Natural Light

Today I tried to take pictures of my daughter at the park but I was not impressed with any of the pictures. I think part of the problem was the time of day (noon) when the sun is at its strongest and directly above. I tried using reflectors and diffusers but I need to brush up on how to use them and I need another hand to hold the reflector/diffuser so that my hands are free to take pictures and deal with my two year old daughter. But, the day was not a total waste as I was able to spend some quality time with my daughter at the park for two hours which is priceless. I've also been looking at other photographers blogs and websites and I am trying to figure out how they make the color in their pictures POP. Is it with the help of Photoshop....hmmmmm. So, no photos posted from today's shoot but I do have a photo that I took at my cousins wedding 08/21/2010 of a wedding cake lit by the natural light created by the surrounding candles that I like....

2nd photo shoot in my basememnt studio

On 08/04/2010 I decided to take some pictures of my daughter who was turning 2 on 08/07/2010 in the basement. Overall, I think it went well. Here are a few of the pictures. The pic inside is exposed correctly but the pictures taken outside are a little overexposed but I like the way she looks in them. Enjoy!!!!

This is my favorite picture. I love the pose and the expression. And it helps that the exposure looks good. I am sure Photshop can enhance the final output......I've been playing with that as well

I really like this picture as well but the exposure is totally off. I think it is because she moved from the area theat I metered the light.

I like the next picture but is flat as it was a cloudy day and I needed a little fill light to brigthen her face .

1st photo shoot

On 07/04/2010 I took a few pictures in my studio for the first time after I got the lighting ratios that I wanted. I think this is one of the better ones. I sent it to my instructor from my Advance lighting class and he said that my exposure was pretty good. Here is a picture of my husband and four year old son.

My basement studio

So, on 06/28/2010 I finished taking an Advanced Lighting Class at Photobarn where I learned a lot of valuable lighting tricks, tips and techniques. The instructor was great and made himself available even after the class was over to critique pictures, provide information on various photography items and guide me on some lighting purchases. On 07/02/2010 I decided to purchase a lighting kit, white balance card, reflector, synch cords etc. I've learned that lighting is everything and I am on a mission to understand how to use the light that is available (natural light) as well as studio lights. Above is a picture of the studio I created in my basement....now I just need a few more models besides my kids as they are very hard to control in a studio shoot but are great outdoors. Is tried shooting this picture without a flash but it came out too dark and I would have had to put my camera on an tripod. So, this picture was shot in manual mode at 1/50 shutter speed, f4.0 ISO 1600, AWB (auto white balance) and the on camera flash.

The beginning

I've been taking pictures since I was a teenager but I never took it to the next level. I enjoyed taking pictures of summer vacations, friends graduations, family holidays, college days and much more but now my picture taking past time has grown into a desire for the perfect picture.....and thus the journey begins.