Tricks of the Trade - Episode 1: A "Catch" to the Eye

I thought I'd pretend that there was a large following of interested photographic people who are following my blog, because I'm egotistical like that, and post some tips from time to time of things I've learned from other people or from playing around myself.  This is one from a site I found detailing how to shoot children (with the camera, that is all) and how to edit photos.  I found it very helpful, especially the area discussing adding a "catch" to the eyes.  Take a read and give it a try.  Here's one I did of Lorelei:

Before:

After:

A Trip to the Nursery

Our gardening class (yes, I'm in a gardening class too 'cause I'm a girl) went to Akin's Nursery this past weekend.  We picked up a tomato and a couple other things.  I also snapped some pics (because I'm the weird guy who always has his camera on him).  I got several nice ones and plan on posting them for stock.  Here they are:

The Learning Curve

The problem with having an awesome new camera with all the bells and whistles is that you have to KNOW how to ring the bell and blow the proverbial whistle. My previous experience was more or less point and click with a few adjustments on the fly. Now, I have to decide do I want my wide-angle or telephoto lenses? Use the on-board flash (the ugly maker), the mounted flash, or no flash? And if I use a flash should I use the diffuser and/or angle the mount away? Do I go with the prescribed settings for different scenarios or do I mess with the aperture and shutter speed to get what I want? It's all well and good when I have the time to figure it out but when my subject is running away, or setting (in the case of the Sun), or burning (in the case of the food on my grill!) I don't have the time to figure all of that out and I'm usually not happy with what I get.


Everything I've been reading the last couple of weeks tells me that I just need to practice and get to know my camera (duh). I just wish they had sent a operating manual. All they sent was this 1/2 inch cu...... oh, well this should help.

Oh So Pretty

Isn't it lovely?  And the pictures are amazing!  The things I used to have to work for with my old camera happen automaticlly now.  It's AWESOME!

These photos were of course taken with my old camera, and is poo.  By the way, since I got the camera on Friday last week, I've take 692 photos.  Most of those were just practice but if I keep it up my cost/photo will go down.  Currently I'm at about $2.29/photo.  Need to keep shooting.

What's in a Name?

I'm trying to make a name for myself, literally. I want to create a "company", mostly in name only, so I can use for things like business cards and maybe a website or real company one day. "Why business cards?” you say. I figure it's a little more legit and less suspicious if when photographing a building or children in a park or at the Boardwalk, when I can say, "no I'm really not a criminal pervert, here's my card". "Well why worry about a company name and not just use your own name," you then say. Man, you sure are interrupting my blog a lot. Anyway, if photography is something I would like to continue to do beyond just a hobby, even one day trying to make a quasi-career out of, then I'd like to establish a standard now. I'd like to have a name in place and keep it that way so that I don't have to go back and change things like e-mail addresses and User names down the road.

So, what I need is help picking a name. Please give me some suggestions for a good Photography company. So far I'm leaning toward Deering Photo. Original I know! Other suggestions included:

-Deerster.com (suggested by a coworker which I thought weird at first but it's no worse than Google, Mozilla, or BigDaddy)
-Deering Photography (I like the shorter version)
-D&D Photography (No idea what the other "D" is for but I like the ring of it (and D&D is awesome!))

Please, lend some ideas and help out!

Photography Workshop - Portrats

Well week 3 of our workshop came and went.  I've decided I'm not much of a studio guy and not a people person at all.  Needless to say I was less than enthused about my results this week.  We worked on portrats using a white background an impromptu "volunteer" (the daughter of one of our classmates).  The little girl (who's name I never did catch) was cute, though kind not very generous with the smiles, but it wouldn't have mattered if Shirly Temple was sitting there.  I couldn't get the focus right, my lighting was bad meaning I couldn't get the flash to do what I wanted.  Our book said to use a tripod, a focal length of 85-100, and an F-stop of F/11.  I tried all of that and more and it was just not working for me.  Not a great first experence with my new equipment, though I did get to play with some of the features including my remote which was cool.  Here are the best that I got but I don't think they look much better than your standard mom-with-a-point-and-shoot picture.

It's Here! (Mostly)

All of my gear, minus my tripod which should be here in a couple days, arrived on Friday.  It's awesome and when I get the last piece I'll post a pic.  Hopefully you'll all see an increase in the quality of my photos to come.

In Addition...

In an addition to yesterday's post, I went out a little before we started the work and snapped a few photos.  I'll try and post them for stock eventually.

Not About Photos

This post is totally all about photos! Confused? Never mind, I think I'm funny. Anyway, it's not really about photos. Thursday I skipped out on work for a bit to go help with a Squadron project. We're working on refurbishing a B-17 Flying Fortress. Our job of the day was to replace the elevators (the flaps on the rear "wings"). I don't know too much about mechanics and I know squat about fixing an airplane but I love History and the Air Force so I'm more than willing to lend a hand where I can. It was very cool and we got to go and see the rest of the inside of the plane (and I got photos of course). Not a bad day.

The Tailgunner's Position

Bomb Bay

Cockpit

Getting In Gear!

The Day I have been waiting for has finally arrived!  After more than a year of haggeling, promising, and begging I have purchased my new camera.  Not only that I was able to get all of the additional gear I will need to help me take photos better.  We were very blessed, first by three foster children, then by a very substantial tax return in part because of them.  We were able to actually pay off our car and have enough to (mostly) cover all of my basic camera gear.  God is good, eh?  And for the record, I realize that it's just my own money that I'm getting back and spending, but still it's nice.
The items I'm getting are as follows:
1) Canon EOS Rebel XSi (a.k.a. 450D) SLR Digital Camera (Black) with 18-55mm IS Lens

2) Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flash for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

3) Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS Autofocus Lens

4) Manfrotto 190XDB Tripod Legs (Black)

5) Manfrotto 322RC2 Grip Action Ballhead

6) LumiQuest Soft Screen Diffuser for Camera with Pop-Up Flash

7) Pearstone BD-C430 Bounce Dome (Diffuser)

I can't wait!  God has really blessed me with this and hopefully I'll be able to use it for his glory.  Now, if it all will just get here by the next workshop...