52 Week Challenge: Week 5 - Best Friends

The theme for this week was "Best Friends", so my oldest and her best friend were happy to help me out for this week's assignment.  We had lots of laughter trying to pull this off..... I wanted to capture the girls blowing glitter from their hands, but instead of really getting the look I had envisioned in my head, we got a lot of laughter, squinty eyes, & monkey faces!  If I had this to do over again, I'd stand on a step stool and frame it so that you can see the glitter in their hands better.  These are my favorites from the bunch.

CM 101 Class: Week 3

This week we are to start putting everything together.   Can you sense the S-T-R-E-S-S?  I made the mistake of messing with my BBF custom settings and I can't remember what I had it on when I initially set it, so I feel like I've struggled to put it all together......at least smoothly.  I still feel a little bit "all thumbs" when it comes to changing my settings.  And the jumpy meter is about to drive me crazy.
Oh, and I forgot to mention it has rained everyday this week......well until today.  So I begged and pleaded with the kids to be my models yet again for me to practice.

Photo #1: Emily......can't you tell she is just thrilled? I had to work quickly, because her sighs were very audible while I fooled around with my settings.  I would have loved to have her looking at me, but you take what you can get right?

Settings: 50 mm lens, ISO 200, f 4.5, 1/125

Image #2: Jessica out in our front yard.  Sun is to camera left.  She was standing in full shade with dappled light behind her.  I feel like she metered ok, but I really blew out my sky.  I used spot metering and BBF.  

Settings: ISO 100, f3.2, 1/60.  

Image #3: Another image of Jessica taken in backyard with sun behind her.  I still feel this is a bit cool, but I wanted to show it in comparison to photo above.  Settings: ISO 100, 3.2, 1/200

Image #4: Just for fun, I was trying to capture the basketball going through the net and freeze motion.  Settings: ISO 400, 3.5, 1/1250
I was squatting underneath the goal, so I had to scramble to get out the way of the ball so that it didn't hit me or worse yet my camera.  I'm sure it was rather comical to watch!

52 Week Challenge: Week 4

Wow, time is flying by.....  
The theme for this week's challenge is "Bokeh".  Who doesn't love some dreamy bokeh?  We had extremely wet and dreary weather all week, so I was forced to try and get creative inside.  I resorted to  the piano because my kids are sick of me practicing on them.  I have to say......this was a metering nightmare for a novice with the black and white keys.  I think I took about 50 shots of the piano!  Who knew getting a decent shot of the piano would be so time consuming and I'm still not real happy with it.  I feel like the WB is off a bit, but this shot was taken in the evening with AWB.  Settings: 50 mm lens, ISO 3200, 1.8, 1/100.

Metering Assignment

We had an assignment to meter to find our family member's "sweet spot" on the camera's meter.  We also implemented BBF (back button focus) as well.

I also have to say, my subjects were not too willing (with the exception of my easy going husband).  It was just an extremely busy weekend with two basketball games, church retreat and an overdue shopping trip to Sam's club.  So I have to be honest, I don't feel like I've been able to give this lesson as much attention as I would have liked to, but it is due today! TODAY....yikes!

The composition is horrible as well, but I was really just trying to accomplish the goal of the assignment.

Photo #1: Taken inside my living room on Saturday night.  I had to really bump up my ISO to even get it to meter to "0" on the 12.5% grey card.
ISO 4000, f2.5, 1/80 AWB
I know it has been recommended to not dip below 1/100 SS, but I knew my subject was pretty still and I was working with horrible lighting!

