Katie & Steve wanted some photos to mark their ONE YEAR of marriage, so we all took a little trip out to Peace Valley Park on a VERY NICE fall day for some nice shots of the two of them!

They were a fun couple to photograph, lots of LAUGHS throughout the session!

 

 

Happy One Year you two!!

Here’s hoping to many more years of happiness and laughter!

Who DOESN’T love photos of people so dearly in love and SO overly excited for their big day???

Well, while down in Ocean City Maryland last week I did a E-Session for My brother and his Fiance on the beach…who doesn’t LOVE the beach??  Its so fun and peaceful, especially when no one is on it after the beach day is over. The sand is cold and not burning the soles off your feet, the cool breeze, and of course people walking hand in hand as they stroll down the very edge of the water.

alright, enough of the mush.   On to the photos from the session!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOW creative WAS THIS?!?!?!  End of the night we headed to the pier and as we were walking through the parking lot Chris found the merging lanes sign and wanted a picture of the two of them with it, as two lives are merging together on October 19th.

 

 

 

 

So, after much delay!!!  Here are some shots from Amanda & Scotty (her handsome horse) from a couple weeks ago!!!

Scotty was so very cooperative! Just munching on some grass, popping his head up for a peek at the camera or Amanda every now and then!
Also got some time in with Amanda, Scotty and her Jeep!  A girl has many necessities in life!!!
Had a blast with these two!!!

 

Coming off the weekend in Wildwood and the Indoor season with the local high school and their show ITS ALL RELATIVE, I ask you, WHAT IT FUN??

I Heart Faces ❤, a photography blog and community I follow is holding a photo challenge for the month of May, the title?  Play.

SO, Here is my submission, my 4 year old niece(then 3) last summer running around our pool yard, just snapped a shot, look how happy she is just running around!  She was having a BLAST!

 

 

<a href=”http://www.iheartfaces.com/”><img title=”I Heart Faces Photo Challenge Submission” src=”http://www.iheartfaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/I-Heart-Faces-button.jpg&#8221; alt=”Photo Challenge Submission” /></a>

 

 

Just returned from TIA(Tournament Indoor Association) Weekend in Wild Wood. Always a fun time!!
It was a bit chilly this year but aside from that there were great performances by all of the kids that attended and put out their best work for everyone to see!
Here are a few pictures from the weekend!

Here are assignments 2 & 3, as they are both really short and will fit into one.  I think my plant looks pretty nice =]

Assignment 2: Align 2 bottles aprox. 5 feet apart. Position one bottle slightly to the left of the one behind it. Take one shot with a high depth of field(so both are in focus) and one shot with shallow depth of field with the furthest bottle blurred out.  Here are my results, I
did 2 sets, one with soda and juice the other with two rum bottles.

So with the Rum bottles my shallow depth of field(on the right) came out AWESOME. However, I ran into a focus issue where I could not get(at the 5ft distance) the High depth of field for these bottles or the next set of bottles.  I could blur out both or one but could not focus both in the shot. I’ll be playing with this shot for the next 100 days until I figure it out. So I went with the BEST I could get with what I had, both days I tried this.

Attempt 2: I tried different bottles and a shorter distance, but still 3 feet away and on a different plane of view, the floor.  Still got a nice shallow depth of field but my high depth wouldn’t turn out again.  SO frustrating.  When i figure this out I’ll post it!

Assignment Three: Had an object(I chose my leafy plant) with a fluorescent light ABOVE it and an incandescent light next to it. I took 3 shots with a Shutter Speed of 1/100, Aperture f6.3 and my 50mm prime lens.

Shot 1: White Balance Setting: Incandescent Light

Shot 2: White Balance Setting: Fluorescent Ligh

Shot 3: Custom White Balance Setting with gray card(I didn’t have a gray card, I used a white sheet of paper to set it on my camera) I like the way the bottom leaves look, so lush and green!

