All things photography: Gear talk

This post was inspired by a friend who came to me and told me she was interested in learning a little bit about digital photography. Irene has a true passion for photography and learned more about it in the film days. She told me that one of her friends is encouraging her to get into photography. You can just sense when someone has photography 'in them' and a good eye for it, and Irene is definilty one of those people. She is very creative and I was so happy when she asked me for help. Seriously though, I think I am the last person on earth who could possibly help someone with this because I am still learning and feel so spankin new! I do know this though, whatever I learn, I love sharing it with other people who are interested in photography as well. It makes me feel so good and fuzzy inside to know that I am helping to built other people's dreams, even as little as I am able to contribute to that. I don't think I know everything there is to know about the technical things to photography, and I think this is a never ending process, but I am smitten by all of it, and yes, sometimes a little overwhelmed, but it's such a fun journey!

Irene also told me that she has sooooooooo many ideas and really wants to express her inner creativeness. I can so relate to this. I know exactly what she means because I've felt like this many times. I can't possibly sum it up into a few words how I feel when I am out there shooting and visually seeing my visions become alive on my LCD screen. It's one of the best feelings ever and the people I am shooting can totally see that huge smile on my face :)

Yesterday, I emailed Irene a list of camera gear she could start out with, and a few of my favorites. Since I love talking about all things photography, I want to share my list. My list of my favorite photography gear that I hope to one day, be the proud owner of...instead of having to rent them, which isn't a bad thing either :)

I currently own this baby:

I love my camera and could not have made a better purchase for my first SLR. Yes this is my first 'real' camera and will forever love it.

This lens I own and I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It is so sharp when the focus locks. The background blur is amazing as well.

This one is next on my list of purchase. I've been wanting a wide angle lens and decided on a prime again.

I've seen the imagery this lens produces and it is amazing! I've seen the amazing stories this lens can capture. The next event I book, I am renting this lens, and hopefully own it one day :)

I'll end this post by adding one more thing that might seem out of the ordinary. Just as it is important to have the right items for a shoot, I think you should be able to shoot around comfortably and have everything you need in one place. Yes, I'm talking about a shootsac! Jessica Claire is an amazing photographer and the girl behind the concept of a stylish yet convenient camera bag. Definilty check the bags out. You can also purchase your favorite cover to show off your own photographer style!

One of my favorite covers and hopefully a proud owner of it soon ;)

A sneek peek from Sunday's shoot!

I can't wait to share this amazing shoot! We have been having the gloomiest weather in the past few days. It's been pouring rain and most parts of Daytona Beach got the worst of it. I was worried that we wouldn't be able to do the shoot because of the flooded roads but much to our relief, we had great weather on Sunday that consisted of cool sheets of clouds, which acted as diffusers, and at the end, we had the most amazing sunset. I can't wait to share these and write more about our day, but for now, here's a teaser :

Have a happy Tuesday! :)

Alexandra's farewell party

My friend Alex had no idea this party was for her. Two of her friends went to pick her up and told her they needed to stop by another friends house to pick up so and so. They were picking up "the friend" where her surprise party was held. She really had no clue it was all for her.

Here is her reaction as she entered the house and we all yelled SURPRISE!

Priscilla and her famous hair flinging while dancing salsa :)






Miguel hates taking pictures but I caught this one of him dancing with priscilla

Yummy cake and alex about to cut it

A huge thanks goes to Priscilla for planning the whole thing at the last minute. We had a blast :)

Shooting wide open

I've heard from many many photographers that their preference is to shoot wide open. What does this mean you may ask? Well it simply means setting your lens to the lowest f/stop or the lowest aperture. It can be a little confusing at first because when you hear the term 'wide open' you normaly think big, bigger number. But in a lens case, they call it 'wide open' because the lower you set your aperture or f/stop, the wider the opening inside the lens gets, letting in more light.

There is a con to this though. The lower the f/stop, the more blur you get, which can be good for close up shots or if you want to focus on something small. I also think this works beautiful on eyes because the eyes can be tact sharp and the rest is blury, making the eyes really pop. I love the background blur you get as well from shooting wide open. However, if you are shooting from a distance, or a group of people for that matter, having your f/stop to the lowest is not your best bet, in my opinion. You will have some people sharp and others a bit blury because your focus point is only covering a smaller area.

