Amy Sandoval Photography Blog

Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk Portrait Photographer, Wedding Photographer: Newborn, Maternity, child, family and wedding coverage.

Category Archives: Child

Celebrating Her Second Birthday: Family Portrait Photography, Hampton Roads

Monday, February 6, 2012 Posted in Child, Family

I’ve been lucky enough to work with this family twice before and loved capturing this session to celebrate her second birthday. She has beautiful eyes and she’s also so charming – at one point during our home photos she put a basket over her head to play peek-a-boo with us!

We started out this session in their home playroom to capture them in their natural habitat, so to speak! You can tell she’s at home building up block towers with her mom and dad and knocking them down again.

We then took a drive to a pretty little stretch of open space to capture some outdoor photos. Although we’ve had unseasonably warm temps, it was a little chilly for their session, but she didn’t mind it a bit. She was off exploring and toddling about as we followed along!

Here’s an inside look at how I process photos. The first one of this series is the originally processed file. Second is a more vintage toned version and final version is a black and white conversion. One of the reasons it takes me a while to process sessions is because I do this for a lot of the photos – processing them several different ways and deciding which works best. Sometimes I can’t decide and provide the client with the best options so they can pick their favorite. In this case, I know the family loves black and white photos, so I knew it was important to offer them a black and white option!

She’s so cute walking towards AND walking away from the camera!

If this one reminds you of something, go check out the homepage of my newly re-launched portfolio site. Yes, this is similar to one I took of her last year for her one-year session.

We finished our time together at a park just a few steps away. Always a fun reward after a great family session and I enjoy the opportunity to wind down with a few more informal but fun-to-document family fun photos.

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Session rewind – Fall mini session with Olivia – Child Portrait Photographer in Virginia Beach

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 Posted in Child, Personal Notes

Another catch up blog post! I did a mini session with Olivia last November to get ready for our Christmas cards. Olivia is 9 – part of me would like to permanently hold her here at this age because it’s such a good age. She’s curious, funny, sweet and still likes her parents. At the same time, she’s inching into that pre-teen place and there’s a sass that comes with that. But mostly I know that I’m seeing a glimpse of who she’ll be when she grows up, and I feel lucky to be part of her world.

Part of me wishes the color in this area would stay like this year-round – warm oranges and yellows and beautiful fall backdrops. But alas, spring will come and I will want everything to stay green and fresh all the time. Technical notes on these, for those who wonder…they were shot on my 50mm 1.2 lens and I tested myself and the lens by shooting the majority of them at around 1.2 or 1.4. You’ll see that they have a dreamy feel as a result – the focus drops off very quickly behind her, and in some closer shots of her face it drops off on part of her face. I wish I had more faith in the focal points on my Canon 5D Mark II, but I don’t often trust the focal points outside that trusty middle one, so much of this was done in focus/recompose style.

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Family Session Snapshot

Thursday, January 26, 2012 Posted in Baby, Child, Family

Here’s a little snapshot of a family session I photographed back in November. These boys have the most gorgeous eyes – just as their parents do. I love the energy boys have – it’s so contagious and fun. See a stick? Pick it up and build something with it! See a tree? Climb it! This session was an adventure for the boys and I loved capturing it.

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Stuff I need to blog…

Monday, January 23, 2012 Posted in Baby, Child

Here’s just one example of stuff I need to blog. I get so busy towards the end of the busy season (basically all of fall), that I don’t always blog everything I shoot. Here’s one quick example of a session you haven’t seen yet. I’ll post more from it later this week.

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Sweet and Shy 2-Year-Old {Virginia Beach, Norfolk Family Portrait Photographer}

Wednesday, November 30, 2011 Posted in Child, Family

At age 2 my daughter was shy. We always told people that in new situations she’d need a few minutes to warm up to the room. Given a few minutes and a little space to observe, she’d usually be whirling her way around the place in no time. So when I met this beautiful, shy 2-year-old, she reminded me a lot of my daughter at that age. We started out slow, taking a few photos of sweet Kayla with her mom and dad, and even showing her my secret weapon (blowing bubbles! making fake burping noises!). Eventually her adorable glances made way to sweet smiles, and no matter the look on her face, there’s no doubt she couldn’t take a bad photo if she tried.

Here’s how we started off. Even the pout is really cute.

And these shy moments made for the sweetest shots, too.

Eventually she gave up the pout for a smile!

Tiny Ugg Boots. Love ‘em.

In the next series of shots, Dad was off behind her making funny faces. Love the series as she watches dad, then exchanges a glance with mom and points back at Dad making those crazy faces!

Then she noticed that I was making a lot of clicking noises behind her! Loved this one in color and the black/white conversion.

Here’s another series where she caught me behind her and points me out to her Mom. I was busted. Then she shyly hid from me. But even the hiding is cute.

Beautiful family.

Sweetest face.

Big hugs for Dad.

Followed by some silly faces with Dad. Her look back at him is priceless!

Kisses from Dad.

After their session, I took a quick stroll around the block to capture the last of the fall color in Norfolk. I miss the color already. We had a beautiful fall here in Hampton Roads.