Crista Acosta Photography »

Did you ever have one of those dreams where you’re standing in public and realize you have no pants on?  This post is sort of the photographic reality of that dream as I share a picture with no editing done at all.  I thought as a follow up to Thursday’s post, it might be nice to touch on what happens after your session.  

I shared this picture in Tuesday’s post, but wanted to show you a little peek into the work that goes into your final images.  Photoshop is an amazing tool, but it isn’t magic.  It won’t make an out of focus image sharp, or salvage a severely underexposed picture, but it can take your pictures from “cute” to “wow!”.  

After every session, I rush home and plug in my card reader to upload all the pictures.  Then I go through and pick out the cutest expressions and sweetest moments and toss the rest.  I do a few tweaks in Lightroom and then pull each image in one by one to Photoshop and work on them individually.  My style is pretty clean and straightforward.  I don’t do a lot of crazy things to my photos, because it’s important to me that they look real, just a with a little wow factor.  

Check it out, side by side, the straight out of camera picture (sooc) and the final edit on the right.  The difference is slight, it’s not over the top, but it makes an impact.  And L.A. still has totally filthy hands in this picture.  ;) 

The other night I met Kaden and him mom at a local park, and at first he wasn’t so sure of me and my big camera…

but by the end, I think he warmed up to me, don’t you?

One of the most common questions I get after a session is booked is “What should we wear?”.  So I thought it might be fun to start a segment on the blog with outfit suggestions for various family dynamics, children, teens and babies.  Newborns won’t be included – they’re best left in their birthday suits!  So, here’s your first installment. 

It’s an age I admittedly get a little shaky in the knees about photographing.  Three year olds aren’t usually all that into the camera, and they’re even less interested in direction.  Imagine my surprise when E was a totally willing, and happy subject! 

Those blue eyes are going to break hearts someday! 

All parents out there know that there are just times when your child is so cranky, and so out of sorts that you have to pull out the big guns.  Awhile ago, we had bought this great big bubble machine, but we’ve been holding off on actually breaking it out until we really really needed it.  The other day was that day, and it was so worth the wait!

It’s pretty amazing how bubbles can so quickly make everything better.

look closely… my whole world is in that bubble.  You can even see me in my bare feet if you look hard. 

and then I went back to check on P2 who was relaxing in the gazebo, and I saw he was making bubbles of his own. 

1.  Despite always promising to be, I’m never consistent about 10 on Tuesday.  Maybe I should switch it to Five on Friday?  Less pressure that way… eh, we’ll see.

2.  I will also confess that I haven’t taken nearly enough pictures of P2 in recent days.  I vow to be better about that this week.

3.  There’s a great park in my town that we often take L.A. too, and in addition to having an awesome little playscape, it’s simply gorgeous.  I’ve been wanting to shoot a session here for awhile, so I brought my camera last night to test the light, and I just love it…

4. L.A. is in complete amazement of airplanes these days.  I swear he can hear them coming from miles away, and when he does, he stops whatever he’s doing, throws his hands up in the air like this and sways from side to side while making a whooshing sound.  Sidenote – check out those grubby hands.  Apparently L.A. doesn’t care about photo ops while digging at the playground.  

5.  Perfect for number 5 – P2 slept for 5 hours straight last night.  As the mom of another little boy who shall remain nameless that didn’t sleep for more than 2 hours until he was about 7 months, this is an anomaly. I seriously didn’t think I made sleepers, and I’m so so happy.  Thanks, little buddy.  Oh, and please, please now that I posted this on the blog, don’t have it be a fluke.

6.  I just got a new lens in, and I am in.love. with it.  I bought it specifically to use on newborns and other babies, to capture their tiny little parts, but I’m having a blast playing around.

7.  If you’re the praying type, would you mind including me in today’s thoughts?  Without going into detail, I could really use it.  

8.  Someday, another little boy will come along – I hope it’s his brother – but maybe it will be our neighbor, or a little boy from school, and L.A. will have a best friend.  They’ll run and play, ride bikes, come running into my kitchen sweaty and laughing asking for a snack.  For now though, there is no one he adores more than Daddy. 

9.  Genetics are such a strange thing.  When P2 was born, I was amazed at how much he didn’t look like L.A.  I guess I was expecting an exact replica, but he wasn’t at all.  As the days went on though, it’s been more and more apparent that they share the same genes.  Little expressions that are the same, the way he scrunches his face up while he’s stretching exactly the way his big brother used to do.  Then our neighbor was over and commented on a picture of L.A. we have up from when he was just a month old.  I can’t believe we didn’t see it before.  You be the judge.  Here they are, P2 on the left and L.A. on the right each at about 4 weeks old.  (please note the picture of L.A. was taken with my dinosaur point and shoot camera before I knew anything about photography). 

10.  And lastly, I thought I’d try to keep things real around here.  For every picture of L.A. you see like the one in the post below, where he’s actually making eye contact and not running away, I promise you that there are 300 that look more like this.  He’s so over me.  The scowl, the tears.. that’s the real reaction I get when he sees my camera.

Before I met L.A., I never knew it was possible to love another person this much.  Amazingly, when I met P2, I found out it’s possible to love two people that much.  Today though, I’ll share L.A.’s sweet face with you, so inquisitive, so smart, and so so sweet.

I couldn’t decide on black and white or color, so you get both. 

Those lashes… it just isn’t fair.  I’ve spent hundreds of dollars throughout the years trying to make my stubby little lashes look this good, while L.A. could give you butterfly kisses from across the room.  He knows how to work them, too… flashing a big toothy smile when he’s been fresh and batting those long eyelashes just enough to make your heart flutter.