Baby Fiona

It seems as though there are babies popping up everywhere! Recently, I did an in-home documentary shoot for a mother and her child which would become a birthday present for "dad". Even though I brought extra lighting with me, after seeing how young the child was (7 mos.) I decided added lighting would be a bit alarming to this girl and decided to work within her natural environment. Luckily, my digital equipment can produce excellent results without much extra light. Kate (mom) wanted a very natural shoot of her daughter (Fiona) going about their daily routines. We had a lot of fun together and Fiona was so intruiged by the camera that I had a hard time getting her to take her eyes off me! What really amazed me was the amount of fine motor skills Fiona had at such a young age. Kate is a pianist and Fiona seems to pick it up very naturally. She didn't bang on the keyboard as other children of her age would do, instead she pressed individual keys on the piano with independence among her fingers. Babies amaze me ;-)

Lily Study

The weather has been hot and humid lately- which is certainly not the best of conditions for holding a camera up to your face, but it does make for hearty flower pictures. Once again, I ventured into my garden, this time to the lilies which had finally survived the deer's hunger long enough to bloom. A few had fallen to the ground, beaten by the storms, but their beauty remains. This particular image is one of my favorite but can only be justified in a poster sized print, yet I attempt to place it here in a humble size in order to share it with you.

Aniridia

When I first met with Jen & Chris, I noticed something about Chris' eyes, but didn't want to ask at our first meeting. Luckily, I had accidentally given Jen & Chris the wrong contract which provided them with an engagement session that wouldn't normally have been included in their package. I say luckily, because I'm very grateful that I had an opportunity to learn more about Chris' condition before their wedding day.

Chris was born with a condition called aniridia which is described as having partial irises or none at all. This only happens to 1 out of every 100,000 - 250,000 people and is caused by a deletion in a strand of DNA. Because he has no irises, his eyes cannot dilate in bright sun, and he has difficulty keeping his eyes open in even shady areas on a clear day. I think this is one of the most difficult photographic challenges I've had yet. I wanted Chris to feel as comfortable as possible, so I sought out shady areas, avoided using flash, and tried to only venture into open areas when the clouds came out. Eventually we were able to create a system that worked for both of us, which allowed him to keep his eyes closed longer while still allowing me to capture a few prepared shots. More than anything, I'm glad that we had a chance to work together before the wedding, because there's absolutely no time to experiment when it comes to the day of the wedding. Luckily, their wedding will be in the winter and indoors, so sunlight will be at a minimum. They are a wonderful couple and it was incredible to see both of their faces just light up when they looked at each other. I share this story in order to bring awareness to this condition as it seems to be under-researched with no apparent cures or treatments.