Learning More Everyday!

I clearly took a lot of pictures for last weeks lesson. Some applied and some were just for fun!

I'm so thankful that Diane will let me borrow her kids (and her) sometimes for pictures, even if we have to bribe the kids with Sonic drinks and gummy worms! I got some great slow shutter speed pictures with them.

But this was my all time favorite. Our photographer, DiAnna, took a very similar shot of our family (when Addie was 6 months old) that is one of my all time favorite photographs! Although her technique and execution is much better than mine, I decided I'd attempt to recreate it in a somewhat similar way. Thanks for the inspiration DiAnna!

50mm 1.4, ISO400, f/4.5, 1/400
SOOC
I can't wait to play around with it in Lightroom and Elements!

This is another one with Paul and Addie. I love how they are both looking down.

50mm 1.4, ISO 400, f/3.2, 1/800

SOOC

And another one of my favorites...

50mm 1.4, ISO 100, f/2.5, 1/1250

(cropped)

Goodness that baby girl loves her Daddy!

Week 5: Raw Talent Class

As I mentioned here, I've been taking a photography class online that's moving full speed ahead. The problem is, I keep bouncing back and forth between actually being on this train that's barreling down the tracks and standing in the middle of the tracks watching it speed away from me! It's in the next county right now, make it the next state, or even several states away! Needless to say, it's been a tough week of learning!

Our assignment was to take pictures:

• Using the rule of thirds
• Depth of Field with a story behind it
• Natural Framing
• Leading Lines
• Panning a moving subject
• Slow shutter speed with a still subject and things going on around it

Ummmmm...yup. My thoughts exactly!

The rules: Manual mode and no post processing.

I cheated and cropped...but that's it for these!

I've chosen a few of my favorites that I turned in.

And after a tad over 3 hours and roughly 600 pictures later, here's what I got...

Using the rule of thirds

(my sweet baby girl and precious (very patient) husband!)
50mm 1.4, ISO 400, f/3.2, 1/800

Depth of Field with a story behind it

(the story...she was ticked that we wouldn't let her get in that pool. she was actually semi-crying)

50mm 1.4, ISO 200, f/2.2, 1/200
(overexposed a tad though, I think)

Leading Lines

(click to see bigger)
50mm 1.4, ISO 100, f/2.5, 1/1250

I opted not to include my other shots; they are more debatable as to whether they apply or not. I am so thankful for my sweet, patient husband, mother, and baby girl as well as our sweet friends, the Castros (post to come!) for being my subjects!

This next week: lighting...the one thing I said I wanted to learn when I started this class. Well...besides capturing perfect shots of my baby girl. Enjoy!

More Portraits

Ellie is my best friend's 5 year old daughter. Ellie has always been expressive, since even before she was Addie's age. Expressive is an understatement though. Dramatic? Entertaining? Silly? Prissy? Energetic? All of the above, not to mention sweet, eager to please, and precious!

With all of Ellie's expressions and eagerness to be photographed, she makes a perfect model! It was all I could do not to laugh while trying to keep my camera still and take pictures! Maybe that's why so many of them came out blurry.

Ellie has these beautiful brown eyes that she got from her Mommy.

Lens: 50mm f/1.4, Aperture: 2.5, Exposure: 1/1000th

ISO: 400, Setting: Manual!, Exposure Compensation: 0

And yes, her skin is really this beautiful sun-kissed golden color! Jealous? Yeah, so are her Mommy and I!

Lens: 50mm f/1.4, Aperture: 2.2, Exposure: 1/640th

ISO: 200, Setting: Manual!, Exposure Compensation: 0

Lens: 50mm f/1.4, Aperture: 2.0, Exposure: 1/640th

ISO: 400, Setting: Manual!, Exposure Compensation: 0

This one had an awesome red bridge off to the left that made for some beautiful color, but I had her sitting too far to my right to keep it in the picture.

Ellie was getting a tad tired by the end, and I asked her if she wanted to be a model when she grew up. She quickly replied that she only wanted to be a part-time model because being a full-time model would too exhausting!

Well...thanks for being a model for me Ellie, even if it was just part-time! I owe you several Sonic Cherry Limeades!

Portraits

I have a lot to learn about shooting people.

These were all shot in manual with a custom white balance setting (our assignment this week).

Kat is a long time family friend. I spent a lot of time in middle school hanging out with her family! In fact, we decided the 2 hours she spent with me in the hot Alabama sun might just might be payback for all the dirty diapers I changed of hers when she was little! It's been such a joy to watch Kat grow into such a beautiful young woman, on the inside and out!

