WPG. Car show 09-All in the Details!

Yeah!!! It's Spring break at school- and even better than a Dark chocolate Mars bar (and that's REALLY good!), is the fact that the instructors gave us no homework over the break!!!!

What maybe some time to bake, cook, clean and maybe put away the Christmas village finally??

NOT- I've decided I think I like taking pictures more and I asked my husband and younger son Calder if they would like to go to the car show with me this morning. The plan was to get there right when it opened to be able to get some good pics without a million people in the picture!

It was a well thought out, strategic plan, I figured, however I was so wrong! We arrived about 15 min. before the doors opened only to be greeted by a long wait! I had to go to plan B! I decided that maybe I should practice some "good seeing " and look for the details of the cars as opposed to the whole picture, as I'd only have a strangers in the frame. This was a lot of fun and my son kept saying,

"take a picture of this one!"

"look at this one MOM, take a picture" 

You get the point- Is it not amazing how at times they are embarrassed of me and my camera and at other times I'm their own personal photographer?! It may have been the fact that every second person had a camera in their hands, or a phone, taking pictures. 

Sorry Ross, I had to use my flash, things were moving so fast, space was tight and the light was not as good as I would have liked.  But on a good note I had lots of practice using my External flash- and oh yah, the bright spots in the pics are from other peoples flashes! (Tee Hee Hee).

I had a lot of fun also with the editing in Lightroom and played with the colour filters ( Hopefully, I'm not insulting anyones vehicles paint job!). Enjoy the images! I think I'll post an album on my Facebook as well- If your interested check them out , there are about 20 other images.

Confessions of a photoholic

Yesterday evening, I left school only to discover as I walked in the door at home that my youngest son had gone off to participate in a volleyball tournament in St Vital( That's like an hour's drive away from our house- okay, I'm exaggerating -It just feels like that when you're  tired.) My oldest son announces that we are to deliver supper to my son at the school at 5:30( It is now 5:35 and I'm standing in my front foyer wondering if I've just become Supergirl and can fly to the school within a split second- no wait I'd have to fly backwards around the earth to bring time back to 5 min. earlier( You had to have seen the Christopher Reeves Superman movie to know what I'm talking about). Giving my head a shake I put everything in perspective and realized my child is not going to waste away if his supper is half an hour late.

Cullen asks casually, 

"Mom, if we are going that way do you think we could go by the music store - I'd really like to pick-up the Bass guitar I've been saving for."

(I've got to give the kid credit, he's been saving for an entire year to make this purchase. How could I say no. So off we went- Rescuers  of the starving volleyball brother and supporters of the economy!)

We arrived at the store and I had my camera gear with me (to take volleyball pics) and just naturally-as it were - a second breath , put my gear on my back and went in.  My son's eyes where ripe with enthusiasm and I caught my reflection in a mirror and thought "what's that gleam in my eye? Could it be a dawning of recognition of opportunity? " I'm sick- I'm sure of it -I think it's called photography-itus , or else- I am a true photoholic. There I've said it, I can confess as to what happened in the next 15 min. My son made his purchase and as he did my eyes wandered over the colorful array of guitars on display. OHHHH!!! And they were in such wonderful lines!!!! and I could go on- My son was beginning to realize the signs( The dilated pupils, fast talking, etc) -yes, his mother was about to do something to embarrass him!

As he finagled the final bargaining , I had to state my conditions of the sale as well,

"I need to photograph your guitars"- Yes I said it!

" Uh that's okay, just come back anytime "

"No you don't understand -I mean now- I have my camera with me"(I'm sure my voice had a high strung pitch to it)

Yes, there was a very surprised look on his face - what mature women carries a photography bag stuffed with gear into a music store as it where a purse???

And then he said the words " Go ahead!"

As my son slunk away to the van, I had  a blast photographing in the store, thank goodness I had my external flash with me! 

Oh Ya, my son- I soon realized - I'd better slip back into Mom mode and give up the photo session.

 I don't know when I became infected with the photo bug. When does casual holiday picture taking suddenly become almost a daily obsession??? It must have happened some time during the school year , I'm thinking Christmas. Anyone (You know if you are, symptoms sound familiar?) have some advice how to live with it, deal with it, and work with it? Will it lessen over time?

