Adrienne Brand Photography

I find it amazing that my 3.5-year-old tolerates me shooting him constantly. When he begs to go outside because the other children are riding their bicycles, I make a deal with him, "If you let Mama shoot you, you can go outside and ride bikes." "Okay!" We both jumped to get our equipment: him - his retro red and white tricycle with tassel handlebars, and me - my Nikon D80 with 70-200 f/2.8.  We both hustled outside before the sun when down - a great time to photograph children. He rode like he hadn't just told me he was "so tired, Mama," circling the courtyard until he couldn't take it anymore, grabbing for the tag in his shirt and popping in his thumb, all while trying to maintain peddling speed. After 20 minutes of his on-and-off tag grabbing, I said, "Peanut, we should go in - you're exhausted." His tricycle hit the grass and he looked at me in frustration and said, "Mama, this is no time to be taking photos, please pus

I'm definitely learning that the best time to shoot almost anything is at sunrise or sunset, and with children on the beach it's no exception. Why?  Well, as a busy parent, you know that your child is probably  running around all day - whether it be playing, socializing or running errands with you. Obviously you wouldn't want your child to be anything else than themselves, but a relaxed subject is much easier for a photographers to shoot than a nervous, overly-energetic one who hasn't "gotten their sillies out" yet. This shot is approximately 6 PM. After a good half-hour of letting the little girl play in the sand, I started shooting. By then she was relaxed and the sun was positioning itself in a better angle, with richer light The angle of the sun is very important It's amazing that the majority of newer shooters hang-tough to the 10 A.M til noon hours. With harsh shadows and bright glare, it's no wonder that many would-be great shots become

Have you heard of Pictage ? As per pictage.com , they're " the most comprehensive business enabler for professional photographers." They offer services across the board, from managing workflow, promoting and selling your work, to connecting with your community. With so many services out there, I'd like to hear your thoughts...