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