Monday, February 8, 2010 Posted in Children
I am pretty behind in blogging this one. I got to shoot these sweet kids at the end of last year in my studio. The studio can be a bit intimidating with all of the equipment and flashing lights. After a little bit of warm up time we got some really cute pictures!



Thursday, January 21, 2010 Posted in Blog
I have hopefully just completed my final domain change. I’ve always had it in the back of my mind to register my name, just in case it ever became worthwhile. This was way before I even started my photography business. But I usually blew it off because I have such a weird, or so I thought, last name. When I decided to start a photography business I went to register my name (stevenhodgson.com) only to find out someone from Australia had nabbed it just ONE MONTH before me. I was determined to have a dot com name, so I’ve been through a couple of them only to end up full circle deciding that a dot net address was OK too. This is in large part to very popular photographer Jessica Claire who uses jessicaclaire.net. I figured if it’s good enough for her it’s good enough for me. So here I am now at stevenhodgson.net. If you happen to have linked to my site would you mind updating the link?
It will make Google like me better.
Monday, January 4, 2010 Posted in Main
This Christmas is really special to us because it’s our daughter’s first Christmas. She is sitting up well and is almost ready to crawl. Her favorite thing to play with is an old magazine that she can rip up and crumple, so I think it’s going to be really fun with all of the wrapping paper. Halie and I have been having discussions here and there about how to raise her to make sure that she understands that Jesus is really what everything is about and not Santa Claus. We’re still not sure how we want to handle Santa, but our goal is for her to know the real reason we celebrate Christmas. This is a picture we took of her this weekend in front of our Christmas tree. I love the outfit Halie picked out for her. What a great Christmas this will be for our families. She is the perfect gift for us!
For the photographers out there, I thought I’d share how this picture was taken. It’s a pretty simple setup, but a few things to keep in mind. Generally when you take pictures in Auto mode you camera will meter off the dark tree and fire off the flash. This makes the tree look bright, but it looks like the lights are off. Instead you need to switch to manual mode so you can control the exposure. Meter off the tree and take a few test shots until you get the tree exposed like you want. Once you do that, the subject will be underexposed. In order to bring the subject back up you’ve got to use some other light. In this case I’ve used a speedlight in a softbox gelled with 1/2 cut of CTO to match the color temperature of the Christmas lights. The flash was powered at 1/32 + 2/3 stop. The camera settings were 1/50th at f/1.8 and ISO 320. I used Daylight white balance to warm it up a bit. Once you get your lighting right, it’s just a matter of waiting for the perfect expression!

Friday, December 4, 2009 Posted in Seniors
Your pictures just got a little bit cheaper! I’m introducing a referral discount. If you refer a new customer to me I will give you coupon for 1o% off of your next print order. Just have your referral mention your name when they schedule their session.
by Steven
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