Her skin metered +1/3

Photo #2: Taken outside, full sun
Settings: AWB, ISO 200, f3.5, 1/1250
His skin metered -1/3 to -2/3

Photo #3: Taken outside, full sun
Settings: AWB, ISO 200, f4.0, 1/1250
His skin metered +1/3

52 Weekly Challenge: Week 3

The theme this week was "food".  Inspiration just didn't strike me this week.  I just didn't cook anything that seemed really photograph worthy.  I mean how exciting are leftovers anyway?  Soooo....with the week drawing near I fixed Emily's favorite ice cream: mint chocolate chip with chocolate syrup drizzled on it.  She was very happy to wait and let me photograph it before devouring it as her afternoon snack.  :)

White Balance

I seriously need some help with white balance.  All of my indoor shots have that nice yellow glow.

Working through the exercises...I grabbed a sugar and creamer from kitchen and went to my half bath which has some funky lighting from my chandelier.

Shot #1: AWB

Shot #2: WB setting on tungsten...yuck!

Shot #3: CWB

Metering

Second lesson is over metering....I'm really trying not to let this blow my mind.  I've ready so many photography forums about meter on this, or meter on that....spot meter for this or that....til my head spins.   Hoping to get a much better grasp on this during the week.

First picture is metered off of the 18% card

Second photo is metered off of the 12.5% card

My choice is the second one metered on the 12.5% card.

Assignment #1

I'm a complete nervous wreck.  Our assignment for the class was to take 4 pictures using full manual, shooting in jpeg only with a 50mm lens.  One was to be outside, using window light, inside (low light) and location of your choice.

I started taking photos in RAW format a few months ago, so this assignment has really been hard because I want to take them into LR and brighten them up or tweak the white balance.

I have to admit......I'm not so sure why I was so scared of manual.......for years.  Maybe it was being forced to do an assignment, but something just "clicked" excuse the pun while doing this exercise.  I have to say.......the instructor had a few short audio clips to listen to while setting up your shots.  WOW!!  It made me evaluate my surroundings and really help me make the connection between the exposure triangle.  Something that has eluded me for a long time.

Another thing I'm excited about is focus.......My images appear sharper than I recall in a long time.  I'm sure part of that has to do with working with a prime lens, but let me tell you I've been so discouraged with soft images for a long time.

So without more rambling here are my photos with their settings.  I'm anxious to receive feedback from the instructors and classmates.  I have purposely only looked at one person's work, and it was awesome.....didn't look like a beginner at all......so I was afraid if I looked at others I would never get the nerve to post!!!

1. Outside: Full sun, 50 mm lens, ISO 100, f2.0, 1/4000

This shot is also going to serve as my photo for the theme "UP" for the CM 52 week challenge.

2.  Window Light: 50 mm lens, ISO 2500, f1.8, 1/160

3.  Inside Light (low light):  50 mm lens, ISO 1000, f1.8, 1/2000

I really struggled with this one.  All of my inside shots looked really yellow or grey, so I'm anxious to learn more about white balance in the upcoming week.

4.  Location of choice: Outside late afternoon, Lens 50mm, ISO 400, f1.8, 1/1000

Caleb is playing basketball with little dribbler's for the first time this year.  This is so "him" right now. He is so into basketball wearing his absolute favorite sweatshirt from our summer Nebraska mission trip.  I'm loving that I was able to get him in sharp focus with the blurred background, but now that I've loaded it I'm not real happy with the shadows across his face.  So much to learn!!

Are you smarter than a 4th grader?

Because apparently I'm not. Caleb brings home a worksheet on pentominoes last night.  Pento.....what? Ummmm yeah, that's what I said.

Now granted, we got a late start on homework around 9 p.m. It was just one of those afternoons that involved an orthodontist appointment, piano lessons for Emily and a basketball game at the high school. Hence the reason for our late start.

To make matters worse Caleb informs me he has lost his "pieces" which are supposedly extremely helpful in solving whatever we were supposed to be doing. So that's where google is usually your best friend for homework, right?  We printed out new pieces that appear like they would work and cut them out. I got one figured out, or at least I "think" I did going on my 4th graders recollection of how to complete the exercise from the teachers instruction.

