My handsome cousin

I just had to share this cutie again! He is such a handsome and funny little boy! He is half a Spaniard half an American, so I guess that gives the perfect result in character and look! We're taking his 1 year old pictures soon!!! I can't wait :)

30 weeks!

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!! We hope you have a wonderful time!!!! We sure will! A few days of rest and just spending time with family always feels great! And this is my favorite time of the year! I'm so looking forward to this time of rest, egg nog, Christmas music, time with my husband...Plus, we're moved into our new places and we love it! We absolutely love it and I'm loving putting all the things away and making it look all pretty! Although the part of Nate not letting me pick up or move anything...he doesn't want me and baby to get hurt :)

Our baby boy is getting pretty active! He must love Christmas too like his mommy!

But now I'm off to watch Fireproof with my wonderful husband! I love him more everyday and I pray I can be the best wife to me as he is the best husband I could ever have!

Have a wonderful Christmas!!!! And don't forget the whole purpose of this season! The birthday of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The best gift we could ever have. A show of God's love toward us to provide the only way for us to have eternal life in heaven. A gift we can only have by accepting Him and putting our faith and trust in Him: Jesus Christ!

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Children and Family Photography

F.A.Q. II

So I'm spending a long time sitting in the car these last two days, and since I don't drive, that's giving me the opportunity to blog more! And there was something I mentioned I would start doing more often! FAQ posts!!!!! Remember, if there is any subject you would like us to talk about on these posts, email us! We'll be glad to help you!!!! Here you go!

What are your favorite camera settings when shooting a regular portrait session?

This will vary on the weather circumstances. But as a general thing, we love shooting with the lowest ISO we can. If it's 100, then awesome! If it's 400, then great too! We try not to go above 400 to avoid camera noise, even though the 5D works really well with high ISO and the 5D mark ii is even better! 

We try to keep our speed no lower than 1/250 unless extremely necessary, and try to keep an aperture of 2.2 or so. We use a 50mm 1.4, so that means that at 1.4 it won't be the sharpest (even though this lens works great at 1.4) because it's the widest aperture allowed in that lens. If the lens were a 1.8 maximum aperture, then we would shoot at 2.8 or so. So keeping our aperture at 2.2 and speed at 1/250, we just move the ISO to lower or higher depending on the light. If we end up having a very dark day, then we might have to end up bringing the speed down a little or the aperture! I hope this all makes sense!!!!! We love the effect of using a very open aperture, because it just focuses on the eyes and softens the rest. And since we work with interacting subjects (couples, children, families...) we like keeping the speed as fast as we can to ensure there won't be any blur.

What kind of lighting do you use?

Honestly, there is nothing like natural light. I think I've mentioned this before! But to me there is no better light than that! It's the light that our God has created, and it is just soft, natural, and beautiful! So we try to use natural light as much as possible, work with reflectors and find the best light when we get to a location. We do use a Canon 580 EXII for ceremony and reception shots at weddings. We need to in order to avoid using a high ISO or a low speed ,and to avoid too many shadows on the subjects' faces (my pet peeve). To be honest, I've used off camera lighting in the past when I was starting and worked as a photographer assistant. We would light the subject with one flash and the background with another flash. Pocket wizards are great for that and you can do amazing effects with it! But to me, that just means more distractions during the ceremony or reception. We want our subjects to enjoy their day and not overwhelm them. We want to capture their natural expressions and just how they are being themselves and enjoying their time! So to me, the more complicated I make it, the less natural results I will obtain. My Gary Fong works great for these shots and gives me satisfying results! Of course, this doesn't apply to all photographers and there are amazing photographers out there using all kinds of lighting and obtaining amazing results. So you just need to find what you like and how you like to work!

We hope this information was helpful to you! Have a wonderful and blessed day!

