Movin' On!

This is the last post you'll see on here! Blogger, you've been been good to me but it is time to move on...

Come visit my new blog here:

www.melissadeschampblog.com!

Also, please update your bookmarks and feed readers. Don't worry, all the posts here have been moved over there too : )

Avanti & Bill ~ Engaged!

I met up with Avanti and Bill this past Sunday for an engagement session in Beacon Hill. It was a gorgeous day for the beginning of March and you could really feel spring in the air. Bill is a friend of Marc's from Northeastern. He and Avanti live in New York currently but they wanted to shoot in Beacon Hill, which is where they were living when they got engaged.

We met up in Quincy and took the red line into the city. When Bill suggested this plan I was so excited... train blur shot! The first train that came in to the station was going so slow that it barely blurred. I was bummed and decreased my shutter speed even more for the next one. The next one came in so fast that it blurred wonderfully but created a wind tunnel and blew poor Avanti's hair all over the place. Hmmm.

This was the best of the bunch but I must confess I helped it a bit in Photoshop...








At Bill's request, we spent some time trying to recreate a certain iconic album cover... any guesses?

Avanti requested some 70's style processing and I thought this photo was an appropriate choice...






At the end of our session, Bill and Avanti treated me to brunch at the Oak Room.


This was one of my favorite parts of the day and not just because I had the most delicious Fairmont benedict on my plate. A lot of the time, my favorite photos tend to come from the end of an engagement session. While I always try to help people feel comfortable in front of the camera, most really start to relax at the end! You start getting things like this series where Avanti is trying to "fix" Bill's smile... I love it!


Cheers!

Jake is back!

So far, I think Jake holds the record for starring on my blog the most times. You can see him in this post and even a little bit in this one too.

Jake is 7 months old now. He can do fun things like sit up on his own and prop himself up on his arms. I love Jake's current age for photo-taking purposes because he is really curious and interactive, but still cannot crawl away from me (haha). I caught up with Jake and his family on Saturday. Here are a few from our session:









A favorite!










Hahaa... so cute.

Wedding workshop Part 2

I thought I would post a few more photos from the wedding workshop I attended a few weeks back. Scroll down for part one.











We got to eat the cake after the shoot - yum!

Ali & James

On Sunday, I met up with my photography girl group (Molly Bergeron, Alanna Scully, Sarah Hildebrandt and Emily Dingee) to do some shooting. I met Molly almost six months ago when I commented on her blog (!) and I am so thankful that I did. She introduced me to these girls who are all so creative and excited about photography. We try to meet up regularly to bounce ideas off each other and shoot!

We headed out to Springfield, MA (Lana's neighborhood) to practice with some tricky church lighting, chat over lunch and do an engagement session with Lana's friends, Ali and James. The session was in Forest Park... which is where Marc and I had our wedding reception (at the Barney Estate!)

Here are some favorites of Ali and James -




















Thank you to Lana for coordinating and to Ali and James for being so comfortable with our paparazzi-style shoot!

Wedding workshop Part 1

A few weekends ago, I attended a wedding photography workshop through the BU Center for Digital Imaging Arts (CDIA) and taught by Lara Woolfson of The Studio Nouveau. Lara was beyond generous with her knowledge... the focus of the workshop was on creating a brand but I learned SO much in so many areas. I left feeling totally invigorated and inspired to improve my business.

We did a shoot with Lara's friend Heidi who made a beautiful bride...

More from the workshop to come!

MediaVue Product Shoot

I was very flattered when my friend Erik asked me to take some product photos for his company's website launch. His company, MediaVue Systems, designs and builds player PCs for the digital signage industry.


To tell you the truth I was a bit intimidated by this shoot. I am used to photographing people in mostly natural light. I typically look for emotions first with lighting a very close second. Photographing computers couldn't be more different! Lighting is paramount and emotions not so much : )



I do not have studio lighting (just a speedlite), so it took some experimenting to get even lighting with minimal glare. We ended up building a very primitive lightbox out of white posterboard. It didn't look pretty but it got the job done!