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!

Date Night? Photography Practice? Or both?!

So, Tuesdays are date nights for Fred and me, and lately our Tuesdays have been full.. but tonight we had some time to get dolled up and go out for our date night!

So what did we do?  We took pictures of each other HAHAHAHAHA!  It was nice to just go out and shoot for fun.. and try new things in our photography.  So much to learn and try, and Fred and I are just always striving to improve our skills.  Here's a few pics of us on our date night.

Good thing we brought the bug spray HAHAHA!

This first photo is my favorite of myself from the night - thank you Fred!  I just like how I'm in a spot light.. the flash is directly in front of me (the direction my head is facing).. and it's up pretty high and aimed down at me... giving this spotlight effect.

 This is one of my faves of Fred.. it's the same thing as above.. but now it's Fred HAHAHA!

I wanted to do a silhouette, so I exposed for the sky and didn't add flash..

Fred went for an unconventional crop, I like!

The street lamp was lighting the tree and I liked the gradient it made.. and I added flash on Fred.

This was a fluke.. the flash was right beside Fred and wasn't even set correctly (way too much power), but I decided to see if it would work.. and I guess b/c the flash was not facing Fred directly.. the spill is the part that hit him and wasn't overpowering.. so it ended up being just enough for him.  See how it falls off sharply though at his waist?  Yeah.. cuz the flash was not pointed at him, but somehow it worked out!

And there you have it, our date night! Yay!

How I Do: Using Flash Outdoors

Lately I've been going to a lot of cool photography seminars and workshops b/c I really want to improve my craft as a photographer.  I am planning to blog about that in a separate blog when I get a chance, but for now, let me just tell you a teeny bit about how I use an off-camera flash.  At least, how I did it today when I went out to practice..

I apologize in advance if I don't explain things well.  I am working on it HAHAHAH!

Step 1)  Get your background to the exposure you'd like it to be. 
In the first 2 photos below, I basically underexposed the background because that's the feel I wanted (I made it darker than it really is).  You must also consider what your flash sync speed is.  On my camera, it's 1/250 of a second.  So I set it to that as a starting point, and then I made the aperture as small as I had to in order to darken the background (higher f/stop numbers).  It ended up being f/22.  And to give you an idea.. this is basically noonday, and it's a bright and sunny day.  Bright blue skies and all that.  But in this case, I was able to mute the background.

Step 2) Place your flash somewhere near the subject. 
Ideally if you want a traditional shadow pattern on your subject, you should place it at a 45 degree angle to the subject.  I did that for both the first pic and the third.  The second one was sidelit. The closer the light is to the subject, the less flash power you need to use.  So get in close (without the flash being shown in the pic).

Step 3) Fire and see what happens.  
If your background is set the way you want it to be, then all you have to do is worry about the flash power.  You can adjust the power up and down as you see fit to allow the subject to be lit properly. 


I guess I will include my settings below in case that's any help.. It will always vary depending on the light and all that, but .. yeah hehehe.  And these are straight out of the camera, except for a vignette on the last pic.

 1) Background underexposed, flash firing at 1/2 power to beat out the sun, coming from camera right
iso 160, 35mm, 1/250 sec, f/22

2) Background again underexposed, flash still firing at 1/2 power, but it's more of a sidelight from camera right.

iso 160, 29mm, 1/200 sec, f/22

3) My fave pic of the day:

Background is closer to what it really looked like.. flash still at 1/2 power coming from camera left

iso 200, 24mm, 1/200 sec, f/14

Lips, Rings, & Dreaming Big

I decided to practice a few things today by giving myself an assignment.  I want to find textures in every day environments and capture them.  So I brought out my macro lens and just kept shooting.

Here's my two favorite from today. With this first one, I'm trying to see light in new ways... and at the same time I'm loving the texture in my friend's lips hehehe.

 

This one was taken at Barnes & Noble.  I walked around and found this texture in a bookshelf.  Beauty is all around us, and I'm going to work harder to find it.

Today I read Jasmine Star's very first blog posts from when she just started out as a wedding photographer 4 years ago.  It was so inspiring.  She basically made something from nothing and now is one of the top wedding photographers in the world.  I think I really admire how she laid out her goals for both herself and everyone to know.  Her blog is raw, personal, HONEST.  She knew she wanted to pursue this dream, and told the world how she wished to hang with the big guns, so to speak.  I followed her words as she talked of experiences that she never thought would happen to her, meeting big shot photographers, and then second shooting with photographers she only dreamed of meeting!  But she called it.  From the very beginning, she said what she wanted and she made it happen.

My dreams may not be quite as big as hers, or even as clear cut, but I wanna put them out here too.  I want to be honest.  I want to be a successful wedding and family photographer.  I want to capture people's happiness and joy in the photographs that I take.  I want to be creative, innovative, and distinct.  I want to find my own style.  I know with God's help, I can achieve this.  I've gotten this far, having started my business this past February.. and I'm committed.  I'm ready to go all or nothing.  I have so much to learn, but I'm gonna do my best.  After all, that's all you CAN do.  You don't know unless you try.

