San Diego Children's and Newborn Baby Photographer | Little Sprout Photography

Friends and fellow photographers, the Donovons, asked for a quick photo session to get a few family photos with their daughter, Penny. In just over 20 minutes, we covered several spots at Discovery Lake in San Marcos and only had one run-in with a swarm of mosquitoes. :)

Penny was one of the happiest babies we’ve ever shot — she squealed and laughed whenever I held up her animal glove. A few of our favorite photographs are below.

I loved reviewing Jen’s session photos and seeing her strength and all the love she has for her family and their little baby, Alex. Alex was diagnosed with Trisomy 18 and is not expected to live long after birth. Alex is already living up to his name – warrior – in fighting to make it this far. Jen and her husband John are cherishing the time they have with Alex and are excited to meet and hold their son, the little warrior.

Here’s a sample of the high-key lighting technique I mentioned earlier. This is my approximation of a technique Scott Kelby described on his blog, but since I didn’t have access to a beauty dish or massive softbox, I had to improvise with two speedlights, a piece of white foam core, and a bedsheet.

The main light is an sb-800 bounced into a silver umbrella. To reflect some of the light back up and under my subject’s chin, I used a piece of white foam-core at about a 45° angle. If you look closely at the catch lights in Kieran’s eyes, you’ll be able to see both reflections.

The background is simply a plain white bed sheet and I’m using a borrowed sb-600 to shoot through that. Both flashes were wirelessly triggered via the built-in flash (in commander mode) on the d700.

Spent some time today playing with a backlit, white background. Interesting results. More to come…