“Those” front teeth are on their way in.  I can feel the profit margin for the orthodontist going up already… and those SILLY BANDS! Whod’a thought… and animal bracelet that doesn’t look like an animal when worn, is all the rage.

Having this time off with my children has made me realize so much.  I needed this.  Maybe I’ll explain sometime.  I have so many sessions to blog, two to finish up, and two coming up.  I’ve really, really cut back this year and I think it was the best thing I could have done.  I have really, really missed being a Mom.

Happy Schools-out-for-summer to you and yours.

xo

dani

I took an extra-long walk today to absorb some much needed vitamin D and on the way back, met up with my husband and son who were on their own excursion on E.’s push trike (note: best invention ever).  E. happened to see this little teeny weeny flower on the side of the sidewalk, in a patch of grass, all alone. No others, but it’s really pretty and he picked it very carefully squeeling with delight over how much his sister was going to love it.  I couldn’t resist a quick snapshot of it gently sitting in a water-filled ramekin (vase of choice by my six year old daughter).

It might not be spring and the weather might not be staying, but here’s to hoping and enjoying the little bits along the way!

There’s a bitty newborn on the schedule for tomorow, and two other little precious’ by saturday.  So, here’s to also hoping this rain holds off for a while!

I hope (not to overuse the word “hope” or anything” that you all were able to enjoy this gorgeous day!

xo

dani

ap·er·ture

n. 1. An opening

2. a. A usually adjustable opening in an optical instrument, such as a camera or telescope, that limits the amount of light passing through a lens or onto a mirror.b. The diameter of such an opening, often expressed as an f-number.c. The diameter of the objective of a telescope.

A lot of photographer’s get asked “how do you make the baground blurry?” – the simple answer is correct manipulation of aperture.  The focal area changes when the f/stop changes, the smaller the number, the shallower the depth of field (area in focus) – the larger the number (smaller aperture) will give a greater depth of field.  Aperture and Shutter speed work side by side with the light you are dealing with in a manner that can be described as this:

 Light – How much, for how long? In this case of aperture, we are talking about how much.  The smaller the number, the larger the aperture – thus letting light splash on your sensor of your DSLR, and also changing your focal plane.

Since the main lady in my life is turning six and a half, she gets to bring a treat to school (which in itself has been a fiasco – more below).  I thought these delectable desserts would be an interesting opportunity to explain a bit how all that jazz works out.  Starting at a wide open aperture on my 50mm lens, notice the background and forground (of the sprinkles) change as the numbers change.  The main focus is on the BLUE top sprinkle.  The first three are subtle in change, but notice you can see the rows of cupcakes clearer by the third photo… and the sprinkles clearly in focus by the last image along with a more in-focus background.

Cool, huh?

Another example on a lid full of confectionary pretties – you can see clearly where the focus falls and where it misses.  Some people like to use other tools (I think google picasa ranks up there) to give a faux ring of “blur” versus natural bokeh from a wide aperture – however there is an extreme difference in slapping a blur over an image and mastering what apertures to use, and when.  While all this cool focal stuff happens, it’s all a matter of the light hitting spilling into your camera’s sensor (film!) and creating more or less splashing of that light.  Many photographers love these wide apertures for indoor photography, when they opt not to use a flash source; letting all of that light in is luscious!  But balancing the fine line of keeping what you need in focus and using available light in a dim situation is a must!  Can you see why it can be tricky to use a wide aperture to shoot a close-up headshot? It is so very easy to end up with simply the eyelashes of ONE eye in focus and lose the rest.

Give it a try!  Play with those other options on your camera if you have them – see what you get!  Please note this is just a jott down of a few things about aperture.  There are so many good books that go into lots of detail, if you would like a list of a few, please let me know! Anything Scott Kelby is pretty much amazing!

Now for the little story on the “half birthday treat” – K’s birthday is at the end of August… so she either meets or doesn’t meet the first week of school.  Well this year, she missed it – so she gets a “half birthday” day to bring a treat in, a nice way for the summer birthdays to have their day (I’m pretty sure it’s done like this everywhere!).  This day had been looked forward to since her actual sixth birthday and when it finally came, school was cancelled due to snow. The next day? Cancelled, too. Then comes the weekend. So, these are our second batch of treats and I hope they are well enjoyed =)

I boldly avoided these amazing smelling sweets by the power of drinking a lot of water before baking (smile) – so I know how hard it is, and apologize now if this enticed you to go on a sweets binge – however, we all deserve one every now and then – so go bake something! =) I don’t typically say that following newborn posts, because it either A. relieves baby fever or B. creates it!

