SilverLeaf Portraits.com

Recent Wedding

2007-12-17T23:49:00.001-08:00

I know it's been a while since we've posted. We've been a bit busy. Here's some photos of a recent wedding. I had a blast.

Enjoy.

Brandon

2007-07-09T21:56:00.000-07:00

Here's the other senior I photographed that day. It's not always easy to get a natural smile from a teenager. They can sense dorkiness from a mile away. When all else fails....talk about myspace.

Senior Pics

2007-06-11T14:28:00.000-07:00

A quick post from some recent Senior Pics. The location is Saltwater State Park in Washington State. This was a fun session. I photographed two girls who are best friends.

Fun Fun Fun......

Pikes Place Bridal Portrait

2007-06-07T13:23:00.000-07:00

My husband and I had been talking about doing some bridal portraits at Pikes Place Market for a while. It is not the sort of location just any bride is willing to be photographed in. Why? Well, because there are lots of people walking around everywhere! Being in a bridal dress down town is not proper attire for "blending in" with Market shoppers. A bridal portrait there has to be of someone willing to be different, and stand out, with out feeling uncomfortable. Finally, my husband and I were able to find a bride excited about having her portrait done at the Market!

Before actually photographing here, I told the Bride "Prepare to be stared at!" And boy was she! I think at least 3 or 4 people asked "Is she a model or a real bride?" After hearing a few people ask me this question, the Bride said "Just tell them I'm a real model!" But, for her fiances sake, I must say she is also a real bride. The portrait below is the one the Bride is going to display for her wedding reception.

The above portrait was taken on the sidewalk off 1st Ave. in down town Seattle. A few clicks after I captured this image, a couple of guys drove along the sidewalk on bicycles next to the Bride. As they rode past her, one guy yelled to his friend "I'D MARRY HER!" It was loud enough for the Bride to clearly hear him... which was the point I think.

Brandon shot this one inside the Pikes Place Market. The Bride is doing a little belly dancing move with her extended hand. Right about here, someone watching said "This must be for a magazine." And another lady whispered to me "Tell her she looks gorgeous." Then the bride started to wonder if she would be able to 'get her big ego head back into the car.'

This is one of my favorite close ups that I captured of the bride. This portrait session was also special because the Bride is a good friend of mine. I think she has gotten more beautiful every year I have known her.

How could a Seattle portrait be complete without a little rain? Thankfully, it did not start raining until about 20 min. after this picture was taken! The umbrella was just for fun! Brandon took this portrait on the street right outside the Market area.

A big thanks to the Bride for giving Brandon and I the opportunity to do a bridal portrait in this location. I think all three of us had a great time!

Lamb Henry

Shy Kiddos

2006-12-13T12:34:00.000-08:00

So your session starts and you have a really shy kiddo. Hmm....what to do. Kids have a 10 min. window where they are trying to figure out what is going on. Stranger with a camera, mom hiding behind a bush...uhhm...this isn't normal behavior.

This is usually when the sreaming starts.

Don't say "pictures" or "smile"....just play with them. Balance a rock on your head, juggle something, let them take some pics of you.

After that it's just a matter of getting the lighting right.

What's the best way to photograph kids?.......let em' play.
What's the best way to photograph shy kids?.....uhh...let em' play.

A New Piece of History

2006-11-21T10:29:00.002-08:00

We're back! I have been swamped with a big project, but it's winding up now. I thought I post an interesting portrait of me, my bro, and my dad. We own an old gold mining village high in the hills of montana. A few summers ago we went up there for a while to fix a few cabins and do some prospecting. I did this photo at the opening of the main mine shaft. There are a few more entrances to the mine, but one of them has a family of bears living in it.

I did a timed exposure and beat the file up in photoshop.

...........carry on.

The NWPhotoForum has arrived!

2006-10-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

After many a late night and lots of Coast to Coast Am.....I present to you the NorthWest Photo Forum. It's still in beta form, but it works. It's got lots of cool features like the NWPhotoMap. Anyone interested in photography needs to come get you 2 scoops of photo goodness.

I'm tired.

-Brandon

Patriots

2006-10-09T22:22:00.000-07:00

The story behind this painting is a good one......

.....So I show up at their house and they have this wonderful property with lots of land and this really beautiful home. I met this family through an Operation Homefront event, so I know they are patriots and support our troops. Well, their house is decked out with patriotic signs and American flags. They make it very known that they love this country. Very cool.

Then they start telling me the story of their home.....check it out...The dad designed the home and built it with his own hands. The mom picked out and placed each stone on the front of the house by herself....(the boys were chopping wood as we talked.)

