The Walsh Family

Taken in Historic Yorktown, yet another "Olde Towne" just outside of Newport News, VA, my friend Craig Kuhns, my wife Heather, and our kids assisted me on this family photo shoot. It was a little chilly, but so easy because the Walsh family is so good looking.

I used my Nikon d200 fixed with a 24mm f/2.8 lens. I love the d200, it's a perfect camera for me right now. Of course, I dream about the d3, but I think the next logical step for me is the d300 or d700.

Melody Crane...

...back when she was a Crane.

This is a shot from Melody's bridal portrait session. We got rained on, but we still had some pretty amazing locations.

Now that Melody and Mike have gotten married, I'm able to share these images. I'll post a few more in the next few days and weeks, but this one might be my favorite from the bunch.

Jane Zook

Jane and I have been wanting to do a proper photo shoot for a while now, and it just so happened that the only day we were able to pull it together was a freezing cold, rainy day in December. She was amazing though, she has such a natural beauty that it's hard not to walk away with dozens of great photos, regardless of the temperature. She was a really good sport, doing everything I asked of her, which included standing in the middle of the road, in the rain, in the cold, in traffic, without a coat.

She certainly got a lot of stares from the bundled-up people in Ghent.

Doug and Sara

It's hard to get a photo of my parents. Either my dad is behind the camera, or one of them isn't in the mood. When one is ready, the other is busy, or sleeping.

This was taken at Sandbridge in Virginia Beach during our Thanksgiving vacation weekend. We just wrapped up a family portrait in really cold, windy weather, and I grabbed mom and dad for a couple quick shots.

Lit with one Alien Bee B800 outfitted with a shoot-through umbrella. My very faithful photo assistant Craig Kuhns reminded me that we didn't have any modifiers on this light. It was straight flash to battle the sun.

Lying In The Grass

One of my personal favorites from our little "Birthday Session" with our kid, Isaiah. Again, playing around with some creative processing... I'm still not certain on how well I like it... It might not be subtle enough for me. I'm the kind of person who likes clean, simple, and classic. I like to achieve my look in the camera, with light and shadow, and I'm not a fan of "photoshop fads", but... I understand that creative processing can help to accentuate the message in the photo.

In this photo, I wanted to cool down the light a little and make it seem a little older, more colorful, and playful, without destroying the skin tone. I may or may not have succeeded. Let me know what you think in the comments.

See the whole collection at prints.levibethune.com

Isaiah is Three

Here is a little sneak-peek at our photo shoot with Isaiah this past weekend.

The sun was shining, and the park was empty. Perfect.

My plan is to take portraits of all my kids on or around their birthday every year. It will be a fun life-long experiment to see them grow up, and to see my photography evolve. I have more to share, but I need to set aside some time to process the rest of them. This one pretty much sums up the fun time we had at our first location.

This photo was taken with all natural light in the early fall afternoon clear skies and spotty shade make it a challenge. I'm employing a little different processing procedure than normal, but still keeping it vibrant and with the season.

Family Is Everything

This is a picture of the Soto kids during a recent family photo shoot.

Shot with my 15mm fisheye lens while laying on my back. Triggered a hot shoe flash with a pocket wizard that was laying on the ground next to my head, under a shoot-through umbrella that was stuck in the ground.

If you're looking for some fun family portraits before Christmas, I'm booking dates the weekend of Thanksgiving in Hampton Roads as well as December 14th through 17th.