Just a little something fun for your day, and now you know all the flicking and clicking of buttons and wheels on my camera means something and isn’t just useless fumbling. *wink*

Side note – I’m booked in FULL for JULY 2010 and AUGUST 2010.  March, May, June (after the first full week), and September are open. I know this seems far in advance, doesn’t it?  I cannot even belive it is MARCH!

Happy Monday Everyone – here’s to hoping SPRING is on the way! PLEASE!

xo

dani

To start with…  I suppose, like the ones that were actually supposed to be mailed, I could have shared this with my readers BEFORE the Holiday Season, huh?

Hour Christmas was filled with bits of Toy Story, Hamsters that crow for some reason…

…and a sweet piece of vintage that was GOING to be mine on ebay at all costs (unfortunately!).  I remembered playing with a garage exactly like this as a kid at my Grandmothers house – hours of it, with my cousins. 

When I took it out of the original box it just blew my mind!  This thing is pristine – straight from the seventies – high quality goodness… ahh!  I got E. the 2008 version of this last Christmas and it was a hunk of JUNK like most toys now-a-days.  The bell dings, the elevator works no matter which way you turn the handle ( just like I recalled!) – it’s just a blast.  It’s the first thing the kids go for when we have little ones as visitors.  Doesn’t that take you back a little?

That’s about as far into my personal Holiday photos that I’m going to go But they are all in good fun.

Over my vacation I had the pleasure of photographing the S. family, who were in town from Tennessee staying with family the week before Christmas to visit

This little miss – right before I was winding down got suited up by mom in her cutie pie tu-tu – lollypop in hand, makes me love it so much.

Dad plays the guitar and the kids really dig it

Okay, onto other news!

You can now find two brief PDF guides that are current at my portfolio, or by accessing them below:

www.danielleluc.com/guides/sessionfee

www.danielleluc.com/guides/prints

There are a few minor changes in the way proofing will go this year, and each will give a brief detailing of general investment and expectations.  I’ve never had anyone question it until now – but as far as “delivery” – in terms of my business, this means your boxed items and presentation.  You will be asked to pick up your prints when they are available, however if I will in your neighborhood or if you are absolutely unable to swing by, I understand and will do my best to bring your purchases to your home.

As of this year, I will NO LONGER BE PHOTOGRAPHING SENIORS.  I’m begining to find my niche and where my abilities side best, and Senior Photography just simply isn’t one of them   I need to be able to put my heart and mind 100% into what I do, and I know there are plenty of amazing photographers out there in the area who can photograph seniors very awesomely   Sorry for any inconvenience this causes to anyone.

Fall Mini Sessions will also be available to my 2010 regular clients for the first selection.  Mini’s will proof 5-10 (I have yet to decide on this as of yet) images.  I get a lot of first-time clients for mini’s and they end up being  just as much work and almost the same amount of proofs as a regular standard portrait session (I cant help it!) – so this needs to be adjusted, so that each and every family that books is allocated time and talent fairly according to investment.  There will potentially be a standard mini available throughout the year, but this, too, as of yet is undecided.

A few new guidelines with what happens to your unordered images – at the end of the week long proofing, any UNORDERED images are discarded.  Any digital files on my harddrives that prints were ordered from are cropped to 8×12 format and will be stored on my harddrive at that time.  Should you wish to be able to order other prints  in the future that weren’t ordered from in your initial ordering session, you will need to consider a digital collection so that they are available to you for…ever! For example, should you decide you do not want to order any of image number 4, 16, and 18 – and you decide at a later date you wish to reactivate your gallery to order, those images will not be available – as only the ones you have ordered from will be present.  This cuts down on me adding undesired images to harddrive space.  This isnt typically an issue as Digital Collections are of huge demand at this point – but it is in effect for 2010 and beyond.

In likeness, the same goes for web images. Web images (facebook, myspace) are available for any ordered image.  You will be unable to obtain a web sized image for any unordered portrait.

I thank you all for your understanding in some of these changes!

Full pricing and wedding catalogs are available upon request, should you have any other inqueries for 2010 that are not answered in the above PDF’s.

