That’s this sweet baby’s official title now ;) Actually, when we schedule session times in the evening, more often than not, the babies stay wide awake, and she fell right in that category. But with a face like this one, we needed to capture her awake!
More outdoors at the studio, with two children that I have enjoyed watching grow up over the years. Older brother is so sweet to his little sister; they totally remind me of my own children and how they got along and interacted when they were that young 
What a blessing it is to see them grow!
I’ve been meaning to share for a while, our newest product. We have had coffee table books as an upgrade to our standard portrait albums, but we have now upgraded our upgrade. The previous coffee table books had paper pages, but these newest have thick pages that lay flat for better viewing. My clients are loving these new books, and I am thrilled with them.
I figured I would switch directions completely with this post and show some outdoor child photography. These were done on the studio property. Adorable kids!
I love photographing newborns and babies skin-on-skin with their parents. It’s so natural, and so beautiful. There was so much love felt between them.
This is more studio lighting of course…
Sweet girls and family….
Family photography
This is a little note to the photogs: Myth Busting here — I always say that the best thing any photographer can do is to know how to shoot in any situation. It is so valuable to know studio lighting and natural lighting as well as off camera flash. When I teach photographers, they always want to say that natural lighting is so much prettier, and they can’t shoot “wide open” (i.e. wide apertures) with studio lighting, so they don’t get the shallow DOF (depth of field) especially with newborns.
Well, as in my book, Studio Lighting Naturally, I teach how to shoot like this… studio lighting can be beautiful and natural-looking as well. I always say that here in Maryland, we have days like today - super cloudy, overcast, and many houses and buildings here are not full of gorgeous beautiful windows, but many are historic, small windows, etc. so while child sessions can be delayed, newborn sessions cannot always be rescheduled as newborns change so quickly. It’s so nice to not have to worry about weather with newborn sessions, just pull out my light (my portable window) and shoot away…. love it!
I apologize for my little advertisement of my book here, but I just feel so happy to have that flexibility on a very dark day like today!
This newborn was just too precious for words… We did some studio lighting….
and we did some natural lighting outdoors….
There are of course more pictures from vacation, but I’m going to wrap this up because I have tons of client images to share, and not enough time in the day! 
Love these birds - as they scoop the water…
The ONLY way to do the beach! This year was way too rushed…
And the secret to how I got so close…
Well, we had planned on chartering the Godspeed, and finally having our deep sea fishing experience (complete with seasick patches), but it was canceled early in the morning due to 6-foot waves. One of these days we will do this! Captain Dave has been absolutely wonderful, though, watching out for us and giving us great advice as he knows some of us…… ahem…. ME especially, gets seasick.
So out of nowhere, Dean decides we are going to get into a teeny tiny little metal box, and fly over Hatteras and Ocracoke.
My kids have never flown, and well, we all know I hate to fly. But I’m going to suck it up in the name of fun, and deal with this, right?
I’m happy to report, I made it through - but I know deep down inside the only reason I didn’t freak out once we were up in the air was because I was trying to remain sane for my little girl sitting next to me, and I did have a need to photograph this, as it may be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I was very surprised, as I have never done any sort of aerial photography, that depending on the direction of the sun was how vibrant the images turned out.
This is the plane we were in…
If you haven’t been to Cape Hatteras, it may surprise you that there is one road right in the center of the island, and there are places that while you are driving, you can see the Pamlico Sound on one side, and the Atlantic Ocean on the other at the same time. It definitely makes you feel quite vulnerable, and no, I wouldn’t want to be there during a hurricane.
This is where we usually drive our cars onto the beach and swim/fish - no lifeguards. It can be a little scary at times depending on the rip currents.
The Southern end of Cape Hatteras
Beach Houses
This is the Northern tip of Ocracoke. Notice how the waters of the Sound and the Ocean swirl around together. When we were in the Godspeed last year (when the seasickness nightmare began), crossing where the two bodies of water met was a pretty incredible experience with 6-10 foot waves It makes you really appreciate the power of nature.
Up top of this image is where the Ocracoke ferry brings you in. This is the one road on Ocracoke that takes you to civilization (and the famous Howard’s Pub of course…).
Sound side. The Pamlico Sound is at the bottom of this image, ocean at the top
I think this is the Frisco Pier. I don’t remember what the pilot said at this moment in his comforting and mellow voice as right about here, we hit some (in my opinion MAJOR) turbulance that made us drop (i.e. free fall) about 3 feet. At this point is when my motion sickness started. Erynn decided this was the metal trap of death at this very moment.