My Purple Camera Bag & A Doggie in Action

Hello!

So my new Kelly Moore Camera Bag came in the mail yesterday and it's so awesome because I can fit my SLR camera in it along with a few lens - YAY!  It's sooo my new purse.. although.. I may want to also get the smaller Hobo bag since I got a $50 off coupon code since our bags took a while to get to us.  All I know is this bag was worth the wait.  They also have a boy version for you guys out there hehe.

Oh.. and YES it's PURPLE HAHAHAHAHA :)  I think it's perfect for the business :)

And here is my favorite dog - Shiloh.  Just some action shots.. I was testing out the Shutter Priority mode on the camera.  He is so cute.

That's all for now.. I had to fill my urge to shoot.  So yeah.

Personal: Cielo & Eduardo, and Flowers

Hi!

So, first of all, tomorrow's the big day - NTME's first official wedding.. I can't believe this day has finally come!  Wowsers!  I'm making all the final preps, packing everything we need, making sure we don't forget anything, and most of all, putting it in God's hands that He will give us the talents and skills that we need.

Next, I wanted to blog about my little twin cousins, Cielo & Eduardo.  I guess they aren't sooo little anymore, I remember when they were just born.. and now, they are finishing 6th grade.  They are going to school at the same place I went to school.. and I got to see some of my old teachers.  My teachers look like they haven't aged a bit hahahaha.  I can't believe it's been 15 years since I also walked those hallways. Time really flies!

So, Cielo & Eduardo, along with all the other 6th graders, had an awards ceremony on Wednesday and I am so glad I was able to go and support them.  They both got a bunch of awards and I'm so proud of them!  Here's a few pictures!

And lastly, here's a picture with the 60mm Micro.. I just wanted to test it out on the full frame camera..

The end.  Alright weekend, here I come!

Two Photoshoots & a Burger Palace

So today, a bunch of us went to Bartram Gardens in Philadelphia to get out the scenery and get some cool photos.  I really do like what Bartram Gardens has to offer.  There's so much scenery!  Farms, meadows, river, flowers, etc.  But we know to bring bug repellent for next time hahaha.  I took pictures of Jamie and also of Ann Leigh and Steve.  It was a lot of fun, and apparently, they all had fun too, so I'm glad!  We made an afternoon out of it, then ended it by going to Bobby's Burger Palace, a great burger joint by Bobby Flay from Food Network.

Below you can see a Crunchburger.. it has chips in it hehe.  Their burgers were really good, and most of them are around $7.50!  So we were very happy with going there, especially since Fred kept pushing for us to try it out hahaha.

Here's a teaser for Jamie and one for Ann and Steve... I have more I want to post, but I will wait.  I'm really teasing myself I guess.  Tomorrow we're doing a kiddie studio session so I'm excited for that.  Wow, this is definitely a busy weekend.  Busy, but good.  Okay time to sleep!

As always - click to enlarge!

Shots of My Wedding Ring - New Macro Lens!

So, Fred and I have been our purchasing lenses from Keh.com lately.  It's a site where you can get new lenses as well as used ones, so we've bought a few used lenses in 'Excellent' condition and have been very pleased with the results.  First, we got a 85mm 1.8. This time, we got a 60mm 2.8 Micro (Nikon's word for macro).  It's not the newest version, but that's fine b/c it's still a great lens and we just wanted it for ring shots and other small details. Why spend $600 if you don't have to? The not-newest version sells used for about $400, but Keh had it on sale for under $300, and in excellent condition! We saved a bundle and I'm happy about that.  Everyone should check out Keh.com for their camera needs.  And every wedding photographer should have a micro or one like it. I was so compelled to get one when I saw someone's ring pictures using this lens.  I was like - DENG I want my ring shots to fill the whole frame too!!

Omgosh it just does soo much for ring shots. OMGOSH.  I decided to just play around with my and my husband's wedding bands... and some of our wedding favors.. so .. here's a few test shots. Oh, the possibilities!  I was impressed b/c if you zoom in, you can even see the imperfections on the ring HAHAHAHA.  But I LOVE MY RING!! But yeah.. make sure your bride and groom have cleaned their rings or else it will definitely show up HAHAHAHA :)

CLICK TO ENLARGE THE BLING BLING!!!

Hope you like them!

Also, the movers just delivered all our stuff to my parent's house, so I'm doing some serious unpacking over the next few days.  So much manual labor!!!  But I'm so happy to have more clothes now.  Yay for having all our stuff!  Okay back to unpacking, gonna be shooting some people this weekend hopefully, so be on the lookout in the obituaries.. lol jk, bad joke.  But stay tuned to the blog for some more pics :)  Can't wait to use my macro some more!!!