Once again, thank you ALL for such an awesome 2009 and I’m just squealing inside with delight over starting my 3rd year, and the BEATUFIUL BRIDES that are awaiting this season!  Which brings me to one more thing:  THERE ARE NO MORE AVAILABLE BOOKINGS FOR WEDDINGS IN 2010 and JUNE AND JULY 2011 are currently booked.  If you are looking for 2011 – now’s about that time.

Okay, goodnight and glad to be back!

xo

dani

So, beyond proofing this BEAUTIFUL wedding -

… I have also been working on these:

Vintage processed senior, A.

Cutie-pie lil’ A.  wasn’t the happiest about having her photos taken, but I’m one sneeky lady:)

I wish I could do more here – blogging.  But it’s just been so, so crazy here. 

Little sweet Alexa Brown has finally gone home to be in precious peace.  While the thoughts of that are so bittersweet; while she is finally free, there are so many people left here on earth to miss her.  The fight must rage on, and we must find a cure for this awefully underfunded – in – reasearch childhood cancer!  I felt comfort in seeing their family tonight and if you ever have the chance to meet them, please – don’t pass it up. They are a handful of the most inspirational, wholesome, amazing people on this planet.  We have a lot to learn from them about patience and acceptance – and how to be a little more wide eyed about life.

*Sigh* I want the suffering to stop

Enjoy the sneak peeks, it might be a while before I’m back – I’m just zonked!  My kids’ birthday party is this weekend, my little guy is TWO on saturday!  Miss K will be 6 on the 29th, but one party is the way its got to be. Cant throw two in two weeks and expect a turnout!  I love them, so dearly. Each year that they aren’t babies anymore just tugs a little harder at my heart.

xo everyone,

dani

ps: thanks for making the mini-sessions a big hit! it’s going to be so much fun! I am so happy to offer these…

So this is the worlds longest time away from my last blog I guess. So sorry! I have been busy on the crazy side and cannot seem to quite get caught up where I’m comfortable enough to sit here and blab about it all.

Upon returning from my vacation I had a realm of things to do – and went right into a wedding (6/20) and a senior session tonight (6/22).  Made a weekend out of the wedding, staying the weekend starting on friday at my sister and brother-in-law’s house in the Columbus area.  It was another nice getaway for my husband, the kids, and I and it was super great to see my SIL and BIL and my two sweet nephews.  We went to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium on friday (can you say HOT and HUMID?!) after making a pitstop at “Aunt Jenny’s” to visit her and her husband and sweet little D.  The wedding was saturday and the weather was a wee bit more cooperative then!

I spent much of the later afternoon and the evening at the Garden at the German Village Guesthouse in Columbus, and the bride and groom made their laid-back affair elegant in so many sweet little personal touches.  Can you imagine a garden full of white linens, votives in the trees (battery operated of course!) flickring into the dusk – ahh – and surrounded by people they love the most.  K & K are very private people, and while my wedding contracts negeate a model release, I am very respectful of that and will only be posting this one beautiful and VERY candid photo from the afternoon until I have further approval from them to share them in my portfolio.  I was opening the back door to walk in and I caught little C. having a “hanging onto” moment and this BEAUTIFUL bride making a glance as she passed toward my direction.  It’s just so full of emotion -  I hope you can see and feel it, too.  Note to my prospective bridal clients and those currently booked waiting to see more bridal work:  I hope to be able to share a few of these with you eventually – hang in there .

Thank you K & K for having me be a small part of your beautiful ceremony!

Onto my first senior of 2010 session… meet M. She’s sporty and fun and very delightful.  She also has amazing custom made shoes – agreed?!

Mosquitoes are on the attack and M., her mom, and I were eaten up a bit this afternoon. Yikes. Thanks for being such troopers – smashed skeeters and all!  Looking forward to delivering your gallery in the coming weeks.

((backtrack))

Woke up in Columbus on fathers day to pack and head home!  Lucky us, my husband was able to have this shift OFF!  We came home to his Father’s Day gift   New wall art of the kids – playing in a very special place that he takes them (well, I take them too!) to romp and play around.  There’s a Catholic Church that closed it’s doors years ago and its right by our house, and is stomping grounds for the babes.  I actually took my senior there tonight for a few photos, too.  I had the two individuals done in 10×20 standouts from WHCC and the one of them together in 16×24 – same mount.  I know E. is pouty, but that’s him most days over anything I “want” him to do like this   It’s my kids being my kids, so I love it.  He loved it, and it had special meaning to it.  He’s an amazing father and I am grateful and very blessed.

