Finding the Light

Whenever I read articles and posts about good photography, I notice a lot of professionals say light is everything. Sure, there is composition, balance and all the other goodies but light can make or break your photo. They suggest you “find your light”. That once you practice, you start to develop an eye for where the light is and how it will look in your photo.

Well I have been practicing and truthfully, it’s not so easy to find the light! I have an idea for how I want my photo look and it just doesn’t come out that way-I still got lots to learn! Sure, I can expose a picture properly but I’ve been wanting to create something more drastic than just exposing my subjects.

The other day, my sweet crawling baby discovered the window on the back door. He made his way over to it and put his face up against the pane. It was sunset right about that time. The light that was hitting his face was DREAMY! At last! I saw it. Not the cuteness of the kid, outfit or setting, but the light. The glorious, yummy light. I dashed to get my camera before the moment was gone and snapped a few beautiful shots.

See what I mean? Dreamy light, or is it the dreamy baby? Either way, SCORE!

I still have lots to learn. For instance, in the bottom, Evan is a little out of focus ( I gotta improve my moving subjects skills) and it’s a tad overexposed. But progress is progress right?

Panning Submission

Tonight is my photography class so I thought I'd post my submissions.  Our challenge was to take pictures with a low and high aperture and to create a panning (motion in background and subject in focus) shot.

Low Aperture

High Aperture

Panning (this is hilarious to me because we were playing kickball with 8 year olds!)

Playing with F-stops

*Disclaimer: I am not a photographer. I do not consider myself a photographer just because I have a nice camera...but we all have to start somewhere right?


A friend of mine and I have been taking a photography class together at the Houston Photography Center. In class it was brought to my attention how utterly foolish it is to have such a sophisticated camera and always set it to auto settings. Our challenge was to start shooting in manual.
 :/


"What? You mean I can't point and shoot with my DSLR?" I guess technically, I can, but I shouldn't.


So we learned about all things white balance, shutter speed and f-stops/apertures. Our challenge this week was to shoot something in a low f-stop and a high f-stop. Lastly, there is a prize to win a Starbuck's gift card (not that I'm interested in that because I only drink Antigua coffee) for whoever can create the most interesting panning shot (subject in focus while area around is blurred from movement). The first two assignments are proving to be easy enough, the latter however, is not as easy. Although it isn't for lack of moving things in my world to shoot =)


So here's my first attempt at low f-stop shot at 5.6

And here's my version of a high f-stop, shot at 18

For the grand finale, not really, my panning shot. This was created spontaneously and was not my original idea. It still needs work though. This will probably not be my submission.

I like that he's in motion and has that strange look on his face but you can't really tell he's up jumping. He could almost be standing for all you know. I'm not sure this qualifies as a "panning" shot but I'll keep trying.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

My Apologies...

To my dear blog readers,


It is necessary that I forewarn you and apologize for the agony you are about to experience. (Don't feel alone, I've already had this conversation with my children as well.) You will be the bearer of my experimenting. This is the point of no return, this blog will never be the same again. Keep reading...let me explain.


Thanks to incredible success with my business with Thirty-One, I have been able to fulfill one of my dreams and upgrade our point and shoot camera to a DSLR (don't ask me what that stands for, but I think it means seriously cool). One of my favorite things that we own is our pictures. Little pieces of paper that capture the sweet and not so sweet moments in life. Pieces of paper that help me remember the things I want to but can't. Moments in stories to tell my children when they are grown and older. This camera is so ridiculous, I feel entirely unworthy of it. But, I will attempt to read the manual regularly, solicit as much advice from friends as possible and seek out bloggers willing to share their knowledge. Once I learn how to use an aperture, shutter speed and white balance, maybe I won't have so much to apologize for but in the meantime...