NOVEMBER /DECEMBER ˜˚˛˜ ligh˜...Chocolate Whiskey Cake By Kathy Rooney, Beth’s mom 5 ounces...

NOVEMBER /DECEMBER 2012

$5.00 USA November/December 2012myclickmagazine.com

light & LOVE

PICTURE YOUR LIFE Dare to dream with Sandy Puc’

TARA WHITNEY

Photographyfrom the heart

FAMILY PHOTOS Wish you were there?

BOYSThe art in slugs, snails

& puppy-dogs’ tails

KAREN R USSELL’S Holiday Journey

photograph by Emma Wood

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What’s in my bag

Lisa Tichanélives: Marseille, Franceowner: Tout Petit Pixel Photographie, her children’s photography business, toutpetitpixel.com

The SLR Sloop Camera Bag My bag’s nothing fancy, but it says a lot about me. I am so not a girly-girl. I like simple things, so when choosing a camera bag, practicality is my first priority. But I also like bright, fun colors, so this bag was made for me (even if my friends make fun of me because it looks like a picnic bag).

Canon 5D Mark II You can’t see it here because it’s taking the picture, but I love this camera. I know it by heart and can change the settings with my eyes closed. But I have to admit I have some Mark III envy lately. I am a toggler, and the focal points of the Mark III are calling my name.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens Best money I ever spent on a lens. It was a luxury at the time

once when shooting at clients’ dark homes. My goal for this year is to learn how to use it to its full extent.

Lens hoods Honestly, rarely used.

Canon Battery Pack LP-E6 for Mark ll I’m slightly obsessed with the fear of running out of battery during a session. The funny part is I never shoot more than one session a day, and my sessions don’t last long enough to empty a battery, so I never really use them.

Canon RC-6 Wireless Remote I use it for personal pictures when I want to be in the frame. My goal for the months to come is to work on self-portraits. (Turn to p. 82 to read about getting yourself in family pics.)

SanDisk 8GB Extreme Compact Flash Memory Card I always carry a few with me just in case. I also have a 16GB in my camera.

LensPEN Cleaning System I’m obsessed with keeping my lenses clean.

Clamps Most useful if I need to hang a blanket to hide a less-than-ideal background.

Tic Tacs Love them.

Mandee Franee Lens Pet Catches the at-tention of a toddler.

because I thought it was such a high price ($369) for a lens, which makes me smile now that I have a Canon L lens obsession!

Canon 28 mm-70 mm f/2.8 zoom lens My first step into the world of L Lenses! It is still my go-to lens; it lives on my camera 80 percent of the time. I have a love-hate relationship with it, but its versatility is unbeatable, and it’s a lifesaver with fast-moving kids and toddlers.

Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM Lens My favorite lens by far. It’s sharp and creamy at the same time; this lens is a real dream. I should use it more often.

Canon Speedlite Flash 580EX I’m not a flash girl, but I have to admit it’s saved my life more than

Photograph by Lisa Tichané

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{ designs, finds & favorites we love }

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shopping

food for thought

A part-time camera satchel and full-time stripey sultress, Photojojo’s SLR Sloop is fashioned

from the same super-durable material used for boat sails so it’s water repellent, and a cinch

to clean. Photojojo.com/store, $149.

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Lisa’s got her eye on the EOS 5D Mark III Digital Camera Body, $3,500.

Buy Mandee Franee Designs Lens Pets at etsy.com/shop/mandeefranee,

prices range from $12 to $26.

For Beth Rooney, photographing food is also about exploring different people and cultures. People come together over food, share stories and experiences. It’s a basic connection.

“Everyone can relate to food,” she says. “I see food photography as a window to a larger world, not as the center of the world. Everyone has a dish they remember from childhood and it is very personal. Food can be funny, simple, complex and then it can just be food.”

Based in Chicago, Rooney typically works throughout the Midwest, but travels occasionally for assignments. Her work has appeared in Saveur Magazine, FADER, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times and Sierra Club publications. Rooney shoots with a Canon EOS-5D Mark II, with a marked preference for her Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM EF lens when snapping recipes for her food blog. On assignment, she uses primes or her rock solid Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM EF lens. A good trick she uses to maximize natural lighting in a pinch while shooting a restaurant dish on location is to use a menu as a reflector card. She says even having someone in a light-colored shirt stand nearby can also make a huge difference on the exposure in the shadows.

Asked about her shooting style, Rooney says, “I try to take pictures of moments that don’t hurt. I try to photograph ... the adjectives, not the verbs and nouns. The style, I suppose, is quiet, almost melancholy, but also a subtle happiness in most images.”

