More Macro...

I'm just having so much fun with my macro lens right now. I took a million pics of weeds and loved every minute of it, lol.








Thought this silhouette shot turned out kinda cool.


And, of course, a food shot. I love food. Doesn't this cupcake look so yummy! I enjoyed it!


Well, thanks for humoring me.
Until next time...

Triangle Composition...

This week's composition challenge was triangle composition. I found all kinds of information online about triangle composition, unfortunately, each site said something different than the last. The main idea seems to be a diagonal line from one corner to the opposite corner, which makes the photo more dynamic. So, I just kept the info I read in mind and played around. Here's what I ended up with.


I had to play with my macro lens!




I just discovered an interesting site - An Open-Ended Course in Photography- that explains the golden triangle. I will be practicing this composition over the next week, then posting more next Saturday.

Fun With Macro...

I purchased a macro lens and I've had fun playing around.
We had a visitor today. Slim (Bug's Life) was hanging out on our front door today. We put him in the grass and he was a wonderful little model for me as I snapped away. Would you expect less from a big screen star!

Then at lunch, my mom and sister-in-law laughed at me when I started taking pics of my food.
A McDonald's McChicken never looked so good.

Thanks for letting me share my excitement over my new lens!

A Few Wedding Shots

My brother got married over the weekend and so, of course, I had to bring my camera. I captured a few shots and wanted to share some of my favs.







I love this one with both of his girls looking up at him. It just seemed to have meaning behind it, how they look to him now.


Hope you enjoyed them. Thanks for stopping in to take a peek.

Rule of Thirds

My sister and I want to learn more about photography and thought a fun way to learn is to have a weekly challenge. We started with composition. This week the challenge is focused on one of the most commonly known compositions - the rule of thirds.

You add dramatic interest by using the rule of thirds. The easiest way to follow this rule is just don't put the neat stuff in the center of the frame.
Like with this picture. It just wouldn't have the same visual effect with the girl in the center.


When you take your pictures imagine a grid with 2 lines vertical and 2 lines horizontal cutting the veiw into 3rds, creating a grid like this.



With this grid in mind the rule of thirds now identifies four sweet spots of the image. You should consider placing points of interest in these spots as you frame your image. It also gives you four ‘lines’ that are also useful positions for elements in your photo.

In this photo I have the hands in one of the sweet spots because I wanted the emphasis on the hands and not the child's face.



The theory is if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines that your photo becomes more balanced. Studies have shown that when viewing images that people’s eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally rather than the center of the shot - using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing an image rather than working against it.

Keep the rule of thirds in mind as you edit your photos. Photo editing software has good tools for cropping images so that they fit within the rules. Experiment with some of your old shots to see what impact it might have on your photos.

Blooming Photographer...

My 11 yo DD took this yesterday while waiting in the car line dropping off kiddos at school. I think we have a blooming photographer in our midst.

Going Manual

So I am trying to go manual with my camera settings.
Here are a few that I think turned out great for a first time manual shoot with NO photo editing. I was so happy with myself...I didn't need to enhance the colors or anything!

FinePix S5200
f/3.2 ISO 200


FinePix S5200
f/3.2 ISO 400


I was playing with aperature settings with this shot. It worked...her toes are in focus and her face is not but I was aiming for something more dramatic...

so I edited it to have more blur. I didn't enhance or change anything else.


With this one I had to edit out a van that was behind her in the distance so I went ahead and added a vingette while I was at it. I like the look.


I thought this was a neat shot.

I like it even more with the editing.

Macro Monday

Well, I had to pick the crayons up anyway...

might as well have fun doing it.
So I grabbed the camera for some photo practice.
I was practicing macro photography. I was trying to focus only on the blue crayon (since blue is my favorite color.) My camera's aperature setting only goes to a certain point, not allowing me to get the macro shots I really want. It worked, but thank goodness for photo editing which allowed me to make the blur around the crayon more pronounced. Looks like momma needs a new camera. LOL!

Tutu cute...

I made this super cute tutu last night and could hardly wait until this morning to have a photo shoot with my 2 year old little cutie!
Here are some of my favorites so far. I took around 200 shots and was pleasantly surprised that many of them turned out great! Which is not common with a 2 year old. I had time to play around with a few of the photos in my photo editing program. Such fun!











Let me know what you think. Remember I'm a newbie but constructive criticism and suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek.

I Heart Photography!

So I thought I'd set up a place where I can share my fun photo shoots.
I love setting up photo shoots and taking hundreds of pics of my kids just to get the four or five perfect shots.

I'm just a beginner so any advice, tips, or constructive criticism would be appreciated.

Thanks for peeking!