Hatteras Lighthouse… Pilot said, “I’m going to circle around the lighthouse again” and my mind was screaming PLEASE DON’T as we were practically sideways in the air…
Landing… *whew*
Just walking around Ocracoke and shopping…
One day we decided to hike up Jockey’s Ridge in the heat… ack! We hadn’t done that for a few years.
I’m not afraid of the dark. Nope, not since getting the Nikon D3. This thing is incredible, pushing the high ISOs…
One of the days we went to the aquarium in Manteo. It’s a small aquarium, nothing like Baltimore’s, but it was definitely fun capturing a few critters…
Yup, that’s me in there too…
I’m impatient, I wanted to share these now. Right behind the Jolly Roger on Ocracoke Island is my secret little spot to photograph pelicans. They are always there. Erynn and I walked up on them and I started shooting. I absolutely LOVE the detail of pelicans - they are incredible to photograph. I only spent about 5 minutes shooting, and it was hard to pick the favorites from the batch.
We are back from Cape Hatteras in the Outer Banks, North Carolina. I’m wading through all the emails and voicemails, so I will be getting back with everyone ASAP!
Hopefully, if I can get to it, I will be sharing some photos that I took while down there.
Every year, for the past 9 years, we have gone down to the Outer Banks. We have found we like Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke the best. This year we stayed in Frisco, Soundside - we prefer Soundside as we can kayak and fish right off the back of the beach house, and then we drive out on the beach for some ocean time, although we may have messed up my suspension this year *sigh* driving through the sand.
The theme this year seems to be birds and fish - you’ll notice as I share, this is what I photographed the most… I guess that was what I connected with this year….
So to start out, here’s the house and the view…
This is a reminder that the studio is closed until July 21st so that I can spend some much-needed time with my family. If you just had your baby, please call me at 443-299-2752 and leave a message, and I will get back with you right away. All other questions or session inquiries, please email theblackhorsestudio@verizon.net — I will have email access periodically during this time and will answer you as soon as possible.
As you may have heard, the studio is closing up for a few weeks. We will reopen July 21st. We will be, as a family, down in Cape Hatteras, NC enjoying our yearly family vacation. In the meantime, I thought I would share some styles that I usually don’t show on my portrait site that I threw together the other night. These lighting set ups are in my lighting book. I’ve never understood why some photographers do not want to be well-rounded in both natural and studio lighting… Not pickin’ on ya - I just don’t understand as I REALLY love having the ability to create all kinds of different styles.
In the photography world, for a while we would hear all this hype about Off Camera Flash. OCF is nothing new, but received some serious hype recently. This has been a love of mine for quite some time - as for me, off camera flash is no different than the way I approach studio lighting indoors. However, I am usually photographing babies and young children, and I don’t need to do setups like this with them.
This is just used as fill light…
and here’s your typical off camera flash for drama… Isn’t this one-room schoolhouse amazing? Thanks to the owners of the farm where we board our horses for allowing me to photograph in this place… These are my favorites…
as an aside - I am constantly being asked where my Studio Lighting Naturally book can be purchased. It is available at http://www.jodieotte.com/books.htm It is a simple approach to studio lighting to not overwhelm the natural light photographer who wants to learn studio lighting.
PLEASE NOTE: We have books in stock right now for immediate shipment. Any books ordered by July 7th will be shipped out by July 8th. Any books ordered after that time, will not ship until the end of July.
I actually look forward to seeing the family of this little boy - a little bit of chaos and all (this year, oldest boy showed up in a full leg cast ;)). When mom first came to me with his oldest brother (cowboy hat boy if you all remember him from years back…), she expected that this was going to be her only child. A little while later, she was bringing me her second son who was a total miracle/surprise. WOW! But I was looking at her thinking…. umm… she kinda looks pregnant again but I’m not going to say anything because I could be wrong… Sure enough, midway through our session, she informed me that she was carrying another baby, another boy!!! From no kids, to three boys in three years, wow! The best thing about the mom and dad is if they stress, they don’t show it. They are so laid back and go with the flow. So here’s her youngest, now a year old, and he’s just as cute as the other two with the same stunning blue eyes. He actually was in our first Similac Infant Formula ad as well!
What a happy girl!!! This child was so happy, and so much fun to chase around and photograph. This age is so great when you let kids just be kids outdoors always works well!
Beautiful couple, during pregnancy, and their sweet boy after… This little boy touched my heart. He seemed colicky just like my son was. He reminded me so much of him.
