Aug
02
2013I haven’t done any photography specific links for the weekend yet. So this is a little extra credit work for those of you who want to learn how to get better exposures.
Your Camera’s Best Kept Secret
I totally think this post is going to help those of you who are more visual. It’s a combination post covering both exposure and in-camera metering.
Nailing Exposure
Love the style of writing on this. Informative and funny. And she explains so well what I tried to explain in our exposure compensation post. Figure out where your camera makes exposure fall for your tastes and adjust up or down the correct number of stops (or third stops) to get images looking the way your imagine.
One Camera Setting & It’s Impact on your Pictures
So you’re doing everything right, testing your lighting, looking at your image on your LCD screen, changing your setting accordingly, and then making sure you nailed it on your LCD again. A few hours later your upload to the computer and wonder where on earth your nice pictures went?! This might just be a setting you need to change.
Aug
01
2013Ok… the story behind this post title. Ha!
Karen and Shamus are our church small group leaders. Before his birth we were at small group chatting about which day the following week would be the induction date.
Karen exclaimed something along the lines of, “Any day next week but Valentines day!”
Shamus said something like, “Why not? Then he’d be Zan the Love Man? No wait… no one better call him that.”
Next thing you know, the whole small group is calling him “Zan the Love Man.”
Sorry, Zan, the nickname is going to stick, but we promise not to tease you too much.
Oh, no! I think we’ve hurt his feelings!
(On a side note, isn’t this the most awesome frown?! I love it!)
Relational Greenville, SC Newborn Photography
So this was the session that sort of set my philosophy for Greenville, SC newborn photography. I want to capture newborns all asleep and curly and adorable, but I also want to capture them in relationship to the people who love them most. I know the roller coaster that Karen and Shamus rode while waiting and praying for Zan. And the following image just makes my heart soar because I know I’m looking at hope realized.
This is why if during your pre-session consult you say “I’m not sure I want to be in images with my baby.” I’m literally going to beg you to get in the picture. These images will be images that your child treasures long after you’re gone. They’re the images that tell the story of relationship, of joy at your child’s arrival, of the very grace of God.
Just a few more images of Zan for you to enjoy. I really love this kiddo and I can’t believe he’s already half a year old. Where did the time go already?
Jul
31
2013
It’s Wednesday here at Quiet Graces and that means today is the day where wives are digging in to the dirt in our own marriage and, with God’s grace, growing it better wives. Today Danielle is writing about putting the needs of our husbands before our own. Such a challenging topic for selfish folks like me.
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This month I’m going to be working on putting Adam’s interests before mine. There are so many areas that I thought I was doing this in, but realize that I’m not. So, for the next few weeks I’ll be chronicling this in a journal style. Here goes.
12 July 2013, Wednesday
Adam got up before I did and I was grumpy that he didn’t let me shower first. This meant that I came out later and that the kids were up – translating to, ‘no quiet time’. But God caused me to think. Maybe he needed to get to work early today, and wouldn’t I have been selfish to cause him to be late just because I wanted my time.
13 June 2013, Thursday
I received an e-mail from Starbucks today for 50% off an espresso beverage. There, larger than life, was a white chocolate mocha – my all time favorite drink. The first thought that came to mind was “I know what I’m getting this week!”. But then I stopped because Adam loves toffee nut lattes. So, as much as it pained me, (I admit it, I AM SELFISH) I forwarded him the e-mail so that he could enjoy the treat.
Phil 2:3
… In humility count others more significant than yourselves.
17 June 2013, Monday
I got up before Adam and was able to get to my quiet time today. But in order to love him and put his interests first, I put the coffee on before I sat down to read and write. This sounds so simple, but the desire for my wants is strong. I admit I glanced at my journal longingly a couple of times.
18 June 2012, Tuesday
Today my mentor brought by a dozen doughnuts- 3 of which had chocolate frosting. I split two for the kids and left the others in the box. Let me mention two things – I’m undisciplined and I love chocolate. My husband also likes chocolate. I ate the last chocolate frosted doughnut. I gave in to selfishness. It won out and I gave into sin over a chocolate doughnut. When I put it that way, I want to hang my head in shame. Because isn’t that what sin is, sweet at first, but then leaves a horribly bitter taste on your tongue and a heavy ache in your stomach?
21 June 2013, Friday
Today is Friday! Tonight I actually got the dishes done before the kids went down for the night – an amazing feat all in itself. So, I sat down with Adam after some quiet time to watch something. Hadn’t quite planned on what he picked – clips from different late night shows. I admit, they were funny, but not on my top 10 things to watch (come on, what is really wrong with Downton Abbey?)
But, I had to stop and think. Maybe watching Jimmy Fallon’s ” Hashtags” is relaxing to him. Maybe he needs the levity. So, I didn’t say anything. By God’s grace, I put my silly selfishness aside and sat with my husband and enjoyed the Roots rendition of Simon and Garfunkel.
