Please visit my blog on my new davidkeyesphotography.com site. Thanks!

On a recent family trip, I was able to squeeze in a session with this fun, freckle-faced cutie. We did a brief indoor shoot at her house but, thankfully, it was still nice enough outside to roam the neighborhood. Keeping up was tough, but fun… she had spunk to spare!

You learn something new every day…

Over the past few sessions and through a little recent reading, I’m quickly starting to realize that prime lenses are really THE way to go. I’ve used high-quality zoom lenses (e.g., Nikon 17-55mm, f2.8) before and been pleased if not blown away by the results. But, the primes I’ve used are just that much better. Not to mention that primes somewhat return you to the “olden” days of photography when you had to “zoom with your feet”. Maybe in this new digital age, this is at least one aspect that will keep us grounded with the past…

Never say never, right? 🙂

As it turns out, having a blog is essential to maintaining an online presence and boosting search engine results. I’m delving into more methods for increasing my SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and plan on reviewing a book I purchased recently to help me through this process. One of the book’s main tenets is keeping a blog so, I can say for certain that this blog is not dead yet!

In the meantime, I just wanted to mention that the print lab I use is now offering a new product- Float Wraps. I received my first one today and, I have to say I LOVE it! Here’s an example of what they look like…

They are mounted on masonite with padding added to provide depth. That is all mounted to a small gatorboard block on the back which sets the entire print floating out from the wall. Very cool!!!

 

Another product that I’ve been high on lately is the Gallery Wrapped Canvas. Your photo printed on fine art canvas, then wrapped around a 1.5″ wood frame. The photos have a wonderful painted quality to them, but they’re still nearly as sharp as a print… honestly, it’s hard to describe. You really need to see it to fully appreciate them…

You learn something new every day…

When it comes to iPhone apps for photos, there are countless ones available… too many, in my opinion. And, it’s difficult to know prior to purchasing them, if they’re going to be worth it.

Well, I learned that Chase Jarvis and his team have developed a wonderful photo app- The Best Camera! It has many of the standard photo finishing features you’ll find in other apps, but it really pays for itself with the ability to seamlessly process and export the photos simultaneously to a variety of end destinations, including facebook, twitter, email, and thebestcamera.com.

To top it off, TheBestCamera.com, (which gets its name from the notion that “the best camera is the one that’s with you”) aggregates all the photos from all the app users for an interesting and refreshing view on camera-phone photography.

Hey folks… I think I may be coming to the end of posting to my blog. 😦

The reality is that I’ve got multiple sites I like to post to after a session and this is the one that gets the least amount of traffic. And, quite honestly, posts to this blog take the most time to prepare. I’m already stretched thin on time and I’m looking for ways to consolidate the post-session steps necessary to get the word out on my latest photos.

Facebook has now made it extremely easy to upload and manage photos, not to mention present them to a wide audience automatically. Flickr will always remain my go-to site for all my favorite photos- both portrait and non. And, Twitter can serve as the announcement engine (assuming I post there as often as I should).

So, having said that, I invite you to friend me on facebook, check in on my flickr page, and/or follow me on twitter.

I’ll never say never… I may post here again. But for the foreseeable future, I’ll be taking a break from blogging. I do hope to see you around! And, thanks for visiting!

Cheers,

David Keyes

You learn something new every day…

Change is inevitable.

And, by “park” I mean the Chicago Botanic Garden! White seamless is pretty awesome, but I’m not sure I could have asked for a better backdrop than this.

And, the kids! Cute, fun, full of energy, and for the most part, willing to take some direction… these guys were a blast to work with, and I think it really shows! We actually had postponed the shoot for nearly a year to let a few things fall into place, and it was worth the wait.

We lucked out and got a beautiful overcast sky.  We got to the park early enough so that we nearly had the place to ourselves… rose garden, Japanese garden, waterfalls, lakes, this place has it all! I’m already planning another shoot there this summer… and it’s 6 hours away! 🙂

I honestly had a tough time choosing the best photos from the session because there were so many! But, IMHO, the best of the best are below…

You learn something new every day…

In my last YLSNED, I mentioned a lesson similar to the one I learned last year about always being prepared. For this shoot, I had everything charged, backed-up, etc. We were out for nearly two hours. I knew I had more than enough material to work with when we finally decided to pack it in and head home. But, we weren’t out of the park yet…

I had all my gear packed up and slung on my back well before we were out the door, and I missed a golden opportunity because of it. D’oh! The little girl was lolly-gagging behind us as we marched down a long exterior corridor lined with trees and flowers towards the exit. The Sunday rush of people was well under-way at this point, too. As we got near the exit, the mom and I turned around to see the little girl 50 yards back, smiling, clutching her dress and swaying in the middle of the corridor as throngs of people  passed her by. I had a perfect line of sight to her… Oh, what I could have done with my telephoto lens and a semi-slow shutter!!!

Live and learn, I say. Live and learn.

I was lucky enough to be able shoot this cute little guy when he turned one… but, I really lucked out again for his second birthday! It’s amazing how much they grow in a year!

