This is my friend Amanda. She has a wonderful, mischievous sense of humor and a sweet, soft heart. I loved taking her photos. This is a new location for me-Historic Ellicott City, MD. I was inspired by some photos that my daughter-in-law's family took while they were here, and Amanda liked the idea so we decided to go explore. I think we found some interesting backgrounds.








What I learned from this shoot:

• The moment after a crack-up often yields a nice, natural smile. So, get them to crack up and then shoot several in the intervening nano-seconds. (Our word of the day was "fart" and all I had to do was threaten to say it again and she'd get over the "plastic" smile.) 
• It is much easier to have a helper. With a helper you can use reflectors and not have to carry absolutely everything. This day my helper was Amanda's mom and she was heroic.