Anyways, the pics came in handy for a Digital techniques assignment with having to change an image in Lightroom using  sliders, colour filters, and the paint brush. Enjoy the images! Don't worry about Cullen, he's use to his mom embarrassing him and I think the purchase helped to ease the embarrassment!

Below: the "Before"

Below: The "After"

Below: the "Before"

Below: the "After"

Warning: TWO Cute Babies!!!!

This Saturday was baby day- a shower for my friends Ellie and Lawrence -some of you may remember my past blogs where I photographed her pregnancy. They ended up having twins! A boy named Noah and a girl, Anna. I was suppose to be photographing group and couple shots for Craig's portfolio class -but I could hardly tear myself away from these two adorable faces!!!!

Babies are amazing to photograph but it really is luck, time of day, lots of factors -(Okay, maybe some skill, to capture them with their eyes open) It is particularly hard when they can't hold up their neck. Maybe someone has some good tips to share on photographing babies- positions, poses, etc.???

 Just to prove my point about just how cute these two are here's some of the images I managed to capture.

Meet Noah.....

"Who's this lady and why does she have a camera in my face?..."

" She wants me to smile????"

" I'm going to give her a laugh-maybe she'll go bug my sister...."

Meet Anna....

"Princess Anna"

"Hey who are you and what is that your looking through?"

"Tiny Anna Hands"

"soundly sleeping"

"Daddy kisses"

Spring, plastic eggs, chocolate, and Spiderman....

Today was a special day, in that it was the first day I was able to try a photograph session with children in a studio. We are all working toward completion of our portfolio's at school to have them completed over the next few months. My major is portraiture and I thought it would be good to have a few pictures of younger children. I was pretty lucky a friend of mine was willing to bring her girls down to the studio for a photo session!  It was like an hour long adventure of thinking and playing like a child again! Follow along.....

 
Chocolate M&M's hidden in plastic eggs....

Opening plastic eggs to find the chocolate.....

Don't forget Puppies!.....

Rain jackets and umbrellas.....

Smelling spring flowers.....

playing with flowers.....

Pretty in yellow jackets....

Even puppy stays dry!.....

Maybe we don't need the umbrella .....

Sister hugs.....

Peek-a b00 when hiding  the eggs....

blankie time, we're all done.... I'm tired too, that was quite the adventure!  Special big/ HUGE/ thanks to Amanda O who was a great assistant on set.  Especially, thank-you for playing with Spiderman on my head to get the kids attention!!

What's a weekend?

Most students after a busy week of school look forward to a relaxing weekend.  I kind of knew by about Wednesday  this was not going to be a reality for me. My work load, mostly of the taking picture kind, was nearing astronomical proportions! The weekend began with shooting Friday evening at a volleyball tournament in Selkirk and editing it by 11:00p.m.. The next morning I was off to school to do a shoot with a model and an afternoon of editing , I then ran out to Walmart for a fun photo shoot to have my portrait taken for our Portraiture assignment, then the evening was comprised of completing a, three people one look assignment, for Craig's portfolio class, and of course editing. Tomorrow is a day of completing my Digital assignment shooting at different ISO levels in ambient light and my last assignment, One person , three looks, again for Craig. Did I mention that I have my moms and my sons birthday to celebrate in there some where- Where is the balance???  It is a good thing I enjoy taking photo's so much. I also think some of these shoots can also be looked upon as an opportunity to spend time with the family. 

In the shots below, I thought I'd go for strong Rembrandt light to create the same look for these three volleyball team members. They were great participants! Thanks guys! 

I've been enjoying the challenges of trying to photograph a fast moving sport like volleyball. This weekend I tried shooting with my telephoto and my external flash. It seemed to stop the action a little better. I had been shooting with my 50 mm 1.8 lens to try to get enough light but that really only works well if your at the net. I was sure to check with the tournament organizers and coaches to see if flash was acceptable and they had no issues with it as long as it was from the corners. I'm sure there will be a lot more games to keep trying!