I Want to Go Back!

Seeing these photos makes me want to be back in Hawaii....

Black & White Trial

Black and white is hard for me. I want there to be enough contrast, but I don't want the "white" of the photo to be too harsh. Here is a trial edit of a photo I took recently while my family was getting our Christmas tree.

A Learning Experience

A few weeks ago, I had a privilege of helping Josh's younger sister prepare for her freshman Homecoming dance. It was such a neat experience! She's a truly wonderful, beautiful girl who exudes personality.

I also went with her mom to drop her off at her friend's house, where all of the couples were meeting. I, of course, snapped hundreds of pictures while I was there. And looking back at the photos, I have learned so much from my mistakes.
The were some fun, creative photos that could have been taken, had I been focusing on the group as a whole, instead of just Amy. For example, the first three of four boys that showed up were all blonde-haired, with the tallest and shortest in black tuxes, and the middle in a white tux. It would have been neat to shoot the three of them in some fun poses, playing on their height and tux color differences.

All the couples went to a friend of the families, who happens to be a professional photographer, and she shot their couple and group photos, instead of having them done at the school. Watching her, I was amazed by her ideas. One girl was a in a big, poofy, hot pink dress. She was absolutely adorable. Think Barbie. The photographer had this girl kind of squat down, so her dress surrounded her on all sides. Then, she climbed on top of a ladder and shot her from above in the same pose. It was so neat!!

Amy had her fingernails and toes done Saturday morning, and I wish I would have taken the time to snap some photos of her toes and sparkly silver shoes.
All in all, this experience served to teach me some important things about looking past the obvious, and capturing photos that are anything but ordinary. Great opportunity!!

Here are a few edited photos from that day....

Like, Totally Rad

I have been following The Pioneer Woman for quite some time, and thoroughly enjoy her photography section of her blog.

I found this site from a link on her site. And man, have my eyes been opened!

Totally Rad provides photo "recipes", advice, and Photoshop actions. And their actions are amazing!!

I am hoping to buy a set of their actions soon, to be able to process some of my photos in new ways. I am always looking for ways to grow in my photography/editing skills, and hopefully these actions will help in that matter! Here's a link to their blog.... http://www.gettotallyrad.com/blog

Check them out!

A Walk In The Woods

Tonight, my family took a walk back in the woods behind our house, where a company clear-cutted a few years ago. I have always wanted to take pictures back there of the sunset, but haven't ever taken the time to do it. Until tonight.

And Oh. My. Gosh.

I think I'm in love.

These were all shot with my Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens, and edited in various ways, all using Photoshop.

Photoshop and I are gradually becoming better friends.

This one bothers me a little. Part of the tree disappeared in the light, and so the top half of the trunk is just "floating" without being connect to the bottom half of the trunk.

Now, I know that in my last post, I talked about wanting to photograph people more. So that's just what I did. Once again, Josh was forced to be my model. He has finally decided to stop resisting me, and is instead just ignoring the camera. Works for me!

And by the way, this boy melts my heart. I caught him laughing, which makes for awesome pictures, because his real smile comes out. And that smile makes my day.

Now, this picture isn't from our trek into the woods. It's from our trip to Sequim. We parked alongside the private airstrip we were visiting, and I took pictures of airplanes. And Josh napped. I caught him sleeping.

So there! ANOTHER photography post this week! I'm on a roll!

Till next time,

Challenges

I follow several photography blogs, and am always awestruck at the photographers' ability to photograph people in amazing detail. The clarity, sharpness, color, and just general composition astounds me.

I want to be able to do that.

I feel like I am slowly learning more about how to utilize my camera and Photoshop, and am becoming more comfortable with sharing my photos. But most of my work is of stationary objects. Like still-life photos.

I know that learning takes time, but I am an impatient person. I want to force myself to step out of my comfort zone, and take pictures of PEOPLE. Things that MOVE, and require effort. Not something that will stay still and let me take hundreds of photos of it until I get it right. I have recently experimented with silhouette-type pictures of people, but I don't have to stress too much about the details of the person's face. I feel as though that's almost cheating.

That is my goal for right now and for the future; to take more pictures of people. Not benches in dugouts, or trees in a forest, or stalls in a barn. People. Kids. Couples. Groups. Everything. Except stationary objects.

Its time to challenge myself.

Just for fun...

Hunting season is quickly approaching, and so Josh has been shooting his bow a lot lately to prepare. Here are some photos I took the other night at our house as the sun was setting.



And one of Uncle Rick from our weekend of camping over the 4th of July weekend.

Adios amigos!

Random Pictures....

These past few weeks have been so jam-packed with stuff to do! I'm having a hard time keeping up on editing pictures, uploading them, and then blogging them. Here are a few random photos from this summer so far....

This one is of Josh. We were camping at the Wynoochee River, and he was deep in conversation with the boys. I stood off to the side and snapped pictures.

When Josh was helping to coach Little Leage, we played at a field in Tenino. This patch of trees was between the parking lot and the fields. The SOOC version showed just how yucky of a location it really was.... this version looks much prettier!

Here is Jessica and Tyler's dog, Mason. Jess and I were at Priest Point Park, and Mason was so intent on watching people walk by!

This is my dad. We were camping at the Wynoochee, and he was in the middle of bbq-ing when I snapped this one.


This is from Josh's dad's barn. His wife, Angie, decorates EVERYTHING so cutely.... even their horse stalls!

This is from the same park in Tenino where we had practice for Little League. I hid in an empty dugout when a random rain shower came through, and this is what I ended up with: a wooden bench.

Hopefully more to come soon!

Photograph Ideas!!

I have been struggling to find things that I really want to photograph creatively.... things besides my pets, my family, Josh, and random objects around my room that I have been practicing on. But nothing had really peaked my interest.

Until yesterday.

Josh and I went to his Dad's house, where they have 5 acres, and horses. Beautiful horses. And the cutest barn/stable/arena. Walking through it yesterday, I instantly came up with all sorts of ideas for things I want to try to photograph, such as the horses, the barn, etc.

Josh's sister is naturally gorgeous and stunning - she just has a natural beauty to her. She rides horses, as does his cousin A., who is the same age. Both girls are going to be entering their freshman year of high school in the fall. I want to attempt to get some photos of them riding, both casually on trails, as well as in their respective events. I think these will be great memories to capture.

I am excited to start trying new things, and will (hopefully) be getting a new lens in the next week or so...!!

Photography.... Here I Come!

I figured after graduating college, I deserved to treat myself to a little present. And that is exactly what I did yesterday.

I went out and bought myself a Nikon D40 camera, with a 18-55mm f/3.5 - f/5.6 ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor lens. And I am in love.

I have no clue what I am doing for the most part, but I am enjoying learning. I took a bunch of pictures yesterday, of just completely random stuff. I changed settings, edited some of the pictures, and basically just played.

I find it so amazing how much you can change a picture by just adjusting a few settings. It's incredible!

So my next task is to start learning more.... I'm going to find some books, maybe a class, and definitely lots of people to help me.

Here are some of my "playing around" pictures from yesterday:

I began experimenting with aperture, not knowing exactly what I was doing. Or rather, not having a clue as to what I was doing. I took the first photo of these two in color (obviously), and then using the editing functions on the camera itself, changed it to black and white. Kind of fun!
Same thing with these two photos.

All of these were taken at the Rose Garden at Priest Point Park.

Josh's mom's birthday is in June, and her one wish is to have pictures taken at Tumwater Fall's Park of Josh and his sister, Amy, together. My goal is to be able to take those for her! But first, I need more practice.

I love photography!