First portrait session with Fuji X-E2

I think that one of the most awkward ages for all of us are the early teens.  I mean, you don't really feel like you fit in anywhere specifically.  You're not a kid, your not an adult, it's just a weird time in your life.  But hey, we all lived through it and most of us aren't the worse for wear.  I do remember watching our kids go through those years, thankfully they pass pretty quickly.

My good friend Bob has a co-worker that wanted to have her daughter photographed in a beautiful dress.  When I contacted the mother, she explained that they just haven't had any success in getting good images of her.  She told me a few of her concerns and asked if I would be willing to photograph her.  Absolutely!

I wasn't sure what equipment I would need or how much room we would have to work in, so I took it all with me.  The back of the van was full of gear.  Once there, it turned out that our possible shooting locations were very limited, in fact there was pretty much one spot I could put up my gray background paper.  Whenever I'm not sure what I'll have to work with, I always take gray.  Either paper or a muslin, but you can't go wrong with gray! 

We rearranged the living room, set up the gear and waited for Miss Erin to come downstairs.  Erin is 13 and a beautiful young lady of Asian ethnicity.  Her parents adopted her on her 1st birthday and brought her home to middle Tennessee.

A few concerns were her beautiful, beaded dress.  They just didn't show up in their pictures.  Also, their living room is a bright yellow color, this was not good for her complexion, it just threw it way off.  Once I was set up and metered the spot she would stand, I did a Custom White Balance in my brand new, just out of the box, Fuji X-E2 camera!  Just like that, everything was neutralized and the color was spot on.

After a while, we were laughing and she loosened up enough to start having fun.  She liked the way I demonstrated how I needed her to stand, (I am totally in touch with my feminine side for those demonstrations). You have to be OK with showing them what you need them to do.  It is much easier for them when they can copy your stance.

All in all, this was a very successful session!  I am super happy with the images and they loved looking at them on the back of the camera.  First job with the X-E2 gets two thumbs up!