The S Family

The challenge this time was the weather. Our supposedly sunny afternoon turned into a very chilly overcast evening. As we were driving up to the park I noticed many cars had their headlights on and I was worried we wouldn't get anything good. Luckily, if you hold still enough and you are as cute as this family, you'll get some good ones as the light fades. I wish I could have done better though.

J Family pictures

My number one lesson learned today was pay more attention to lighting when you are choosing a location than how pretty the background is.

The day before, Adam and the girls helped me scout out some pretty spots in a park nearby to take the J family pictures. With the New England colors all around us, it is beautiful anywhere you look. There is a wonderful bridge that I wanted to use and some other nice looking places. When it came time to take pictures we were successful on the bridge and then stopped next to a lower lying bush to take some on the ground pics. This bush while quite lovely could have had much better lighting. I snapped away and got what I thought was a good group of family shots to choose from. So we took a walk to the lake and the colors just jumped out at us, but I didn't try as hard to get that great family picture because I thought I already had it in the bag.

Another lesson- always, always, try to get the money shot!

And I had a really enjoyable time. These two parents are the greatest, and their kids are so cute, and so expressive. I knew their little boy was exuberant, but I had no idea his little personality would show up in every shot. I think it is so adorable.

This is one of my favorite moments of the shoot, big brother is getting a little talking to as he takes it with a grin, big sister is being her cute self, and the baby is looking right at me. Plus the lighting rocks!

This another one of my favorites.

Trying out a Silhouette

Pioneer Woman gives some excellent tips for capturing and editing these types of shots. Go read it, it really isn't too hard. You can even do it with a regular point and shoot camera. After you get the right circumstances, sun setting or rising and people positioned, push your shutter button halfway down while aiming at the brightest spot of sunlight near your objects(this will make the camera measure the exposure of the sunlight rather than your subject), then move your camera to the shot you want and finish pushing the shutter button. Poof, you have a silhouette! Just put it into photoshop for that extra umph! Have fun and if you try it let me know how it goes.

My First Gig!

Someone(my friend) actually asked if I could take some pictures of her kids!
My talent is being noticed at last, haha.

And I sure did learn a lot. The sun was a bit overcast, and so I just put my camera on auto, checking every once in a while to be sure that the aperture was in a good range for portrait shots(for a clear subject and blurred background you need a large aperture setting)- I should have trusted myself a bit more and used a more manual setting, because every once in a while the flash would pop up and bath my subject in unnatural flash lighting. Some of the flash shots actually worked out for the best though because my friend wanted to have some black and white images.

Also, I need to check on my polarizing filter more often. A polarizing filter blocks some of the suns rays that can make your pictures less precise and less colorful.

Here is one shot I took of my friends oldest.

And here is a shot of my number 2, which I realigned my polarizing lens before the shot. And you can see, a world of difference. The slight haze is missing(or filtered out)!









Another lesson learned; babies are tough. This little gal would hear the camera focus and literally run away. Not too many happy smiles were captured.



Well, I'll keep practicing. Another brave friend offered to let my try a family photo.

More Mushrooms

Remember this little guy?


Well, here he is with a little boost( photo editing tips from pioneer woman)





Not so ordinary now! I am going to look back on this post later and think I was so corney and uneducated in photography and photoshop, but that's why I posting as I learn, to keep myself laughing.

Fabulous Fungi

My eldest discovered these little guy while on our hike and begged me to take a picture.
Hello little mushroom.

In what speed do you see Waterfalls?

Fast shudder speed?

Or slow shutter speed?

It was fun to play with the shutter speed on my camera for these shots while on vacation with my family. It is amazing the difference you can get. For the slow shot, I leaned against a tree and made myself into a steady tripod so as to reduce any camera shake. There is a little blurriness around the leaves of the trees, but otherwise I am pleased with it.