Have Camera - Will Shoot...

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Summer of 2012 Part I

I was a busy gal this summer! This is part one of five... :) Each part will have 8 photos and one will have 9. The first part of my Summer of 2012 will include flowers. Flowers are so beautiful, colourful and make for gorgeous photos. I usually shoot my own flowers but this year with the move I didn't plant any flowers or buy any hanging baskets. The flowers in this part of my summer adventures are from my husband's grandma and my mother in law's yards. Next year I'll have flowers again and will definitely will be taking shots! I played around with my different lenses and my favorite one to shoot flowers with is my telephoto. The telephoto I have is the 55-250mm, it came with my camera. I used it a lot this year for full moon, blue moon and sunset shots. I love it! Those will come up later in another part of my Summer of 2012 series. My next telephoto lens is the 70-200mm but I'll have to save my pennies for a while to get it. There are a couple landscape shots in this part as well. Without further adieu here they are! Enjoy. :)

I love this shot, the pale colour of the background and the imperfect petals of the flower (Grandmother-in-law's garden) - June 2012 (154)

I love the colour of these flowers, periwinkle/purple (Grandmother-in-law's garden) - June 2012 (155)

Dalia's are one of my favorite types of flowers (Grandmother-in-law's garden) - June 2012 (156)

These birdcage hanging flower holders are so awesome (Mother-in-law's garden) - July 2012 (157)

I love the pale orange colour of this dalia (Mother-in-law's garden) - July 2012 (158)

Driftwood by the Assiniboine river south - July 2012 (159)

Path in Kildonan Park - August 2012 (160)

The flowers I had in my garden! - August 2012 (161)

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Exchange District...

Hello!

I've slowly been getting caught up on my editing and it feels so good! I think I should be finished as of tonight, and I'm SUPER happy about it. I took a lot of photos this summer and kept putting off editing personal stuff to do editing for clients. I've been able to put my nose to the grind in the evenings lately so it's all getting done. Yeah! When I'm finished I will post some of my favorites for you.

Since friends of mine gave me the push to make something of this photography thing, it's been off and running! I'm so grateful for everything. So far it's been an awesome ride. I can't wait to share what I've been up to with you all. If you haven't seen my Facebook page yet, it's www.facebook.com/photographybyginalmayor. Go, check it out and give it a Like! I'm still going to keep my 365 Challenge on here, like I promised.

A couple weeks ago a friend of mine got married and they had the dinner and reception at Peasant Cookery in the Exchange District of Winnipeg. It was perfect. While I was there another friend and I went for a walk before the dinner started and I took my camera along. The Exchange is such an interesting area and I had a lot of fun just wandering around snapping away.

Mural in the Exchange where people hang posters - September 2012 (150)

Sunshine Window - September 2012 (151)

Exchange - September 2012 (152)

Exchange - September 2012 (I used an action on this one) (153)

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Actions...

I've been using a lot of actions to edit my photography in Photoshop lately. Let me just say, they're a lot of fun. For those of you who are unfamiliar with "actions" I'll share this link with you http://photo.tutsplus.com/articles/post-processing-articles/100-free-photoshop-actions-and-how-to-make-your-own/. They are so helpful and make editing so much quicker and easier. I've downloaded quite a few from the site I shared with you and haven't had any problems. They don't always look good on every photo but they are easy to remove (Revert) and then try another one to get the effect that you're looking for. It's also fun to make your own action (which is also featured on that site) and put together favorite editing styles to make them faster. Just push play! To be honest I was leery at first with the whole downloading thing but after taking to some photography friends, getting some credible sites and scanning each one with my virus scanner, I was on my way and I haven't looked back since.

As mentioned in my last post I decided to start up a Facebook page. I've done so just this evening, so there isn't much there yet but there will be very soon! Check it out https://www.facebook.com/PhotographyByGinaLMayor

I'll still be updating my blog and sharing my "challenge" photos through here. Without further adieu here are a few (of many) photos from this summer.

Path & Bridge - July 2012 (137)

Female Peacock - July 2012 (138)

Lion - July 2012 (139)

Lion - July 2012 (140)

Path - July 2012 (141)

Butterfly Conservatory - July 2012 (142)

Monarch - July 2012 (143)

These little guys did not stop fluttering even when perched on a flower. - July 2012 (144)

Butterfly experts, what kind of butterfly is this? - July 2012 (145)

Pelicans - July 2012 (146)

Children's Park at Assiniboine, Kaelynne and Grandma. - July 2012 (147)

Kaelynne, very tired but unwilling to admit defeat...must...keep...playing! - July 2012 (148)

Path - July 2012 (149)

Saturday, August 25, 2012

New Arrival(s)...

It's been a very busy and awesome summer! I'm way behind on my editing and blog updates. Our daughter is at my parents place so we could pack and move. I've been editing in between boxes and now, I'm finally updating my blog!

My friends Breanne and Greg who I did the maternity shoot for welcomed their son Eric into the world in July! He's very adorable, I just love him. They asked me to do a shoot for them so I'm going to share a few of the pictures I did for them with you in this blog entry. I've never done an official newborn shoot before so I was excited. I give huge props to infant and newborn photographers because they make it look so easy, but it's really not!! I forgot about all that involuntary arm and leg movement from when our daughter was just itty bitty. However, it was still a lot of fun and I am learning volumes from all of my experiences. Thank you B&G for giving me that opportunity!

I also have a new addition, my beautiful new watermark that my friend Megan's husband Benji designed for me! I asked for something edgy, stars and for it to look tattooish. :) Thanks Benji!!

I've been getting a lot of photography requests lately and I'm SO grateful and blessed about that. I'm actually going to break down and start a Facebook page for my photography. I will continue to update my blog so stay tuned. I'll have to share the link to my FB page when I get it all set up! :) This blog all started as a loose form of a 365 Day Challenge less than a year ago and now it's growing! I'm super excited about it all.

Thanks for your support! Now, off to pack more boxes!

Welcome Eric! (July 2012) - 133

Family (July 2012) - 134

Family (July 2012) - 135

Little Feet (July 2012) - 136

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.