…because everyone deserves a lifetime

These are photos from our first session for this fundraiser that raises money for the cure. It’s breathtaking that I get to do what I love, create these photos that will touch someone deeply and raise money for something that could save so many lives and change even more lives.

Details of the Fundraiser

Create lasting family portraits with a photo session at the location of your choice for $175 and Portrait Playtime will

donate $75 to The Milk Jugs (A team walking for the cure in the Susan G. Komen 3-day Walk for the Cure)

give you a $75 credit towards prints as a thank you gift

Register by September 30 and schedule your photo shoot anytime before December 31st.

To register contact Jessica at 703-860-2222 or complete the contact us form

A story about learning to use your camera’s meter

One day Goldilocks came to visit the three bears, Mama Bear, Papa Bear, and Baby Bear. Now what you might not know about them is that Mama Bear is a black bear, Papa Bear is a polar bear and Baby Bear is a gray bear. Now you also might not know that portage makes all fur look amazing and so silky. Goldilocks wanted to capture the gleaming glow of their fur in three portraits so she put her fancy DSLR on aperture priority and filled her lens with Mama Bear’s beautiful face and then looked at the back of the camera and mama bear was all washed out. Then she tried to take a picture of Papa Bear and again filled the camera with his beautiful white fur, but this time the photo came out to dark and muddy. Then she took a picture of Baby Bear who was throwing kisses, she got really close and captured the big smile on her face after she threw a kiss. The picture turned out just right.

Goldilocks was perplexed, so Baby Bear offered her a point and shoot that she thought always made good pictures in the portrait setting. Goldilocks did the same thing, and again, Mama Bear came out too light, Papa bear too dark and Baby Bear just right. Then she decided to take a picture with her DSLR of all three of them, but metered on just Baby Bear. The picture came out just right.

So then she metered on each one of them and noticed if the camera was on Mama Bear’s dark fur that the camera meter said she needed a lot of light, then if she metered on Papa Bear’s white fur (a shutter speed of 1/30th), the camera’s meter said that she needed a little bit of light (a shutter speed of 1/250th,) when she metered on Baby Bear, she needed somewhere in between (a shutter speed of 1/80th).

Then Goldilocks and Baby Bear went to try see what would happen if they photographed in the front yard. First they photographed the white lillies against the white sky and the photo came out gray. Then they photographed Baby bear’s favorite place to hide in a big tree that was pretty dark and it was all washed out, then they photographed some flowers growing in the green grass, and they came out just right.

So they tried to use the exposure compensation on their cameras and first they made the photo lighter when they took a new picture of the white sky and lilies and darker when they took the photo of the hole in the tree. They were amazed by just changing that one little function to the plus or minus side, they were able to control the look and feel of their photos.

Photos to come when Goldilocks comes home with her camera.

Written by Jessica Wallach, inspired by teaching Exposure and Metering four times within three weeks

Photo Fundraiser

Support Hidden Oaks Nature Center and create images that shows your children:
• how loved they are
• how powerful they are
• how creative they are

Come create these images at Hidden Oaks with Jessica Wallach of Portrait Playtime. What better gift than to reflect these things back to our children, and give them a sense of just how amazing they are, so they can be bold and brave in their lives.

Images from laste years fundraiser

Dates
Saturday, September 11
Tuesday, September 14
Thursday, October 28
Saturday, October 30
8:30 to 11:30 am each day

Sitting fee: $50
A portion of the sitting fee and print sales goes to Hidden Oaks Nature Center

The sitting fee includes:
• Pre-session phone consultation
• 20 minute photo session
• Ordering session in person

8×10 prints start at $35 and wall portraits and storyboards start at $125
You will receive a complementary 8×10 when you order your prints.

Reservations are a must!

Click here to make a reservation

Please contact us or call Jessica 703-860-2222 if you have any questions.

You are invited to celebrate your family at the Snipes Farm and support the Education Center by participating in our Photo Fundraiser

Monday, July 19 5-7 pm
Tuesday, July 20 10-12 and 5-7
Wednesday, July 21 10-12 and 5-7

Has your family always picked fruit at Snipes Farm? Have you enjoyed the beauty of its pastures and woodlands on a hayride? Is Snipes Farm a part of your everyday community or fall event calendar? Have you visited once and fallen in love with it? Well, come make photographs at the farm that will stay in your family from generation to generation.

