58 {365} favor boxes

Favor Boxes

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Taken at my first wedding shoot for 2010.
Info: my Tamron lens on Daniel's Rebel.

revealed: Tabitha's Bridal Portraits

She walked down the aisle around 1:00 pm today.

So, I can now share the bridal portraits that I took in December.
The day after Christmas.
This one is my favorite: black and white outside on mansion porch




Bride shining in white, clutching a bouquet of calla lilies.


Towering columns gracing the porch of a picturesque Southern mansion.




These are her favorites (and her mom's):
Her 16x20 portrait taken with this antique couch


and she also printed this, a vignette antique look at the baby grand piano

Beauty glowing among the antique furnishings and a black baby grand.

Strolling within an English-like garden delight.



Definitely Southern.  Full of Charm.




Perfect setting for this lovely, sweet February bride.

57 {365} icing swirls

This Friday night, I shot at a wedding rehearsal - two cameras in tow.
Cramming in some practice with a rented lens, that shipped the day before.
And working on some detail shots...like this one.

Icing Swirls

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56 {365} lens

Lesson for today's shot:  "custom white balance settings"
My brother-in-law gave me a quick lesson on this and I am reviewing to remember/

The first three shots are all SOOC (straight-out-of-camera)
Shot in AV mode, no flash.

The lens with auto white balance:


A yellowish,orangey color-cast is in the photo with AWB.

Now to correct this...
The shot for custom white balance: a white pillow on my bed.

(no apologies about the messy bed, rough week)

After the first lens shot, going in to menu options.
Setting custom white balance with the pillow shot.
In AV mode, changing white balance to custom settings.

And re-taking the lens shot -



Much better and it will take less editing time later.
I spend way too much time editing even snapshots for myself.
Any shortcuts are lovely.
I am thinking about taking a class to figure out how to incorporate other shortcuts
and to learn how to shorten my workflow time.

My official shot for the photo a day project:

lens

img 1854 edited


{note: backdated to 2.25.10 - posted 3.2}

55 {365} connect 4 red

the Red

img 1802

Trying to see if I could capture the detail on this game piece...

Manual
Speedlite 580 flash
iso 400
1/30
f/2.8
awb

Today is also catch-up for the photo-a-day project posts.
I normally back-date week day posts if I write on a later date;
however, I decided to post all four with today's date to show
that I am having to play catch-up.
That brings about the internal debate -
daily posts or several posts together...

54 {365} invitation initials

their initials


img 1796

Practicing shallow depth of field again...
this time with just the initials in focus.

Manual
Speedlite flash
1/30
f/2.8
iso 400
awb

I am off to shoot their wedding this weekend.
So I am studying this week with technical data and pose ideas.

53 {365} easter gummies

easter gummies


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One of my favorite buys around Easter time -
these Lifesaver Gummies, Bunnies & Eggs

Technical -
I shot with a speedlite flash on
Experimenting with bounce flash
Reflecting off the ceiling gave a hard focus on the gummies
So I directed the flash to the side towards white trim
The focus is softer with that - as shown with the photo above

Manual
1/30
f/2.8
iso 400
awb

52 {365} ivory keys

Ivory Keys


img 1765 edit


Baby Grand
Gleaming in black
The ivory keys beckon
Smooth sound
Plays so much better than the piano at home.
If I ever have enough room (or money),
I would love to have one of these.
However...
I do not play often enough
 or well enough to warrant such a purchase now.
No harm in dreaming though.

Technical - shot without flash, so some grain visible.

week 8 {hands-on}

I have weddings on the brain this week -

because of a weekend shoot coming up.

And while I browsed through my archives I saw...

hands buttoning the bride's dress

hands fixing girls' hair

hands clutching the bouquet

hands slipping in his grandfather's cuff links

hands clasped between him and her

hands joining the flames of two candles

hands signing the official papers

hands resting on engraved Bibles

hands of two cutting cake

hands releasing the garter

hands wrapped among hugs

A wedding is definitely a time to get some lovely hand shots.

Out of the descriptions above -

I noticed a hands focus here that I liked...

"hands of two cutting cake"

And I am linking this with the hundreds (literally)

 of super-talented entries

over at

Click on the icon above for more "hands-on" fun...

51 {365} orange

Cutie


img 1761


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One of my favorite snacks right now...no seeds is a plus.
Shot with natural lighting in the living room, no flash.

50 {365} keychain

My Keychain




50 days into the year -

In a technical sense, I am becoming friends with my camera.  For example, this photo is shot in restaurant lighting without a flash.  Before this year, I would have had to use the flash.  I did not know how to adjust my manual settings to compensate for low lighting.  So, learning, reading, and practice definitely helps.

what I have been up to -

Random thoughts from the past two weeks,
major emphasis areas = family + photography
(note: all photos linked to smugmug)

Saturday Feb 6th
Florence for Kids Jamboree
Spinning strawberries, the pelican, inflatables
Ice skating, train ride, cotton candy, clowns
Cici's, macaroni and cheese pizza, Allison's plate ;)
Cinnamon rolls that are so good it's hard to describe


the 6 kiddos at Cici's

Tuesday Feb 9th
Round-trip to HP, over 6 hours of riding in one night
Sympathies for my uncle's family
Precious memories with some of my family though
Talking with my grandmother, some aunts/uncles, cousins
Seeing my baby first cousin Jonathan for the first time in person
Taking photos with Livy, she posted here - her camera, my edits ;)
This lovely gift she gave me:


Thursday Feb 11th
Florence. Some official papers to sign!!!!  =)
A few purchases since we were over there.
Home and made goodies with my mom.
Read a book. Up way too late.
IM'ing after 3 am in the morning.

