Philly SmugMug Meetup: Using Ambient Light for Portraits

Oh my gosh.  I haven't blogged in forever!  I'm going to get back into it now, my apologies!

Last Saturday, one of my photo groups, Philly SmugMug, had a meetup in the Art Museum area and we focused on ambient light.  It was a cloudy day which to many photographers is a dream come true hahahaha!  I think it's great as well, but depending on the location, it can get a bit drab.  That coupled with a security guard telling us to clear the Waterworks area pushed us to venture out and see what else we could find.  There were 5 mini groups and I was the leader of one of them, yay for Group 3!!

We had this brilliant idea for Ahmad to stand on a narrow ledge on this gym building...

 ... But we couldn't get him to turn around HAHAHAHAH!  And then someone from inside the gym told him to get down b/c everyone inside could see him LOL!!!!  That was fun!!

Personally, I was looking for directional light and that was definitely a challenge with a gray sky and tons of soft flat light everywhere.  But as we walked toward Boat House Row, we found some overhangs which gave me the shadows and depth I was looking for.

Worked a bit on framing!

 

 Best friends!!

Boat House Row was so colorful!  Glad we took a walk!!

Do you remember JP from when he graduated and I took his pics? Well, he's back HAHAHA!!  Holler ladies!! LOL!

So yeah, this was a lot of fun and I'm thankful to all my friends for helping me out by modeling or being photo assistants!!  It really helps so much as I continue to hone my craft!!  And a big thanks to my fellow photogs in Philly SmugMug group, it's always fun!!  

I really enjoy doing what I do!

Behind the Scenes of Northeast Shootout 1!

This is a summary video of our first Northeast Shootout, put together by my hubby.  He's starting to dabble in video, for now, we'll say it's for fun.  He literally got his video equipment the day before this event, so, please pardon him while he is still learning :)  

But great job to my hubby, I see great things for you.. and we'll see what it means for our business.. in the long run, not next month okay? ;)

But anyway, it was a lot of fun - enjoy the video!

PS. Excuse my weird hair, my PJ outfit (it was so hot, I had to take off my real outfit lol), and... my lack of makeup.  I'll do better next time I promise!

Irene's Sweet 16: Portrait Session, Slideshow, and Teaser from Today's Party!

AHHH today was awesome!  I covered my little cousin's sweet 16 party, and was happy to be able to show a slideshow of her life (so far).  Happiest birthday to my dearest Irene, may you have many more to come!

So below is the slideshow I showed at the party today, and under that are some of my faves from my session with her.  And last but not least are two teasers from today!

For the slideshow, please bear with my corniness, it's something that only my cousin could love HAHAHA :)

Beautiful. Simply beautiful.

And here's some teasers from today!

Goats Can Climb onto Fences :) - Shooting for Fun!

Just a quick break before I continue some album designing..

Yesterday my soulfriend, Grace, and I went around the area exploring new places for me to use for portraits.  Here are some images I took.. for fun :)

It's nice to shoot for fun sometimes, you get to take a fresh look at things without any pressure hehe!
 :)

I found an awesome place, I can't wait to take my next engaged couple there.. Come on couples, book me so we can go!! It's MAGICAL!  (Sorry, didn't put any pics up of it, just some inside one of the buildings HAHAHAHA)

Shot through a chain link fence :)

This particular goat knew how to stand up on a fence to get him some grub!

Yay for Farmer's Markets!

My beautiful soulfriend :)

Details...

 Reflections!

Mountains, Smores, & Waterfalls!! Our Anniversary + Cousin Road Trip!

This post has VIDEO!!! YAY!!

So as you know, August 9th is Fred and my wedding anniversary - yay!  This year we decided to take a little road trip to camp out in the Poconos and visit Canada to see Niagara Falls!  But we also wanted to spend time with my little cousins, Irene, Eduardo, and Cielo, so we brought them along as well.  You might be saying - what!?  It's your anniversary and you're bringing KIDS?  And they aren't even YOUR kids!?

I gotta tell you something about my little cousins.  They are just plain awesome.  Whenever we all hang out, it's an adventure, and Fred and I wanted them to have a chance to see a world wonder, ride some white water, and to try smores for the first time.   It was our moment in time to experience it all TOGETHER.

And I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Here's a photo montage of our trip!

Cousin Vacay 2011 from NTME on Vimeo.

Saturday started off with Camelbeach Waterpark in the Poconos.  It's pretty big and had some cool rides.  I however only could take 9 pictures because we forgot a memory card for our water proof camera HAHAHAHAHA!

Sunday after church, we headed back to the Poconos in the evening and camped out in a cabin.  I was all for camping, but I insisted on a cabin and not a tent hahaha.   Glad that I did because it ended up raining each night hahaha!

The kiddies had smores for the first time.  They are now addicted.  Here's a video about us trying to start a fire on the first night... it took us 2 hours because the wood was damp and we didn't have a fire-starting thingy... But Cielo saved the day with her sorceress chant!

Cielo starts the fire from NTME on Vimeo.

Fred has what he considers the best method for making the perfect smore.  He says that you should not let the smore touch the flame directly, but just have it linger nearby it.  It should make the outside of the marshmellow a crispy golden brown, not burnt.

We used Hershey's 'minis' for the smores.. rather than the chocolate pieces that you snap off.  It worked really well... very easy to deal with and you can add peanut butter cup minis if you want!

On Monday, we went white water rafting on the Lehigh River.  We stuck with the class 1 and class 2 rapids, which I think were great for the kids' first time.

Didn't buy the photo they took... probably b/c of my face HAHAHAH!

Here's some footage of our white water rafting journey!  Pretty funny hehehe!

White Water Rafting from NTME on Vimeo.

That night, we used our flashlights to do some light painting hehe!

The next day we journeyed to Niagara Falls!

This was the view at night from our hotel on the Canadian side.  LOVED our hotel!! I can't believe how close the US and Canada are together lol... I always envisioned there to be a bigger gap lol..

So that's our vacation in a nutshell!!