The Social Poets: Official First Family White House Portrait for 2011: The Obamas

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The Social Poets: Official First Family White House Portrait for 2011: The Obamas: From Denny:  Here is the new Obama family portrait for 2011 for all those of you who have been searching for it by the thousands.  It was taken after attendance at Sunday church services.  The daughters sure are growing up fast - and beautiful!


Great portrait.  From a photographer's point of view I sure am glad this was a professional photographer who shot it.  How many times do you see folks place that background holly wreath like it's growing out of the president's head?  I've seen way too many wedding, birthday and graduation photos with that composition issue.  :)

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• Dennys Photo Gallery: 20 Cute Child Portraits (visualinsights.blogspot.com)

Dennys Photo Gallery: 20 Cute Child Portraits

From Denny:  Check out the adorable child portraits I found on one of my "visual vacations" to rest my brain from mind-numbing blog maintenance tasks.  Most were taken by their parents and are quite clever in composition.

How do you narrow down the choices to just a few for a post?  Well, it wasn't easy, I can tell you that one for sure!  I'll probably do a few more of these child photography posts.

I love portraits and the human face that I'm always looking for creative ways to photograph.  This should give you some great ideas of how to photograph your new arrival, the sister's cute kids or just when you are out on photo safari in your neighborhood.

Poems From A Spiritual Heart: It Isnt In Me

Poems From A Spiritual Heart: It Isnt In Me: "'Love is how we all win'

How to define someone by what they are not. Pivotal moment can prompt you to write

From Denny: I’ve always worked from the inside out. Yet in the West, and especially in America, our culture tends to work from the outside, ignoring the 'inside self' the majority of the time. And we wonder why America is a drug-plagued society with so much emotional and spiritual pain? There isn’t enough loving going around: yourself - as well as the stranger standing next to you!

You can love yourself without resorting to selfishness, stinginess or self-absorption. Just take good care of yourself as much as you would someone you value highly. Your world will improve dramatically when you adopt this philosophy."

Dennys Photo Gallery: How We See Ourselves: 26 Self-Portraits

From Denny: We photographers have a lot of fun with technology. Check out the self-portrait challenges over at flickr I discovered while on one of my visual vacations. Some real beauties and clever composition to enjoy!




Self-portrait photo by Árni Torfason @ flickr, All Rights Reserved with embed code available

Portrait: Lovely Marie

closeup portrait of Marie, Dec 1950, originally uploaded by denny.lyon.

People: Written in the Nude

From Denny: Nothing like a quality done nude, cleverly written portrait!

People: Mourning

Mourning, originally uploaded by liber.

People: Shelby, a friends daughter

Shelby, a friend's daughter, originally uploaded by denny.lyon.

From my portrait phase:

On a fall picnic with her family and us, Shelby was busy showing off her athletic ability - walking on logs over the stream. She's all grown up now and out of college.

Animal: Siberian Tiger

Siberian Tiger, originally uploaded by jmagnusphoto.

Now that was tasty! Hope it wasn't anyone I know...

Photo by Denny Lyon

A great place for a photographer to go are summer festivals. I found this talented man making sweetgrass baskets at Stone Mountain, Georgia Park one summer. His focus was perfect for a portrait.

People: Awesome Shirley

Photo by Denny Lyon

Shirley and her awesome self! What positive attitude AND beauty!

People: Shirley portrait closeup

Photo by Denny Lyon

My friend Shirley who worked at one of GM's first African-American dealerships (Atlanta, Georgia). She was full of life and the camera could barely keep up with her.

She heard I was taking portraits and the minute I came in to visit with the office staff she decided to pose. Her laughter was contagious. She jumped up onto a stack of office supplies and started posing wildly. Of course, she was photogenic.

I didn't have a flash and the lighting was terrible, that florescent garbage lighting typical in old offices. But Shirley's bright spirit shone through it all where I still acquired a great portrait.

Animal: Peacock at monastery

Photo by Denny Lyon

Visited this monastery outside Atlanta often - in Conyers, Georgia. This peacock and I were old friends.

The tourists that day were frustrated this bird would not pose for them and stalked off in disgust. So, I talked to the bird like I always do and he posed beautifully for me.

One of the tourists suddenly noticed I was getting some game (yes, pun!)from that bird and asked, "How did you get him to do it?"

"Oh, that's easy," I explained, "tell a man he is gorgeous and he will show off every time. It's all about a vanity stroke."

People: Robin as Renaissance icon

Photo by Denny Lyon

My friend Robin at the beginning of the autumn afternoon shoot. The golden leaves were just perfect with her Renaissance costume and at six feet tall she was able to reach up and pull down that tree limb for a great pose. We spent about 4 hours on that shoot and about 4 rolls of 36 exposure film. Almost every one of them was a wonderful photo, what luck! Used a Nikon (pre-digital).

People: The woman and the rose

Photo by Denny Lyon

My friend Robin at the end of the fall afternoon when we were shooting. On the way back to the car she saw these perfect roses and wanted to pose with them - so she did! I like to be spontaneous and offer my people the opportunity for ideas of how they would like to be portrayed. The synergy is awesome!

People: Robin's portrait in the trees

Photo by Denny Lyon

My friend Robin was just 19 years old here. Her favorite hobby was the Renaissance Festival and created her own costumes. She was six feet tall and yet didn't feel pretty.

So, since I was in my portrait and art phase I convinced her I could show her just how pretty she really was. We spent one fall afternoon at Stone Mountain, Georgia state park and the rest is history. She looked lovely and her confidence grew. That was in the mid-80's.

At this time I never used a flash for portraits whether they were indoors or outdoors. I just worked with the natural lighting no matter what the conditions. People are more relaxed to model for portraits too if you aren't sticking bright lights in their faces making them uncomfortable and artificial. This autumn light under the canopy of trees that early afternoon was soft and wonderful!

People: Bert and blossoms

Photo by Denny Lyon

My beautiful elegant friend Bert, turning age 50, holding watermelon red crepe myrtle blossoms in Atlanta, Georgia back in the early 80's. This was my portrait phase and I pestered just about everyone I knew to sit for me. This was when glamor portraits were just coming out and were very expensive so my friends delighted in these portraits.