Jen's Maternity and Family Session | Wilmington NC Maternity Photography

I've been so lucky to photograph some amazing life events for Jen and Brian. I photographed little Ethen's newborn photos and many family photos. And now I am so excited to photograph Jen's maternity and family session before their new bundle of joy arrives! Jen is about a week from her due date and they are getting ready for another little boy! :) They wanted to capture this moment in their lives, so we headed to downtown Wilmington for some beautiful maternity photos. 

Poor little Ethen, these last few photos, he was frozen. He was still a happy little boy though! What a trooper!

To book your maternity session visit www.lesleyveronikaphotography.com.

How to photograph your kids better | Wilmington NC Family Photographer

So, if your a reader of my blog you know I always talk about the importance of capturing the memories of your children and family. I understand that not everyone can afford a family photographer so I am here to teach you how to better photograph your children. There was an amazing photographer, George Lange, on the Today Show this morning. He talks about this very subject, that I am so passionate about. Check out the interview here. I love how he talks about the feeling of the photo and what the meaning of the photo is about in that moment is more important then what the photo looks like. I love this and completely agree! Below you will see two photos of my daughter... the first time she slept in her crib and eating cake at her first birthday! Both of these photos probably don't mean much to you but they mean the world to me and they will be moments I keep with me always. So whenever there is a wonderful moment happening in your child's life make sure you capture it because its those photos you will be looking back in the years to come.

To see family photography please visit www.lesleyveronikaphotography.com. 

Jen's Maternity/ Family Teasers | Wilmington NC Family Photographer

Last weekend I had the honor of photographing Jen and Brian. They are expecting their second baby! ... Another boy! :) Ethen is the little cutie below. They are gearing up and are so excited for their next little adventure. Jen wanted some maternity photos and a family portrait to celebrate this joyous occasion! So we headed to downtown Wilmington NC for the evening! It was freezing but they were so amazing! Even Ethen didn't mind it! Isn't Jen a gorgeous pregnant lady! I just love that last one of her on the steps! 

To book your maternity session today, visit www.lesleyveronikaphotography.com. 

Mugs for Jugs at Front Street Brewery | Wilmington NC Family Photography| Wilmington NC Event Photography

Every year I photograph the Mugs for Jugs event at Front Street Brewery (Except for last year because I was 9 months pregnant! lol!) This year Mugs for Jugs is on January 25th and not only am I photographing it, I will have my very own display in the evening with my own donation bucket! For every $50. I raise, I am giving a family portrait session and wall portrait to a family affected by breast cancer! So come on down to Front Street Brewery on January 25th and make a donation to help those in need. Don't forget to get a beer while your there! A portion of the proceeds from the beer sales will go to New Hanover Regional Medical Center!

Visit my website at www.lesleyveronikaphotography.com.

Merry Christmas | Wilmington NC Family Photography

Merry Christmas from my family to yours! This was our Christmas card this year. If you want to be included on my mailing list please email your address to lesley@lesleyveronikaphotography.com. 

Visit www.lesleyveronikaphotography.com for more Family Photography.

How to photograph your kids better in front of the Christmas tree | Wilmington NC Family Photographer

I can't even believe it.. Christmas is only a few days away! Last Monday I talked about how to photograph your Christmas tree. Check out that post here. Today I want to take those rules and apply them to portraits. I will show you how to photograph your kids better in front of the Christmas tree. There are several ways you can do it. I am going to show you two ways… The first way is how many professional photographers would recommend…

The set of photos below were actually taken during the day. I am lucky enough to have so much light in my living room…. we have four windows! I closed the blinds and curtains to all the windows except for one. Then I sat Olivia in front of the window with the tree behind her. The window is off camera to the left. I turned on the Christmas tree lights and made sure the flash on my camera was turned off. I opened my aperture almost as wide as it could go…. it was at f1.8, my iso was jacked all the way up! lol! And then I adjusted my shutter speed accordingly. Because there was so much light coming in the window my shutter speed was still pretty fast. It was 500th of a second. Then I clicked away. I gave Olivia a decorative "HoHoHo" sign to catch her attention and make sure she wouldn't wiggle around. :) So to recap:

1. Turn off your flash

2. Place your child in front of a window

3. Turn your camera to a low aperture

If you are not lucky enough to have a window in your living room or in a convenient spot you could always move the tree… but really... what a pain! lol! Or you could photograph at night. The photos below were taken at night… All the some of the same rules apply

1. Turn off your flash

2. Turn your camera to a low aperture

Except…

This time your shutter speed will be much slower. I would recommend turning your aperture to the lowest setting, jacking your ISO as high as it will go and turn down your shutter speed as low as you can go with out getting motion blur. For me that is 160th of a second. It might be a little higher for you until you get the hang of it. The only way to tell is practice! You can even turn on some over head lights to help the lighting situation. It probably won't be much of a difference but Christmas lights are a lot brighter then you would think. :) And viola, photos in front of the tree! My husband even took the second photo below! Thats how easy it is! Wish I could've taken credit for that one. Its one of my favorites! Again, I gave her a plastic ornament to grab her attention for a little while. 

