Week 32 -- My Sister's Family

While in Houston I took pictures of Amber and Dan and their cute kiddies.

Week 31 -- Boy Shoes

 

 

Product photography is a different kind of animal. Not so sure I am cut out for it. I did my best, but those shoes just wouldn't smile!

Week 30 -- The best camera . . .

is the one you have with you. Here are two gorgeous shots of the autumn color taken with my iphone (because that is the camera I had with me).

Week 29 -- I got a new lens

And I love it! Here is Madelyn SOOC. Enjoy!

Week 28 -- The final season of the 4 seasons photos

Way back in week 9 I finally got my winter picture of my home here in CT. Now here in week 28 I finally got my summer picture, meaning I have all 4 seasons. Now I want to get them printed and hung in my house. So if you have an eye for that kind of thing, come on over and help me decide where to put them and what size to get them!!!!

Week 27 -- Glasses???? No problem!!

So I have now read many, many online forums about the struggle to take nice photos of people with their glasses on. Here is a summary of what I learned . . .

1. Always be keenly aware of the reflection. Perhaps use a zoom lens so that you (the photographer) are not in the reflection. Watch your light sources very carefully. Recognize that the beautiful catch lights that we so often love in portraits are just not going to be present in portraits with glasses.

2. Sometimes, you can take the lenses out of the frames. They will then still have their glasses on, but they will not have any glare. This works well when the individual in question is part of a large group (so they will be relatively small) and if their eyes are slightly crossed it will not be noticeable OR when they are old enough to understand NOT to try to focus on anything in particular so that their eyes do not cross at all. This does not work for rimless glasses.

3. If you find a glare or reflection have the subject tilt the lenses slightly forward (move the earpieces just higher than setting on the ear).

4. Always make sure their eyeballs are centered in the glasses themselves.

So with this new found info, I set out with Julianne to try again. I think I did it!!!! Her eyes are crisp, her glasses are on and there is no glare or reflection. It wasn't hard to do, but it took thinking through each photo.

Week 26 -- Beautiful Bokeh, beautiful eyes

If only everyone's eyes could match the color of the bokeh so perfectly!

Week 25 -- The trouble with glasses and the lack therof

So 2 of my kids wear glasses. It started out that they only wore them some of the time and that was easy, because when it was time to take pictures, we just took the glasses off. But now they both wear them all of the time. They want photos of them with their glasses on. Because that is how they look everyday to them. And their eyesight is bad enough that when they take their glasses off . . . their eyes go cross-eyed trying to focus on something. So right now all the photos of my girls are either with glasses and glare or without glasses and cross-eyed. HELP!!!!!!! They have such beautiful blue eyes and I want to be able to see that in the photos. Maybe it is just time for contacts????

Week 24 - Stained Glass Windows

I love stained glass windows. They are not always the easiest to photograph. For stained glass windows to look truly stunning the light must be coming through them from outside (which usually means it is morning or evening -- to get the light streaming through the windows) and it needs to be fairly low light inside so that the windows are illuminating the room. The secret is to have a tripod. . . but I rarely am carrying one with me so these were all taken trying every possible way to use my body like a tripod. (hold your breath, take multiple pictures so that the shutter is pushed down only on the first -- which usually means the first is blurry from pushing the shutter down, but the second and third are better b/c your finger isn't moving for those ones, lean against a wall, lock your elbows against your chest).














and whatever you do . . . don't use your flash!

Week 23 -- Flags

 

 

 

 

I love taking pictures of flags. I don't know quite why.

Week 22 -- A Lesson in Exposure (and humility)

So, as I practice more and learn more I have been amazed at what an improvement I have made. One of my favorites modes to shoot in is P mode (which is exposure priority mode). So here are some examples to see . . .


We were standing in the Lincoln Memorial facing the Washington Monument. It was 7:30 at night so still light out, but we were in a big shadow. I snapped this first picture setting the exposure for the kids.