2 July 2013, Tuesday
For weeks now the desire of my heart has been to go to a business conference at the end of this month. I’ve prayed a lot about it, repeatedly laying the decision in God’s hands. My husband and I talked extensively about it because it would mean his involvement on a large scale. In the end he didn’t want me to go. And though I was disappointed, I agreed.
His interests were more important in that moment. I wasn’t thinking about him in my desire to go. Just my wants.
But the surrender wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be. God’s grace is sufficient, isn’t it?
And this morning, after the alarm went off, my husband took me in his arms and whispered to me that there was no one else he’d rather wake up with, that I was his favorite person.
The tension that this desire was creating between us was gone. God had restored unity.
I won’t pretend that this month was easy or that I have this lesson of putting my husband before myself figured out. But I do know that God has done a work in me that has spilled over into my relationship with others. The extent of our selfishness is great, but God’s grace is greater. He has promised us that we can do all things through Him and that even means that you and I can put our husband’s wants and desires before our own.
Jul
30
2013I’m going to keep these specific angles (front, side, and back lighting) super short and sweet. Mainly because I don’t think a lot of words is going to accomplish a great deal. I will be pulling in as many images to illustrate the type of light that I’m talking about and draw just a few conclusions on where I think that lighting type is best utilized. Ready?
Front Lighting
Front lighting falls across the front of your subject. In portraiture, that’s usually the subject’s face.
Front lighting is often soft and flat which means it has very little shadows creating contrast.
I like front lighting with young or romantic subjects where I want a soft feel to the image and little drama.
However, front lighting’s danger is squinting! With your subject looking at a very bright light source, they will often squint 🙁
Here’s a quick look at some front lit imagery.
My lights were positioned on either side of me, producing a flat even light with little shadows except behind the baby.
Yes, that is a leaf plastered in his hair. 🙂 It’s about 4pm so the sun isn’t super high but is still very harsh. He’s standing in just a tiny bit of open shade and facing out toward the sun. Despite the mud, he has a very even light on his face.
This image is taken right around noon. The sun is high above us producing a flat light on the parts of our hands facing up and deep shadowing underneath us. If you have to shoot during full sun and can’t find open shade, laying your subject on their backs looking up is a great option if the sun isn’t so bright that it causes squinting.
The light here is not fully front/flat. It’s coming from above my left shoulder as indicated by the shadowing on the man’s lower jaw. But all and all, this is mostly front lit.
Sneaking in an old Instagram image of me and my baby boy at the clinic. He was so snuggly and feverish during this bout of RSV. As you can see from the reflection in my glasses, the light was directly above the two of us. This created even tones in his hair. You can see that I have turned my face just slightly so that the light is shading the far side of my face, making me slightly side lit.
Assignment
If you have questions or concerns, stick them in the comments and I’ll try to answer.
For a final lighting assignment, I’ll have you take a front, side, and back lit image along with an image or two of using lighting modification and available light. You can start working on that now, or you can wait until it’s ‘due’ as the lighting series finishes up. My goal throughout this series is mainly to get you to notice the lighting you’re using and learn when you may want to move your subject if possible.
Jul
26
2013I’m on the phone with a client.
“The only thing I’m not sure about is being in pictures with my newborn.”
Honestly, this conversation is one I have with just about every client I book, but especially for newborn sessions. I smile gently and I beg these moms to get in the photo. I whisper how I know that the post-postpartum body is just different and new and hard. I tell them that I use angles and poses that minimize that awkward and fragile season. But mostly I tell them: relationship is what matters. Your child will want to see how much you loved them from the beginning.
I never have had a mom regret that I begged them to get into the picture.
So this week’s links are a series of great posts on why you should get in the picture, even when your hair is messed up or you’re 10 pounds overweight or you hate the way you smile.
Beauty
“We work so hard to be good role models to our daughters, and here we are-regularly-teaching them that our words mean nothing, that when push comes to shove, it is the outer beauty that is the most important.”
When Your Mother Says She’s Fat
“Now I understand what it’s like to grow up in a society that tells women that their beauty matters most, and at the same time defines a standard of beauty that is perpetually out of our reach. I also know the pain of internalizing these messages. We have become our own jailors and we inflict our own punishments for failing to measure up. No one is more cruel to us than we are to ourselves.”
The Mom Stays in the Picture
“I’m everywhere in their young lives, and yet I have very few pictures of me with them. Someday I won’t be here — and I don’t know if that someday is tomorrow or thirty or forty or fifty years from now — but I want them to have pictures of me. I want them to see the way I looked at them, see how much I loved them. I am not perfect to look at and I am not perfect to love, but I am perfectly their mother.”
