My parents like to collect antiques. Probably a lot easier for them now that they don't have kids in the house! Watching my own boys destroy my furniture, I suddenly feel guilty and very bad for my own parents. I know we destroyed all of their nice things…..oh well, I guess that's the price of having children!
Living out here in Iowa, there seems to be a lot of auctions and a lot of people selling older, more charming furiture pieces. My dad found a couple of chairs he liked on craigslist, and asked me to pick them up for him. I've got to say, I fell in love immediately! Before I gave them to my dad, I had to get a few pictures!! And yes, Lilly kitty thought they were hers the minute they came out of the car.
My husband just bought me a little bird feeder. Mostly because my son and my cat love to watch the birds, haha, but it also gives me something to practice on. Yes, its through my window, because anytime I try going out onto the porch I spook the little dears. But, everyday is different, and so is the lighting, so while I am still trying to perfect my exposure technique, they are pretty good little models. Here are a couple of my better exposures. And the last one, obviously is a squirrel….let's just say he wasn't able to hold on for very long!
Snowy Day
Sunny Day
Rainy Day
Cloudy Day
Yesterday, I was able to do my very first real 'photo shoot'! I've got to say it was a lot of fun. Kristin Larsen and her two lovely children Royce and London were kind enough to humor me while I practiced a little bit! What a beautiful family and what an absolutely beautiful day! I had hoped to have a little bit of cloud cover, but hey, what can I say? Has the weatherman ever been right? In spite of the bright sunshine, I really enjoyed working with this family! Kids are so honest and genuine when it comes to smiling for the camera. Yes, they can be a bit of a ham, but who doesn't love a big cheesy baby grin? They are the best!
Finally! The clouds went away and the sun came out! I thought Spring break was going to be a waste. My phone kept telling me it was going to be a nice and warm and then just kept on letting me down. I tell you what, we were all starting to get a little bit of cabin fever. So when today rolled around, I said, enough is enough! We put on our sweaters and sneakers and out into the backyard we went! Tristan was so happy to be able to run around and get out at least some of the energy he had been storing up all winter! Aramis got to just sit on the porch and watch. Hopefully he will be able to join in the fun soon!
I've got to say I really enjoy shooting photos in natural light. I had hoped it would be a little less harsh, maybe a tad overcast. But, hey, we will take sunny any day! At least one good thing about super bright light is that you can turn the shutter speed way up, making motion shots a lot clearer. Now, I know these aren't perfect, but they are as close to it as I have ever come, at least since shooting in digital format. It often seemed nothing was too fast when I was using film.
What I learned today? How to better using bright lighting to my advantage. Tristan, the good sport he is, had no problem running up and down the lawn while I practiced with different settings. I'm glad we were all able to get outside and play today!
My very first lens went to my Nikon F4, and it was a 50mm f/1.8. Happily, it also worked on my DSLR. My second lens was a 28-300mm f3.2/5.3 zoom, which I thought was great because all of a sudden I could zoom in on an object a fair distance away. The one problem with a zoom though, if you get one like I did, it doesn't have a fixed aperture. It also is very subjective to camera shake, and many images zoomed in tend to be very blurry. Unless you use a tripod, which is not ideal in all situations.
Just recently, my dad got me a gift, an 18-55mm lens, not the fanciest one out there, but just something to practice more of a wide angle with. I've got to say, after having used a 50mm more often than not, seeing through the lens at 18mm was quite a change! All of a sudden I could fit an entire room into one shot! As soon as the weather warms up, I'm excited to take it out and try some landscape photography.
And just this past week, I ordered myself a happy tax return gift. An 85mm f/1.8. And it is unbelievably fantastic! I have never had such a clear image or beautiful blurred background as I get with this lens. I made my kids pose for me on the front porch the other day and just had so much fun experimenting with lighting and aperture. I can't wait to get out and go shutter crazy! Hopefully the weather stays nice!
After a lengthy holiday break, my husband told me he figured out the problem to my image sharpness. Lighting. I needed better lighting. Yes, I knew that. However, when you are working with kids indoors at an aperture of 1.8 to try and capture as much light from the iridescent bulbs in your lamps, what can you expect? I know, I know. I could shoot pictures outdoors. That's all fine and dandy except that it has been consistently below zero for the past several weeks. Gotta love the frigid midwest,
Taking matters into his own hands, my husband ordered me some studio lighting with colored umbrellas, a giant softbox with different backgrounds, as well as a bundle of reflectors and a flash diffusor. Yes, I have turned our spare room into a makeshift mini studio. And my lovely children have been my guinea pigs, posing for me as much as they can tolerate. They say practicing on stationary objects is best, but I figure if I want to get into family portraiture, I'm probably going to be chasing moving targets.
Thank you to my husband for the amazing new lighting!
I was a little jealous that my husband got to go to Mexico for research. Not so much the research part, but he was able to take pictures of beautiful landscapes and animals. It was ridiculous, perfect shots were just handed to him left and right. And here I was, in the midst of midwest winter, and the only thing to photograph was dead corn fields. Not very interesting.
However, when he got home, he had a great gift for me. In a little bookshop in the middle of rural Mexico, he found a bunch of Time Life photography books. Yes, they are based on film, but the concepts are no different. I might even suggest every photographer take the time to read these. The ones he got me were "The Studio", "Special Problems", "Light and Film", "Great Photographers", and "Photographing Children". I learned different techniques in lighting as well as the history of photography. I have to say I really enjoyed the history portions the most, learning about how photography and film came to be. I also really enjoyed learning about the view camera, and how you could change the depth of field by swinging the camera lens from the mirror. I think I might like to build a darkroom in my home one day, I still love using film.
