My NEW 50mm 1/8 Lens! First Time Using It!

As you may suspect Amelya is not always as cooperative as she looks in photos. I had to bribe her with baking cookies to take her photo so I could try out my new lens. She has a cold and I can tell how sleepy she looks in most of the photos. These are some of my favs. She would not stop moving, singing and playing with leaves and sticks. I think that is how she copes with having a mom that loves to photograph her daily. She will thank me when she is older. Ha!I have my fist 2 family photoshoots this weekend. I am really excited to use my new lens. I am excited to photograph blue eyes and can't wait to see how clear and beautiful they look!
I bought my camera in mid September and I have learned so much from taking out the whole library collection on all things photography. The books I have read (about 40) have really helped me to understand my camera and the work flow of post editing. I see how important it is to do editing in a certain sequence to avoid creating artifacts in my images. I also save all originals in JPG & PSD & RAW. I need to figure out storage on my computer and need to start to save images for the web. I only realized how to save a "smaller" image this evening. There is so much to know, and I am getting it a peace at a time. It is so fun figuring it all out. By the way, I used "unsharp mask" last and then saved my image. My usual settings are about: Amount 200, Radius 3, Threshhold 5. Today I shot these photos at about 4:15pm. ISO 100, Ap. 2.8 for the most part, 1/125 speed. The top photo I really like, even though the focus is above the eye, I find it to have an angelic dreamy quality. The reviews were right about this lens! Wow, look at her eyes! You can see me in her eyes! Sooo cool. http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/tutorials/portrait_lenses.html

Spence's Farm, Chapel Hill N.C: Manual Mode

The B&W:
4.0 Ap. &
1/40 speed.

The color
headshot:
3.5 Ap.
1/15 speed.

Yesterday we went to the Harvest Fest at Spence's farm. I had great plans of getting beautiful Autumn photographs of Amelya. She was having a
blast running around as I volunteered. She came back to me with her face painted white with blood red lips. She said, "I'm a vampire mom!" so proud of herself. I realized that my dream photos will have to be more "realistic" photos. Later she saw her vampire face & hated it so she washed it off the best she could & later asked to get a rainbow & clouds, she is truly a natural hippy child. The day was overcast so it was perfect for evenly lit shots. I was using manual mode and had to slow down my shutter speed to 1/15 for all of these photos. Since I only have the kit lens that my Canon Rebel came with that seems to be my only option since my aperture only goes to 3.5 for this setting. The big problem is that Amelya needs to be perfectly still for the photo not to blur. Taking photos of kids & telling them to freeze just seems cruel! Ha!

Photo Shoot Before Dark: White Reflector Board

The white board can be seen in the top photo. I used the clone stamp tool to clone the sweater & used it to "paint" over the board. If you look for it you can see the imperfections. I cropped the photo before using the clone tool. I love the background, how dark it is, it helps her pop out of the photo. I don't have a lens that allows be to get that nice blur, "bokeh" Not sure how it is spelled. I am happy with this photo since it gave me a little blur but the contrast of the dark against her light skin works very well! Yay!

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/07/create-studio-quality-photos-using-natural-light/

Using a $3 White Foam Board to Add Light

Empower Personal Training. My 1st Shoot!

My First Family Photo Shoot.

Ok so they aren't blood relatives, but it's like a real family! Membership is based on personal training services, the trainers and the members get to know each other real well and the culture reflects that. So in a way it becomes a family that coaches you, builds you up, and encourages you to go to your limits because they really believe in you! Sounds much better them my biological family! Much more positive! Ha!

Some of my favorite photos
from the shoot.














http://www.becomepowerful.com

My Daughter at Dunbarton Pond, Durham

I used diffused Glow and increased the saturation a bit. This is such a beautiful spot that I rarely go to and it is part of our community in walking distance from our home. I think it will become a place we visit often since it is a beautiful place to practice taking photos.

My Daughter at Dunbarton Pond, Durham

I used diffused glow & converted to sepia and changed the opacity.

My Daughter at Dunbarton Pond, Durham

I went to "filter" and selected "distort" and then selected "diffuse glow". These steps were key because it brought me to a new screen that gave me control of grain, glow, and clear. If you do a short cut way and click diffuse you won't be able to play with those 3 elements.

My Daughter at Dunbarton Pond, Durham

I lightened this photo to 25 & increased the midtones to 40

My Daughter at Dunbarton Pond, Durham

We decided to go for a walk and I wasn't planning on taking my new camera, but I couldn't help myself. This is a Monday night after a long day of school and having the play date of her life the day before from 2pm to 8:45pm! She is tired and is being a good sport to help me learn my camera. If it wasn't for my daughter I would have to photograph my cats and that just isn't as fun, so thank you Amelya! I love you!!!!

It was getting dark so I had to lighten this photo & I increased the contrast just a bit. I also converted it to sepia and did a very subtle opacity for warmth and have her pop from the background. It looks fake, but it is all real!