Yeah - it was crazy!

Friday Feb 12th
Snowing! finally came to the low country of SC
Eating/Games at the Radfords
Grilled Chicken Salad, Lasagna, Spaghetti, Toast

Goodies that Mama and I made

Games - Connect 4x4, puzzles, Catchphrase

We left in the AM hours. Snow photos in the dark.

Up late again.

Saturday Feb 13th
Slept in, a much-needed relief
Miniature snowman

I walked outside without warm clothes and gloves
So I hurriedly made this - my dirty lil snowman.
Stayed inside most of the day.
Valentine's Day planning
A "date" with a book.
It was fun. =)

Sunday Feb 14th
Valentine's Day
6 kiddos came for the afternoon.
The table decorated for them.

Monday - Wednesday this week (2/15-2/17)

Between the normal filler to-do list this week,
most of my time has revolved around photos.
Shooting, uploading, editing, saving, posting...
I finished January 2010 photos,
stayed current with February except for Kids Jamboree,
a few other Photoshop tweaks,
and I am working on a much over-due task.
Last March I shot back-up for Daniel at a wedding.
I gave him my photos,
but have never finished the edits I wanted to do.
Before I shoot another wedding next week,
I hope to have this completed.

A sneak peek...

Livi's little boy Seth

He was so cute sitting all alone on the steps as the bride and groom prepared to leave.  One of my favorite guest candids from the day.  I hope to post more on my photography blog later, but I could not resist a few here.

This week I thought about cancelling my photography blog, but I decided not to.  I can post all the technical information over there without it totally boring someone.  Of course, I find it interesting though! ;)

And another random thought - It is a crazy world we live in. I sure did remove my cell number from my smugmug site.  Not sure if that is what caused it, but some things are just ridiculous.

49 {365} hope racket

Hope Racket


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img 1683


img 1684


Up close and personal
Unique perspectives
The details...

Is this a part of my "style" in photo-taking?

surprise cupcakes

A Valentine's gift from my sister Andrea

Of course this is not "mine" in the photo

The parents and I had one each

And I ate the one for me before I thought about a photo

See how moist this looks

Oh my goodness, it was delicious

My sister used this recipe as a starting point:

mini oreo surprise cupcakes

She used some cookie pieces instead of the mini-oreo

After I cut it open to take a photo of the "surprise"

I sure wanted to eat another one

So I guess that means I will make sweets again this week

(Last week I had a goodie-making night with my mama -

sweet food and sweet memories)

Lately, I am practicing photos without flash

and emphasizing depth-of-field (that blurred background effect)

I have fun taking photos of inanimate objects

My photo a day project backs that up too...

48 {365} stepping stone

Stepping Stone

img 1654 edited

I walked outside again today before the daylight faded.

And I focused on Manual mode again.

Another step down the road to "control of my camera"

This first photo had the following settings:

M

1/60

f/2.8

ISO 400

AWB

no flash

img 1653 - over exposed (too bright)

Considering the exposure triangle

 between ISO, aperture, and shutter speed -

I adjusted the settings to

M

ISO 400

f/2.8

1/250

AWB

no flash

img 1654

not too bad for SOOC

(straight-out-of-camera)

Understanding the exposure triangle is hard for me

Technical details sometimes go above my head

But I finally can grasp a few of these -

I had my aperture wide open (f/2.8)

And I bumped the ISO up to 400 to adjust for afternoon light

The first shot had a slow shutter speed of 1/60,

 which also lets in more light

All these factors resulted in a too-bright photo

So, a quick adjustment of this shutter speed to 1/250

And the second photo had a better exposure

Aside from all the camera settings,

I tweaked the second shot

img 1654 edited

PW actions - Boost & Seventies

It adds a little more "personality" to the photo

As I grasp for photo a day ideas,

I think I need to work on some themes...

moirai

Actions, Textures, and Storyboards

Sold as

Achieve, Surface, and Compositor

http://www.moiraitools.com/

Adding to the wish list

Hopefully implementing soon

skipping week 7 entry

Skipping the addition to their website anyway.

This week's theme is "I Wanna Dance."
Dancing photos are rare in my photo files....
However, I do have a cute photo from a wedding shoot.
As bluegrass Christian and Christmas music played in the background,
a little girl walked around me in a circle as I captured the moment.

She glided and twirled in her flower girl dress.
So adorable - a precious little girl.
And then this little boy joins her.
A tentative connection - the strings of her dress.
Connected by the heart's strings too - as I think they are kin.

47 {365} spike plants

Going outside for a photo -
These spike plants are in their second winter
And they will probably have new growth this spring
Definitely a good purchase

Spike Plants

img 1649 edit

No flash used.
Lighting issues plague me as I try to work with this "natural light" concept.  Low lighting is a bother and most of my photos are shot coping with lighting issues.  I am stuck at a desk during most of the daylight time these days, so natural light is limited.  I am learning how to adjust manual settings instead of resorting to automatic mode. 

On day 47, I shot an inside photo without flash also -
of course this is an edited version.

Valentine's clearance - a gift from my dear mother ♥