A Woman remembered

A friend of mine had both her parents pass away very recently. I cannot imagine the sorrow and the difficulty of such an experience. I have given smiles and hugs, but never known what more i could do.

i received an email asking about recording this sweet experience... her mother always loved funerals, and wished more people would photograph them for families to remember. I got a glimpse of the strength and life of this mother... her strength and her spunk. I would be so lucky to have such things said of me as were shared by her graveside ceremony.

:) hugs to you all, friends.

Student Critique

(p.s. i forgot to publish this last week!! I'm so scatter-brained. :P Enjoy!)

Our photo today comes from current photo basics 1 student Casey.

We talked in class about the rule of thirds, which in this shot, his eyes are running along the bottom line, so good job. As a reminder not every photo needs to follow the rule of thirds, but you'll find that a lot of your photos will have that element in it, even without trying. Casey said he had to have a really slow shutter speed because it was really dark, but with his camera ON the carpet, and his cat holding still, he was able to get a sharp picture.

If you steady yourself against a table or doorframe, or floor, you'll find that you can shoot slower shutter speeds without getting camera shake (where NOTHING in the image is sharp, when some parts should be).

There a number of good things going on in this image. There's nice light in the cat's eyes, great depth of field (background blurry while the foreground is tack sharp), and there's a fun warmth to the top in contrast to the coolness of the blue carpet. The window light from the left side creates even more texture on the carpet. And the cat looks completely comfortable. Just what i'd love to do, lounge around. :)

great job to Casey, and all the students who are posting their pictures. Way to go, guys!

Homework example: Interruption of Pattern

(Those of you who wanted to see examples of what i was talking about in class... continue reading. :)

Here's a photo of me by a star student... you can see i'm interrupting the pattern of the brick pillars and the pattern of the horizontal brick.

Next that you can see the photo i mentioned in class... the one short thermos breaks the pattern of both height and color. Your eye goes to that, then to the red lid on the top left. If all the lids had been red, it might have stood out more from the white wall... but overall, well done image. :) I like it a lot.

Congratulations!

To these adorable newlyweds... :) Thanks for everything. We're so happy for you!

Lucky...

Check out this adorable spread i shot at an engagement party a week and a half ago! Soooo adorable, and super yummy. :P More pictures to come...

Saturday fun.

i found buried treasure today.... what did you do?