Waterfall

ISO: 800  f/2.8  shutter speed: half a second

         This was taken at San Antonio, I am just now putting it up though. We saw the waterfall walking along the River Walk and all decided we wanted to go take pictures of it. None of us had tripods with us, so I set my camera along the sidewalk with the lens against this railing thing. The stones on the left side are the most clear. On the right side, they aren't quite as sharp which really bothers me. This could have been really cool had both sides been tac sharp. It took me a while to figure out my setting since I knew I wanted a slow shutter speed but it was also pitch dark, and the shutter couldn't be too terribly slow since I didn't have a tripod and my innovations worked but they weren't perfect. I like how the water looks though, super cool.  I was using a 17-50mm lens for this and I  brought the exposure up some as well as fill light in this picture.

The Most Adorable Thing Ever

 

ISO: 100  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/1250 

          So I got to shoot Shop With A Cop Tuesday and it was the sweetest thing, so cool and I'm sooo super glad we got to go. There were a 100 kids who got a $100 each to spend and a cop or firefighter walked around with them helping them shop. We followed kids and cops around as they were shopping.
          My first picture is when all the were waiting outside Target and the cops and firemen were pulling up. It was like a parade thing, really cool and loud. I like the first one cause you can see a cop car, firetruck, the kids, and Target, and the sky is pretty and blue. The next one is of a kid picking out toys. I wish you could see more of his face, but I like the shallow depth of field of the toys in front of it. I like the next picture of the girl and the cop walking, I wish it was a little more bokahy but I they were too close to the other subjects for that to happen. The next picture I like because the girl is adorable! I can't tell if I am emotionally attached to it or not though, haha. The next picture of the boy in the cart is so cute and I like that the cop's arm is in it, so you can tell who is pushing him. I absolutely love the little girl, Emily, in the next two. The first one of her the cop is grabbing the toy that she had been pointing to. His arm frames her, but I wish you could tell who it was. I'm glad she isn't looking in this picture, though, because she always looked at me when I took a picture of her, like in the next one. Except it works for that one cause it's a tight shot of her face and ahh, Emily is so precious!! The next picture is of Shameka. She is pushing her cart to the checkout line and playing with her toys that are about to be hers. I like the angle since you can tell she is playing with her puppy while pushing the cart. Two pictures later is Shameka again paying for her items. I like that you can see her paying for it, but I wish the background wasn't so busy or that it was super bokahy or something. The picture before of the little boy is kind of the same thing. I like it and he is adorable but the man in the background bothers me. In my defense, though, the store was CRAZY crowded so it was kind of hard to avoid this. The last two pictures are after they checked out while they were waiting to leave. The first one of them waiting to leave the background is way blown but in a weird way it doesn't really bother me too much. I like the expression on the little girl's face in the last image, and the fact that you can see the cop and her mom right there with her.
          This was a great experience to get to shoot and all the kids were SO SUPER adorable. At the end I talked to this kid named James and I really liked getting to know him and it was cool to see how excited and thankful he was for all his gifts. He is the oldest of 4 kids and his favorite toy was a Star Wars light saver. I thought I had gotten pictures of him, but when I got back to process I realize I didn't which made me really sad. I don't know why I didn't get one of him. I used a 7D and a 17-50mm lens for this whole assignment. The store was really crowded so at times I wished I had a wide angle lens, but I am still pretty pleased with what I got. I had to bring up the exposure on the pictures of some of the kids because my meter lied to me. It is not dependable, but the ones I had to fix were less than a stop underexposed so it wasn't bad. I am really glad Target invited us to shoot that and it was such a great experience. Loved it :)

Christmas is a Comin'

ISO: 400  f/4.5  shutter speed: 1/250

ISO: 400  f/4.5  shutter speed: 1/250

          So Tyler and Brittany Merchant wanted to take their Christmas picture at our house and they asked me if I could take it. They came over around 1 in the afternoon and the lighting was PERFECT. Tyler opened his door and Mason, the big dog, jumped over the front seat over Tyler's head and darted straight for the pond. He was soaked and nasty, so they decided to come back later with leashes on their dogs and try again. With my wonderful luck, when they came back the lighting was awful. Everywhere was half shade and half sun or just something weird and it was so upsetting that the dogs messed it up for earlier because that would have been perfect! Anyways, this was the best spot I could find (for the bottom picture, the top was just for fun). I was standing in a bush to get this using a 17-50mm lens. Considering the lighting I was working with (I had no flash), I was ok with the outcome. I really wish that the background wasn't so bright, though. I already burned it down some in Lightroom using the gradient tool which I had never used before and it was really cool. I am glad to have discovered this tool, it's really fun and I have been using Lightroom for a year and a half and just now discovered this. You can always learn something new, and I still have much to learn.

