Astrojumps. The supreme toy for any child’s birthday. A great way to keep kids occupied and happy simultaneously.

As a kid, I don’t think I’ve ever had an astro jump for my birthday but I remember wanting one. They have a method of pulling you in. Kind of like how the Moon gravitates around the Earth.

I’m fascinated with today’s astro jumps; more elaborate and built for ultimate child satisfaction. Like the one pictured here at Nathan’s birthday party. The little kids love Sponge Bob and he says, imagine in Sponge Bob’s voice, “Come children! Let’s play!”.

They’re almost like amusement parks stationed at Mission Valley mall and Otay Ranch mall. It’s a growing trend. Has anyone been to these astro jump parks?

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This happy kid here is Riley. He’s a child photographer’s dream; happy, smiling cheek to cheek, and random acts of posing for the camera. The key to keeping Riley very content is to let him loose in the biggest playground in the world! It was probably really big in his eyes, as if someone combined three different playgrounds together. Ideally, I love to photograph portraits close to sunset. In San Diego, the light from the sun makes portraits look natural and awesome.

Riley looked overwhelmed with the yellow slides, wiggly bridges, peep holes, musical thingywigs and distracted with other kids playing with toys he wanted. He reminded me of how I needed to hit the gym because I never thought that being a photographer would mean I had to be fit! I had to run after him a couple of times, cross bridges, slide the slide, etc.

In the end, I captured some lovely shots of Riley ;]

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I love photographing cute and happy children! Being a child photographer can be very rewarding. There’s nothing like bringing a child to the local park and capturing them in a state of complete happiness.

In San Diego, the whole city is my backdrop. There are so many different areas of San Diego that make a picture perfect backdrop for any child. The photos I took here of Nathan were taken at a local park in Otay Ranch. The park is only a couple of years old but the city maintains the area to keep it in tip top shape.

Nathan was ecstatic to stretch his legs in this large fun-filled park. Having him in such a great mood enabled me to photograph him in nonchalantly. I’d say that I am very good with children. I’ll do anything to make them laugh. Nathan was shy when we first met but after he got used to me he opened up.

I believe the key to great child photography is being able to turn yourself into a child. Think like them and act like them. Child photography isn’t easy because many children do not stand in one place.

To get the photographs of Nathan I was practically running around on the playground. I followed him down the slides, over the bridge and down the poles. So here it is, photos of Nathan:

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November is right around the corner and I’m posting an update on what Photos by Rowell is working on. At the top of the list is Sheree and Scott’s wedding photos. I’m going through each photo and they are turning out really well.

I’ve booked two other photoshoots:

Nathan & Riley Child Photography Portraits

I’m looking forward to working with these two kids. We’ll be working in their parents’ home and then moving to the neighborhood park to get some creative playground shots. Hopefully, the kids won’t notice me as much with the camera and act naturally but most importantly, listening to me and their parents to get the shots they want. For this I’ll be focusing on using the Canon 50mm 1.2L. I’m pretty excited to get some sweet child photography bokeh.

DJ Misha Urban Photography Portraits

Mid-November This project is currently on hold. I will have the pleasure of working with San Diego’s house Dj, DJ Misha. Just a little bio on Misha:

Born in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, DJ Misha relocated to the United States in 1991 and settled down in San Diego, California. Misha has held residencies at some of the finer clubs San Diego has to offer: Envy at The Ivy Hotel, Jack’s in La Jolla and Harneys Sushi in Old Town. He became the preferred dj for San Diego Euro Circle events, and was selected to play major fundraising events for the San Diego City Ballet and Rady Childrens Hospital.

For my own personal taste, I’ll be photographing the boats in the San Diego harbor with the downtown skyline as the backdrop. I’m also looking forward to photographing my friends and I for breakfast. The food better be great because I’ll be reviewing it here on my blog! Lastly, there will be some technology photographed and presented. You’ll see the hardware that this blog runs on. The backbone of the interwebs.

Sounds quite a lot to get done starting now through the end of November. I’m always looking for new ideas and projects so if you have any, comment it in!

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Many times I have done wedding photography and portrait photography against the sun and depending on how you see this situation you can either get bad pictures or succeed and get creative pictures.

1. Use a lightmeter..

To get a sense of what exposure you will need to properly light your back lit subject

2. Use your on-camera flash

Pop that sucker and light up your model. You’ll at least get to see the person’s face.

3. Use an external flash (1, 2 or more..)

It will be a lot better than using your on-camera flash.. a lot more powerful too. But of course you’ll need something to trigger these, such as a pocket wizard.

4. Use a smaller aperture

Try to reduce how much the sun fills your scene. With the use of the on camera flash you can most likely get a decent shot this way. It can also create a nice effect on the sun.

5. Use a reflector

Become friends with the sun and reflect it back to your subject. Gold can create a nice effect but you can also use white to minimize the blindness to your model.

6. Don’t backlight

Turn your model so that the sun does not become a backlight. Have the sun light up your subject from an angle.

7. Photoshop

Play around with different settings in Photoshop to make it a little brighter, such as using Curves and Levels.

8. Turn it into a silhouette

Silhouettes always turn out beautiful. This is where your subject is back lit and turns black in the foreground

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My new wedding photography and portrait photography site is up and running on the internet! I am now booking winter and summer weddings and portraits right now. My site is composed of html, css and flash. On the home page you will see a flash sequence of wedding photographs and portraits. If you scroll downthere is some content about the site and on the bottom right is my contact form.

The top of each link will have either a flash slideshow or a picture and you can scroll down to see more content.  I have included a link to the site on the left hand side of this blog or you can simply browse to www.photsobyrowell.com

The site was designed by Scott Blair of Esbee Designs. Many thanks go to him for creating a marvelous site.

When you do browse through the site, please take not of any suggestions or concerns please let me know in this post’s comment thread. Thank you everyone out there!

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I’ve started to produce higher quality image CDs for all the paid assignments I’ve come across. The process is fairly simple. In photoshop I set up the images I’d like to use for the front, insides and back covers.

What’s really nice is that I also have a template for the actual cd that sticks right to it after the images or video has been burned. The quality is exceptional as long as your prints are high resolution printed on a semi professional printer.

To top it off, I include a seal which I heat with a hairdryer that results in a similar look to wrap you tear off a DVD you buy from Best Buy. Overall, I’m impressed with this new system as it’s highly customizable and allows me to be completely flexible.

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As I promised, here are five awesome photos of Eli during his celebration. Isn’t he the cutest little baby you’ve ever seen? He has those large wondering eyes, looking at me and wondering what in the world I was doing with such a large device in his face. Luckily, he did not cry and just took in all the attention. Thanks Doris for inviting me! Read on to see the pictures.

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On July 26 2008, Eli Conner OCon was baptised at St. Gregory the Great in Poway. The church itself is absolutely beautiful, at least one of the most beautiful I’ve seen in San Diego. Upon entering the church you approach the Holy Water in a large stone bowl. It’s slightly over flowing with Holy Water and when you lean over and look at your reflection you will see a halo around your head. Pretty awesome! The baptism itself was fairly short and I managed to snap a few portraits of the people who attended. I’ll be showing just the guests and the baby, Eli, will come in Part Two. Read on to see the pictures.

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