Hope all you dada’s out there had a great Father’s Day

I’m also having some issues with my current server – bah!  They were supposed to have my site transfered to westhost by wed of last week and here I sit. Blah.  Pickpic, will you ever arrive for my lovely clients? At this rate, no Boo on Blu.  How unfortunate.  Hang tight if your emails get bounced around or the site is slow or not loading, its propogating.

Okay.  Thats “all” I have for now.

Is anyone still reading after that Hiatus? Ahh!

xoxo

dani

 I’ve got some major busy-ness coming up – including a fabulous weekend!  I am shooting a wedding at the German Village in Columbus, OH this coming weekend for an awesome couple.  I will get to spend the day with the couple and their treasured family and friends and attend their sunset wedding.  It sounds luscious and I’m so exctied!  We have some other activities planned family wise and I’ll let in on those a little later on

Also, to give everyone a heads up  – in the coming week(s) or so, you may notice for a period of about 12 hours that my sites are not accessable – I am switching  Hosts to take on PickPic – a premium online ordering system.  Part of my changes includes this easy to use shopping cart feature that I know you will all just love.  This will X the commonly used paper ordering system (that I absolutely do NOT adore).  My current shopping cart is not so fabulous and I’ve chosen more often than not, NOT to use them.  PickPic will give you the option to see your images in a plethora of crops and tonal changes (view a color image in BW).

So, if you visit and the site or blog is down, please come back within a day to re-visit!

Looking for a september appointment? Holy Moly, time is NOW!  Looking forward to all the fun stuff, a better update soon – I promise. Oh, and there was a beautiful Canon 5d Mark II waiting for me when I came home! Who had the best anniversary/birthday EVER?  That’d be me. This sucker took near perfectly noiseless shots in my dark (tv illuminated) living room at a whopping ISO 6400!  And the noise was better at 6400 than either 40d at 1600 – I’m amaaaazed.  Not that the half of you understand why that’s impressive, but for those of you who do – Here’s an “e-towel” to wipe the drool off your chin

xo

dani

Good Monday to you!

I will be out of the office for a week – if you email me, please do not expect a personal response until the weekend or monday.  You will recieve an autoresponse full of what will be hopefully helpful info, however. The next few days will be spent Celebrating my birthday and our wedding anniversary, with many fun things planned with and without our lovely kiddos.

Here is my favorite photo from our wedding – actually taken by a paramedic friend of ours!  It was taken just after we exited the church, on the back of FFD’s 1928 antique fire engine.  Just thought I would share for fun

Meanwhile, you may email me as usual if you would like to be updated on some big time changes here at DLP!  A few things that have changed include the flat rate session fee – there is now ONE session fee for any type of session with me.  The fee covers my time and talent, and also includes a print credit to be used at the time of your order.  Those of you already on my books who have already signed a contract are NOT subject to these changes, only new bookings.  Prints will also be coming from a new colorlab and are now at new set prices as well.  I believe in offering the highest quality possible for your artwork and appreciate your continued patronage and support! 

The press products keep rolling in and contine to stun me with awesomeness.  As noted above when you enter the blog, there are two Press Printed specials going on right now!  I promise you will love them!

You may, at any time (includcing while I am out of the office), email me at dani@danielleluc.com  (or use the blog contact form) and request the NEW .pdf Danielle Luc Photography Investment, Session, & Product Catalog – which consists of a link to a quick downloadable PDF file that will load on your PC.  Here you will find all of the new pricing and session details, and also images of all of the new press products.  Per your request for this while I am unavilable, it will still be automaticly sent to you.

I am currently accepting very few remaining in August and am booking into September.  I have had a few requests for Fall Mini-Sessions, but will be re-arranging that a little this year to make it a little more relaxed and private – as it was not a favorite for many of the kids last year!  If you are interested, please let me know.  Info for the Fall Mini’s will be going out more than likely in August.  This season has been very busy so far and I’m enjoying seeing all of the kids and families returning from last year, and meeting all of the lovely new people I’ve been so lucky to come into contact with.

Weddings are booking up for 2010 already – so if you are interested, the time to contact me and book your date is NOW.  Currently booked and unavailable wedding weekends in ‘10 are July 31 and October 2.

And to leave you with a little something to refresh your summer-on-the-brain-ness….