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Children and Family Photography

God answers prayers

So just wanting to share with you that God does answer prayers and proofs Himself to us! We're not trying to show how cool our story is, but we want to show you the glory and power of God! Last night, driving to North Carolina, we got into a town where a big storm had happened and the more we drove into it, the worse it was getting. The power and phone signal were gone, so it was dark, full of snow, and trees were fallen all over the road. Too late to turn around, too far from a city and a hotel, and having no clue where we were. We couldn't call anybody, the internet connection wasn't working either! So right when I started to get worried, our car slid to the side of the road, leaving us right on the edge of the road where a few centimeters would have thrown us down a 10 foot bank into a river. So here you go, a 7 month pregnant lady and her hubby sitting right on the edge of this bank and praying for God's wisdom. Once we realized about the bank down there, we got out and just prayed and prayed and prayed. No lights, no phone signal, and a bunch of snow! So we decided to walk on the side of the road to find the nearest house and used our phones as lights! And guess what? not even 5 minutes after, a family with a big truck happened to pass by us because they were going from their house to somebody else's house, and stopped to help us! With a chain hooked to both cars they got us out! And we believe God sent them as an answer to our prayer, cause there were no cars driving around! And not only He sent us a family to help us, He sent us a plowing truck to drive in front of us and plow the road so we could get to the nearest hotel! So, not only God answers our prayers, He gives us way more in abundance! Wrapped in my favorite blanket, I didn't feel the cold, baby was good and cozy in my belly, and everything worked out!

God is so good! We don't even deserve it!!!! :)

We hope this story can be a blessing to you! Have a wonderful day!

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Children and Family Photography

I love family sessions!!!!

This is what happens when a family just has fun during the photo shoot! It is not us and our pictures, it's them and their feelings! There were so many images I wanted to share with you... actually I ended up with 200 edited final pictures because I couldn't decide which ones to post! They all were so cute with all of them laughing and enjoying each other! I think families are becoming one of my favorite things to take pictures of :)

Have a great day! We have more things to come!!!!

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Children and Family Photography

Oops about the shadow! It was a last minute picture and I loved the background and light at that moment, so I figured it would be ok :)

Nashville lights and my favorite food with me

Last saturday I was able to fulfill another one of my younger part of life dreams: taking a walk with my hubby being pregnant drinking a Godiva chocolate drink. Yeah... how silly....It's not my dream anymore, since I haven't been worried about calories for a couple of years (welcome to the real world Arancha). You know, after so many years of killing myself in the gym and eating just cereal, veggies and fruit, to me it was one of the most terrible things in life to drink such a thing! So even though I truly desired to drink them, to me it was like ruining all my work out (this sounds terrible! I promise it wasn't obsession, lol). So being pregnant would give me a good excuse to do this! And here we go Godiva! The Spanish congregation got together to see the hotel Opryland in Nashville and see the Christmas lights last saturday. And I got to walk around holding (and drinking) my Godiva white chocolate drink (and eating a couple of Godiva chocolates)and just enjoying the Christmas season with my hubby! And with no guilt for calories whatsoever! Just happiness, fun, and joy to know that soon (in 12 weeks) we'll be able to meet our precious little boy!!!!! Btw, my baby loves chocolate just as much as I do :)

And we all had a great time! We spent time with great people and it was a blessing to us!

Here is an updated picture of us!

Have a wonderful day!

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Children and Family Photography

3 families in 1!

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to take pictures of a very cool family! We had a great time with them! And they were so easy going! There is nothing like working with a family that trusts you and your pictures and will do whatever you ask them to do! They made beautiful pictures and we have sooo many pictures of them to share! But here are just a couple I edited as I was downloading them!

Thank you guys for allowing us to take such special pictures for you! We hope you enjoy them! :)

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Children and Family Photography

One more

Yes, one more! I had to and even though I was trying to keep myself from posting more than 2 pictures on a sneak peek, I had to do this! He is too cute! I'm sure you would have done the same :)

Arancha-Huntsville Baby, Children, and Family Photography

The Puente's

A sneak peek of my cousin and his beautiful family! They are going to be 4 in a few months!!! 

The light was so great! And what a handsome baby! :D

A lovely evening...and a complimentary maternity sessions reminder

Today Nate and I had the opportunity to spend some quality time together! I love those times, and I can't believe how much fun I can have with him! We just never get bored together! We walked around in a lovely night, drinking some hot chocolate and just looking at some stores and the Christmas lights, and talking about our lives, our desires, our plans, etc. We didn't go with the mentality to buy anything, but we had been wanting to buy our baby his first clothes, and we just never found anything that fit in our taste for a newborn outfit! But God blessed today and we found a couple of things that we loved and that were actually really good deals! I'm usually really bad at shopping cheap and have never paid attention to prices! I never actually cared about spending too much on clothes! And I admit I sometimes have spent too much in the past... But I'm learning! And I know I can do better! So we found these cute newborn sneakers, and when we went to check out...they were $4!!!!! You can't find those deals shopping in Madrid, lol Our baby is going to be a cutie!!! And I can't wait to go to Zara and get him some cool clothes there!

