Use What You Have, Create Some Magic...

"Snow Girl III"

It's been a loooong winter here in Ontario. Snow, snow, and more snow. After a while it's all you can do to keep from throwing your shovel at the next snow plow and start seeing tropical mirages everywhere you go, while chanting, "Yes, we have no bananas..." in a singsong-y voice. Or am I the only one?

"Snow Girl I" B&W portrait...

So this was bringing me down, and that's not acceptable, I needed to keep busy AND use my camera. It never pays to let your skills laze about the house while you shovel for the eightieth time. Luckily, the EPPC group I participate in on Facebook had a portrait challenge going and I realized that right outside my door I had the perfect backdrop, natural light, and built in reflector to get some practice shooting out in the evil white stuff. Turns out that "stuff" became my camera's best friend, light was reflected off the snow onto my model, colour popped, and shapes stood out enough... I've had so much fun working on these portraits, the light really was so nice to work with (overcast but bright) and I even found a nice POV from our deck in the backyard. Insert a fit of the giggles (we ARE a bit shack-wacky after all) and it was a good day for winter photography.

"Snow Girl II"

Kept things simple in post processing later... bumped the whites a tad with the curves action to keep things clean, unsharp mask kept definition where ever there was shadow or dark tones, some saturation where all the white light washed out colours... and highlighted some snow that was blowing but disappeared in all the bright white with a brush tool in a swirl selection at a low opacity... 

This was a simple session, but because I chose to utilize what I had at my disposal (read: one pretty volunteer and TONS of snow) I was able to get some portraits that reminded me how much fun I can have during this loooong winter with the camera.

But seriously, if spring could just tell me what it would take to coax it closer in a big way... I'd do it. I'm that desperate.

Thanks for the ramble! Have a good one!

That Quiet Moment ~ Wide Angle Wednesday

"She Can Reach For The Sun"

Today's image came from needing a quiet moment. My days have been packed with new plans to put in motion, old plans I never followed through on, editing, business matters, family matters, and everything else that comes with family life while working from home.

Of course, my need to pause during my busy day quickly turned into an opportunity to photograph the Clematis overflowing it's trellis for the first time this year. But it was still the act of photographing for myself, no tricks, no special lighting, leaning over the railing of the deck with my 50mm prime, seeing if I could freeze in the frame what seemed so restful to me.

It was rejuvenating to me, and after only a couple shots, I was ready to go back to the desk and the phone, and work with focus again.

Many of my most quiet moments are with my camera in my hand....

Have a great Wednesday, and thanks for the ramble!

Take A Little Time

"Have A Little Tea"

Today's image is from a Mother Daughter formal Tea Party I helped host last week for a terrific group of teens I help mentor through the year... and it was so much fun. Everyone went home with the gift you see here, a tiny bag with herbal teas and chocolates. Of course, I had to get a photograph.

I've been off the blog all week. I needed a rest and a chance to regroup. Sometimes we just put too much on our plates. And sometimes we don't put the right things on our plates. Either way, we end up needing to take a little time out. To regroup, recharge, or redirect our efforts. I'll be honest. I'm struggling with staying with finding an outlet for what I love, and branching into the more obvious photography channels for making a living with my skills behind the camera...  so I've taken a little "me" time to help me refocus on what's ultimately important to me and my photography. And make some decisions. And I'm not even certain yet... but I've decided what will be important. And that's important. Ha.

So have a fabulous weekend, and we'll be back to more punctual blogging next week. While you're at it, have a nice cup of tea on me. 

The Challenge ~ WideAngle Wednesday!

"Give Me One Chance"

My crazy dog. Friends will be able to attest to just how crazy she can be, it's the border collie part of her that is unable to focus for too long on one thing, including sitting for a portrait. Rally is getting older, and I have so very few great images of her that showcase her personality. I'm attempting to remedy this. It's my new personal challenge. My mission. It's driving me nuts.