          I just realized I never talked about the first picture. That was taken after the Christmas card picture. Tyler was playing with Mason, the dog, and I just thought it would be cool to get the dog with his antlers looking at the ball while Tyler is not completely in the picture. I did not crop this picture, I purposefully shot it this way. To make it better, I wish the background was more bokahy. This was shot at a focal length of 17mm which is why it is not bokahy. I should have zoomed in, my problem was that I was too close to zoom in on him and still get this same shot. Never shoot a headshot at 17mm with a 17-50mm lens, and never shoot a dog at 17mm either. Lesson learned.

Yearbook Worknight

ISO: 800  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/200

This was taken last night at yearbook worknight. I had just shot history club meeting and Rush was like well since you have a camera can you shoot worknight. So, I did, and this is my favorite for real shot. (I have a lot of funny, weird ones) I think I just like the angle of this one. You can't see their faces, but that doesn't bother me too much for this particular image. I like that you can see the spreads they're working on and food which is definitely a part of worknights. At JEA one of the classes we went to gave 10 types of content images to get on an assignment. The first one is the scene setter which is where you get up high, preferably with a wide angle lens, so you can see everything that's going on. I was doing that for the worknight and while I was standing on the table, I saw this image so I took it. I am soooo glad we went to JEA for it has given me a lot of new ideas :)

Guatemala tree

ISO:  f/6.3  shutter speed: 1/250

I was given this assignment for newspaper and it's a story about how children in Guatemala don't get much for Christmas. They wanted a decorated tree with no presents, but when I did that, you couldn't tell what was trying to be said by the image. Because of all the ornaments and decorations, it didn't show what the story is about. So, I took the tree that we have in Potter's room, which is bare, and drug it in the studio. (That was a lot harder than I expected. The legs fell off and we had to put it back together and it was just a big ordeal.) Anyways, I put the black back drop up on the highest hinge thingies but I had to stand on a chair to get the whole tree with a black background. I already had lights down low flashing the skirt to emphasize no presents being there, and I just thought well why not get a horizontal of the bottom of the tree. So that's what I did, and I like how it turned out. 

Celeste Dart

ISO: 1000  f/3.5  shutter speed: 1/250

So, I was the third person assigned this picture. I had to go to morning swim practice which is why the assignment kept getting moved to different people. (we are not good at getting up early.) And, this was after I stayed up till 3am working on homework. Talk about being tired the next day. Anyways, I made the mistake of leaving my camera in my car the night before so when I got there it was all foggy. The humidity of the pool was not making it any better either. Because of this, it would not focus on automatic so I had to use manual focus and do my very best considering I could barely see out of the viewfinder because of all the fog. Celeste is deaf and has an interpreter at practice every morning who tells her what the coach is telling the team. It was really neat to witness and I'm glad I went and I also learned a very valuable lesson: NEVER LEAVE YOUR CAMERA IN YOUR CAR OVERNIGHT WHEN ITS COLD.

RE-SIZE

           So, I am really really bad about not re-sizing my pictures fro my blog. I somehow always manage to forget, and I didn't realize that this was bad until now when it won't let me upload any more pictures. How does this happen. Ugh. ALWAYS RESIZE YOUR PICTURES. I am really behind on blogs too, and I've been super busy and I was going to try to catch up on some blogs today, but I guess that's not going to happen. Smith told me to start a flickr account and start using that, but with my lovely luck the internet won't allow me to get on flickr. It's just been a lovely week. I got 3 and a half hours of sleep last night because I was up late working on homework (didn't even finish it all) and then I had to get up early to go shoot swim practice. I am so tired now and not functioning properly anymore, so I guess this is it for now.

Office Aide Gives Insight

ISO: 800  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/80

So I was in office aide the other day and we had to prepare all these little gift mugs for the people coming to college night. As I was putting all the candies in the mugs and tying the ribbons, I was like woah, this could be a cool story. So, I naturally escaped to go grab a camera and came back and got some pictures of the other office aide, Carley, preparing for college night. It's not the best and the background distracts me (not the college stuff, but the boxes and other weird stuff), but it's something that we don't normally get.

San Antonio

ISO: 800  f/3.5  shutter speed: 1/13

This was taken in San Antonio, which was a blast and I learned SO MUCH. We went to the Alamo one night and walked around and there were some cool lights so I wanted to try the whole twisty thing mabob where she stays still but the background is like moving in a circle. You do this by turning the camera while taking the picture. You have to use a slow shutter speed so you have enough time to move the camera in the time that it is actually taking the picture. The trees in the background had lights all on them so that made it a cool opportunity to do this. I couldn't figure out the white balance when editing so that is still kind of off. I am not good at white balance, that is something I have figured out recently.  I liked this one because her head is actually still and there aren't lights in her eyes like my other ones (not on here).

