Portraits - Anytime

You may have remembered Jessica & Ryan's bridal/portrait session I posted a few days ago. After we finished shooting at the park, they decided to get a little bit more comfortable and change into casual attire. The day was perfect and I didn't want to miss the last of the golden light, so we decided to finish the session at the beach. It started to get cold but they were such great troopers and I'm so glad with some of the final results :)

Here are just a few of my favorites from the beach:

There were alot of birds on the shore so I told them it would be fun if they ran through them :)

Happy Wednesday!!!

Photo Talk

I've been thinking and working on alot on my techniques and camera settings. It's real important for me to really know my camera and feel comfortable with it. I have to say that shooting in film produces more of a challenge than shooting in digital because you can't see what the picture will look like until you have developed it or you can't go back and re-take the same picture to fix a minor mistake you did on the first one. I shot Jessica and Ryan's Session and other sessions as well all in manual, and in film, and although, yes, there were a few shots that I thought could have been better due to lighting or aperture, I really liked the overall turnout :)

I've learned so much ever since I decided to take my photography to the next level. Everything I learn, I take it to heart and put it into practice.

Here's a neat exercise I learned from Carey @ Barefoot Memories. Ever wonder how photographers get those super fast looking car lights in a busy city?? Well, it's all about "Dragging the Shutter"

From Carey:

"Dragging the shutter" is a funky photo term that intimidates some newer photographers. Use a flash (I was using my 580EX) and set your shutter speed on your camera to something slow. Set it slow enough so there will be motion blur all over. Set your camera to "shutter priority mode" (on Canon, it's Tv on the dial). The camera will choose an an aperture setting for you that way, or you can shoot in full manual and choose both your shutter speed and your aperture. Use a setting like 1/10th sec or slower. 1/2 sec is good, or you can go even slower! Your first worry will probably be "I can't hold the camera still enough for that! And my subject can't be that still, either."

That's what the flash is for!

When you take the picture, the quick light burst from the flash freezes your subject as if you were taking a picture of them at a quick shutter speed. But the shutter stays open longer, letting in more and more light and motion. The results can be really fun!

Here's a "drag the shutter" shot of the famous Joe Dellasega from the Mpix team:

Hold the camera still so that the buildings wouldn't be blurry (the flash isn't powerful or long-reaching enough to freeze the top of the Empire State Building). Joe is captured by the flash, and even though he was moving around a lot, he's not too blurry. The cars wizzing by are captured in that cool motion blur because the shutter was open so long!

**END***

This will be such a fun photo exercise to try out. I'll let ya'll know how it turns out! It's so wonderful to see how other professional photophers are so giving to each other. That's why I love this industry so much! :)

Photoshop take-over

"ugh! Please don't take my picture!"

Don't worry, I can photoshop your blemishes

"Why did my hair have to get in the way"

Don't worry, I can easily remove it with photoshop!

"I didn't want to be in the picture!"

Don't worry, I can photshop you out

Yes I have do admit it, but I'm quickly getting addicted to photoshop and it's taking over!. Don't get me wrong though, the best thing that can happen is to get a fabulous shot straight out of the camera and only do minor editing. But there's always those pictures that require a little more editing than usual because of mother nature or because some random pedestrian got in the way.

Here are some images that I enjoyed editing a bit. I just want to bring out some of the things photoshop can do :)

Customize Customize

I love it when I am able to make things to my tastes and needs, and not having to pay an arm and a leg for it ;)

For example, when you are trying to pick a pair of shoes to match a dress. Don't you just wish that sometimes you can take the heels from that shoe, the color from these shoes, and the bling from those shoes, put it all together and make that perfect pair for your dress? Well that's what I mean with customizing. Now adays, if you want something like that done, people usually want to charge you extra just because you are changing their style. That sounds a bit silly to me because the truth is that it all costs the same thing. I actually see it as giving the other person the opportunity to show some creativity :)

I see it the same way when it comes down to designing your website, blog, photography packages and even designing album templates. I'm definilty no expert when it comes to album designing or the business side, but I do have a few ideas on how to start. With this blogger service, I like that it's free and that it has a lot of customization features. Like for example, I am able to make my own banner as my blog header with my logo name. I don't know if some of you have noticed, but I've been changing and playing around with it a little. The one you see now is my latest one that I created and I think I'll keep it for a while :) I have a few friends who are real graphic designers and computer geniuses, so when the time comes, I look them up for the favor of creating a really cool one for my website. That is still a very long work in progress, but I also believe this blogging service is really helpful.

Well that's all my rantings for today. Have a nice and safe weekend and I'll catch up with ya'll later!