ClickinMoms Workshop Week 4

Well this is the final week of the workshop, well actually a week ago was, but we can all pretend right? This week is about composition, watching the crop, and chopping of body parts. So this week we had to put everything we learned into our pics and only submit ONE picture.

This week was also spring break, good, but the weather was bad all but one day. That day we decided to head to the tulip fields, great idea and I got some great shots. I think that next time we won't go at noon though, the light is just to bright at that time for pics and makes it hard to get the girls in good light too. It is possible, but just difficult.

So here is the pic that I selected for the final week. Remember these are jpegs and straight from the camera. This week we were aloud to crop and straighten for composition. I straightened the horizon on my pic.

My settings are ISO 200 ss 1/60 f/20



The top five pics from this week were to be posted on the CM Blog!

Well guess what? I was one of the top five!! Remember these are all SOOC and amazing work by some really great ladies!

Check out the blog:
http://www.clickinmoms.com/blog/?p=199

I have learned so much from this workshop and I am so glad that at the very last moment I signed up to take it. If you remember in my first post, I was like oh yeah, I know this stuff, just a refresher. Whatever, I had no idea what I was doing! This class was the best thing that I have done for myself in a while. And I am already standing in line for the second one and can't wait!

ClickinMoms Photography WS Week 3

This week we were given the lesson of light. How to find the light and make it work. I have been very lucky that this week has been so beautiful and the girls have been home for me to take pics of the. The girls have had conference week and they get out of school at 11:30.

So we have to show our pullbacks, where we took the pics and then our final pic. Remember my pics have to be in Jpegs only and straight out of the camera. I haven't edited them in anyway.



















Those pics were taken on my front porch, in my garage, and downtown Snohomish. Yes even in a place where we stopped for cookies! We had a great time!

Part two of the assignment was to use our aperture in a creative way. So lacking in creative skills I did this. Aperature is what opens and closes your lens light to make it either very clear or have blurry background.



Part Three was to use our shutter speed to either slow motion or to stop motion: I chose to stop motion.

I am having a FANTASTIC time in this class and I really can't wait to do the second one! I have learned so much and the quality of my pictures has improved ten fold.

Next week is our last week and I will be a little sad to see it end!

ClickinMoms Photography WS Week 2

Well this week was much different than last week. They threw it all at us, this is for sure. This week are incorporating three different types of metering, white balance, and types of focus. Oh it sounds easy till you have to chase a two year old down the street and trying to meter a light that is constantly changing with your focus! :)

So my first shots are of the different lights that we are suppose to shoot in:
This one is my outdoor shot:


My indoor:


Lowlight:


My mentor says that all the pics look great but that JuJu is a bit underexposed. I could have saved it by lowering my shutter speed. :)

Then we had to work with the white balance in the camera. White balance can either make you look like an umpa lompa from Willy Wonka or give you great looking skin. Mine were some where in the middle.

Auto White Balance: The camera pics it for you.


Incandescent white balance: A preset in the camera.


Custom White Balance: I achieved this by setting my camera to custom and taking a meter reading off of a white sheet of paper.


Out of these three, the AWB looks the best. I probably metered wrong of of my paper, but hey I am just beginning too!

The final shot was to incorporate it all together. So I custom white balanced my camera, found my focus modes that were good for my conditions, metered my light and set my metering. I also attempted what is called the back button focus. This button locks the focus on your subject while you can recompose your pic. It is a bit awkward, but I have to say totally worth it.
Here was my final product:


I am happy with my outcome of my pics. I would have loved to take the girls to some scenic park to do some lovely pics with them too. But time doesn't allow it this week and I am one of those folks that just can't stand to have a deadline hanging over them.
This is a fantastic workshop and I am so enjoying myself. Now if only the girls would hold still and smile!!

ClicknMoms Photography Workshop Week 1

Well I have finally done it. Decided to sign up and take the time to learn the basics of shooting in manual. I felt it was important for me to learn the basics and get a good foundation. I know how it works but it is always good to get a class and feel more confident in my work.

So this weeks class is on the triangle of manual shooting. So we are doing shots in manual and adjusting our aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings. As we are doing this we are also learning about metering in the camera and to get the exposure to O.

My first attempt was with Molly in the late afternoon. I took wonderful pictures of her. But when I uploaded them to Flickr, I realized they looked a little off. So I rechecked the settings on my camera and noticed that I had it set on the lowest resolution. So that for sure isn't going to work!! Here are the four of Molly I was going to use. I have to have an outdoor, indoor, window light, and optional.






Of course after realizing my mistake I was very frustrated but I woke up this morning and had a little photo shot with JuJu. She is not in the mood for pics at all lately but I tried to bribe her with chocolate. I felt like one of those moms on toddlers and tiaras! I think they turned out good. I am learning a lot and getting more confident in my ability to shoot in manual. Also have a great time while doing it.

Here are my final shots of JuJu. Oh I forgot to mention, all shots are SOOC, Straight out of the camera. We are not aloud to edit them or shot in RAW, Jpegs only.

Enjoy!
Optional Pic

Outdoor Pic

Window Light Pic

Indoor or lowlight pic