Find Beth at bethrooney.com

Chocolate Whiskey Cake By Kathy Rooney, Beth’s mom

5 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1/4 cup instant espresso powder

2 tablespoons unsweet-ened cocoa powder

1 cup bourbon, rye, or other whiskey, more for sprinkling

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, more for greasing pan

2 cups all-purpose flour, more for dusting pan

2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

Confectioner’s sugar for garnish (optional)

1. Melt chocolate over double boiler. Let cool.

2. Mix 1 cup boiling water with espresso and cocoa powders until they dissolve. Add whiskey and salt; let cool.

3. Beat 1 cup butter with an electric mixer until fluffy.

4. Add sugar and beat until well-combined.

5. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla, baking soda and melted chocolate.

6. On low speed, beat in a third of the whiskey mixture.

7. Once the liquid is absorbed, beat in 1 cup flour. Repeat, ending with whiskey mixture.

8. Scrape into a greased and floured Bundt pan.

9. Bake at 325 degrees about 1 hour 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack.

10. Unmold after 15 minutes and sprinkle warm cake with more whiskey.

11. Let cool before serving. Garnish with confectioner’s.

photographer beth rooney


Daily MagicFrom the archives of the Clickin Moms Pro Daily Project clickinmoms.com /cmprodaily

eLLe WALKeR Victoria, australia

I shoot for the The CMPro Daily Project most of the time, but it’s during workshops that I have produced some of my favorite images. I captured this image of my son Mason during a six-week Clickin Moms workshop taught by Megan Cieloha, “Lighting 201: Mastering Natural Light Indoors.”

Mason, then 5 years old, and I were talking about how he felt about kindergarten, and that in just a year he’d be off to school. He was standing up tall to show me how big he was, and I said I wasn’t ready for him to be so big already, to which he replied, “Mum! What do you mean? It’s taken me FIVE YEARS to get this big!”

Gear & Settings: Nikon D90 with a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens for 1/160 seconds, ISO 1600.


Adore { Designs, finDs & favorites we love }


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my life june 26, 2012Collecting your favorite moments in a day photographs by leah cook

Leah Cook is a portrait photographer who shoots with available light and meets her clients on location. She lives in Dallas with her husband Max, two children, Andrew and Ty, and two large labs, Copper and Big Mama Mae.

Equipment: Canon 5D Mark II; Canon EF 35mm f/1.4 L USM leahcookphotography.com

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{ designs, finds & favorites we love }

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Become


natural light

One Window, Five LooksAre you getting the most out of your windows? by stacey haslem

Whether you’re working in your own home, in a studio or in a client’s home, you can still achieve a variety of looks using the windows around you. Despite making the decision not to take commissioned photography work in 2011, I was determined to continue to grow as a photographer. As a mother of four, I was limited in my locations for shoots, but I didn’t want to feel the limits of the indoors in my work. So I spent the year focusing on taking advantage of window light in my home and learning to produce as much variety as possible.

I’m sharing five images using a favorite window of mine, but similar images can be captured with any window. Just so you know, I don’t have a big empty room I shoot in. I often move furniture around so I can take advantage of the light as I did in most of these images.

Split lighting is perfect for creating a more serious atmosphere. When I think of split lighting, I rarely think of smiles and laughter. I think pensive, moody, serious, etc. Posing for split light is rather simple. You want your subject’s cheek or line of sight to be parallel to the window and shoulders perpendicular to the window. The side of the face closest to the window will be lit and from the middle of the face over will fall to shadow. It is much more dramatic than 45 degree lighting. A little trick for this situation is to expose for the highlight side of the face.

Look one: Split Lighting

Your only limits are your imagination. Going outside to capture the scene inside can give you a fresh

perspective. Use your window as a frame for your composition. Use a pocket of light on the

floor created by a window. A reflector is also a great tool to have handy indoors. I have been known

to pull mine around all over the house. Use that odd little window that you may have in your

bathroom. The possibilities are endless! —S.H.

get creative!

Stacey Haslem is a lifestyle and fine art photographer based in Northern California. She mainly works with natural light but has experience with artificial light. She has a strong predilection for black and white photography and thus it encompasses the majority of her work.

Gear & Settings: Nikon D700 with Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G lens. ISO 500, 1/125, f/3.0.

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natural light

Another take on window light is creating a silhouette. This isn’t my favorite window for silhouettes because I have a play set right behind it. However, I made it the secondary subject by posing my son to convey him wishing to be outdoors. The key to a silhouette is underexposing your subject. In this image, it looks like it was dark in the room. In reality, the room is just as lit as it was in the other images. Underexposing the image brings back detail in the highlights/window and my subject became part of the shadow areas of the image.