I’m still working on Assignment 4 which is to tie a small object to a string or chain and either hang it on a wall or have someone swing it back and forth.  I have to compose 2 shots, one that FREEZES the object and one that shows its motion trail. All running off of shutter speeds. I did a couple tonight but I didn’t like how they turned out so I’ll be attempting that one again another day until I like it enough =]

As promised & long awaited!  Here are my photo assignments for the adobe courses I’m taking, I’ll start with the Photos today and put up the goofy editing and layering technique pictures later, they are quite goofy as I’m not actually taking ANY pictures to edit, I’m just messing with predetermined photos, on is a POTATO!

Any way, back to the reason we’re here.
Assignment 1:
Object: Small Highly Reflective metallic, silver or gold jewelry item.  I chose my Grandmother’s Engagement Ring, 1. because I LOVE IT, its an antique and its look is just simplistic and lovely. Sadly its details are not captured in the pictures as that was not really the point.
-Photograph from TOP-down perspective, well-lit fluorescent light, Manual shooting mode and other criteria that will change for each shot, I’ll list them with each one.

ISO Sensitivity/Shutter Speed Comparison 3 shots

Shot 1: Aperturef5.6; Shutter 1/4; ISO100; Metering SPOT; Auto Focus; Auto White Balance

Shot 2: Aperture f5.6; Shutter 1/4; ISO 800; Everything Else the same as SHOT 1

Shot 3: Aperture f5.6; Shutter 1/40; ISO 320; Everything else the same as SHOT 1

Flash Compensation:
Aperture f5.6; Shutter 1/40, Auto Focus, ISO 320; Auto White Balance for all 3 shots

Shot 1: Flash Comp: -2

Shot 2: Flash Comp: 0

Shot 3: Flash Comp: +1 (They asked for +2 but my camera doesn’t do that so I went with the highest possible at +1)

Exposure Compensation: This was cool, especially for this ring.
Shooting all shots in PROGRAM MODE; ISO 320, Auto Focus, Auto White Balance, the rest was determined by the camera in P mode.

Shot 1(MY FAVORITE for this ring) Exposure Comp: -2  Looks SO cool

Shot 2: Exposure Comp: 0

Shot 3: Exposure Comp: +2 (bad effect for this object)

 

OK!
So, Temple goes on Spring Break in 2 weeks, so I will have PLENTY of time to start putting up and working on my photo assignments for my Adobe Certification courses!  They’re going well I think. So I will start putting up some of the assignments for those classes then, get excited.

On another note, Nikon thought it would be an awesome idea to upgrade the D7000 DSLR to the 7100 DSLR, which is great and all but now I have to wait longer for a new camera because why get the old one when you can get the new with with a couple new features that you want!  If you’re curious about it, check out the review article below, you can also see and compare it to the previous model the D7000 at B&H Camera or Adorama.

http://www.nphotomag.com/2013/02/21/nikon-d7100-vs-d7000-13-things-you-need-to-know/
That article will give some insight on the specs and features the 7100 has and compares it sometimes to the D7000.  They are both great cameras, but the 7100 has some better shooting modes and has  more pixels, so I think I’ll be able to hang onto it longer! =]

Here’s the Adorama Listing(It comes available for purchase in March)
http://www.adorama.com/INKD7100.html

One Last thing to share with you is the picture below, that was shared with me via facebook! =]

 

 

This is my first ever blog post! How exciting!
It will be a short one, as right now I haven’t that much to say or show you right now!
However you can check out my gallery and my about me page to learn a little more.
As for this little blog, I just want to tell you a little about what I hope to do and accomplish here.

I created this quaint blog to track the progress in mastering different photographing skills as well as photo editing skills as I go through the adobe software courses and get a well rounded background on the programs.

I hope to gain experiences with local photographers and sit in on their sessions to get more practical and hands on experience from professionals, so you can expect to read about those experiences too.

I will also be posting different events, mainly horse shows in the area that I will be attending with the barn I ride and show with, so if you are following the posts and happen to be a Hunter, Jumper or Dressage rider and will be attending the shows I am at, let me know and I can find you for some shots of you in the ring strutting your stuff!