Autumn Hull Photography

Hayden's Sneak Peek

This is the reluctant birthday boy I wrote about earlier.  I finally finished proofing his session tonight. 

He was such a little gentleman in his birthday outfit, and once his little foot accidentally touched the cake, he wanted NOTHING to do with it!

He ended up being fine with the cake near him, as long as we didn't push the issue of him actually touching the thing.

Poor guy, I think we scarred him for life against birthday cakes.

Here's a sneak peek, just for mom.  The complete mini-session will be posted on my website tomorrow.

MacKenna

I've done Valentine's Day cards every year for MacKenna since she was just a baby.  She came in for her Valentine portrait session this week and was just as much fun as ever.

We did some with a tutu, some without, and some with her little Build-A-Bear kitty.   She is such a doll and so fun to photograph!

Me vs. the Beach

I like to shoot at Zuma Beach in Malibu, because of the nice, wide, clean beach, but also because of the beautiful soft light I get when it is overcast early in the morning.  I book the sessions as early in the morning as possible.  Since the location is around an hour's drive from the town where I live and where most of my clients live, usually 8am is the earliest session of the day.  From there, I'll book a 9am and a 10am session, but after that, it is just too bright and sunny and the light is too hard to work with. I always tell my clients to book me for the earliest session if they want to get that nice, soft light.  If they book the 9 or 10am session, they run the risk of the sun coming out and we miss the softer early light.  The brighter light is fine too, but I just prefer the overcast lighting.

This time, the lighting was ALL over the place.  When I showed up for my 8am session, the sun was out and already really bright.  My first clients of the day was a family I've been photographing for 8 years now, and we were really looking forward to this beach session.  Their mom specifically booked the earliest session of the day and got all three kids up and out of the house just so we could take advantage of the overcast weather.  We were so disappointed, but we made the best of it.  It was tricky keeping the bright sunlight off their faces, but the colors were crisp and vivid. 

When the second family showed up, the weather started messing with me.  The clouds came out and blocked the sun, giving me exactly the lighting I was hoping for with the first session.  At first, that was great, I thought the rest of the morning was going to go my way.  Ha!  The sun came back out in full force about 15 minutes later.  Then it disappeared behind the clouds again.  Three minutes later, it was sunny.  A few minutes later, cloudy.  Sunny.  Cloudy.  Sunny. Cloudy.  It was infuriating.  Every time the lighting changed, I had to use my hand-held meter to get the new settings for my camera.  The change in the lighting was so drastic, if I didn't notice it immediately and change my exposure settings, the shots would be completely under or over exposed.

Add to that the normal challenge of trying to photograph young kids at the beach.  They are so excited to be there, and they are usually just not interested in looking at the lady with the camera.  So on top of chasing kids up and down the beach, I'm having to whip out my meter every few minutes.  It was an extremely hectic shoot, to say the least. 

For the third session that day, I had mostly bright sun, but those pesky clouds showed up a few times, just to throw me off again.

Overall, I was happy with the images I got from my sessions that day, but I really, really, REALLY had to work for it!

Three Rowdy Boys

These three boys, Michael, Mark, and Matthew are probably the rowdiest, most hilarious boys I have ever photographed.  They have energy to spare and seem to be constantly slamming into each other.  They are completely sweet though, and I always enjoy them when they come to my studio.  After our last session ended, I overheard Mark saying to his mom on the way back to the car:  "That was WAY funner then at the mall!". 

You can't ask for a better testimonial then that!

Reagan Grows Up...

This little girl has been coming to see me since she was a brand new baby.  When she came for her newborn session, she was NOT in a good mood.  We tried everything, but she just did not want to cooperate.  She had one brief moment where she stopped crying and cuddled into her mom.  The moment quickly passed, but I was lucky enough to catch it.  It turned out to be a great shot, one that I've always loved, maybe because I remember all that went into getting it! 

It was such a rough session, I thought it had scared her parents away from me forever.  I was happily surprised to hear from them almost a year later to book a Birthday Babies session.

This time when she came in, she was a completely different baby! She was all smiles and charm, and check out that red hair!  She was a joy to photograph and was such a little lady with her cake.

She came back again for her 18 month session and when I saw that hair, I just had to shoot her in color.  She was a complete sweetheart, a little bit shy, and just so precious.

I saw her again after she turned 2, and she was such a character!  She smiled, she danced, she laughed.  She was a complete charmer.

A year later, she was back for her three year portrait, which I shot in color again.  This time she was a little more hesitant when she first saw me, but she warmed up and we got some great shots.  I still can't get over that gorgeous hair!

She was back last Christmas for a Santa session, and with Daddy in the suit, she was comfortable enough to show that charm that I saw so much of when she was younger.

She just came back for a four year old session, and she was so reserved this time.  It was really tricky trying to draw her out of her shell.  I got a few smiles here and there, but when I pulled out the pink flowered tutu, the personality just came bursting out!

Zuma & Daddy

I normally like to have babies naked for their first photo sessions, and little Zuma was naked for the rest of his session, but his mom brought these for him and his daddy and I thought it was just adorable. 

My first twins return...

These were the first twins that ever came to my studio back in 2003.  I was so nervous about photographing twin toddlers.  One toddler can be challenge enough!

They turned out to be such feisty little guys and they really made me work for it!  They ran around my studio, giggled, hid from me, and had not much interest in standing on the background for me.  It was a challenging session, but so much fun.

They recently came back for the third time and they've grown so much!  Not only have they changed, but I've changed as well, now that I have twins of my own.  There's something about twins that magnifies the personality of each child.  I've noticed it in my boys, who are almost two, and I saw it with Marcus and Megan. Maybe it's not them, maybe its just that you notice their personalities more because there are two of them and the differences really stand out.  Marcus was a pistol.  He had energy, enthusiasm, and a smile on his face every moment.  Megan was a sweetie, so shy, graceful, and just adorable.

I also love watching the relationship between twins.  My boys have a real yin/yang thing going, where each one fills in the gaps where the other leaves off.  One starts teething, and the other starts as soon as the first one gets their new tooth.  One loves pb&j sandwiches on Monday, and the other hates them.  On Tuesday, they've switched.  One dances by bouncing up and down, one likes to twist from side to side.  Megan and Marcus had a sweet relationship and you could see their bond in every shot.

Once again, they were a challenge and a delight to photograph and I hope I have the honor of documenting the rest of their childhood as the years pass.

MacKenna's Valentine

This session was part of the Valentine's special I run every year for a mini session and a custom-designed card.  This was the second year little MacKenna has been back for a Valentine portrait.  She has the most gorgeous eyes and is so much fun to photograph.  She was such a little spitfire during the photo session. The card I created for her was a little more funky and eclectic then my usual style, but I knew MacKenna needed something a little different for her Valentine.

A Blog Is Born!

Hello world!  This is the first entry in what I hope will be an interesting blog both for you the readers and for me as well!  I plan on posting images from recent sessions, thoughts on sessions, the business, and babies & kids, and new happenings with Autumn Hull Photography.  This could change as I go along, but that's the plan for now.

Keeping to the newly born theme, here are some images from a session I did a little while ago.  This new little guy is named Gael, and was he ever a little sweetie pie.