Riding in a Small Airplane and Seamless Backgrounds

Last Saturday, Fred took Irene and me to a company picnic where they were giving out free small airplane rides.  Free? How could we refuse? So it was a first for all of us and it was really cool.  We flew above New Castle Delaware for a few minutes in a teeny weeny plane.  I thought turbulence on a big commercial plane was scary - let me tell you... in a small craft, you really cannot deny you are just a little fly in the big sky... and that any gust of wind could just send you out of control. But let's not dwell on that - the view was awesome.  I don't know if I'd do it again, but I know Fred really wants to be a pilot hahahaha.  Let's see if I will actually let that happen LOL lemme stop.

So they made us sit a certain way in order to 'balance' the weight on the craft.  Somehow that meant I needed to sit up front.  Eek!  I had to make sure I didn't touch anything hahaha.  Which was kind of hard since my legs are superlong and there are foot pedals I had to avoid so I wouldn't accidentally steer the plane hahaha.

But overall, a great experience.  Thank you to Fred's company :)

I decided to try something different with presenting my photos.  Instead of having each one individually framed with a watermark, I popped them all into a template... to kind of condense it.  I'm still working on it, but hope it's easier on the eyes.

CLICK TO ENLARGE!! (They get pretty big)

To see more pictures, here's my facebook album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2125096&id=1102932&l=d97dd73a1c

Also, we set up our studio on my parents' ever-so-spacious basement.  Wow.. so much space.  How did we manage to set up a studio in our teeny apartment in Cali?  Well, I guess where there's a will, there's a way.  At any rate, seamless paper is awesome.  We had to figure out how to make the background a bright white, so it took some tweaking.  But basically, we blanketed our background with light and then used another light for the foreground.  We are missing a light though so right now we're only working with 2 lights.  I think the plan is to get a continous light source for the background and then have 2 flashes in the front for our key light and our fill.  So these are the results of our first 'studio' session.  Really, we were just playing around.  But I'm excited to complete the set-up and start holding portrait sessions.  All our stuff is finally arriving on Wednesday so we'll be in full swing by May.  Let me know if you want a photoshoot - indoor or out or both!

Practice: Some Legs and Some Jumping!

Fred and I were trying to figure out what to practice tonight.  We ended up taking pictures of our legs HAHAHAHA.  We're still working on it though.  Here's what turned out alright:

NEW LENS! Let's Do a Product Shoot!!

Hi!

So today a new lens came in the mail - YAY! We now have a 17-35mm 2.8 wide zoom!  That plus our 80-200mm 2.8 and our 50mm 1.8 means we're fully equipped for weddings - yay!

We are still waiting for our 85mm 1.8 but our friend Brian, the photo dude who runs our Long Beach Photo Society thingy, lent us his to try out, as well as his 10.5mm 2.8 fisheye. Here's a few pics from the fisheye. Thanks Fred for bringing out my big head :)

I of course wanted to post pictures of the new lens, but I decided I would try something different.  I wanted to practice making 'product shots' or something.  So using a 3-flash set up, I embarked upon an attempt to bring out my new lens's 'best side' hahahaha.  I just wanted it to 'pop' persay.  You be the judge as to whether I was able to accomplish that.  I think it's a decent start, and it was fun to just play around with the lighting today.  I'm definitely gonna do more.  I want a cool reflective surface to work on.  So I'm sure I'll be getting one .. one day.. to add another dimension.

So first let me show you the set up in the apartment (using my new wide zoom lens hehe):

I put a flash w/ umbrella 45 degrees behind on camera right and 45 degrees in front on camera left.  I also added a flash w/ a grid on a boom above the table... sort of in front of my subject and tilted it back towards the subject so the shadow would go behind it a little bit..

I used the 85mm 1.8 that I borrowed from Brian, and stayed at 1/200th of a second and a f16 aperture.

Here's one of my earlier shots..

Eh.. It didn't really jump out at me though..  So I decided to take a different approach..

I started to like where it was going.. it seemed to come out a little more... Yah? Yah?? [nudge nudge] Hahaha...

Time to add the case...

Now to tilt it to the side..

What do you think? Does it pop? Maybe a little bit I hope? Hehe.. Like I said, I want a better surface, but I'm pretty happy with the result.  You do what you can with what you got, yeah?

So that was fun.  Hope you enjoyed!

50 Years of Happiness

So about a few weeks ago, Fred and I along with some other members of the Long Beach Photo Society (LBPS) covered a party for the 50th Wedding Anniversary of Phillip and Cora Macaraeg.  They are the grandparents of our friend and fellow LBPS member, Jeff Gabriel.  It was a lot of fun, and so touching to see that after 50 years of marriage, Phillip and Cora are still head over heels for each other.  I only hope that Fred and I will be able to still stand each other after 49 more years as well, hahaha lemme stop :)

Let me tell you how funny these two are.  I asked Cora to place her hands on Philip's hands, and do you know what she told me?  "Why can't I just slap him instead?" HAHAHAHA!  Fred and I were NOT expecting that!  But they are so funny and truly love a good time!  Very young at heart!  I also see where Jeff gets his funny side from :)

Here are some shots!