Senior Pictures

Here's a little sneak peak for Amber and her family. I enjoyed our session and hope you are as pleased with the results as I am. Lots more are in the works!

Composition II

I wanted to mention a few more things about composition, so here is your next installment. I have a "secret." I don't whip out my camera and take one great looking photo. I take lots of photos and pick the best one (or ones) to present. The more you take, and the more you objectively study your pictures, the more you will notice what "works" and what doesn't. I like to work a subject by taking lots of pictures from lots of angles and close up, far away, the whole gamut. As you do this, you gain experience in what "works" and you get faster at knowing which ones will turn out. For example, getting down to a child's level almost always works better than standing and looking down at them. Today I had the chance to take a lot of angles of a subject that usually moves too much to make this point.

These angles all work for me, although in this group my favorite is the one on the far right. His arm creates a diagonal line that leads the eye straight to his adorable, sleeping, little face.

These are a few I wasn't as fond of. The bird's eye view is not all that dynamic, but I like that you can see his whole body, and the weird position he fell asleep in. The other one makes his arm and hand look shrunken and kind of scary.

And here are a couple more that I liked, just to show how many I actually take. (By the way the actual number I took for this little experiment was 36, but you get the idea, I ended with far less to show.) I read lots of different blogs and here is another simple little article on the same subject: http://cameradojo.com/2010/08/08/another-take-on-perspective/ While you are over there, he has one more titled : Use a simple angle to make a shot more dramatic. Enjoy.

Composition

I want to try something a little different today. Lots of you are trying to take better pictures, and are interested in photography (since you are reading this.) So I am going to do a few tutorial style posts to give you an idea of some of the things that go through my mind when I click the shutter. With any kind of camera (including your phone camera!) you can take better pictures by choosing your composition. What do I mean by this? Well, what is it that you are taking a picture of? In my case it's often a kid. If it's only a kid I will get in close and fill the frame with them. It might be the expression on their face. If I want a picture of what they are doing, I will include some of the background, but beware, very little of the background is needed to provide context. Next, how am I going to position them within the frame? Oftentimes dead center does not provide for the most interesting picture. Off center and specifically, using the rule of thirds, often works well. What is the rule of thirds? Imagine your rectangle frame and cut it into thirds. (Please excuse my extremely primitive "drawing" here.)

In the example the subject is centered and although an ok picture, it is not as dynamic as the next picture which puts the subject approximately one third of the way into the frame. Especially her eyes (the most important part of the face) are positioned one third of the way from the top of the frame.

I will include a few more comparison's for you and then I want you to try and the rule of thirds for yourself. If you are taking a close up, the eyes naturally fall in approximately the top third of the face, convenient eh?

Knight in Shining Armor

This is kind of random. But my friends' son loves dressing up in whatever he can find to be a superhero. He has been Indiana Jones, Wolverine and Edward Cullen. And on our last visit he was a Knight (in shining football armor.) It's great that he is so willing to be one of our subjects while dressed out for battle. I had fun playing with these pictures to get a sort of antique look.

Bath time

My best friend is also my mentor. She is the one who started me on my journey into photography. This shot is so much like one of hers, it's hard to believe I took it. So I just want to tell her, thanks so much for everything you do for me. You are my inspiration.

Suprise!

In order to update this more often I have set the goal to post at least one picture per week. My standards are kind of low, but I am hoping that such a small feat will make me more likely to stay committed. I'm on another short vacation at my BFFs and I usually take lots of pictures, so here is one from today that makes me smile. This is his "What?" face.

Favorite Boots

My youngest son loves these boots. He forgot them though on his latest camping trip with Dad. I love how the mid-morning sun was falling on them sitting all lonely in the bathroom.