Tag Archives: arvada

Portrait

Arvada, CO | Children’s Portraits | End of Year Collage

I have posted previously about a collage that I created for one of my seniors. For the holidays, I decided to take that idea and apply it to a bunch of pictures that I had made of my girls thoughout the year. I put together the collage you see below and we gave prints to Grandmas and Grandpas. I think this ended up being a cool way to display a variety of pictures, and it tells a much more complete story than any single image ever could.

These collages would also work really well to display a selection of pictures from one of my documentary family or children’s portrait sessions. Over the course of a single shoot we might not get enough images to put together a complete album, but we will almost always get enough great images to put together an interesting collage. If a collage seems like something you might be interested in, just let me know.

You can click on the image to see it larger. Enjoy…

Custom collage of kids portraits

Tech Info:
Collage created in Adobe Photoshop CS5
Mixture of film and digital captures

Portrait

Arvada, CO | Outdoor Children’s Portraits | Emma+Molly+Tree

There has been a lot of black and white stuff up on the blog recently, so I wanted to break things up with a bit of color. Below are a few portraits of the girls that I shot back before Christmas. I needed to get prints of these pictures in short order, for presents, so I shot digitally. I think the digital files held up pretty well. It would be nice to have a little more highlight detail (like I can get with film), but the prints still look really nice.

Even though these are my own kids, this was a pretty typical “kid’s session” for me. For this shoot, I was more focused on nailing the traditional portraits than I normally would be. We were working on a pretty limited time table, and I knew I was going for a couple of nice prints rather than a photo story or session album. We had to shoot pretty fast because the light was falling and it was pretty cold (but not that cold considering it was December in Colorado).

I find, when photographing kids, it makes things easier if I have something for them to interact with. It takes their mind off of the camera and allows me to get more natural expressions. In this case, we used an almond tree in my parent’s back yard as our “prop”.

We waited for late afternoon to get warm, directional light. I placed the sun at the girls’ backs to give nice rim lighting on their hair and to help show the texture of the tree.

One other element in this shoot was camera angle. You will notice that I was moving around a lot. Some of the shots I was standing on a chair to get a higher angle, and some of the shots I was sitting or laying on the ground to get a lower angle. I like to move around to keep the images from a shoot constantly changing. It allows me to get a variety of different looks from a single location.

You can click on any of the images to see them larger. Enjoy…

Portrait of a six year old girl
Three year old girl leaning against a tree

Portrait of a three year old girl
Six year old girl sitting in a tree

Tech Info:
Nikon D70s
Nikon 35mm f2
ISO 200
Adobe Camera Raw

About Jason

Arvada, CO | Social Media | Jason Noffsinger’s New Tumblr Feed

The view from my office window. Photographed on my iPod Touch 4G.
Hey out there on the internets. I just wanted to call your attention to my new Tumblr feed. If you look over there >>> in the right hand widget bar, you should be seeing some pictures or quotes that I have added.

If all goes as planned, these will be the most recent additions to the feed. I will try to put up at least one fresh post every day. They will be short and sweet – One picture, or one quote, or one random thought. Most of the time, the posts will be photography related. I am calling the feed Jason Noffsinger Photography/Life, and that pretty well sums up my intent. I just want to give you a little more insight into my life and my work without the limitations of Twitter or Facebook but also without all the analysis, editing and SEO considerations that go into a full blog post.

“So what exactly is a Tumblr feed?” you may be asking. Well, Tumblr is a blogging platform that has been stripped down to the bare essentials. It fits somewhere between Twitter and a traditional blog (like this one). It doesn’t limit me to 140 characters, but it is super easy to put up pictures or quotes or random thoughts – especially from my new favorite toy – the Ipod Touch 4G. I love this little thing! I can check email, maintain my calendar, surf the web, make Tumblr posts, and look at Flickr from anywhere that has wi-fi, all with no $90 per month data plan.

And my favorite feature… the horrible little 0.7 megapixel digital camera. I can use it to make quick snapshots (like the one at the beginning of this post) and then run the pictures through one of the many post-processing apps on the Apple App store, before uploading to Flickr, or Facebook, or Tumblr. At last count, I already have eight of these imaging apps loaded. Of course, with the terrible camera, the image quality is not good at all, but the pictures are sure fun to play with. So I am using the iPod Touch as my FunkyCam – for fun little pictures that I can snap while I’m out and about.

So take a minute, click on over to www.jasonnoffsinger.tumblr.com and have a look. I really like the simple design that I put together for this project. Hopefully, I can create some worthwhile content to go along with it.

Let me know what you think.

Tech Info:
Ipod Touch 4G
Instagram App for tonality and sloppy border
MonoPhix Lite App for B&W conversion
Filterstorm App for adding metadata and uploading

Portrait

Arvada, CO | Documentary Portraits | Real Baby, Really Cute

It’s hard to shoot a picture of a baby that isn’t really cute, but you don’t see a lot of portraits of babies that are really real. They are usually laying on a white background, or sitting on a blanket covered with roses, or popping out of a cabbage patch in a costume. While those types of pictures are fun, they don’t really tell you much about that baby’s personality, or what makes them different.

