Bruises and Bandaids »

Remember aperture? If not, check out my definitions page. It’s the opening in your lens that allows you to do two things. One, it allows more light in and two, it controls your depth of field (how much is going to be sharply in focus in the background.

These two pictures below are taken at the aperture (also known as f stop) of 2.2. That means the hole in my lens is open up really wide, the hole is big. So, my depth of field behind my subject is shallow, creating a blurry background. The background is not sharply in focus. Right? So that’s a shallow depth of field. Make sense? These two pictures were taken with the same settings but a different focus point. When taking the picture on the left I focused on my little boy’s eyes. In the picture on the right I didn’t change any of my settings, but instead I focused on the donut. :)

My manual settings for this shot were:
ISO – 800 (inside the donut shop)
aperture – 2.2 (open pretty wide open for light and for a very shallow depth of field)
shutter speed – 1/250 second

Do you have specific things you’d like to see on this bruises and bandaids blog? Do you have any questions or specific areas of confusion? If so, please leave a comment on this post letting me know what types of things you’d like me to cover on this blog. I would love for this to be a helpful place for you to continue to grow and learn your camera, it’s manual functions, composition, and how to see and use light. So…. leave a comment with a specific question. Too shy for that? Send me a private email message then through my contact page. If I don’t hear anything from all y’all people (assuming one or two people are actually reading my posts. Hee hee…hopefully) then I’ll just pick the topics myself and keep on going. :)

Until then, here’s a pic of my family on a little mini trip to the aquarium. I’ll let you in on how I chose my manual settings and why.

My manual camera settings for this shot below:
ISO – 320 (I chose 320 because it was inside the aquarium, but there was quite a bit of natural light coming through because it was essentially windows everywhere with a wave going over us.)
aperture – 4 (choosing an f stop like f4 allows all three of my boys to be sharply in focus and it also allows you to see a bit of what’s going on in the picture, expressions, some bubbles from the wave, etc)
shutter speed – 1/800 second (chose this shutter speed in order to make the exposure look right)
equipment – canon 5D mark II and my 50mm 1.2L lens

This little miss did not want to sit still, gaze silently into my camera, and smile. She didn’t quite get it. I don’t blame her either. How is she supposed to understand my goals and what I’m trying to create as an end result. Really? No. That’s not how it works with kids. Especially one year old little ones. They’re just too young to understand what we hope to gain from them. However… they do understand treats, candy, games, clapping, songs, and other fun stuff. So, make it fun for them. Don’t make it a difficult frustrating time. And then after all else doesn’t go exactly how you were hoping…. be very flexible. When your photographing children you have to be flexible. I was hoping for huge smiles, but instead, this little miss offered me sweet observation. I’ll take it and I actually happen to love it. Right? She’s still beautiful. Gorgeous in fact. And it documents what kind of little girl she was at one year old…. quiet and maybe more of an observer than a jumping off the couch rambunctious kid. I don’t know this little one super well, but by this image, that’s what I would guess. A quiet observer. Those are pretty sweet moments too. So, capture them, with your camera…. as they really are, not forced into someone they are not.

My manual camera settings:
ISO – 320 (evening)
aperture – 2.8
shutter speed – 1/250

I hear this quite a bit from moms. “But my little ones don’t like pictures!” And they wonder what they should do and how they can possibly get a picture of them. Hopefully it’s encouraging to you to hear that my little guy doesn’t like me taking his pictures most of the time either. Stink. Bummer. Hmmm, but I still want pictures of him. So, I still take them. :)

This past week during our coastal camping trip. Here is a shot of my little boy who just turned four.

And here’s another one… I usually have the best luck catching this little man in action. He loves running in and out of the ocean. So, I just roll with it. If he’s happy doing something, then I take pictures of him while he’s doing that and try not to interrupt him too much from his fun.

And I still want to dress them up just a bit and take some pictures of them every once in a while when they’re actually planned out. So, for those ones we “go exploring” and find some “treasures” and I tell them that I’m going to take some pictures of them here and there. When they do a great job we go to Yodiggity for frozen yogurt after. Yes, this is also often referred to as bribery. And I don’t really care. Pictures of my kids are important to me and they don’t quite get that, so I don’t mind a little bribery now and then. :)  It’s worth it for pictures like these below to document my little boys at 4 and almost 6 years old.