By the way! I want to remind you all mom-to-bes about our maternity promotion! Just book a newborn session and get a complimentary maternity session with it! :)

And another reminder for those wanting Christmas pictures: this is the last week to get your pictures on time before Christmas so you can send them to your family and friends! So book your session soon! :D

Have a lovely day!!!

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Baby, Children, and Family Photography

Our first FAQ post!!!!

Lately I have been struggling about what to blog about! (did that sound redundant?) I love blogging, but we are having really busy lives lately! And I know I always say the same...it has improved, and we're getting better and are organizing our schedules in a better way!  But thinking about things that I like reading about, I remembered something I LOVED to read about when reading other photographer's blogs! It helped me so much when I started photography, and is still helping me now. Frequently asked questions posts!!!! We have never done a FAQ post before! But I thought it would be fun to do and could help those people interested in improving their photography skills, or just learning about photography! We have been asked a few questions since we started our business, not only basic, but also advanced ones, and we decided to start sharing them here, starting with the most basic ones :) So here we goooo!

What is your favorite equipment?

For portraits, we mainly use our Canon 5D with the 50mm 1.4 lens. If I want to do a cooler effect with couples or groups, I'll use my wide angle (24mm 1.8), which gives really good results if shot at a 2.2 or a higher aperture, and getting close to the subject. I'm so happy with the results of these two lenses together, that I haven't felt the need to get a different one yet. But probably, when we buy our next lens, it will be a 50mm 1.2 or 85mm 1.2.

What software do you use for your post-processing?

It depends. I loooove Lightroom and how it speeds up my post processing. I love all the tools and the corrections I can do with it, but I love how much more meticulous I can be when editing with Photoshop. So depending on what effect I want to end up with, I'll use either one, or both! I have pictures that I have edited just with Photoshop, and pictures I've edited just with Lightroom. I'll show you some examples on the bottom of this post!

Do you use Photoshop actions?

Many times I do, and many other times I just do my own editing to produce the result I want on a certain picture. Sometimes I just have in mind the exact result I want for a specific picture (specially for studio pictures), and the only way to obtain it is by doing my own changes and corrections. You can create your own actions and presets and use them for future sessions! It speeds up your post-processing so much!  But we have some actions that we absolutely love and also use that we bought from professional designers!!!!!

If you have any question you would like for us to help you with, send us an e-mail and we'll be glad to prepare another FAQ post! We would like to be a blessing to you! :)

Have a great day!

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Family and Children Photography

And heres is an example of a picture taken with our 24 mm lens! This picture has been edited with just Photoshop.

Our fall pictures!

Nate and I finally got our fall pictures taken! It wasn't a planned thing. It was more like a: we're going shopping but since the leaves are falling already, let's take the camera in case we find a cute tree to get a couple of shots! Hence my jacket having to be on, because I despised my sweater for the pictures, lol and my hair, totally undone! (it was supposed to be our lazy saturday, so that included not styling my hair...) But really close to our house, we saw a cute area with trees and decided to take a few shots there: of course, with a tripod. It's getting harder to do, since I can't run as fast to go from the tripod to the pose area when I set the timer (you should see me holding my belly to do this). So we missed a few poses and got some shots where the poses where totally me breaking a basket, Nate and I looking at each other with confusion looks, etc etc, but the results of those we cannot share, hehe Anyways, we're hoping to get a professional photographer to do our official maternity pictures, but we get so busy that we don't know how it will work! So we might have to end up doing more tripod experiments! We're going to have to start workshops teaching about self-portraits, lol

Let me add that today was a wonderful day! We reserved this saturday as our special family day to just be together and not worry about anything. It's something we don't get to do very often! We love our lives but we have to admit that we don't get days like this very often and sometimes we miss them! So we have decided to take more days like this. We took it really easy in the morning just having fun with one another, ate ice-cream as our afternoon snack, took a nap, studied and did devotionals, and then decided to head out to do some shopping and eat supper. These last few weeks I just have loved eating bocadillos, paninis, and sandwiches, so that's all I felt like eating today! And then we were able to work it out with a 2 hour walk of just shopping or looking at things for our baby. And we found the cutest outfits for him! My maternity clothing search was not that successful! I'm having the hardest time! To end the day, we found the perfect candle to add a Christmas scent to our house! It smells yummyyyyy!!!And here I am! I can't get over how fun, calm, and exciting this day has been! How much I love my life, my family, God, and thanking Him for giving such an amazing husband that does anything to make me feel happy and good!