Below, I have some documentary style baby portraits. These pictures were made in a real location, with natural light and authentic everyday baby clothes. Through the pictures, you can relate to this little one’s environment and understand how  she interacts with the world. They give you a good sense of how old she is, and where she is in her development. She is alert and aware – curious about the camera. She is able to pull herself up to a sitting position. She is very tactile, using her fingers to better understand her surroundings. This is all important information that can be effectively communicated through documentary portraits. And of course, you also get to see all the “cuteness” visible in a more traditional studio portrait – the big eyes, the peach fuzz hair, the chubby cheeks. I think it is the combination of all these elements that makes for interesting pictures.

You can click on any of the pictures to see them larger. Enjoy…

Portrait of a baby in a high chair
Portrait of a baby in a high chair

Portrait of a baby in a high chair

Tech Info:
Nikon N90s
Nikon 50mm f1.8
Ilford HP5 Plus
DR5 Process (B&W Slide)

Camera Scan
Sigma SD9
Sigma 50mm f2.8 Macro
Photosolve Xtend-a-Slide

Portrait

Arvada, CO | Arvada Center | Documentary Family Portraits

Below are some pictures from one of my fall documentary family portrait sessions. These pictures were all shot over the course of a couple hours at the park behind the Arvada Center for the Arts in Arvada, CO.

I was fortunate to get to work with such a fun and happy young family, with a three year old son who reminds me so much of Molly (also three) it’s scary. We were blessed with a warm day, nice late afternoon light, and beautiful fall colors.

It was fun to document this family interacting and having a good time. I think we were able to capture some great images that really tell a story about who these people are and how much they enjoy each other.

You can view the whole event and order prints HERE.

Click on any of the images to view them larger and read a caption. Enjoy…

Portrait of a young family laughing

Portrait of a mother
Portrait of a father

Portrait of a three year old boy
Three year old boy climbing over a wall

Portrait of a three year old boy looking down
Three year old boy's hands

Portrait of a couple laughing

Portrait of a three year old boy
Portrait of a three year old boy standing between is parents

Portrait of a young family
Three year old boy talking to his parents

Three year old boy playing on the playground
Three year old boy playing on the playground
Portrait of a three year old boy kissing his mother
Portrait of a father and his son
Three year old boy looking up to the sky

Tech Info:
For this shoot, I used three camera/lens combinations

B&W Film
Nikon F100
Nikon 85mm f1.8
Legacy Pro 400 (AKA – Fuji Neopan 400)
Richard Photo Lab

Color Film
Nikon N90s
Nikon 50mm f1.4
Fuji Pro 400H
Richard Photo Lab

Digital
Nikon D70s
Nikon 35mm f2
Adobe Camera Raw

If you would like to figure out which combination was used for which picture, you can look at each image’s IPTC info (using Jeffrey Friedl’s Exif Viewer) or you can hop over to my Flickr photostream and look at the image tags.

Portrait

Arvada, CO | Kids Portraits | Airplanes, Wagons & A Big Bruise

Kids are resilient. Ten minutes before I shot this series of pictures, Jaxon managed to fall and bang his forehead on the asphalt. I would have been laying in bed for a week. He cried for about thirty seconds, and then wanted to get down and play. We watched as the bruise started to come out on his forehead, and I went back to taking pictures. This was something important to document, as a toddler he is pretty much a walking bruise. That’s just who he is at this point in his life.

Jaxon never seems to get too worried about it. He has more important things to think about. Like airplanes flying overhead and wagons to pull and climb on. I guess he figures bruises are just the price you pay for the freedom to walk around and check things out.

I really like the authenticity of these pictures. The bruise, the clothes, the hair, the setting, it all feels real – because it is real. A picture doesn’t have to be staged and styled and manicured to be beautiful. Life is what it is, and I like to document it. Let me know if you have a life you would like to have documented.

You can click on any of the images to see them larger. Enjoy…

A toddler looks up to the sky
A toddler holds up the handle of his wagon

A toddler slams his wagon handle to the ground
A toddler plays in his wagon

Tech Info:
Open shade late in the day
Nikon D70s
Nikon 35mm f2
f2.8 | 1/400 | ISO 200
Adobe Camera Raw
Photoshop Unsharp Mask to boost midtone contrast

Portrait

Arvada, CO | Documentary Portraits | Family Pumpkin Picking

Halloween is here again! I hope you have your pumpkin picked out.

Below are some documentary pictures from our pumpkin picking adventure this fall. The whole crew went over to my Mom and Dad’s place where Dad has a big garden with a small pumpkin patch. The kids all got to pick out a couple of pumpkins and there were still a few left over to give to some of the kid’s friends.

I really like these pictures for a few reasons… first is the light. We did this in the late afternoon, so the light was warm and directional, perfect for these kinds of pictures. If you are scheduling a family event that might provide good photo-ops, always try to take advantage of the light at the end of the day.

