The fourth and final day of Ava week and after much deliberation I decided these shots were my personal favourites.  I felt the simplicty of these shots best captured the innocence that only a child can project. There is no fancy off camera lighting, no heavy post production in photoshop, just beautiful natural light, a great lens (50mm 1.4) and the worlds cutest little model. What more could a photographer ask for???

]]> http://xesdrive.com/blog/2009/02/i-saved-the-best-for-last/feed/ 2 http://xesdrive.com/blog/2009/02/day-3-of-little-angel-ava/ http://xesdrive.com/blog/2009/02/day-3-of-little-angel-ava/#comments Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:00:12 +0000 regan http://xesdrive.com/blog/?p=813 NOTE: the images in this feed have been downsized or removed for copyright reasons. To see them in their unmodified state, please view the original post by clicking here.

I love Ava’s expression in this shot. There is something so innocent and inquisitive about it.

Ava had the cutest little outfit on, right down to the gold sandals and the bling on her wrist.

Ava has the most amazing blue eyes.

I have saved the best for last, be sure to check back tomorrow to see my

 favourite images from Ava’s photoshoot.

Todays photos of Ava have more of a classic, timeless feel to them. These were shot outside in natural light.

I forgot to get a model release from Teddy, hopefully that won’t be a problem hahahaha

Who cares if I will be waiting a good 25-30 years to shoot little Ava’s wedding, it will be worth it. LOL. This little princess is going to make the most beatiful bride one day.  In June this year however, Ava is going to be the cutest little flower girl at Andy and Tess’s wedding. So she has 4 short months to perfect her shakey little walk.

Ava came over on Saturday and played in front of my camera for a couple of hours. She was such an angel, we ended up with so many stunning pictures that there are too many for one blog post. Therefore I am declaring this week – All AVA Week – Check back each day this week for a few photos from each location we shot.

The ones below were actually taken at the very end of our shoot in the parking basement.

For my photographer friends. I have little Ava lit with an sb800 and a grid spot from camera left and a gelled sb800 from behind.

I wanted to try a technique I had seen used to great effect by the uber talented Las Vegas based wedding photographer John Michael Cooper called light painting.  When there isn’t a fabulous bride around to model for me sometimes you just have to improvise. So, the photo below is a self portrait I shot with a little help from my full time Mum and part time assistant. (thanks Mum)

This photo is shot at the front door to my apartment/studio. The camera is set on a tripod to a 30 second exposure and a torch is literally used to paint in the area of the frame you want to highlight. The subject, me, must stay very still for 30 seconds while the shutter is open. To add a little more interest to the scene I set a flash to camera left, which is creating the shadows on the wall.

I set the camera on a timer, went and sat in the corner and got my assistant (Mum) to “paint” me into the frame. I think the final result was pretty good, as it minimised my chubby cheeks, avoided the shiny solar panel that is starting to appear on top of my head, and hid my ever expanding waisteline which seems to be growing an inch every year since I turned 30.

This is just a different crop of the same photo

Below is a set up shot taken while I was experimenting with exposures that better illustrates the technique that was used. You can see where I have used the torch to “paint” the wall white