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Children and Family Photography

Maternity sessions!!!! As a courtesy of Nate and Arancha Photography :)

After prayer and thinking, we have found a way to be a blessing to our clients! In this case, the clients that will be mommies soon!!!! When you book a newborn session, you get a complimentary mini maternity session!!!!! :) You have to keep memories of the before and the after right???? And to us, it is just as important!

You have two choices: you can do your maternity portraits (you and your cute belly, of course), or an in love maternity session (you and the future daddy, which is personally our favorite choice). Maternity in love sessions will also include pictures of just mommy and baby belly, but most of it will focus on the love between mommy and daddy and their excitement for the upcoming child! I just loooove the feeling of it! And to us, photography is about feelings; feelings shown in images to portray your most exciting times in life!

Just think about it, give us a call, and set your appointment!!

We are actually enjoying these sessions ourselves! And we want you to be able to enjoy yours!

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Baby and Maternity Photography

A few more pics of baby Amahia

When I finished editing these pictures, I saw a few that just made me meeelt!!! I love the peacefulness and calmness that baby pictures transmit! And I cannot wait till my sweet little baby is born to take his newborn pictures! Oh how I'm going to love it!!!! :)

Just look at how sweet her mom (my really good friend btw) looks and how calm and cute the baby just stays receiving the kiss :)

Fall is almost over!!! I need to get some pics asap for the record! I never get tired of maternity pictures, because it is something I will get to keep forever :) to remember the fun times of expecting Alex!

Have a wonderful day!

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Children and Family Photography

Fall Festival!

Just an update on how the fall festival went! I was so looking forward to this day for years! Since I had always been in college around this time, I had not been able to see it! But now I'm graduated and we are living here in Huntsville! So I was happy to be a part of it and see it and.... of course... play some games to get some candy :) Somehow every conversation or comment I say lately has to do with food! This is terrible! How did this happen? lol

Nate had the opportunity to help a little bit at the basketball booth/game/stand, I helped judge a contest...and we also played some games and won fun size chocolates and a 2 little bottle of coke. They drew names to give away all the goodies that other companies and church members had donated. I loved seeing people win prizes, and I won one!!!! (I've never won anything till I came to the US, so winning little prizes make me too excited!) And I also loved being able to see somebody win our gift certificate! We can't wait to take their pictures! But it was just great to see all the little kids participate, having fun, getting candy... I can't wait till we can take our little baby there next year! :)

Our baby is doing great, by the way! Kicking very strong and moving a lot! It's one of the most wonderful feelings one can feel and I'm enjoying it so much! Who said pregnancies are not fun? I'm loving it! I just wish it was March to see and enjoy my little baby! wohoooo!

Have a wonderful day!

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Children and Family Photography

Belly progress!

Here are a few pics we took last saturday! This is at 21 weeks! I can't believe my belly is growing so much! We can now see our little baby kick! And his daddy can feel him too! It is so awesome! 

Yesterday was Nate's birthday! We had a great day full of little treats! Since early in the morning we made a big breakfast (chocolate crepes with blueberries and blackberries), I gave him his presents and we spent all evening together! We had a great time! And for those that know me well: no, I did not wait till monday to give him all his presents, lol I had to buy him a few so I could give him a couple in advance :) I'm horrible! But his first one was so special that I ended up giving it to him on saturday! He loved it though and has been using it since then! I'll try to post some pictures!!!!

It's super late, and I have to go to bed before I get too hungry and cranky! Just wanted to give you a little update of God's blessings!

Have a great day!

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Children and Family Photography

Senior: Damaris

A few of my favorites from Damaris' pictures. I met Damaris in Spain when she was 2. Then I didn't see her for 10 years! And you can imagine the impression on me when I saw her! So grown up! She is a beautiful Spaniard and she and her family moved to Huntsville a couple of years ago. I actually teach her keyboarding class in High School! the world is smaller than what we think!!! lol So it was fun to have this photo session with her! I can't wait to see what God is going to do in her life as she graduates and starts her college life!

