Have Camera - Will Shoot...: July 2012

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Puddles...

A lot of people have been asking for the "puddle" pictures! I have a few that I'm going to share with you. :)

I've been feeling a bit jipped about the whole puddle situation! Saskatchewan has had all the rain and storms and we've hardly had any rain here so the puddles Kaelynne got to play in are quite small. I have been waiting what seems like forever to put Kaelynne's rain gear on because it's ridiculously cute. My ideal puddle pictures with Kaelynne would be when it's actually raining or just after a huge rain with huge puddles. Though the puddles were small she had a blast splashing around once I convinced her it was fine. Saskatchewan, start sharing!! LOL

Yeah! So happy to be playing in the puddle. - July 2012 (129)

Splish Splash - June 2012 (130)

Stomp stomp - June 2012 (131)

Bleeding Heart after the rain - June 2012 (132)

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Editing...

I've been out shooting a lot lately! In June I went out to the country to my friend Tabitha's house and took some shots out there. I took Kaelynne out to play in the puddles in the alley one evening and got some shots of that. While we were showing our house Kaelynne and I spent time at Tyler's Grandma's and his parents'. While we were at both places I set up a pool for Kaelynne, shot that, and took pictures of Grandma and Mom's flowers. At the end of June I took my camera along to my friend Elaine's daughter Brooklyn's birthday. It was a lot of fun, but kids are tricky to shoot, they're quick. LOL! My Mum was here for a weekend and we took Kaelynne to the zoo and I got some shots there. Just this past weekend I took my camera out to the lake to a friends cabin and got some great shots out there. Look at all that fun stuff coming up for you to see! However, the more I shoot the more goes into my editing queue...

I don't like to change a lot when I edit so it doesn't take me too long once I have the time to sit down and do it. The problem is finding the time! Especially when it has been so nice out. Thankfully it rained today and I was able to do some editing while Kaelynne napped and after she went to bed. I like to try and keep my photography natural. It gets hard sometimes because of all the neat things Photoshop (and I use Picasa sometimes too) can do. What I mostly do when I edit is clean up a shot by adjusting the tone, sometimes polish the colour, occasionally I'll add a border or vignetting, re-size the files so they're easier to post on Facebook and I add the text for my blog. I try to keep it simple because I look at my photography as art and don't want to alter it much from what I envisioned when I looked through my viewfinder.

Earlier in June Kaelynne and I went out to my friend Tabitha's house. She lives out in the country, east of Beausejour, Manitoba. It is so beautiful out there! I went out to do some pictures of the kids but we didn't get a chance to do that because it was raining and we were busy visiting. It gives me an excuse to get out there and do a family shoot another day! Their yard is so awesome and makes me miss living out in the country a little bit...just a little bit though LOL. Luckily the rain stopped later in the afternoon, the sun came out and we were able to walk around the yard and I snapped a few photos. I was like a kid in a candy shop! I just love the openness, the colours, sky, trees, etc. The family pictures will be so much fun to do and I cannot wait to get out there again to do them. But, for now, here are some shots I got of their wonderful piece of land.

Love Bird House - June 2012 (121)

A Welcome Road - June 2012 (122)

June 2012 (123)

June 2012 (124)

The Back 40 - June 2012 (125)

I've been obsessed with Dandelions lately - June 2012 (126)

Rain clouds going away - June 2012 (127)

June 2012 (128)

Monday, July 9, 2012

Baby, Baby, Baby!

I'm not going to lie, my favorite thing to photograph is nature. However, since I decided to do the "365 Challenge" I thought I had better branch out (pun not intended...well maybe) and try something different. My friend Breanne was expecting (she just had baby Eric the other day, Yeah!) and I offered to do their maternity photographs. I was nervous but also really excited because Breanne and her husband Greg are laid back and so much fun to work with. It really helps to work with people who are very much in love. I did my best to capture just that.

The shoot was a two part series. That wasn't intentional...but my batteries died near the end of the first attempt so I said, let's come back another day and finish up. Of course we had a good chuckle about that. Good thing their friends and I'm just starting out. I DID tell them not to expect anything. :) It was nice to come home, load the pictures and see what I was able to capture. Of course I'm my biggest critic so I picked apart my first shoot and was better prepared for the second part. I was having issues with my exposure and sometimes the sun was my enemy so I was getting harsh shadows but couldn't see that on the playback at the time. It was a great learning experience and has helped me immensely in other shoots. I'm still shooting in P or Av, and sometimes full Manual mode! It's getting easier to figure everything out the more I used it!

At the second one I redid some shots and then we got the rest of the shots we were looking for. It took me a couple weeks to get them all edited and onto a disc. When I dropped them off we were able to look through them on Breanne and Greg's TV, which was really nice because I got to see their reaction. It was all such a great experience and I enjoyed doing the shoot more than I had expected to. I'm looking forward to doing more in the future! Here are a handful of my favorites from the two shoots.