Ocean City Beach Family Maternity Photos, Boardwalk & Inlet | Dana Marie Photography

Loved meeting this sweet family.  With one reschedule due to high winds we lucked out with a perfectly gorgeous night that was followed by 4 days of rain.  The boardwalk and Ocean City inlet gave us the perfect setting for maternity photos that resulted in lots of great shots and even a few silhouettes.  Can't wait to meet this little guy soon!

Camera Size Does Matter | Low Lighting Events | Dana Marie Photography, LLC.

I have said it myself, the camera doesn't take the photos, I do.  As photographers we have perfected the craft of choosing the right settings in a given situation and our photos will always come out better than if we had snapped on auto.  I typically shoot in Manual, it is rare that my camera is not on Manual and while I could take a great photo with any camera put into my hands guess what, sometimes it really does make or break a situation what kind of camera you are shooting with!  I recently did an event at night in low light - no sunlight peaking through windows, no bright venue lighting to compensate, all of the images were taken with my own lighting except for a select few.  When there were speakers standing up to the crowd talking with the projection screen behind them, I really wanted to capture the feeling of the room and have the screen showing in the background.  I was left with the option of throwing off a flash but that would white out the screen so I cranked my ISO setting way up to get the shot I wanted.  A typical consumer camera starts to show "noise" above 400 or maybe 800 if they are lucky.  I turned my ISO up to 5,000 to get the shot I wanted and it came out crystal clear.  Many consumer cameras wouldn't go that high or if they did it would look similar to an old television channel with the white noise going through the image - I was confident my professional grade camera could handle the setting and I went with it.  Choosing glass with a low aperture to help bring in as much light as possible coupled with the high ISO helped me to capture the image exactly as I wanted with little to no help from Photoshop.  I love the ambiance around the room, including the ceiling and was thrilled to be able to capture it all into one image.

Roar for a Cure Seacrets, MD | LLS Man of the Year Event 2014 | Dana Marie Photography

What an amazing event, lots of great food and so many business donated items for the silent auction to raise money for the National Lymphoma and Leukemia Society.  This event was called Roar for a Cure in honor of Ricky Kerrigan who is running for Man of the Year 2014.  The Kaleb Brown band and Galaxy Collective adorned the evening with their musical stylings and the event was very successful.  It was fun to take a few action images of the bands playing in the darkly lit venue.  The evening ended with a male and female date auction and it was a hoot to see live!

Colby Throw the First Pitch | Delmarva Shore Birds Game | Salisbury, MD | Dana Marie Photography

The threat of rain loomed all day and why wouldn't it - every Man of the Year Event thus far that was scheduled for outdoors had been touched by some rain.  Colby got to throw the first pitch.  While most people may be nervous or exciting in the minutes leading up to the big moment, girlfriend wanted a slice of pizza!  Ricky Kerrigan who is currently fundraising for the National Leukemia and Lymphoma Society escorted her out to throw the first pitch.  She did a great job and we all cheered for her!  Very touching to watch!  No sooner that she threw the ball the rain began to fall and the game was postponed.  Love seeing this little chicky smile!

Play on Guitar Baby | Newborn Photographer | Dana Marie Photography | Berlin, MD

Here it is, my last session out of my home studio and we went out with a big note!  This guitar was brought in by the family and held great significance to them.  I love when families bring in relics from their own hobbies and traditions, it makes the images so personal to them.

Please do not attempt to recreate this image without the expertise of an experienced newborn photographer.  The baby was never balanced on the guitar as it appears so in the photo.  This photo is a composite of three photographs as the baby was never without someone having two hands on them at all times.  Baby safety is first and foremost when working with Dana Marie Photography, I love to create beautiful images such as these but the baby's safety will always come first.  I love how these turned out.  Having picked up an acoustic guitar myself recently to play in my spare time, I would have loved to get photos like these of my babes when they were this small!

Play on baby, play on.

Next week we are moving the studio to West Ocean City.  The new place is a shared space but a perfect stepping stone for an intimate and private maternity and newborn photography studio.  Looking forward to seeing lots of new clients checking out our new space!