I remember how difficult it was for me when he was born. Here I had this precious little boy that I was supposed to be cuddling and loving, and yet he was a screaming monster. I was so upset that he didn’t do what the books said he would do. All he did was scream, morning to night for the first few months. Now I realize that I was being prepared to be a newborn photographer . So yeah, holding this little guy brought back so many memories of my son, and now that I have the patience that I lacked back then, it’s a lot easier to understand and work with. Isn’t he adorable? He looks like such a little man…
Well, I have had several newborns lately that we have photographed outdoors… can’t wait to share… here’s one, and he’s awake
All three of these siblings, the boys and the new baby girl have the prettiest bright blue eyes! This was such a sweet group to photograph…
Well, I managed to be on day 2 of posting for a week - Here’s a cute little newborn
Okay, okay, I know, I have been getting the messages… I know, I’ve been seriously slacking on the blog! It seems like I say this every third post… lol! Well, being that it is June, I always think of June as the busiest “life” month. Everyone is so busy with end of year school activities and the big change of schedule for the summer, so I slacked here… so sorry! Because of that, I will post every day for a week.
The studio will be closing up on July 7th and officially opening back up on July 22nd. As we will be going away for our yearly family vacation in Cape Hatteras, and of course, the Hatteras pictures are always a big favorite, so I will share those when I return. Remember last year’s seasick post? (see it here — http://jodieotte.com/?p=446) We’re tempting fate again and going back out on the Godspeed (Hope Captain Dave can put up with me ;))… but this time, we’re armed with scopolamine patches… If you have experience with them, please comment and let me know what you thought! I know seasickness was the worst feeling I ever had - topped any flu, morning sickness, or heck, even pain I have ever endured…. so if these patches work, it will truly be a miracle drug for me
At any rate, on to some client images… twin boys (I think they were 4 or 5 weeks here…) and their big sister.
Two adorable boys. It’s always difficult to get newborns with their older sibling who is only a few years older, but I was really happy with these images
Okay, it’s that time of year. My daughter, Erynn, is back into a few horse shows. This weekend, we went to Olney Farm, and she did a few Jumpers classes. She received a 3rd and a 5th in jumpers. This is only the second time she has ever shown her horse, Stormy, in any type of jumping. She jumped 2 feet and 2 feet, 3 inches for this…
Approaching…
Will Stormy make it over the scary horse-eating flowers? She sure does…
See that smile on Erynn’s face? She knows she is doing well!
My favorite picture of the day — we’re going to enlarge to at least a 24×30 for her bedroom wall…
I photographed this little girl as a newborn, and she’s back, and one year old! I am so enjoying the new studio property… it’s all new, new textures, new angles of light, etc.
Of course, we have more newborns…here’s a beautiful baby boy! He was so content, and so sweet. I’m always envious of the parents who have firstborns without colic ;) My firstborn was a really tough baby. He’s a pretty good 14-year-old now
LOL - well…. everyone has been asking to update on the chicks. Yeah, lemme tell you, I was told that I should set double the amount of eggs that I wish to have chicks. I was told 50% hatch rate. I figured I could take another 14, minus roosters, so maybe I would end up with about 7 to 10 new hens… sounded good. So I set 28 eggs in incubators. I ended up having 26 out of those 28 hatch. Ummm… guess I’m not a bad chick momma? Of course, this entire process was not without other interesting factors…
One of the chicks was born deformed (this was a black and copper maran that I had the eggs shipped from E Bay) and unfortunately, we had to face culling the chick after I tried a little “chicken orthopaedics” which included splints and a teacup (long story). Some of the chicks were “shrink wrapped” and I was performing “surgery” on them to remove the shrink wrapped membrane. The chick below hatched too early, and had some bleeding, so I had to carry it around for a while, keeping it warm until the bleeding stopped…
We just finished finding homes for 9 of the 26 we had, but then a bearded silkie hatched underneath one of my broody hens out in the coop, so I had to rescue her once she was pecked in the face… she’s doing very well now… anyway, I snapped a few natural light images the other day of a few of our little ones…
This is an “olive egger”. I bred our ameraucana rooster with both barred rocks and rhode island reds, so this is one of the rhode island red crosses, and should have olive-colored eggs. The barred rock crosses are all black with a little bit of white on them (not shown)
These are ameraucanas on the left (they lay blue eggs) and two black and copper marans (from E Bay) on the right (they lay almost a chocolate brown egg)… Do you see a theme? I’m collected all different colored egg layers. Hopefully by fall, we will have white, pinkish cream, beige, blue, olive, and chocolate brown - and yes, of course, I will update with egg pictures
And here’s our little designer chicks for fun… these are bearded silkies, assorted colors… all six that I set hatched out just fine… When these grow up, you will not see their eyes… the tufts on their heads and beards under their beaks will make them look like a fluffball with a beak… LOL!