A traditional approach to window light is placing your subject 45 degrees from your light source. In other words, the plane of your window is the zero degree line. Your subject will be placed left or right of the window at 45 degrees. In this situation the light falls nearly three quarters over the face/subject and then gradually falls into shadow. Your subject is nicely lit while some shadowing maintains depth in your image.

Look two: Silhouette

Look three: 45-Degree Lighting

Gear & Settings: Nikon D700 with Nikkor 35mm f/1.4G lens, ISO 200, 1/640, f/2.8.

Gear & Settings: Nikon D700 with Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens. ISO 200, 1/320, f/1.4.



Dreamy backlit images can be achieved indoors with window light. It’s just a matter of having a strong light source in your window and carefully placing your subject. The window I am working with faces south. The light is pretty strong mid- morning to mid-afternoon making it an ideal shooting period for backlight. I also open the blinds to let in as much light as possible. By placing my daughter between the camera and the win-dow, I have achieved rim light and a dreamier feel that I often envy in outdoor images.

A window is like a giant soft box. The closer your subject is to the window, the softer the light is. Bringing your subject close to the window will create a glowing quality to the image. It also allows you to use the window and reflection in your composition. I love how it looks like my daughter has her hand pressed up against a little friend’s hand. Remember to expose for the highlight side of the face.

Look four: Backlighting

Look five: Close-up



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PhotograPh By Celeste Pavlik

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oBys

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Little boys aren’t just snakes, snails and

puppy dog tails;capturing curiosity,

light-hearted mischief, and even sweet gentility

are just as important.By Anne Schimstick



or maybe misconception, about photographing boys. After all, what boy has time to stand around getting his picture taken? There are rocks to throw, creek beds to explore, dirt to accumulate and vertical leaps to practice. From the outset, photographing boys beautifully can seem like hunting down wild game. They’re in front of you one minute and gone the next. Or up a tree. Or chasing down an imaginary foe. In general, boys equal ruckus. But that’s the fun of it, right? Capturing boys being, well, boys, is your best bet. In the midst of the rocks, bugs and mud there are also tranquil moments of calm, joyful laughter, and intense curiosity. To find out how to catch these elusive moments, we tracked down five busy photographers and asked how they find success treading where the wild things are.

No oNe caN deNy there’s a certaiN perceptioN,



Stay in their habitat“I love to photograph my boys in their natural environment,” says Celeste Pavlik, of League City, Texas. Pavlik owns Everyday Photo Bliss, but isn’t actively taking on new sessions until her kids get a little older. “Right now, I’m mostly just enjoying photographing my boys. It’s wonderful when I catch them playing in the playroom or family room, their bedroom, outside in the dirt — all normal things boys do, and it’s a plus when it’s in the perfect light.”

Go outside, take a walk — wherever it is that the boy in question likes to horse around is where he’ll be the most comfortable. Younger boys are notoriously unpredictable, so they need an environment stimulating enough to capture their attention, even if it’s just small bits at a time.

“My main approach is to have an open mind and just let them be boys,” says Pavlik. “Have fun and be patient, and just let them be themselves.”

Clickin Moms Mentor Lacey Meyers in Clackamas, Ore., agrees location is key, since boys often aren’t as comfortable in front of the camera as girls typically are.

“Boys’ joy is genuine and easily drawn out when they’re in a setting that stimulates their desire to explore,” she says. “Once they cooperate for the necessary images, there is always the promise that they will get to explore more.”

Not a bribe per se, but maybe a little enticement. Whether you live near the beach, a cool forest, or wide open pastures, find a spot that’s intriguing enough to excite your little explorer, and plan a little time to just walk about and see what’s there.

No oNe caN deNy there’s a certaiN perceptioN,

Clockwise from top left: Lacey Meyers (boy swinging and boy playing on

floor), Lynne Rigby, Celeste Pavlik. Opposite page: Celeste Pavlik



Slow your roll“We were sitting on the beach after a storm, and one of my boys started throwing sand,” says Lynne Rigby, Clickin Moms Mentor and work-shop instructor in Orlando. “Instead of me yelling to stop because someone was going to lose an eye, I just started shooting. They were running around, having a great time, all three are smiling and happy. Four years later, those are some of my favorite pictures because that’s how I want to remember them and how our life was.”

Shooting children in general typically means you have to be flexible, patient and extremely tolerant. And flexible. And patient. And tolerant. But something happens with a group of boys, or even a solitary boy. That penchant for mischief is always just under the surface. Pavlik says she once had an elaborate idea for a bubble shoot in her family room, and spent the afternoon moving furniture, setting up bubbles and attempting to get her triplet boys in coordinating shorts in hopes of capturing some amazing bubble photos.