You're looking at the intense food driven part of her right now. THAT would be the Black Lab in the mix. I am not ashamed to say that I'm holding aloft a dog treat camera right. It's the only reason she's sitting long enough for me to get this shot. I'm lucky I managed to shoot fast enough in the window light to get her eyes in focus with my prime 50mm, the fastest lens I have right now.

I want to use my flash at some point when I photograph her, but I may have to settle for early sun coming in the window instead of late day, and harass one of the kids into holding a reflector to better light the other side of her face... everything about my flash gets swallowed up in her silky black coat, and I am still working on how best to light her. If I can get the shot I see in my head before Friday, I'll share, I promise. The reason I'd love to get some great light on her is mainly so that I can get the best DOF as well. Her nose in focus would be more suitable for this type of portrait. And that obviously didn't happen here.

On a completely unrelated topic, if my husband tunes in to the blog today I'd like to wish him a very Happy Birthday. I'd have a portrait of him up, but he too is hard to peg down for a photo the minute a camera comes out, and I've yet to find an effective treat to hold up camera right to distract him. Although he's informed me a homemade apple pie would do the trick if I were desperate. Right.

Guess I need to go warm the oven up....

Thanks for the ramble! Have a good one gang!

Got Pets? Sharpen Your Skills!

"Look Me In The Eye"

I love animals. They can add a joyful element to your daily routine. Just go to Facebook and see how flooded pages are with pics of every one's favorite hairy critter. I find the trap for me though, when getting portraits of the animals in my life or a good friend's, is to follow them around and if you get the odd shot that works and is cute, then great. But that's what everyone is already doing! The key to a good pet portrait (and I'm in no way saying I'm an expert on this) is to bide your time, anticipate moments that reveal their personality, and find a way to include their environment so that there's a bit of a story, or even a comical twist.

"Before The Pounce"

I specifically chose three images today that go beyond your typical "beauty shot" per se and instead include an element or two that make the image unique. I could tell you all the basics of good candid photography... get down low, get at their eye level, get action shots, make sure features around the face are sharp, etc... but we know those. What I tried to do with these portraits was include an unusual element, like the point of view up into the cat tunnel, or the bright clean background making our little glossy black gentleman above pop more (and he IS an avid reader, hence the books), and I used an angle that suggests he suddenly placed himself in the shot to have a look right into the lens. And below, even though she is such a beautiful cat, the last look the little calico gave me after retreating to her favorite chair was one of reaching her limit with the photographer. Her expression along with the graphic lines of the chair overwhelming the photograph set the tone, giving it an editorial look, and even adds a touch of humour. This one image says so much more than the classic beauty close-up. Although, those will always have their place too, don't get me wrong. I'll dive more into that on Friday.

"Princess & The Camera"

And one last thing, I did use flash for all of these images, along with my 50mm prime lens for intimate DOF. I had my SB-600 with my Fong Light Sphere attached to evenly flood the space with light, kept the flash on TTL settings and let my camera make most of the decisions in regards to the amount of light so I could concentrate on getting the best moments. I will discuss this further though on Friday...

Till then, get creative with photographing the family pet! Many thanks to my friends Laurie and Josephine for letting me photograph their sweet furry friends! And thanks for the ramble folks!

Pursuit of the Better Self Portrait ~ Part I

"Photographer's Self Portrait"

I must admit, self portraits are my least favorite project of ALL time. So when I thought about a new two part post on a subject I rarely post about, this totally fit the bill. I say two part post because today I'll show you the first  shot from the beginning of my pursuit for a better self portrait... and next Monday I'll show you the final portrait after my wrestling with off-camera flash, lens choice, and processing... not to mention putting a more positive expression on my face. I was going for smoldering and mysterious.

Seriously. Stop laughing now.