So I started thinking about the portrait and realized that their home is as important to them as anything else. I framed the portrait in such a way as to show the home prominently, but at the same time still have it as the background. One thing that I like about this portrait is how proud the dad looks. Proud of his home, proud of his boys, proud of his country, and a proud husband.

It's a good thing.

p's out

-Brandon

Womb with a View.

2006-10-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

This portrait I did for the three little people that once lived in my womb. While I was prego with my last, I desperately wanted to show my two toddlers what was going on inside my tummy. I spent hours at the computer,with a tot on each knee, trying to find a portrait like this one.

The mother here gave birth to her little boy about a week after I took the portrait of her. Brandon took the portrait of her baby boy while I held the little guy. I was not sure how the concept of this portrait would look once everything was put together, but when I saw baby boy resting his hand upon his cheek while Brandon took his portrait, I knew it was going to be phenomenal.

Since this portrait is by no means anatomically correct, Brandon focused the portrait on the baby, and photoshopped the area around baby to be a little blurry.

-Lamb

Family Portrait

2006-10-04T11:38:00.000-07:00

Before I get started I would like to thank all the photographers and painters who frequent the site. I am astonished at all of the hits this blog gets....Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, France, South Africa, England, Finland, Peru, Sweden, Canada, All 50 U.S. States, Russia, Turkey, Portugal, Spain, Netherlands... and the list goes on. Wow.

Thanks for all the compliments! We appreciate your feedback.

Now lets get down to it.

Behold.

I present to you the first official Henry Family Portrait. This is us folks. Baby Abram on the left...Bella in the middle and Isaac on the right. Now you see why we are really comfortable around kiddos.

Thanks Rick for the great portrait.

To those who haven't had a Family Portrait done in a while.....It's definitely worth the investment!

....more later

-Brandon

Self Portrait

2006-09-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

Peep this yo.

I'm gonna spin you a yarn here about the creation of my self portrait.

Check it Check it out yall.

My initial idea was to combine the feel of a Boldini and a Raphael painting. However, as the painting progressed I realized it was going to take a bit longer then I expected.

So, I punked out. I gave up. I quit. I hung my head in shame and went to bed.

Little did I know. The greatest idea in the world was brewing in my head.

Boldini's "Giuseppe Verdi"

Raphael's "The small Cowper Madonna "

Lamb's "Atlas with poorly placed backdrop because Brandon was to lazy to get out the background stand"

So this is my reference photo. Yeah. I know. Pretty impressive.
Behold.

So this is a 35% Finished version of my initial idea. You can see the basics are there, but it is pretty rough looking. I guess if I wanted to finish it I could. But I'm not. Caus I don't want to.

Up to this point I went through about 38 layers in Painter. My technique of using layers allows me to make huge changes to a painting while still being able to blend all of the layers together on a new layer. Rob, I know you don't like using layers. But give em' another chance. They won't hurt you again.

My main blending technique in Painter is to set the clone source to the actual canvas you are painting....not a reference photo.

Brandon Henry's "Greatest painting the world has ever known"

Ok. Big Finale here. I realized that if I was completely lazy and kicked Raphael to the curb, then I could finish the painting in a fraction of the time. I was right. I cheaped out and it payed off big time. I decided to go with Boldini and added a monocle for good measure.

The brushes I used for this were the Artist Oils, a Camel Variant, some Sponge thingy, some Chalk, and a Bristle Brush.

Till next time.

-Brandon

Painting Before & After

2006-09-27T19:45:00.000-07:00

First off I wanna give a shout out to all my homies all over the globe.

Wowsers. The response to the blog has been fanfreakintastic. Columbia, Turkey, Israel, New York, California, and all over the U.S.

To all the people in Columbia I say this: Coffee.....Good, Crazy trash talkin' dictator......not good. Hugo...buddy....nobody likes you...especially everyone in Venezuela. I guess Florida doesn't like you either since they just cancelled all of your CITGO contracts. Now, go sit in the corner and think about what you've done.

A big HELLO to all our photographer and painter colleagues who are reading this blog regularly.

And to anyone else I left out..........uhhh....hey.

I'm asked quite often about the paintings that I create. Here is a before and after of a cute little 4 week old baby boy. Lamb did the reference photo that I was to use for the painting. I say painting very loosely on this one, because the face and skin have very subtle paint strokes applied to it. This is a very early painting for me. Probably one of my first. Momma loved the angel baby idea and was very happy with this.

As you can see, it doesn't really matter what the background is in the reference photo. Momma was disappointed when baby fell asleep and asked "Does this mean we can't do the wing pictures?" But, as you can see, sleeping babies look really angelic.
-Brandon

The Coolest Hair on the Planet

2006-09-22T22:56:00.000-07:00

So....momma tells us that her daughter's hair tends to stick up.
Ok. We can deal with that....right?

