Learning: Aperture Day

Happy Monday, everyone! Before I start talking about the pictures here, I wanted to address my last post.

I briefly removed it because I realized I contradicted myself. I also felt that I was a little too brash. I have a large case of foot-in-mouth syndrome, which my husband has made me aware of. I'm trying to be more socially conscious, while not losing myself completely. So I attempted to tone down those two problem areas before republishing.

Anyway! As I mentioned in said, previous post, I came to the realization that my pictures were not coming out the way that I wanted them to because I didn't take the time to "learn" my camera. And I'm talking Photography 101 type of stuff. So what I did, because I super love planning (I'm not being facetious, btw), was set little mini-goals for myself. With each photography venture that I complete, I gave myself one feature to really hone in and learn.

Since Christmas is just around the corner, holiday photos of my girls was the perfect opportunity to learn and get comfortable with my camera's aperture. Aperture controls the amount of light that is let in, in your photos to determine focal points, etc. The smaller (numberwise) the f.stop, the more light that is let in, the larger, the less. I still think I need another round of aperture practice. Your shutter speed compensates for aperture wonkiness, which I haven't fully figured out yet. So, next task is playing with the ISO so pictures look less washed out (the main problem I had). But, I have to say, even learning a teenie tiny bit made such a difference in my work; colors were so much richer in each photo that I got right.

Another trick that I learned and played around with was working with a single focal point; putting it on the eye of your subject. This led to crisp faces every time, whereas before I would have a focused shoulder and half of a face, while the rest was all blurry. It's the little things, right? :D

I'm pretty excited about all this. And it's fun too, to see other people's work and recognize what they are and aren't doing.

Anyway, good stuff!
If you have anymore tips, I'd love to here them. Feel free to comment below :)

Learning: The New, Old Camera With a Large Dose of Honesty

I need a new camera in order to take better photos and then I can justifiably charge people for my work.

I can't tell you how many times I've had that thought, followed by obsessively searching for a new camera, then rationalizing its $3,000+ "body-only" price in my mind. But after (10) years of owning my Canon 7d  (the little sister of Canon's 5d), I came to a couple simple, money-saving realizations that I'm not ashamed to share.

Realization #1: In my previous post, I briefly mentioned being shamelessly coin-operated. That attitude is just representative of my family. I come from a long line of entrepreneurs (running strong, up to my first cousins on both sides). So it's in my blood to want to make money off of anything, but it takes away from the fun of things.  After reflecting on my past experiences, I realized that I don't even enjoy family or group photography. This is so evident when you compare shots like Sage (above) to event photography I have done in the past (right). They say, "lead with your passion." Well, some of us are defective and need 32 years to figure out where our passions lie. My current camera is perfectly suitable for what (obviously) fills my soul. 

Realization #2: Other than coming to the conclusion that I don't want to sell my soul for money, I realized that it's not about having "inferior" equipment that hinders me from taking"quality" photographs, it's about not knowing how to use my equipment properly. This I learned from attending a free (and gimmicky) online seminar called Show Your Camera Who's Boss. While the seminar is building you up to buy an expensive photography class package, the main takeaway from it was to learn how to use your camera manually (or partially automatic, to start with). The presenter made a good point, saying that your camera in automatic mode is simply guessing at what you want your pictures to look like. While I've never shot fully-automatic, I'll be the first to admit that the knowledge and control I have of my camera is tip-of-the-iceberg level. And that's okay because admittance is the first step to recovery, henny.

How many times do we convince ourselves that we "need" xyz to successfully accomplish a goal? I think it's human nature and in our culture to want to skip to the end first. What helped me think objectively about all of the above was what I experienced in my career by two whoopsies: 1) going for what's logical vs. what "fills" me; and 2) convincing myself that I am worth more, rather than grinding down and (unpleasantly) doing the work to get where I want to be. Just food for thought, y'all. 

The Return: Sage Stori

Greetings, all! Yes, it's been quite of bit of time since I've been active on this site. To be honest, I fell out of love with anything involving creativity; not even being motivated by money (yes, I'm shamelessly coin-operated). But I made some big moves in my life, which I'll expand on at a later time, and the creative-juices have been flowing! The above GIF is a little just-for-fun photoshoot we did at Santa Rita park and the International Lily Pond with our perfect little human, Sagey (our lovely daughter). The images are cropped for the sake of the GIF, but you get the idea. Enjoy!