Above: Lynne Rigby. Opposite, top to bottom: Celeste Pavlik, Lacey Meyers (x2)



“After a very long time of shooting them and get-ting nothing I was happy with, I felt like a failure, because it was a lot of work,” she says. “As I packed up the bubbles and cleaned up the mess, they were still on cloud nine jumping around, singing, dancing and having so much fun. Then, the moment came where they all just crashed. So I sat down and started shooting again, capturing some of my favorite photos I have of them today. One of my all-time favorite photos of Colton is the one of him holding his giraffe.”

FIND THE BEAUTY—YES, BEAUTY—IN A BOY Meyers laughingly admits one of the biggest challenges to photographing boys is that she can’t doll them up in pretty outfits and style their hair.

“So, the real challenge for me comes in capturing boys beautifully,” she says. “The activity my boys are doing doesn’t have to be ‘beautiful’ but when the available light is great, the resulting image can be beautiful. Even if it is a shot of my little boy examining a bug, or learning to use his knife.”

Tami Wilson, who runs a home-based studio in Denver, Colo., finds that many times, photog-raphers forget to find the beauty in boys.

“They may not be all ruffley and cute on the outside like little girls, but they are amazingly creative and animated when you step into their world. Take the time to get to know them.”

Don’t forget that even rough-and-tumble little boys can have a sensitive, softer side. Cap-ture the quiet moments, the peaceful moments. If you stumble upon your boy engrossed in a book or a drawing, or even just focused intently on building with Legos, use a zoom, stay back, and focus on those intent expressions.

“I find myself looking for those little in-between moments,” says Elle Walker, another Clickin Moms Mentor in Victoria, Australia.

“Those facial expressions that I know so well, that will undoubtedly disappear as they grow. The tender moments between siblings, the blissfully unaware moments when your child is engrossed in an imaginary world, and those every-day moments I never want to forget.”



LittLe boys are beautifuL LittLe creatures and i say that as LovingLy as possibLe … ”

“

This page: Elle Walker. Opposite, clockwise from top left: Elle Walker,

Tami Wilson, Elle Walker.


Act your shoe size, not your AgeOne sure-fire way to get boys to react to you is potty humor. For whatever reason, from about age two on, it just never gets old. Well, not to boys, anyway. (And, really, not for most men.) Wilson, Rigby and Meyers agree this is a tactic that works — so much so that Rigby recom-mends installing a fart app on your phone as her No. 1 tip for shooting boys.

“When boys are a little bit older and not com-fortable in front of the camera, I use what I call ‘gross tactics,’” says Wilson, who also has a fart app on her iPhone. “Anything that completely grosses you out, they will most likely love. So, talking about farts and boogers and anything smelly will keep them engaged.”

undress them for successIt’s a well-known stereotype that most boys have very little interest in shopping for clothes or even opening their eyes when they pull a shirt and pants out of the closet. Well, at least until they hit middle school, anyway. So don’t force it, especially for younger boys.

“I love to shoot my boys in as little clothing as possible,” says Pavlik. “It just looks natural and I doubt anyone would think it unusual to find a little boy running around the house shirtless or even in just his Underoos.”

Rigby says this is one of the main reasons she likes to shoot near the water. She can buy nice bathing suits for her boys and not worry so much about shirts with graphics or logos.

“But, if they’re going through a pirate phase, for example, I like to memorialize that and let them play pirate because those days go by too quickly,” she says. “I try to buy only clothes I won’t mind seeing in pictures. I’m not one for formal, ‘let’s get all dressed up and show the world how perfect we all are’ pictures. That’s just not how I am or how we operate as a family.”

Walker agrees, saying it’s just as important for her to capture her children in their preferred clothing, whether it’s a pajama phase or on an

“I only wear red” day. Often she says, she prefers to photograph her boys with their shirts off because, “skin doesn’t date.”

finAlly, let boys be boys“Above all else, focus on taking images that capture who your child is, doing whatever it is that makes them them,” says Meyers. “I always remind my-self that their activity doesn’t have to be beautiful to be captured beautifully. Light, depth of field, perspective and processing can all be used to make even the most ‘boy’ activities lovely in an image. I let my boys be boys and use the surrounding factors and variables to help me artistically, and hopefully, beautifully tell their story.” C


LittLe boys are beautifuL LittLe creatures and i say that as LovingLy as possibLe … ”



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NOVEMBER /DECEMBER ˜˚˛˜ ligh˜...Chocolate Whiskey Cake By Kathy Rooney, Beth’s mom 5 ounces...

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