The first part of this session was rough for me. I'm still learning about off-camera lighting. I'm so skittish with light. But I did remember one thing I've learned recently... the closer the light source, the better the light wraps around the entire subject. The further away, the more harsh and hard edged it gets due to fall-off because the light has to travel further to light your subject... er, yourself... you know what I mean. Makes sense but it takes me a second to remember this rule of lighting. So at least I remembered to set my SB-600 on a stand with a diffuser really close to where I would sit... and by close I mean it intruded into my personal space bubble. But it was not directly in front of me either... it sat at a slight angle to me. I also had on the immediate right a large window with soft white curtains diffusing the light. My speedlight was in manual mode, not quite on full power (could have dialed it up a little more), triggered by my on-camera flash which had been dialed down all the way so as to keep from overpowering the shot by itself.

Needless to say, it took many adjustments, and many trips back and forth to the camera to set my flash settings.

But here's where you have to pay attention to the ambient light in the room if you've never worked on this type of shot before, and decide if you want your own lighting to overrule the room's ambient exposure. Or you may want to preserve the light already in the room and simply enhance it. I pretty much overlooked this in the image above, I was so busy just trying to get the camera in a good place, my head in a good spot, and get my gear working the way I learned. Next week you'll see what I decided on.

Oh, and I cloned out all the panicky little beads of sweat across my forehead in this shot by the way. Just saying. It's not easy to put up before & afters, online for all to see. Geez the pressure.

Lastly, we'll talk about lens choice. I used my portrait lens, my 50mm F/1.8 prime, and I think it was the right choice from the start. It gives no visible distortion no matter where you position the lens around the subject... er, yourself... and it has fabulous depth of field. I could have used my telephoto for similar results, but the camera would have been much further away to compensate for it's long range. The wide angle really is a no no for this type of portrait, the minute you angle it the lens slightly distorts various facial features... definitely not a look for me.

So not a terrible self portrait, but not a real prize winner yet. Stay tuned for next Monday when I discuss all the additional things that I needed to change and to see the "after" shot! I will also attempt to have a diagram for you of the final set-up for those that would like to see what worked best in my tiny little work space. Can't wait for PART II... I think.

Have a great day gang, thanks for the challenging ramble!

NOT a Macro ~ Floral Friday!

"Quietly She Waits"

(1/640 sec.@ F/4, ISO 125, 50mm prime lens, tripod, overcast light, pattern metered)

Delicate petals, rich color, dramatic framing. All reasons why I love taking images like this. You can fill the composition with a single subject and it never gets old, for me anyway. But, like many things in the photog world an image like this gets different reactions. Some will say of this photo, "lovely close-up!" (at least if they like florals) and I've had others say, "great macro!"

Which is also a nice thing to have said to the photographer. But the later would be wrong. Quite simply because this in not in fact, a macro.

Now, most would say..."close-up, macro - big diff." But there is. A macro gets you so close to the subject that it's tiniest details can be captured. So much so that you can lose the sense of scale associated with the bug, flower, or dew drop the artist chooses to capture. And obviously you use macro type gear to achieve it. Macro lenses, extension tubes, bellows, lens babies, they all are needed to make that uncompromising macro image. Like the ones you'd see at a friend's site here. And there is more to read about macro photography here.

Knowing that, when you look at the image above you then know it's just a close-up. My prime lens (my portrait lens for most days) emphasizes detail and soft depth of field under low light, allows me to get in fairly close, and then I can crop in even closer if I feel like it provided I'm shooting in RAW and working in a large file. This also works very well with my modest telephoto too. Except instead of leaning into the flower, I'm at least 4 feet away and zooming in tight. And it's still a dramatic image without needing additional gear which is always nice. But hey, if anyone wanted to donate a macro lens to my meager collection, I'd not turn them down. Anybody? Hello? Ahem... moving right along then.

This was taken last fall in the Gage Park Rose Garden, in Hamilton. I loved its perfectly shaped petals and the subtle color infused around the edges. A very graceful, innocent specimen. Like a young girl. Eagerly waiting to be noticed. Waiting for her "close-up".

Have a great day gang. Thanks for the ramble! Next week our featured guest will be a fellow photographer from Canada who really truly excels at macro photography. Prepare to be amazed.