People: Joel Everett

An aunt since the age of 4, I now have 11 nieces and nephews (including one great-nephew and one on the way!).  So it was wonderful news to hear that Jonathan’s sister and her husband, were expecting their first child while we were in Chicago last year.  Jonathan became an uncle when his sister Allison and her husband, Mike, welcomed their first child, Joel Everett, the day before Thanksgiving 2013.

When we visited Kansas City over the holidays, I was able to snap a few shots of Joel, which became my very first newborn shoot.

After photographing about a thousand puppies and kittens, I’ve established a rhythm and have developed tricks to capture that perfect shot- gazing directly into the camera, creating a connection between the viewer and the subject.  But with a newborn, most of those tricks didn’t work!  Certainly, a stationary subject was easier to shoot, but Joel was having none of gazing into the camera!  🙂

Joel was extremely patient wit our blanket and outfit changes, calmly settling into position time and again so that I could adjust the lighting and snap away.  Such a good subject!  The below two sets of shots are two of my favorite.  During post-processing, I experimented quite a bit with different saturations, eventually deciding that I personally prefer the less-saturated photos, like the one at below left.  Below right is the original photo.

Converting some of the photos to black and white lent a dreamy quality, especially when Joel looked particularly serene.

We moved Joel away from the light source in search of a  more uniform background, which was achieved, albeit at the expense of adding a bit of noise to the photos.  But he was so animated and adorable that it really comes through in the photos.

And finally, a bit of post-processing comparison.  #1:  Original photo.  #2:  Cloning tool used to blur the background.  #3:  Final product- desaturated to reduce redness.

More photos of Joel Everett available here!