Leave a comment below letting me know which lighting situation you like better. And post your photos of your kids in front of the christmas tree on my Facebook page here. Visit my website for more children photography at www.lesleyveronikaphotography.com.

How to photograph your Christmas lights Part 2 | Wilmington NC Family Photography

So on Friday I talked a little about how to photograph your house Christmas lights. You can read that post here. Today I am going to teach you how to photograph your Christmas tree. My absolute favorite Christmas tradition…. decorating the Christmas tree! I just love reminiscing every year about where we got that or this ornament. We have so many sentimental ones. John still has his baby's first Christmas ornament and there's my favorite snowman ornament my parents bought me when I was in middle school. This year we have a few new ones… our new house key. I saw a pin on pinterest and fell in love with the idea! Click here for the pin. And this year we bought Olivia's Baby First Christmas ornament, its pictured below.

So lets talk shop.. how to photograph your tree…

Step 1: Use a tripod. So I talked about this on Friday also. You will get the sharpest photo by using a tripod. You will not be able to hand hold a low shutter speed. Believe me.. Ive tried… Ive also messed up a hell of a lot of photos because of it. :( Flash will not work in this situation. This brings us to step 2...

Step 2: So typically in a low light setting I would recommend an off camera flash. However, in this case you want the lights of the tree to illuminate the photo. So turn that flash off!

Step 3: Close and open your aperture. So, you are probably scratching your head right now and saying "huh". We talked a little about closing your aperture on Friday. You can see in the first photo the lights are little starbursts. I used a closed aperture of f/10 for that photo.  I highly recommend closing your aperture down to do a full length photo. The photo will be nice and sharp and you get those pretty little starburst. When you open your aperture nice and wide you will get that blurry back round and fuzzy lights effect. My aperture was f/1.4 in this photo. You can see the blurry lights right behind Olivia's Christmas ornament in the second photo. I highly recommend opening your aperture up when doing close ups of your tree.

Check in next week. I will be talking about how to photograph your kids better in front of the Christmas tree! Visit www.lesleyveronikaphotography.com for more family photography.

How to Photograph Christmas Lights Part 1 | Wilmington NC Family Photographer

I've been a bit behind on posts lately. With the arrival of my nephew, Ive been back and forth to Durham in the last 2 weeks. So its been a little nuts for me trying to get ready for Christmas and finish all my client orders they purchased as Christmas gifts.

I just love this time of the year. And now that we are officially a family, with a little one of our own, John and I are even more excited to pass on our childhood traditions and start some of our own. Decorating our new house is one of my favorites, John and I planned out how we were going to decorate the house together and then of course, John decorated the outside…. I did the wreath on the door… ok John helped a little! lol! So, I am going to tell you how I photographed the photos below and how to get the best photos of the Christmas lights on your house.

Step 1. Use a tripod. You will get the sharpest photo if you use a tripod. Because it is dark outside you will need to use a low shutter speed. There is no way you can handhold a shutter speed of an eighth of a second. Its too slow. You will get motion blur.

Step 2. Turn your flash off. You want the lights of the house to illuminate the house. The flash will over power everything and you will end up with a washed out photo.

Step 3. Close your aperture. So with aperture the smaller the hole the less light that will be allowed into your lens. With the aperture the bigger the number the smaller the hole. I would recommend using at least f/10. In the photos below I used a f/10 aperture and in the close up photo you can see the little burst of lights. I just love it!

Step 4. Go out 20 - 30 minutes after the sun has set. Most people think that they need to wait until it is completely dark outside. However, it is actually best when there is still a little light in the sky. You can see in the first photo below, it looks dark, however you can still see that blue sky! You will also see more of the surrounding details.

Next week I will tell you how to photograph your Christmas tree! Visit www.lesleyveronikaphotography.com.

Thanksgiving Last Year | Wilmington NC Family Portraits

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This is my favorite time of the year. Great food, quality time with family and the start of the Holiday season! I thought since its Thanksgiving I'd share our Thanksgiving photos from last year. We always love getting together and of course I'm there with my camera. I am so thankful this year. We are celebrating Olivia's first Thanksgiving and my brand new nephew's first Thanksgiving too! Our family is perfect!