I did post process these a tad, but not much!

Lens: 50mm f/1.4, Aperture: 2.5, Exposure: 1/160th

ISO: 100, Setting: Manual!, Exposure Compensation: +2/3

No post processing
(I may have done my custom white balance wrong here though)

Lens: 50mm f/1.4, Aperture: 2.5, Exposure: 1/100th
ISO: 100, Setting: Manual!, Exposure Compensation: 0

Slight crop

Lens: 50mm f/1.4, Aperture: 2.5, Exposure: 1/160th
ISO: 100, Setting: Manual!, Exposure Compensation: 0
No post processing


Lens: 50mm f/1.4, Aperture: 2.5, Exposure: 1/100th
ISO: 100, Setting: Manual!, Exposure Compensation: 0
Cropped with sharpening and dodging of eyes


Lens: 50mm f/1.4, Aperture: 2.5, Exposure: 1/100th
ISO: 100, Setting: Manual!, Exposure Compensation: 0
Cropped


Lens: 50mm f/1.4, Aperture: 2.5, Exposure: 1/160th
ISO: 100, Setting: Manual!, Exposure Compensation: +2/3
Sharpened and dodged eyes and slight color curve adjustment

---------------------------------------
Now part of what made this photo shoot so much fun was the subject...because she has this fabulous sense of humor that comes out in such funny ways! I blame any shake of my camera or blur of a photo on the fact that I was most likely laughing at what I saw through my lens (certainly not on my inexperience!).

Like her scary, old man face!

For these, we were actually at an abandoned house next to Kat's uncle's {beautiful} house that he was currently in the process of redoing. What you couldn't see in the pictures above was that she was carefully standing on an old rusty metal top of a bucket.

Ahhhhh...the fun things you can't always see through a lens!

About every 20 shots there was something like this:

...or this

...or this

Thanks Kat for your patience and a way fun afternoon of learning!

You're Shooting In What...?

I recently wrote this post on our family blog about a photography class I'm taking.

I didn't go into much detail, with the exception of gawking at the fact that I'm now having to take pictures in Manual!

But I figured this is a perfect place to share a tad more about the class.

My bloggy friend Rebecca, who is a truly talented and amazing photographer (not to mention a Godly woman!), took this same class a few months ago from her friend Christi. Christi is another truly talented and amazing photographer (and another Godly woman as well). She primarily shoots weddings, but she knows an inordinate amount about the nitty gritty details of photography...and she's willing to share it!

I've found that there are not many people who are willing to share what they know about photography, general knowledge or not, give an explination of anything, and actually carry on a conversation with someone far below their level of expertise in photography. Rebecca is one of those people, as well as our photographers and friends DiAnna and Allison {also very talented and Godly women!}. I am so thankful for these women and their willingness to teach! Christi is exactly the same! She's self taught, and she has a natural gift of teaching and providing gentle, constructive critiques in our Raw Talent class!

Our most recent assignment moved us into shooting soley in manual. We were instructed to take a picture using our shallowest aperture, one using our deepest as well as pictures using our fastest shutter speed and one using a very slow shutter speed...all while controlling each aspect of our camera in Manual setting!

This first picture was {clearly...or not} using my shallowest aperture {largest opening, smallest number...confusing huh?} of 1.4. I love my 50mm 1.4 lens, which came highly recommended by two of the above photographers mentioned. Well worth it! Most kit lenses stop down to an aperture of 3.5 at the largest.

Lens: 50mm f/1.4
Aperture: 1.4
Exposure: 1/800th
ISO: 100
Setting: Manual!
Only post processing was cropping.

Although a tad overexposed due to the assigment {super slow shutter speed} and the intense {100 degree} summer sun, this is another picture for my assignment. I love water. Well, I love water when it's in a controlled setting {like not seeping through the flashing above our chimney or flooding our crawl space!}.

Lens: 70-300 f/4.0-5.6
Focal length: 180mm
Aperture: 32
Exposure: 1/10th
ISO: 100
Setting: Manual!

So there you have it! Two of my four pictures for my photography class. We're actually on week 3, but weeks 1 and 2 were more for teaching purposes than creativity! I'm LOVING getting feedback on my pictures and am looking forward to learning more as we go! Stay tuned for more pictures in the weeks to come. Next assignment...portraits!