There's also the plane of field to remember. This means that if everyone in your group are not sitting or standing in the same plane, some will be sharp and others, well, not so sharp. Here's an example to show you what I mean by that:

Shutter speed:1/500

ISO: 320

Aperture: f/2.0

Here is a photo, from left to right, of Chivonne, Chanel and Raquel. I shot this at 2.0 which you'd think everyone should be in focus, but as you can see, Raquel is slightly blurry. Why? Because she isn't really in the same plane of field as Chivonne and Chanel are. She is sitting slightly forward. You can also see that she isn't looking at the camera dead on like the other two are. Her position is slightly shifted to the right, therefore, her left eye is blurrier. If I shot this at a higher f stop, Raquel would have probably been in focus too.

Here's the pros and a really good example about the awesomeness of shooting wide open:

Shutter speed: 1/320
ISO: 400
Aperture: f/1.8

Dozer's eyes are in the same plane of field, therefore, they are both sharp! And look how everything else is beautifully blurred and soft. It really makes the eyes pop.

I love shooting wide open most of the time because it creates such a nice background blur, and I love that, but sometimes, I have to take it up a few f/stops to get everyone in the bunch looking sharp :) Remember, if you have people sitting in different planes of fields, you want to have a bigger f/stop number to get eveyone looking their best :) Well this is what I have come to learn and wanted to put it down in writing b/c my blog has a better memory than I do. I also hope this helps someone know a little bit more about aperture and plane of field.

Happy Tuesday!

A few teasers!

Wow it sure has been a busy but very fun weekend. I mentioned before that first, we went to a friends surprise farewell party. It was so much fun to see her reaction and capture it with my camera. Also on Saturday, one of my other friends had a very special event going on for her company. We all came out to support her and I of course, had to capture it all. Here are just a few teasers that I want to share from this weekend! Enjoy for now, full posts coming soon :)

Black and White

Wow, I am so dissapointed in myself. I haven't been on my treadmill for a few weeks now and it has me so discouraged. I could write down a million excuses as to why I haven't had the time but really, whats the point? There's no justification.

I have, however, been getting my exercise on with editing. I love photoshop, no, I'm addicted to it and I like to practice whenever I can. I'm not a big fan of over processing every single picture in photoshop because you want to focus on the emotion, and have a continous story of whats going on, and overdoing it might take away from that. There are, though, certain techniques that are very artsy that do enhance these emotions, such as adding texture or changing the overall color of the picture to make it look more dramatic and I think doing a few like that out of the batch is fun.

Todays editon will be reception/first dance photos in black and white, with bubbles. Happy Friday! :)

Before and After: Part II

Here are a few other photos from my computer that I decided to experiment some more TRA recipies on. I blogged about this wedding a few months ago. As you can see, the light was so beautiful and we could not have asked for anything more. I can't thank Jennifer enough for giving me the opportunity to come along :)


Before (SOOC)...

After...

I wanted to include this picture for fun. I love action shots and behind the scene pictures. Here you can see Jennifer Werneth and her husband Glen in action. If you'd like more eye candy, be sure to head on over to her blog!



Here's my take on the picture. I honestly love the way it came out straight out of my camera and it only needs minor tweaking and ehancement, but I wanted to try something new.


Before...

After...

I darkend the background because I wanted to make the Bride and groom really pop, but especially the bride because the light was hitting her from behind so beautifuly. I also added contract and some color to the green bushes. To me, the overall picture looks pretty bold, but I like it :) I may have overdid certain effects than what I normally would do. If I think a photo looks great straight out of my camera and I don't want to add too many effects to keep the photo looking natural, what I do is brighten up the skin just a tad to make a natural glow, bring out the eyes to bring your attention to them, add a little contract, and sharpen at the end.

Here's a cropped version of the above picture emphasizing the bouquet and rings

Before and After using TRA actions

My favorite ways to enhance my photos is by using the TRA action recipies. The wonderful people over there were so awesome enough to send all their users a few recipies that other photographers submitted to show as example of all the different ways we can mix these photoshop actions. I looked over the recipies and decided to try a few myself. Here are two pictures that were tucked away in my computer that I decided to use as examples. It may not be much of a difference, but a little ehancement and tweaking to a picture can really go a long way.

Here is the before picture SOOC (straight out of camera):

and after....

Before (SOOC) :

after...

One thing that I rarely do is show my client a photo SOOC, because to me, it's unfinished work. I like to enhance the photos first, either by slightly correcting exposure, contrast, cropping if necessary, sharpening, etc., and using the TRA actions. Although it does take quite some time to do this, I really enjoying it because 1. It's fun and 2. I'm creating my own unique piece of art and style with every picture :)

In another segment, I'll include which actions I actually used from the TRA sets. Happy Tuesday!