Its so great! Everyone chips in and helps with Thanksgiving dinner. This is my sister and brother in law preparing the turkey! YUM!

Even John (who is not a cook…at all) helps. He makes delicious hard apple cider. Yum!

Our little snowman keeps the apple cider warm. 

 I love this one of my mom drinking mulled hot apple cider!

My dad carving the Turkey!

This was my plate... Full of food! And I ate it all! :) 

To see more family portraits check out www.lesleyveronikaphotography.com. 

Canon Rebel T3 Review | North Carolina Children Photography

Tuesday I talked a little about how to photograph your kids better. See that post here. I mentioned that a DSLR is a great way to get good photos. The Canon Rebel T3 is a great starter camera! And guess what, its on sale on Black Friday at Target! They are doing a bundle.

Canon T3 DSLR Bundle, $449
Includes: Canon T3 Camera, 18-55 mm Lens, 75-300 mm lens, 8GB SD Card, & Canon DSLR Bag

http://www.blackfriday.fm/adscan/target?page=18

It's a great deal! The Canon Rebel T3 is a great entry level DSLR camera. It has a great battery life and good image quality. Its a favorite among women because of the smaller, lightweight size and the grip is on the small size as well. Its not as heavy as some of the higher end Canon cameras. The Canon Rebel T3 also does much better in low light situations compared to some of the other Canon Rebel models. Many photos can be printed up to 20x30 prints. Generally its a good image quality for the price. That is why it makes a great entry level camera for that beginner photographer or mom who wants to take better photos of her children. ;)

Check out www.lesleyveronikaphotography.com

How to photograph your kids better, even with your iPhone | Wilmington NC Children Photography

    I just love taking photos of my little one. I often don't have the time (or the energy) to grab my DSLR when Olivia is being cute. My iPhone is usually in arms reach so its what I normally use to photograph her at home.

   I then realized that a lot of mom's are probably like me. They don't have the time or energy to photograph their own kids. This is why I can't stress enough, please take your kids to a professional to be photographed at least once a year. Kids change so quickly. Before you know it my little O is going to be going away to college. Blah! I can't even think about it! For right now I am just enjoying watching her learn how to stand on her own! As for the other 364 days a year I'm going to give you a little tip on how to photograph your kids better, even with an iPhone. 

The number one tip I can give. Make sure there is plenty of natural light. Are you in a dark room? Open the curtains or blinds. Move to a different room with more natural window light. A room with a sliding glass door makes a great light source.  Or you can even move your little one next to the window. Make sure you are photographing with the subject perpendicular to the window, so only one side of their face is lit. Take a look at the photo below. I photographed Olivia with the window to the right of her. Can you see on her face how the left side is lit? Olivia was less then amused about me taking her picture. She better get used to it, having a mother who is a photographer. ;)

I highly recommend using a DSLR to take your kids photos however if your like me I completely understand. The Canon Rebel T3 is very reasonably priced for a starter camera if your interested in a DSLR. Or you can just higher a professional photographer. :)

Below are 2 photos I took of Olivia. The one on the top is with my iPhone and the one on the bottom is with my DSLR. The iPhone photo had the photo enhance feature in the camera app. Its actually pretty good. And the DSLR photo on had a bit of contrast reduced. Being so close to the light source makes for a more dramatic lighting. See the difference in quality? Let me know what you think, leave a comment below! :)

Visit www.lesleyveronikaphotography.com if you would like to see more children photography.

Lesley at 38 weeks | Wilmington NC Maternity Photographer

OMG! I am 2 weeks from my due date! I can't believe she's almost here. My baby bump is huge right now! Check out the side by side maternity photos from all three trimesters below. 

Family and Children's portraits | Wilmington NC Family Portrait Photography

Lesley Veronika Photography is now booking Family Portrait Sessions for the new year! Beat the summer heat and book your session before memorial day at Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach or Kure Beach and receive a free accordion book! Call 845.532.5870 or email lesley@lesleyveronikaphotography.com to book your session today! Visit www.lesleyveronikaphotography.com for more info! 

2013 Giveaway! | Family Portrait Session

I love doing family portrait sessions. Capturing that time in your family's life creates memories that you will remember for a lifetime! I enjoy it so much, I've decided to do a FREE family portrait session giveaway in the new year! Check out the link below to enter! Good Luck!

Click here to enter to win! Check out some family sessions I did last year! 

Click here to enter to win your family portrait session!! 

Visit www.lesleyveronikaphotography.com to see more family portrait sessions.