Monday, January 27, 2014

Selfies....Big Girl Style

Today I was laying on my living room floor soaking up the sunshine, when I was struck the way the sun was coming through the window and my dog was standing up on the sill. It was just beautiful! So I grabbed my camera. Of course by then, she had moved. So I set my manual settings and waited for the mail man to drive down the road (so the dog would pop back up). But while I waited, I thought I would play around. The girls were busy, so I tried taking pictures of myself. I tried different angles, different sides of my face, and different amounts of sun. What turned out was pretty good.....for selfies! What I got to play with is getting some light into my eyes, getting the explores right even in the harsh sunlight. It was such a fun, simple, and educational shoot! And they don't look like I shot them myself. Who knew selfies could work out? Here are a couple of my favorite pictures:


 
Oh and in case you are wondering, I did end up getting a picture of the dog in the window! She finally had to see what drove by and I was able to shoot! I am not sure what the lines are, but I am pretty sure that it has something to do with the sun on the screen! Weird huh? But still a good picture of my dog. At least the lighting turned out the way I thought it would!
 
 
 


Saturday, January 25, 2014

Light in Life




Today I looked over and saw my girls and the dog looking at the snow falling outside the window. What amazed me was the way the light was falling on their faces It was beautiful, and sharp. So I grabbed my camera and took a quick shot. It was simple, fast, and painless! It reminded me a quote I saw by Ansel Adams: "Sometimes I arrive just when God is ready to have someone to click the shutter". How true that was today. It made me think of all the complexities of light. Light is a photographers best friend, and worst enemy. Sometimes its perfect, sometimes its hard to find, and sometime it just seems harsh, but always always it is needed. I started to think about how God is the light of the world. What an amazing image of God. Sometimes he is perfectly there, sometime he is hard to find, and sometimes he even seems harsh, but always always we need him. Life is all about finding light in every moment, every place, and every situation. Light, like God, makes our lives better, brighter, and happier. So today I played with light. Light that is the very essence of a picture. After, a camera is only able to record the way the light plays off of the things in its focus. Light is probably one of the hardest part of the whole photography thing. It is really hard to find just the right light. Sometimes it is too harsh, sometimes too dark, and sometimes it is just perfectly beautiful! So, here is to hunting, seeing, and capturing the right light! This is going to take some experimenting and playing around to figure out, but I think it may be fun!

Friday, January 24, 2014

Shooting in Maual

I thought that I should start off with a few basics! So the last few days I have been working on reading a million different posts and tutorials that I have found on Pintrest. The key to starting off well with photography is know how your camera works and where to find all the bits that make it work. After, you cant shoot amazing pictures without know how the camera works! So I have set my camera to manual, and started working on quickly changing the aperture, ISO, and shutter speed easily. There are a bunch of great posts that show you where all those buttons are on a DSLR, but I am shooting with a point and shoot. It is a VERY nice point and shoot, and it can shoot in full manual mode, which allows to me to control things the way I want to. It is interesting to see which buttons are similar on the DSLRs and how they work. Today I tried shooting Pup (my 4 year old) on full manual mode. Being inside, by a window, with a moving subject is tricky and I found myself having to constantly adjust the ever important exposure triangle! I found myself learning to not only adjust the settings, but also to read the light meter! What a multi faceted lesson today! Here is what the results were:
 







 
Not too bad for manual. These pictures are right out of the camera. I haven't yet figured out good touch up yet! The trick to getting these, was getting pictures from either side of her. The lighting was totally different! Now, my girls are getting a wee bit irritated with all the pictures I have been taking of them, so I employed one of the most shared tip of photographing kids~ Have them so something fun that will make them happy! Makeup....what is not to love? I feel like some turned out too grainy, which means my ISO was too high. So I need to adjust. It is good to see this so I know what to do next!
 
If you want to see some of the awesome things I have read lately, then be sure to visit my Pintrest board Camera Tips! 

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Oh what a Beautiful Begining



Welcome to my new little world! This is a place to share and record what I am learning as I navigate the complicated and amazing world of manual photography! I am sure that some pictures will be flops and some amazing, but each of them will be a little tiny piece of what I see in the world around me! I hope you stop by often to see what improves or what doesn't. And if you happen to be an amazing photographer, be sure to share your tips and tricks! I am really excited about learning to make our everyday moments shine in my pictures they way they do for real!