focal length: 48 mm
shutter speed: 1/200
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 640
flash: none

When shooting children, I find that I’m always crouching, slouching or totally sprawled on the floor. If I had shot this standing up (comfortably), I wouldn’t have captured her little tippy toes or the perspective of being right there in the thick of the action. By shooting at a child’s level, we can see the world in a new way. Or rather, in a renewed way, reminding us of how everything looked when we were little tots. How about you? What sort of weird body contortions do you find yourself in when shooting your kids?

When did she get this tall? Can you say “childproof time”?

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

focal length: 32 mm
shutter speed: 1/80
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 640
flash: none

I wanted to do a detail of the hippo on this housecoat, so I framed it low and didn’t have to crop it in post processing. The colours were vibrant to start with but the colour of the floor was a bit distracting as it was also bright. I used the colour selector in Lightroom and dialed down the saturation for orange. After adding a black vignette, I was able to make the bright pink stand out even more. I also used the clarity slider to help define the edges in the robe a bit. If you’re interested in exactly how I did this, I’ll be putting up video tutorials of my post processing using Lightroom in the near future. Keep an eye out for them!

I wish I had a matching housecoat for myself!

And Yay! My 100th post!

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

focal length: 24 mm
shutter speed: 1/60
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 400
flash: none

It’s Thursday again and I’ll admit, time catches up quickly and I forgot about it! I hadn’t taken many photos today so I ransacked my files and looky what I found? If you look closely at her ear, you’ll see a beautiful little heart lying on it’s side. It fit so nicely with today’s Love Thursday. I actually cropped this image from a larger one.

I thought I was close enough already but by getting even closer, I was able to see more. My sweetheart has love written all over.

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

focal length: 24 mm
shutter speed: 1/40
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 400
flash: none

Kids really do grow up so quickly. My daughter is still a “baby” but she seems so grown up already! Her dad and I always talk about how we wish she would always stay this small but I guess we have no say in the matter. All we can do is cherish the time we share with her at every stage in her life… AND take lots and lots of pictures! Video too of course. So, before all our kids grow up, be sure to take a lot of pictures doing their everyday “mundane” things because 10 years down the road, we’ll wish we could do all those “mundane” things with them again!

Today she walked around the house a zillion times. Ok, that was a bit hyperbolic. But her dad and I felt a little sad that our little, independent baby doesn’t need us to hold her hands anymore. She’s growing up! Eep!

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

focal length: 24 mm
shutter speed: 1/30
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 320
flash: none

I took a series of “blind” shots today with my camera pointing up while touching the floor trying to get a shot of my daughter’s new hairstyle (it’s just water). To keep with the theme, I tried adding a texture layer using Adobe Photoshop and played around with colour balance, saturation, brightness and contrast. I also cloned out a few distracting background objects. And finally, I added a little bit of text for fun.

Here’s the original image that’s pretty much straight-out-of-camera (SOOC):

I don’t usually do heavy processing, but I thought I’d try something different today. How about you? Would you like to share any interesting images that you created?

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.