My last assignment

Well this past Sunday marked my last photography assignment. It went WAY too fast! I just want more!

I was down in Ventura for the long weekend, attending a BBQ with my Sister and her family. So while the kiddos played and the parents socialized and much food was being loaded into holiday hungry bellies, I wandered into the park to take some pictures.

This week we had to shoot completely in manual. No assistance from the camera now!! I went and stood in some trees with pretty red flowers that shed mercilessly. I always wanted to know what I would look like as a redhead ;) So here is what I ended up with.

And here is what Angie had to say:

"Beautiful subject! Love the colors here. Your background looks great too. You managed to keep all of your subject in the shade and avoid any dappled light. The exposure looks great. Don't beat yourself up. I think you did a wonderful job. As far as forcing the flash, the only time I force a flash is usually with people when I'm trying to avoid harsh shadows on their faces when out in the sun. You typically wouldn't do that on flowers and such - just people/humans."

The comments about my background and forcing the flash were responses to questions I had about if my background was over exposed... guess it wasn't!!

Anyway, it was a great class and I learned a lot in a short amount of time. Now on to finish reading my books (now that I know what they are talking about!!).

Until next time!

Week 3

This past Sunday my week 3 photography assignment was due. I squeaked in at the last minute and submitted 2 photos that I had a blast taking! Our assignment this week was to practice using shutter priority mode, which means we got to play with shutter speeds. We had to take 2 pictures of movement this week; 1 'freezing' the movement and one showing the movement.

Here is the frozen movement:

Here is the one showing the movement- Angie said he looks like a ghost!

(see the blur there on the right- in front of the Lipton sign?)

My comments from Angie were: "Great job! He's almost invisible in that 2nd one. Ghost like as I like to call it.  Good work~!"

As you can see, we went to the Amgen Tour of California bike race this weekend. We saw the last two stages and I had so many exciting moments! There will be a blog post coming soon to fill you all in on that one..

Stay tuned!

Midnight photoshop madness

Okay... its not quite midnight but it is past my bedtime! I seem to have too many things running through my mind tonight to be able to close my eyes and drift off to sleep. Maybe I created too many endorphins at my yoga class tonight ;)

I decided to break out my Photoshop For Dummies book and see if I couldn't 'fix' some of the critique Angie gave me on my first photo assignment.

So here is the original picture:

Angie said it was slightly under exposed. Because I shot it in RAW I figured 

I could fix it in Photoshop. I also did a slight eye sharpen and I tried to 

'erase' some of the little goobers around his eyes. This is what I ended up 

with! 

Awww such a cute little Nemo!!


What do you think?

Hello!

So I have started a blog... oh my. I am inspired by so many blogs I read but I could NEVER hold a candle to them. So I am not going to try to!! This is just a place that hopefully I can expand and improve my photography. I am currently taking an online photography class from Angie Seaman at http://angieseamanphotography.com/

I am starting week three today. I figured I would post my weekly photos here so you and I can see the progression of my pictures :) So here we go. These are not great, that's why I'm learning! Each week we have an assignment. So the content isn't the greatest but the lessons are getting learned.

Week one.
Objectives- get in close, compose the picture using the rule of thirds


My comments from Angie were that it is slightly underexposed and that this would be an exception to the rule of thirds. I should have just centered the picture ;)

Week 2.
Objectives- using aperture. Take one picture with a high aperture and one with a low aperture keeping the subject the same




I actually got a compliment on the first photo!! but on the second she said I lost focus on the primary 'flower'

So that is where I am right now! I am having fun and I am learning things!! Hopefully some day I can take beautiful pictures of my family and my adorable nephews, that I am proud of!!

Until next class!!