I kept saying, "I don't remember your sisters ever having to do this" the whole while I'm shifting these shape pieces around on graph paper feeling dumber by the minute. My suspicions were confirmed when Jessica and Emily looked at his assignment and shrugged their shoulders and gave me a look that said.......uh....sorry you are on your own with this one.

So after googling the topic of pentominoes and enlisting my husband's help who is now moving shapes around on the graph paper it gets rather comical.
I mean, c'mon....Daniel and I are educated people....we are both professionals....Daniel is even in education for crying out loud. So why couldn't we figure it out?

Bleary eyed and all, I finally compose an email around midnight explaining that Caleb's paper is incomplete and explained we weren't smart enough to figure it out either. I'm anxious to hear the response and worse yet, his grade.

Persnickety Prints

I just recently learned that Scrapbookpictures.com has gone out of business!  I am just sick, sick, sick.  I have used them pretty much exclusively since 2005!!  I have always been so happy with their work, service and quality.  Soooooo, now I've been in search of a new place to upload and develop my personal photos.  I have seen where Persnickety Prints have been highly recommended, so I'm giving them a try.  I'm uploading Winter Formal photos as I type this post.  I like the looks of their interface and it seems like my photos are uploading faster....I don't know maybe it's just mental or I just have a really good Internet connection today.

Here is one of my favorites of Jessica before Winter Formal.  Once I have received my order I will give a review of their work.  So anyone else have good results with a developer/photo lab they can recommend?

Bokeh

I am taking a photography class and we have to post a recent favorite image.  I don't know why, but I really like this one.  This was taken in the late fall of 2011.  The sun was going down and I had just finished reading Bryan Peterson's book "Understanding Exposure".  I asked my oldest daughter if she would be my model.  She first said, "Mom, I haven't even gotten ready for today" You know, just imagine any 15 year old on a lazy Saturday rolling her eyes.  She finally did agree as long as I promised to not put them up on facebook......so instead she is just getting posted to my blog...lol.

This particular photo was not even planned as it was really in between posing  I was messing with my settings as I was just venturing into manual mode and she just looked deep in thought and I snapped away.  I also love the bokeh effect.  Now hopefully this class will help me understand how to achieve this look intentionally.

Breakfast

The theme for the first week of the 52 week challenge is "Breakfast".  My middle daughter, E has been sick with low grade fever so on my way home from a haircut I picked us up a late morning breakfast....chicken biscuits with hashbrowns and the standard breakfast drink......Dr. Pepper.  ha ha

Then that same evening my kids requested pancakes for dinner.  We usually do breakfast food for dinner a couple of times a month.....so since it went with the theme.......I was happy to oblige.  Disappointed with this particular image though.  My shutter speed is way too low and honestly I was in such a rush....you know making pancakes for 5 people, and cooking sausage I didn't take the time to really check ALL my settings.  So I pretty much grabbed camera and shot it.  

See why I need a photography class?  

2012

Here it is....yet again another new year - 2012.  I'm notorious for starting a blog, then I neglect it, then after time I just delete it.  With a new year and fresh beginnings I am hoping to change that this year.  I'm hoping this will be a place, if even only for me to share my thoughts, feelings, ideas and inspirations.

The kids have all gone back to school, my husband back to work and I am left with a very quiet house today.  There are times that I crave this type of quietness, but after the holidays it leaves me feeling a bit blue.

I'm glad I signed up for a new photography class at clickin' moms.  It is a beginner class to learn how to photograph in full manual mode.  I've been tinkering with manual or rather I should say semi-manual mode off and on for years.  But time and again, I'm disappointed with my own photos.  So for this new year I'm committing to this class and hope to see some a lot of improvement with my photography.  I hope to document this progress here on my new blog.

I'm also planning to participate in a couple of weekly photo challenges.  Once again, one of them is hosted at clickin' moms and the other is my3barbarians.com.  I have such limited internet from home, so I'm hoping that I can truly keep up with at least one of them!  Wish me luck!  :)