first "pink" bloom on the new bushes.

Next stop... the area women's club hosts a yearly garden tour... and this home had a beautiful waterlily coy pond that ran right underneath the driveway.

The tour had five gardens, and the perfect mix of garden styles for the tour.

The cottage garden had this mullein verbascum album. It was quite frankly, the first time I had ever seen this flower. Thank you to my gardening friend Kate for the flower id. If you get a chance, visit her blog, it's packed full of gardening knowledge and beautiful flowers. http://www.katesmudges.com/

Finally, the last stop on our garden tour today, was taken at the flower fields in Carlsbad. There were so many ranunculas there, to focus on one seemed odd, but I thought it was fitting for our tour.

I hope you enjoyed your garden tour.  Have a lovely Memorial Day weekend.