I Heart Faces / Back to School

This weeks I Heart Faces theme is Back to School. This year was a big milestone for us as our oldest started Kindergarten. Two weeks ago I packed his back pack and snack and sent him off to the big school, Elementary School. It was also my middle son's first year of preschool. This is a picture of the two of them on Shaun's very first day of school. David having been to preschool for 2 years and already had his real first day of school a few days before was a seasoned pro at "First Days of School".

All morning he was explaining to his younger brother what school will be like and when I asked him to put his arm around his brother for a picture outside. This is the shot I got! As a mother it made me feel all warm and fuzzy. David was such a proud big brother that morning and I think it really shows!

Stop over I Heart Faces and check out all the other great back to school entries!

Week 1 Homework Assignment

On Wednesday I started my first photography class. I signed up for a four week Intro class at a studio located in Manchester. I really enjoyed it and I am very glad that I signed up. The class is a lot of fun, very laid back. I am already excited for next weeks class, though I am most looking forward to week 3 when we get to try out all kinds of amazing expensive lenses! Just in time to start my wish list to Santa!

In the first class we discussed the 4 basic exposure modes and what makes up an exposure. A lot of this I had already read about online and in books so I did have a basic understanding of the concepts but it was still nice to have an actual person explain it face to face. His analogies helped me grasp the concepts better too! We were given a homework assignment but we don't have to turn anything in, so I though I would use my blog to post my assignments and keep me accountable!

The first assignment was to practice using the exposure modes on the camera. Part 1 was to capture motion using the Shutter Priority feature (TV on Canon or S on Nikon). To capture motion you are looking for a slow shutter speed like 1/15.

I took a bunch of pictures of moving things like David riding his bike down the driveway. This one of the pinwheel is my favorite. You can see that the spinning motion of the pinwheel is blurry but the background is relatively sharp.

Shutter: 1/15
Aperture: f/20
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 200

Part 2 of the assignment was to stop motion. Ever wonder how you could get that perfect picture of your kids jumping up in the air and have it all be in focus? Well this is how! To stop motion you want a fast shutter speed. So if you are using 1/15 for capturing motion you would want something much, much faster to stop it. For this assignment I used the recommended 1/1000 and spinning the same pinwheel you can see that it looks like it's perfectly still.

Shutter: 1/1000
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal length: 50mm
ISO: 200

Part 3 & 4 of the assignment related to Depth of Field. A deep depth of field, will have foregrounds and backgrounds in focus whereas a shallow depth of field will have a sharp focus on the foreground and a blurry background. To create a deep depth of field you want a small aperture like f/22 and for a shallow depth of field you would want a large aperture like f/4 (and yes that is correct, aperture is backwards the small number = large aperture).

Shutter: 1/60

Aperture: f/22

Focal length: 90mm

ISO: 200

Shutter: 1/1250

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal length: 90mm

ISO: 200

My lens is very limiting. Some of the nicer (more expensive) lenses will have apertures that are as low as f/1.4. But you can still see a difference in the background in the two pictures.

There is one more part of the assignment that I haven't worked on yet but I will this week. It is using the exposure compensation feature on the camera. I am looking forward to seeing how these ones turn out. It will be a good intro into really learning how to read the cameras histogram.

I Heart Faces / White

This weeks theme is white. This weeks entry is to feature the color white. I live in New England, white means SNOW!

I am posting my son David after getting white washed from sledding down face first on a super fast sled at my parents house.

As always, don't forget to check out all the amazing WHITE entries over at I Heart Faces!

I Heart Faces / Pet Week

It's all about the furbabies in this weeks challenge over at I Heart Faces. This is an old picture I took of my cousin and her furbaby Alaska. I love this picture! This Siberian Husky is her heart and soul and I think it really shows in this photo!

Because this was taken with an old point and shoot, I did try and clean it up a bit in LightRoom. I thought the effects really worked here to sharpen it up a bit! There are lots of great entries this week so far, so click the link and check them all out!!

I Heart Faces / Beautiful Eyes

The challenge this week over at I Heart Faces is beautiful eyes. I tried and tried so hard to get a nice picture of my blue eyed baby for this challenge, since we all have brown eyes in this family and yet his are sparkling blue! But he's one and well he doesn't exactly cooperate or sit still or keep his eyes open when he grins his toothy grin. The eyes become slits and while the face is adorable, it doesn't exactly show off those baby blues! So with my friends permission I am submitting this picture of her daughter I took at my sons birthday party!

I had rented the Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens to practice with and see if it would be something I would want to purchase in the future. Having never used a fixed lens before (I have the kit lens and a standard zoom lens), there was definitely a learning curve. But this one really stood out and her blue eyes really sparkled. I was feeling discouraged with the lens until I did some reading and continued to practice. I wasn't really loving the pictures I was getting and was ready to write this one off. This picture is the picture that changed my opinions of the lens, and I think with some more practice and more time I'll be able to get some more stunning portraits just like this one!

I just love how her eyes sparkled in this image!

Please stop over and check out all the other gorgeous eyes at I Heart Faces!

Sunflowers

On Friday I took the kids to Colby Farms in Newbury, MA with my friend and her two girls! I was very excited for this practice photo shoot! The lighting was awful (sun right in our faces, beating down on us) but it was still a fun day and I got some very cool shots. Next year we'll have to make it a point to go later in the afternoon when the sun is on the other side of the field and not in our faces! Lesson learned! If nothing else, it was a gorgeous day spent with our friends!

Playing around with photoshop - my attempt to make it look like a painting

The kids being great sports and setting up the one shot I was hoping to get from this day! Cheesy? You bet! But you have to admit that it's cute and I don't know how many years before it will no longer be "cool"! Ha!

The Sunflower field was gorgeous! We have already decided to make this an annual thing!

I Heart Faces / Friendships

This week over at I Heart Faces, the theme is Friendship! This is my son Shaun and his future wife. Anyone who knows these two will tell you that they are going to be married someday. These two crazy kids have been together since they were teeny tiny's (he was a month old and she was 5 months old - they are 3 now) and I have never seen two kids so drawn to each other than these two!




With the theme in mind I was trying to get a super best friends picture that included the big siblings as well, since they are all great friends, but this is one of those "in the moment" shots that I love so much. Is it weird that I have already planned their wedding in my head! It's not too early to book the hall, right?!

Head over to I Heart Faces and check out some other great

friendships! It's very much a heartwarming theme this week!