Like last year, we split the session between indoors and out, especially since it was a beautiful, slightly overcast (great for shooting portraits outdoors!) morning. I know he remembered me, I could see it in his eyes. But, it still took a little while for him to warm up to me and my camera again. No problem! I got some great “mood” shots right away.

Then, he started opening up. At first it was a little tickling from dad… or at least the threat of a tickle. But soon, he was hamming it up for me or he’d forget I was there. Love it when that happens!!!

Our trek outdoors took us to a nearby lake where we found a fantastically worn and rusted row boat and lifeguard stand that, I think, served as great props/background.

Looking forward to next year!

You learn something new every day…

Since last year’s debacle of forgetting my battery charger, and not having enough juice to finish the session without my wife running the charger out to me, I was absolutely positive I had everything ready this time around!

Though, as you’ll see in an upcoming post, I learned a very similar lesson recently… you can never be too prepared! Stay tuned…

A strange twist of fate recently landed me a couple of new sessions types- an engagement session and a wedding!

I have actually vowed (pun intended) to never do weddings- too much pressure, no second chances for once-in-a-lifetime moments, etc.- not to mention the hours. But this one was a little different. Some close friends, who had been engaged for a long time, decided to make it offical recently, and with very little notice. They emailed close friends and family on Monday for their wedding on Wednesday!

They asked if I would mind taking a few photos… I couldn’t resist. 🙂 Here are a few faves…

You learn something new every day…

I learned that product designers do sometimes listen to feedback and rework their original designs. And, sometimes it’s just the little things. For instance, I cracked open a new canister of Enfamil baby formula this morning to find a re-designed scoop. The new design has holes in the handle near where it meets the scoop so that formula doesn’t build up there and spill on the counter when dumping the scoop in the bottle! Brilliant. And, like I said, it’s the little things that make me happy 🙂

And, yes, I am completely aware that I’m getting excited about baby formula. It’s a strange realization for me that that’s where I am in life! I actually even twittered about this this morning, too. 😉

Wow, it’s been a while, huh?

Having a newborn, getting an aging house ready for the market (in a tough selling market!), an economy in general that tightens potential clients wallets, and an increased workload at my other job all have conspired against me the last couple months… but enough with excuses!

Spring is here and I’m optimistic that the change in climate will also bring a change in opportunities! One change that is already taking root is my acclimation to using Twitter (for the uninitiated, Twitter, according to wikipedia, is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length). 

So, think of it as an extension of this blog. If you’re on Twitter and you care to know more about what I’m doing, feel free to follow me- DavidKeyes.

In the meantime, here a couple photos of my sons from last week… they’re getting so big!!!

 

You learn something new every day…

Today I learned that the combination of tilt-shift and time-lapse photography, through the eyes of a brilliant photog/director, can be a mesmerizing experience! Check out this video!

BTW, I found out about this from another photog I follow on Twitter- ScottBourne – and one of his blogs, Managing Your Digital Life 😉

I know there can be large time lapses between posts here once in a while… well, this time at least, I have a great excuse. The birth of our third son, Langdon James! He joined us on December 6 at 7:00 pm, weighing in at a whopping 7 lbs., 8 oz., and stretching out to 20.5 inches! He and mom are both doing great!

As you may have guessed, it didn’t take dad long to put him in front of the camera… and yesterday we had a full-blown newborn session. He was a pretty good sport as I subjected him to some precarious, if not chilly poses (don’t worry, mom and grandma were always just off camera with supporting hands and a warm blanket! 🙂 ).

Here are a few of my favorites… if you’re interested in more of them, feel free to visit my website- davidkeyesphotography.com– and go to ‘Clients’ and enter the password ‘langdon’.

 

 

You learn something new every day…

Sleep is under-rated, under-appreciated, and… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Oops, sorry!

Last weekend I got to have a session with this cute, little peanut! We had hoped the weather would cooperate to be able to shoot some outdoors but, alas, we live in Minnesota. 🙂 So, we made the best of it and played around his house.

Even though we set up the white backdrop, one year olds aren’t too fond of staying in one place. I managed to get a few of him there, but I think some of the better shots came when we just let him roam…

 

You learn something new every day…

This session just reaffirmed my need to upgrade my camera. It was a very overcast day and even though the room we were in had ample windows, there just wasn’t enough light to get the fast shutter speeds needed to catch the actions of a toddler.

My current camera, a Nikon D70, is an older generation pro-sumer DSLR that just doesn’t have the ISO range necessary to get those faster shutter speeds… and I am using a fast lens (f2.8). My effective ISO range is up to about 540, after which I start seeing noticeable noise. I’m really looking forward to the day in the near future that I can pull the trigger on my (realistic) dream camera- the Nikon D300- and push that out to 1600!

Of course, I’m still pining for a camera that implements my idea of a combined aperture/shutter speed priority via a floating ISO, as I mentioned in my previous post, The Future of ISO. But, in the meantime, I’m fairly certain the added stops of effective ISO will suffice.