This was no ordinary cow lick.
This was like the effects of gravity ceased completely above baby T's head...

We knew we were dealing with one of the coolest babies on the planet...

Mom went out and bought some really cute outfits for the portraits. However baby T decided she wanted to wear her B-Day Suit and her strawberry hat. It works.

Let me translate this photo for you..."We're done here cameraboy...you best scram before I mess you up."

As easy as this may look, I assure you it's not easy having the coolest hair on the planet.

-Brandon

What a fun and handsome family.

2006-09-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

........what do you mean family portraits can be fun?

Uhhh, are you kidding? no sirrey....Bob.

Almost everyone of our family sessions give us feed back like this one..."Hi Lamb, I'm so glad I checked my email before going to bed. Thank you so much for sending us a little preview photo. I love it! We also had a great time at the photo shoot with you and Brandon. You two make a great team, you made us feel comfortable and relaxed. It was fun, not laborous like having to hold a fake smile for hours on end."

Honestly....I mean really. We have fun too.

-Brandon

Sweet baby girl.

2006-09-18T16:46:00.000-07:00

Well, this image should look familiar. Let me tell you the story behind this little cutie.

Lamb comes home one day with the most beautiful images of a three week old baby girl.

------
Brandon and I both love this portrait.
This was the image I was looking to get when I scheduled this portrait session. Yet, when I arrived to photograph this little cutie, her mother informed me that at three weeks old this cutie already decided that she was not a hat person. Mom suggested I start off with something different, and save the hat photos for last. When I walked into the living room, there in the corner sat the biggest teddy bear I had ever seen! So, I started off photographing baby and bear. I love how cuddly the bear hug picture turned out. I was most pleased that baby girl changed her mind about disliking hats long enough for me to capture the darling portrait below.
What an adorable baby belly!
Here Baby is keeping warm with her moms favorite blanket.

A little baby smile. She must have been having a good dream.

Here you can see her lovely coloring. Pink lips.

Everyone could use a good bear hug once in a while. I always tell my oldest son and daughter that hugs and kisses help babies grow. Sometimes when my son is hugging on his little brother he will look at me and say "I 'm helping him grow right?" I tell him "Yes, your helping him grow."

Help those babies grow-Lamb

Bravery.

2006-09-15T21:43:00.000-07:00

“The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.”--old greek dude

----------Nice
I really do love our war Veterans. Partly because my Grandfather fought in Germany. Thankfully, most Americans never have to experience war.

Here's to all our war Veterans.

Here Here.

Thanks Operation Homefront for keeping the home fires burning. Janice, I had a soldier come up to me at the Freedom Walk and he would not stop talking about all of the wonderful things you do for them down at Fort Lewis. We all thank you.

----------End of Nice

----------Mad

To all of the dirty rats out there plotting more attacks on our country I say to you...run and hide because our bravest are hunting you down. You are all COWARDS!! You think you are brave? Why don't you pick out a uniform to wear and fight us like real men instead of targeting innocent people. You might think you are getting 72 virgins, but I'm willing to bet they will all be poking you with burning pitchforks.

----------End of Mad

Here's some photos from the Sept. 11th Freedom Walk.

http://www.operationhomefront.net/washington/index.htm Janice from Operation Homefront.

http://aroundthehomeandmore.com/ Kevin and John from 1300 KKOLI leave you with one of lamb's favorite quotes from our Uncle Patrick

"Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death! "--Patrick Henry

Fall Family Special

2006-09-14T20:08:00.000-07:00

Check it out.

Fall is here.

You need some new Family Portraits.

It's not too early to be thinking about Christmas Cards.

What will Aunt Grumples think if she doesn't get a Christmas Card with your beautiful Portrait on it?

Yep. She will think you don't love her. She will think you are spoiled and don't appreciate your family. She might even think you are embarrassed of her. She will tell the rest of the family how rotten you are.

I'm just trying to help you out.

Our Collection pricing is about half our normal pricing. So you can send a beautiful print to even Aunt Grumples. She will sing your praises and tell everyone else how you've always been such a nice young kid.

Do it for Aunt Grumples.

2 Weeks Old

2006-09-13T21:56:00.000-07:00

So, Lamb comes to me and says...."hey, how bout a portrait of a baby wrapped up with a bunch of roses?"

and I say..."hmmm.."

and Lamb says...."uhh, yeah I'll cut all the thorns off"

and I say..."k"

Two weeks old. How many of you have such a beautiful portrait of your baby when she/he is 2 weeks old. New baby smell and all.

Momma was very happy.

We were too.