Details

$75 Sitting Fee
(a $175 Value)

This fee includes

• Pre photo session consultation on the telephone
• 30 minute photo session at Snipes Farm
• A review of photographs and ordering session with the photographer

Other Details

Prints 8×10 and smaller start at $35 and wall portraits start at $125, please call Jessica for details about other products and collections, 703-860-2222

A portion of the sitting fee and print will go directly to Snipes Farm and Education Center

"Click here to Book A Session"

Our World

This year, we’ve joined a select group of photographers from around the world by making the commitment to join Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (http://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org/). We are part of a network of 7,000 photographers who offer our services free of charge to families who have experienced the loss of their baby. In the midst of grief, loss, and confusion, we collectively seek to provide families with a sensitive and private portrait session with their child, providing heirloom quality photos to honor their baby’s legacy. These portrait sessions are intense and emotional, but we are humbled by the opportunity to ban together with colleagues to help these families heal.

As part of my commitment to Now I Law Me Down To Sleep, we participate in an annual event to raise much needed funds to keep this all-volunteer organization operating. The event, International Charity Model Search Contest allows photographers to enter fabulous family portraits. The winner is chosen based on the number of votes received, and each vote is $1. Last year, over $10,000 dollars were raised through this effort, by doing what we love—taking gorgeous portraits of families

If you give a photographer a camera, she will want to take your picture…
she will ask you to sit a few feet from the window and turn towards her so one side of your face basks in the stream of light.

She will notice that there is too much contrast, that one side of your face is too in shadow and will ask for a white piece of foam core to bounce the light back on your face.

If you give her the foamcore, she will want to get the exposure just right and ask for a hand held light meter and a computer to check the exposure with a facemask histogram.

If you give her a held held light meter and a computer, she will notice the background is cluttered with pictures hanging on the wall,
so she will ask for a fast lens to shoot at 2.8 to soften the background and separate you from it.

If you give her a fast lens she will ask you to go play outside so she can test it’s quick focusing
If you go outside, she will ask you to play in the shade.

If you let her photograph for a long time, she will get tired of chasing the shade and she will ask for a flash and a flash modifier so she can balance the light on you and the background as well as clean up the nasty shadows on your face. When you get her the flash that her camera company makes, she will ask you to sit in the middle of a meadow in the beautiful sunshine.

If you sit in the meadow and she will photograph you with her flash off her camera in flash modifier and white foam core, she will get frustrated by the shadows still under your eyes and the blown out sky. She will ask you to get a Quantum flash or maybe the baby ranger power pack from Elinchrome so she can use her big lights and softbox to overpower the sun, balance out the light between you and the background and clean up those shadows.

If you get her a Quantum flash or a baby ranger, she will be in heaven…but if you don’t have the extra grand or two, she will just ask you to go back to the shade, or put on your sun glasses or give you an umbrella or ask you to lay on a white sheet and ask to be in front of a darker background.

Start your day at ViVa Vienna with a Photo Session and then enjoy Vienna’s wonderful street fair with all it’s rides, food and artists.

15 Minute Mini-Session
Sunday from 10-4 outside of Artful Gifts on Church Street at near Lawyers Rd
Sitting Fee $35
Includes:

Pre-session consultation (if you reserve a session by Thursday)

15 Minute mini session

Ordering session a week or two after the session

Reserve a session by calling Jessica at 703-860-2222 or emailing jessica@portraitplaytime.com

…because everyone deserves a lifetime

A photo fundraiser to raise money for the cure

Create lasting family portraits with a photo session at the location of your choice for $175 and Portrait Playtime will

donate $75 to The Milk Jugs (A team walking for the cure in the Susan G. Komen 3-day Walk for the Cure)

give you a $75 credit towards prints as a thank you gift

Register by September 30 and schedule your photo shoot anytime before December 31st.

To register contact Jessica at 703-860-2222 or complete the contact us form

What: We need models– that is, we need to take photographs of a variety of children playing that may be used for several books…

Dr. Barbara Laster, Professor of Literacy, and Dr. Mubina Kirmani, Professor of Early Childhood Education, have written a series of books about children who come from a variety of religious backgrounds. The books will be popular with elementary school kids.

Why: This is a great opportunity to celebrate religious diversity and to enhance understanding among children (and the adults who care about them).

Click here for the Entrance Fee and Thank You Gifts

Click here for When, Where and Who

You are invited to Celebrate Motherhood
and support La Leche League of DC

Saturday, April 17
from 8:30 am to 6:00 pm
at St. Columba’s Episcopal Church
4201 Albemarle Street NW
Washington, DC 20016
(two blocks from the Tenley town metro stop)

"Click here for Details"

"Click here to Book A Session"

Please contact Jessica at jessica@portraitplaytime.com if you have any questions.