As you can see, the kids are well lit, but the background is so overblown that you cannot even see the washington monument. So I quickly turned down the exposure a couple of notches.



So now the washington monument is nicely exposed, but the kids are too dark.

I didn't love either shot, so I did what I always resort to -- I switched into full auto mode to snap a quick shot (the kids were tired of cooperating at this point)


It looks pretty good (except for the fact that the kids were not posing for me anymore).

My camera had used the flash. So I decided that I would use the flash, with the second setting (exposed for the monument) and hope the kids would be visible. So here is the 4th and final attempt.


This is closer to what I wanted, but not perfect. The kids are well exposed, the monument is still slightly overblown (but at least it is visible, right???)

But I have to admit, the photo on auto -- where the kids are not posing is probably the best of the bunch. Sometimes getting it right is trickier than you think!!!

What settings would you have used???? I am open for advice! Bytheway -- all 4 shots are SOOC -- isn't the difference of the color of the sky interesting between the P mode shots and the auto -- I don't know which I prefer. What about you???

Week 21 - Skylines

 

 

I love how these 2 pictures of Philadelphia turned out!

Week 20 - the photo booth

Isn't that a fun way to edit some random snapshots????

Week 19 - Sneak peak - behind the scenes

So here is our setup. Lillian and I have gotten creative in improvising our own studio. Our "official" website will be up and running soon. Just thought some of you would want to see the behind the scenes version.

Week 18 - A Fun group shot idea for birthdays

 

Can you guess how old Julianne just turned????

And how many people were at her party???

Week 17 - Exposure

While talking to Keri and looking at a bunch of examples online, it became obvious that there are a lot of photographers whose style is to overexpose the photos -- it does indeed make the colors "pop" but I can't tell if I always like it.

Here are pictures of flowers one with the correct exposure and one overexposed (the sky is clearly blownout). My question is which do you prefer???

 

 

Check out this link and then give me your opinion?
http://blog.drewbphotography.com/then-comes-baby/tracys-day-with-drew/
Are they overexposing the photo by just bumping up the exposure a notch?? or are they spot metering so that the people are exposed properly and the rest is blown out???

I think they are just bumping up exposure -- for the added effect of more vibrant colors -- but I don't know -- what do you think???

Week 16 - Words in Photoshop

I figured this out a couple of weeks ago in photoshop with Lillian and made this square with Adam's name. I actually thought I posted it several weeks ago for one of my weeks, but as I was looking back through I realized I did not. So here it is. This is one of the few techniques I have found that I really need photoshop for. I just haven't found a way to do this in any other program. I hope to come up with a lot more uses. A tutorial for how to do this can be found here. http://www.clippingimages.com/blog/place-an-image-in-text-using-photoshop/

Week 15 - Soccer -- aka Action shots

Harder than it looks -- not so much the photography part but waiting patiently long enough to get your child doing something photographically amazing -- especially when using a telephoto lens while the action seems to always be on the opposite side of the field (as in this shot)



But then things change so fast and before I can even move the zoom she is running at me and I miss not only the top of her head, but also the ball -- because that would have made for a great photo.

Week 14 -- A baby. . . a 9 day old baby

Babies. . . well they are a lot harder than I think they ought to be. For a little creature that cannot crawl away, cannot roll over, and is supposed to sleep 18 hours a day, they sure can wiggle, and squirm, and stay awake. . . seemingly forever!!!! But I think I got 3 good ones. What do you think????

Week 13 -- The Boat

I love photos of boats.  So when I saw this one while we were driving (Trent was driving, I was in the passenger seat), I rolled down the window and snapped a few and crossed my fingers that I would like them.



Here it is with a little editing -- boosting the color of the sky. But I liked how the picture to me seems timeless -- so I put it in sepia just to see. . .



but that didn't look old enough so I put it in b&w, increased the sharpness and added film grain noise to the photo



Now I just need to burn the edges and tear a few rips in it and frame it . . . then I can say it is an heirloom from the 1800's! ha ha!