Cassandra.

Cassandra and I have been friends since 2004 and I was thrilled to find out she was expecting. She knew she was due with a baby girl to be named Kinsley Elyse, so we really concentrated on a personalized shoot for baby Kinsley. The shoot took place on November 10, 2007 in Lafreniere Park in Metairie, Louisiana and was shot with my now retired W7.

Maternity.

I adore maternity portraits. While your subject is a large, round belly, there is so much room for improvisation and creativity. I have done two maternity shoots thus far which really saddens me as they are my favorite.

From now until December 31, 2008 you can receive a maternity session for $35!!! This will include a proof CD of your one hour long session. You can order proofs from your proof CD.

So you pay $35 for the session and CD of web quality watermarked images and pay for what prints you wish for! Sound good? Fill up my calendar!!!

Long Overdue Update.

Well hello, it's been awhile! I have reloacted to beautiful Centennial, Colorado and am working fulltime as an assistant teacher in a private preschool Kindergarten class. I am using my Spanish degree and teaching the kiddos espanol (no accent marks on the laptop!) and am loving it.

So what does this mean for my photography? Well one, I am still editing shoots from NOLA as sad as that is. I have very little free time these days. Two, once I get these shoots completed I plan to begin shooting in Colorado. I will only be available on weekends however as I end my workday at 6:30pm and daylight savings time is just around the corner. Three, with rebuilding my photography and establishing clients in my new hometown I am reformatting this website as well as the MySpace I have built for Digital Danielle Photography. I will be posting examples from various shoots as well as my rates, packages, and promotions.

Keep your eyes peeled!

Upgrade.

For my birthday, my parents surprised me with my beloved H9!

I am amazed at the color difference in my shoots. I look at the images straight out of the camera and don’t want to touch them. Of course there is always the need for extra oomph and glamour in a portrait so I have to edit them. But the clarity is stunning. I am hooked.

I played around with the more professional cameras in Best Buy before considering the H9. I really looked into the Canon Rebel XT and the Nikon D50. I compared the two to the H9. The Canon was pretty impressive, but the lenses were a little pricey for my liking. The Nikon was not that spectacular. I tried different settings and focused on a white balloon. The balloon was yellow on the LCD! I know you have to automatically adjust the white balance on a DSLR, but the Canon’s was dead on with no adjusting on my part. Plus, I would eventually like to have a Sony DSLR anyway. I hear they still need quite a bit of work, but by the time I’m ready for that step they should have the kinks worked out.

So now I wonder why I waited so long to get this camera! One of my favorite things is the large (and tilting!) LCD. I experimented with this feature at a recent shoot and it was very convenient. I love my camera.

It also makes me feel more professional since I have a fancier camera. I know that’s silly and doesn’t really make a photographer who they are, but in all honesty I felt I wasn’t being taken seriously with the compact W7. One of my clients said, “Such a small camera for a big job,” and although she was making light of the situation, I felt a little less confident in myself from that point on. Now I can look like a serious up and coming photographer and my pictures are coming out fabulously. I am so content. I really feel like this was a giant step in the right direction.

I will start to chronicle some shoots in the near future. To comment on the above picture, that was taken on February 3 with a model named Angie. Angie was actually on the TV show America’s Next Top Model. She was one of the 20 girls who went to Los Angeles for casting but did not make it into the house. It was phenomenal working with such an experienced model, especially one who has met Tyra Banks!

Fashion photography is very interesting. I feel like I have an opportunity to see things on a more artistic perspective, and that provides me with an entirely different level of creativity. However, I much prefer my portraiture “up close” kinds of shoots. Even with my fashion sessions, I do plenty face shots. I can’t steer away from it. I don’t dislike high fashion photography, it’s just like saying I bake all kinds of cookies. Peanut butter ones (portraiture) are my favorite but I do like to whip up a batch of sugar cookies (high fashion) every now and then because variety is the spice of life.

I’ve rambled long enough here. I am just way too excited about my new camera. Be on the lookout for photo commentary very soon.

Know More.

I finally broke down and made a photography blog. I want to keep my personal life personal and my business life, well business like. So here I plan to chronicle my photography adventures.

My name is Danielle, as if that wasn't obvious enough. I was born and raised in NOLA and after the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina and experiencing life post-hurricane down here, I'm ready to move on. My boyfriend Robert and I plan to relocate in the summer of 2008 to the Denver metro area in Colorado. This is a big move for me, but I am welcoming the change and opportunity to grow and expand my photography to new scenes.

My talents and passions have varied over the years. I have always been creative and expressive of my ideas. I danced for eight years and found that to be one of the best outlets for emotions. I put that hobby on hold to attend college and never got back into the swing of it. I graduated from the University of New Orleans this past May and have a Bachelor of Arts majoring in the Spanish language. Once in Denver, I plan to use my degree and knowledge of Spanish to educate young children.

I bought a Sony Cybershot DSC-W7 in 2005 just to play around as I have always loved to take pictures. My mother can tell you how annoying I was in school, always borrowing her 35mm and begging her to develop the silly pictures of my friends and I at school. Pictures have provided me with the chance to see things I normally cannot, thus they have always been so important to me. Anyway, I mainly just played with my camera but in 2006 after a session at Glamour Shots I discovered I really wanted to take pictures as a serious hobby.

I began a small portfolio and submitted it to Glamour Shots. I was called back for several interviews but was not offered a position. This didn't kill my spirit. A year later while having my senior pictures done, I asked a friend of mine if she'd mind me photographing her. I was impressed with the turnout and began photographing family and friends in what I referred to as mini-shoots. This was the birth of Digital Danielle Photography. This past September I began meeting models and doing shoots with them in hopes to enhance both of our portfolios. Now in December, I have noticed an improvement in my work and my clients are more and more satisfied with each shoot.

Currently, I try to manage at least one shoot per weekend. Robert is my biggest fan and attends every shoot. At this time I am concentrating on Christmas shoots as well as portraiture to build my portfolio. I am still shooting with the DSC-W7 and occasionally my mom's DSC-H2. I am stuck on the Sony Cybershots. I am hoping to buy a DSC-H9 in the near future and eventually the Sony Alpha DSLR once I have a studio and way more experience. My goal in creating this blog is to document my favorites from each shoot and get my name and photography "out there" to attract clients. Thanks for reading this, have a pleasant day!