…a little of my two – E. loving the water and K. on her new (beach cruiser!) bike.  Her knees were hitting the handlebars of her old one and it was time for the training wheels to GO.  She’s a champ.

I’m biased, but I love those two images

Hope you do, too.

Enjoy your week, talk to you all soon!

xo

d

(little Alexa and her family need all you’ve got in your heart right now.  Stop and leave a message for them if you can)

Iguess I’ve been away for a little while! A lot’s been happening – 1. nasty cold between my husband and I and partially the kids for the last week that has been a wipeout doozy for sure. 2. prepping for my bustout into wedding photography this weekend, YAY! 3. school! lots of kindergarten stuff going on and a huge Zoo trip today. 4. two galleries went up today and another will be soon. 5. my great grandma (my kids great GREAT!) turned 93 and we partied on sunday, as we should have!  What it must be like to have seen the things shes seen come about and change in almost a century here on earth.

I’ll start with the cute stuff, I suppose!  Meet A. and T. – two total future heartthrobs and little brothers of a friend (and little T. a former skate student of mine!).  This session was a surprise (hope I dont ruin that here) for their dad in June, and they said they really didnt “need” any individuals – but I did two anyway because I’m a little compulsive. Glad I did Hello, babyfaces and sparkling eyes.  Currently, their sister Jess is looking at this with googlyness as they are her most favorite people on earth, I believe.

Onto New stuff – My second order of the new albums came today!  I could kick myself in the you know what for muffing the photos of the one I delivered the other day.  This one is a softcover 5×5 that was spunky and poppy to match little miss’s outfits.  It rocks and I cant wait to deliver them (there are two!)  with her prints tomorow to a very excited mom!  These are on special buy one get one half off until the end of summer!

These are my new reminder cards (!) that I just adore.  They were printed on Pearl Press paper and are shimmery sweet (and a pain to photograph due to its reflective qualities).

Mom and Dad of little A.M. were super excited and allowed me to use A.M.’s photo for my cards – I spilled her name and age on the side (you can kind of see the text by her little ear, but the photo is a little out of focus at the top DOF wise) for a little giddy claim right for her proud mommy and daddy.

This press paper is also available to you for your custom needs for Press products, just to let you know!

Anyway, this is my hurrah more than likely until after Saturday. I ask that you please eep me and my nerves in your thoughts as I jump out to capture some awesome and amazing wedding photos for Chris and Mary Anne this weekend! I’m feeling good about it and super confident and totally looking forward to this new experience. 

Adios, Amigos!  Enjoy the images, I’m looking forward to doing a LOT more of these albums! What fun!

dani

First up, the boy.  He calls tools “problems”.  It’s a Handy Manny thing, I believe. Manny and the Tools are always fixing “problems”, and E. calls all of his daddy’s tools, “problems”.  If he can get his hand on one, he’s in all his glory.  Yesterday, the victim tool was a tape measure.  This tape measure took the beating for about a half hour… with the classic hold of the end of the tape, letting the body of it fall to the floor. Over. And. Over.

It is his buddy, he and that tape measure have a special thing going. It’s magic to him and I love that. It reminds him of his daddy, and really shows how much he pays attention to what relates to whom. 

And then there is the girl.  Twistie-Swing extraordinare.  I can’t say that there is much explination needed.

The ever-elusive Crocs.  I don’t care for Crocs, and you wont catch them on my feet.  Probably EVER.  But K. fell into the trend and the wonderland of Jibbitz.  The top photo is mid-jump in the inflatable bouncer that she got for her 3rd birthday.  Ultimately, after two price adjustments (thank you birthday in August when summer clearance comes around!) – this awesome birthday gift from grandma wound up costing a mere sixty bucks. Can’t beat that for romping bouncing goodness.  The shoe shot? Shoes off before entering the bouncer, please

I love the awkward look on E.’s face in the second shot   Those big brown eyes are showing some signs of greenish. AHH! No!

And lastly, for your humor, a prelude to a wild future with my daughter?  Something about the party face she has on while simply holding a cup of water…

… I do believe, though, that she is celebrating her 1st loose tooth!  Seems like just yesterday she was born and had NO teeth, and we were wating for the very first one to rupture.

The time is flying, and to cement that thought, before my lunch meeting with  MA about her wedding on the 9th – I will be attending KINDERGARTEN SCREENING.

*sniffle*

Enjoy.

dani