Another thing that I like about these pictures is the authenticity. Everyone looks real. Julie and Luke just got out of work, so they are wearing their work clothes. Dad is pretty much always dressed just like this – jeans, pocketed t-shirt and a big hat (in the winter he adds a flannel shirt). It’s the end of the day, so the kids hair and clothes are messy, and they have stuff all over their faces – just as you would expect. These pictures really document our family, not some idealized version, our real family.

This kind of authenticity is what I always strive for in my documentary portrait sessions – family fun, real locations, natural light, comfortable clothing – perfect. So if you have a family event coming up that could benefit from some authentic documentation, give me a call.

You can click on any of the images to see them larger. Enjoy…

A one year old boy and his father pick out a pumpkin
A three year old girl picks out a pumpkin

A one year old boy picks out a pumpkin
A three year old girl tries to decide on a pumpkin

A six year old boy picks out a pumpkin
A six year old girl picks out a pumpkin

Portrait of six year old cousins
Girl inspects a wheel barrow full of pumpkins

A one year old boy pushes a wheel barrow
Grandpa pushes a wheel barrow full of pumpkins

Tech Info:
Late afternoon light
Nikon D70s
Nikon 35mm f2.0
Adobe Camera Raw

Portrait

Arvada, CO | Documentary Portraits | Jaxon Playing Outside

1 Comment

This is Jaxon. He is truly a boy’s boy. He is happiest when he’s eating, sleeping, or playing outside. He loves to run through the rocks, weeds and grass. He loves to play with sticks. And most of all, he loves to push his jeep.

These are documentary portraits of Jaxon doing his thing. For this set of images, I really wanted to show him in his element, so we went outside in the morning, when the light is good, and before he has a chance to get tired and cranky. I pretty much just followed him around and waited for him to do something interesting. He didn’t need any direction, I would occasionally say his name, just to get him to look at the camera.

My camera selection was based on my desire to place Jaxon in context. I wanted it to be obvious that we were outside running around and playing. So I went old school – these were shot using an old fixed lens rangefinder camera from the 1970’s. Notice the soft corners in some of the images. That is one of the great things about using old film cameras and lenses, they each have their own unique look that can really add to the feel of the shots.

One thing I especially like about this particular camera is the fixed 40mm lens. It is close to a standard 50mm, but just enough wider to give more context to the images. However, it is not as wide as a 35mm, which can show distortion in portrait images. 40mm really seems to be the sweet spot, at least for me.

You can click on any of the images to see them larger. Enjoy…

A toddler pushes his toy jeep
A one year old crashes his jeep
A one year old boy plays outside
A toddler plays with an old barrel
A one year old boy plays with a stick

Tech Info:
Canon Canonet QL17 GIII
Fixed 40mm f1.7 lens
Legacy Pro 400 (AKA Fuji Neopan 400)
Ilford Ilfotec DD-X (7min @ 20C)

Camera Scans
Sigma SD9
Sigma 50mm f2.8 Macro
Photosolve Xtend-a-Slide

Portrait

Arvada, CO | Baby Portrait | Smile, It’s A Holiday Weekend!

A baby boy smiles for the camera
Smile everybody, it’s a holiday weekend!

Let’s kick it off with a picture of a happy baby. Check out those new teeth.

This scene was photographed during an at home portrait session in Arvada, CO. All of the light was provided by large windows to camera right, and a smaller window just out of frame above the baby’s right shoulder. Fill light was provided by the window light bouncing off of the rest of the walls in the room. Fast film (ISO 1600) and a fast lens (50mm f1.4) let me grab this shot while keeping motion blur to a minimum.

You can click on the image to see it larger. Enjoy…

Tech Info:
Nikon F100
Nikon 50mm f1.4
Fuji Neopan 1600
Processing and scanning by Richard Photo Lab

Portrait

Arvada, CO | Documentary Family Pictures | At The Bowling Alley

I love to go “on location” to shoot family portrait sessions. When you can get out and do something, people start to have fun and interact. This interaction makes for much more natural and spontaneous pictures. When the natural location is coupled with available light photography (no annoying flash pops), subjects tend to open up and let me document who they really are. The resulting pictures tell a much better story about the family than a studio portrait ever could.

Below we have pictures from a trip to a local bowling alley here in Arvada, CO. Everyone had a great time, and I was able tell a story about the family and how they interact. Even though bowling alleys are not exactly know for their great light, I was able to push my black and white film and use a fast lens to capture these moments, and I think the grainy look really adds to the authenticity of these images.

You can click on any of the pictures to see them larger. Enjoy…

Father feeds his infant son a bottle
A five year old boy watches his ball roll down the lane

A five year old boy picks up his bowling ball
Five year old cousins sit at the scoring table
A woman takes a picture of her niece
A woman and her nephew smile for the camera
A man holds his son and his niece

Tech Info:
Nikon N90s
Nikon 50mm f1.8
Ilford HP5 Plus – pushed 1 stop (ISO 800)
Processing and Scanning by Richard Photo Lab