This summer, I’m aiming to put up a whole bunch of images (blog much more regularly) and share what my camera settings were and why I chose to use those settings. Simple, right? I hope so. And my goal is that you lovely people would put your cameras on manual and try some of this out. So, here goes…

Manual settings:
ISO 160 (sunny day but shooting in open shade from a building)
aperture: 3.5 (needed it to be a little more closed so that both of the kids would be in focus)
shutter speed: 1/160 (this is my safe zone, any lower/slower than this when shooting kids I find I get some movement in my shot)
lens: 50mm 1.2L

Are you considering purchasing a new lens? A new camera body? A little bit unsure about which one to purchase?

Well… did you know that you could rent lenses and camera bodies at stores and online? Yep, I agree pretty cool. Why not play around with a new toy before purchasing or have some fun and just be tempted to make a new purchase. Yes! Well, if you’re in the Fresno/Clovis, California area I would recommend checking out Horn Photo’s rentals first. They’re the most affordable and quite fabulous.  If you go into their shop you can look around at all your rental options and select a lens for the day or for the weekend. Don’t quote me because it’s possible that their prices have changed…but when I last rented a lens from them they were quite affordable in my opinion ($20-$50 for a day and $45 to $75 for a weekend). You should check ‘em out.

If you’re not in California or the central valley then you can check out an online option. www.LensProToGo.com is pretty fantastic as well. Check them out. They’ll ship you the lens and give you the goods to ship it back to them when your time is up. Sounds pretty great to me! :)

Here’s a pic of my two sweet little boys taken with my Canon 5D Mark II camera body and my 50mm 1.2L lens. I’ll post the manual settings right under the image. Check it out.

Settings:
ISO: 2000
Aperture: 2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/160 sec

Choosing a location to do a little photo shoot is so fun. At least I think it is. :)  If you’re taking pictures of little kids, remember their small. So…you don’t have to have a huge background for a close up face shot. You can use just a portion of a wall, or just a door, or simply part of a window sill or edge. For example, these shots below.

This one was taken on a wall that had a bunch of distracting stuff on it (painted text, a big billiard ball, a door and windows). But all I needed was a small space for this little one.

These pictures were taken with just a portion of a window’s blue edging….a very small blue space.

This picture was taken in front of a graffiti covered garbage bin or storage bin. I’m not even sure what it was. But we liked the colors on it. :)

Well, the August workshop is full. Thanks all! It’s so fun to see you all so interested in learning how to actually use your cameras on manual, how to see lighting and compose a picture. Excited to spend time with each of you and your cameras. Keep checking back here for tips that will hopefully help you head more and more in that direction.

And since every blog post is better with a picture here’s a pic of me and my littlest boy. :)

Wowzers…You lovely camera lovin people!! The June 26th workshop is FULL and there are only a few more spots available for the August date. Let me know if you’re interested in learning more about your camera on Saturday, August 7th. Click here for specific details.

Email me or leave a comment if you’re interested in signing up for the August one.

I thought I’d share something practical for people who love photography, take pictures, print pictures, and then………need to hang pictures. :)

I have a few thoughts, a few ideas. Wanna see how I do it?
Ok, you know how when you buy a frame from a place like Aaron Brothers (I buy a lot of my frames through them) it comes with a big piece of paper right behind the glass? I tape that paper to the wall and plan out my frames, especially if I’m doing a grouping. It’s hard to space those out quite right and I’m a visual person. Seeing it visually helps me. :)  I’ll do step by step directions below….

Ok so first, you’re going to need some supplies. Hammer and nails of course, but also some large pieces of paper, tape, and some of those clear plastic tabs to put on the bottom of your frames so they stay put.

Ok, then, if I have a grouping that I’m hanging in my home I lay it out on the carpet to see how I want it to look. Like, see my beautiful pictures from Mariano Friginal, a fabulous photographer here in Fresno?

Then next, I tape some paper of the same size and tape it to the wall to plan it out before nailing holes.

Now, the hammer and nails part. My favorite wall hanging things are these little sawtooth hangars from Aaron Brothers. I just go up to the custom framing counter and they usually will give me some for free. Hopefully they won’t be mad that I told you that. Don’t tell them I told you, you’re on your own. :)  So, if my frame already has a hangar then I’m good to go, but if not, I nail in one of these suckers. MUCH easier than the hangars that have those incredibly small nails.

Now that you have your papers taped up where you want them, you’re going to actually hammer the nails through the paper. Why move the paper? Just rip it off after. Much easier. :)

Then, you’re all set. Hang your pictures, tear the paper off the wall. Make sure your frames look fabulous.