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Senior Photography

Wohoooo! Christmas coming soon, and a huge special coming too!

My favorite time of the year is getting closer! I'm really enjoying the fall and I love all the changes that come with it (not the cold..) I love the mood, the colors, the new clothes (different for me this year, since I had to buy a new wardrobe to fit my baby belly). But even though I'm thoroughly enjoying this season, I still can't wait till Christmas. Everything is just different at Christmas! I love Christmas songs, I love seeing lights, ornaments, Christmas trees, etc. every where I go. So I truly can't wait till November when all this gets started! And when December gets here, it is time (and a good) excuse to bake cookies, peppermint brownies, make trips to Starbucks to enjoy some white chocolate peppermint lattes, cuddle with my hubby on the couch and watch Christmas movies, etc... Yessss, I'm getting mushy! But these Christmas are going to be different: we have our little one with us, still in my belly, but he's a part of us! And it's going to be our first Christmas at home, just us, being able to decorate the house and be homey and just enjoy the season with no rush! I will miss spending this time with my family in Spain, but I know they will be coming soon to meet our baby boy!

I am going to start working soon on the Christmas cards for this year!!!!! Actually, I have a lot of ideas I want to put into practice! So you can go ahead and start planning your Christmas pictures and cards from NOW!!!! And we want to be a blessing to you with a special package for a limited time!

- 40 minute session

- 1 8x10 print

- 8 full resolution images on a cd (for you to print your own)

- An online slideshow with 20-30 images to share with your family and friends!

The first 5 people to book will be able to get all this for only $100 and a 20% discount when ordering Christmas cards!

We are looking forward to taking your family or children pictures. There is nothing like Christmas to capture our little ones' special moments and treasure them forever!

Have a wonderful day!

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Children and Family Photography

A beautiful baby girl!

My good friend Fatima, who lives about 4 hours away from us, had a beautiful baby girl a month ago! Yesterday we were able to go visit them and we had a great time! We just wished we could have stayed longer! But we were able to take some pictures for them and these are a few that I really liked!

Enjoy them!

Have a great day!

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography

Guess what we found out!!!!

We had our ultrasound and found out that our precious little baby is a baby boy!!!!! We are thrilled!!!!! We were able to check everything and see that he is doing great! Praise God for that! Everything looked very good! Our baby was really kicking that little machine the lady was using for the ultrasound, and kept putting his little hands on his face. So precious! I can't wait to see his face and hold him! After the ultrasound, we immediately called our family and went to do our baby registry! We were waiting for this news to start it all! And then celebrated it with a white chocolate molten cake with extra hot fudge on top :) not so good for my pregnancy diet, but hey! it was a celebration right? plus, my baby wanted it!
Thank you for all your prayers and for caring for us and our baby! We truly appreciate it! :)
We hope you have a wonderful day!

Nate and Arancha
Nate and Arancha Photography-Children and Family Photography

I can't believe I've been so bad again at blogging! Not even personal updates! My bad!!!! But we just wanted to let you know that everything is great and busy! :)

We are focusing a lot on keeping our baby happy! Lots of talking to him/her, some resting, healthy feeding, and some spoiling (ok, maybe a lot) here and there! Nate just takes such good care of me! Yesterday I had one of the worst headaches and he showed up at my office with a pumpkin spice late (a little one to not add too much caffeine) and a love note! He makes my days and makes every day of my pregnancy better. I just have to open my mouth and whatever I need, he will bring it to me right away! I don't deserve it! I'm loving being pregnant, but I have to admit that I get a lot of pains here and there... but just to feel my little one kicking and having the hiccups makes it all better! And knowing that in 4 and half months I'll see his/her little face!!! awwwwwwww, I can't wait to hold my little baby! In a week we'll find out the gender! We really can't wait. This week is going to seem sooooo loooooong! We will keep you updated! Ok, sorry about my mushiness....

And about photography: we still have pictures to post, and they will be coming soon! Also more photo shoots coming up! With this good weather and cloudy skies pictures are perfect! You might want to take advantage of it!!!!!

Have a wonderful day! Isn't the fall beautiful??????

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Children and Family Photography

Baby J 6 months

Here is a cute and very cooperative baby! And he happens to be our nephew! We loved taking these pictures! He was so good and patient to us :)

And of course, it's extra nice to take pictures of a baby when he is such a handsome baby! We just love him!

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Children and Family Photography