Aaaaaaaaaaaal

So, I finally learned what AI (al) focus, AI (al) servio, and one shot mean. It's very exciting too! So, one shot is you focus and then it stays focused there. AI (al) focus is like where you focus on something and it stays focused on that person or thing even as it moves. And AI (al) servo is an in between. It is supposed to stay locked if it doesn't move, but if the object moves it will also move. I was super-d-duper-d excited to finally learn this. Last year, I never changed the drive mode unless Smith or Hannah told me too. I was probably shooting in the wrong mode half the time, but I no longer have to worry about that :) It's so exciting to learn more things and feel more knowledgeable about what you're doing. I still have lots left to learn, though, like I need to learn what the metering mode means. I also want to learn some in Photoshop, and possibly the Calvin (??) scale. I just want to learn as much as I can before I leave next year because I doubt I'll have another teacher like Smith. Anyways, I feel accomplished to finally have learned what this means :)

101 Dalmatians

ISO: 320  f/5.6  shutter speed: 1/125

ISO: 320  f/5.6  shutter speed: 1/125

So, for Disney day the drill team decided to dress up as 101 Dalmatians and Mrs. Still as Cruella Da Vil. It was a really cool idea and since the drill team spread still needed more coverage, we decided this would be a good idea. So, at the beginning of drill team I went down there and got them to all get in the pit (they're puppies so of course they had to be in grass). They did one normal picture (not on here) and then two, well these two. They were all trying to act like puppies and in my personal opinion it's pretty funny. The pit was split half shade and half sun cause it just wanted to make my job more difficult. I put the drill team in the shade and started off with myself in the sun, but that didn't work cause there was a huge glare so then I went to the shade. I was trying to get rid of the distracting background, so I tried laying down and making just greenery in the background but that didn't work. Then I went to the other side of the pit on the hill trying to get kind of above them. I wasn't able to get high enough so the background isn't quite how I would've liked. I wouldn't mind the trees and sky, but it's the building part that bothers me. It also would've been better if I could of blurred it out, but because the team is so big I didn't want to widen my aperture so I wouldn't loose any of the members. I used the 5D and 24-105mm lens for this picture. I had to change the white balance in Lightroom cause it started off extremely blue and icky. I also cropped this picture.

Full Page Bleed. Whoop whoop!

ISO: 1600  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/100

Yay! I got a full page bleed with this picture! Whoop whoop. I was so excited when Potter told me that I could be the one in charge of the full bleed for the bonfire spread. She told me what she wanted and I had it all planned out, and even got what she originally asked for. This, however, is not it. Now, I can't take full credit for this image, although I wish I could. But I do have to admit that Smith was the one that pointed this out to me and said take this, it could be a possible full bleed if the fire one doesn't work. The fire picture didn't fail, I did get it and how Potter asked too, but she liked this one better because it was different. Not the same old picture that we have even had published before in 06. Anyways, I am very glad to have gotten to take this picture. I was using a 7D and a 17-50mm lens for this. I used the brush tool along the bottom part where it is black because there were a couple people you could see that had white shirts on and Potter asked me to get rid of them. Luckily, since it's just supposed to be black, it was super easy to get rid of the people and it didn't take in photochop work. Lightroom was all I needed.

Homecoming Game..fun stuff! :)

ISO: 1250  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/250

ISO: 1250  f/ 2.8  shutter speed: 1/250

ISO: 1250  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/250

ISO: 1250  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/250

ISO: 1250  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/250

ISO: 1250  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/320

ISO: 1250  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/320

So, I really like Smith's lens that he just sold, the 70-210 2.8 lens. I used it for this game and really REALLY enjoyed it. I was pleased with these images. I have finally gotten some ok football images and it makes me happy. My flash died in the 2nd half of the game and I had already given my extra batteries to Sabrina so I had to shoot the rest of the game without a flash but surprisingly it wasn't too terrible. I was absolutely freezing at this game but apparently that didn't affect me in too terrible of a way.  I'm just really happy that they aren't all crap and I was excited over these. YAY! The thing that made me most happy was they are in focus since I've been having such a hard time with things in focus and it's so annoying and it shouldn't happen to me but luckily that's not the case here.

NOOOOOOOOOO

ISO: 1250  f/3.5  shutter speed: 1/125

Aghhhh. No. Not even fair. This picture irks me so much. I was having trouble with the focus points on Bigma so Smith changed my focus point to all of them. Naturally, with my luck, Natalie is not in focus and Michael is. No fair. Anyways this could have been a really cool picture, but this is what it is.  Also, I would like to add that this computer has been nice to me all day but last time all the computers hated me and I spent 4 hours doing all the pre-lightroom stuff. That was super annoying but I finally got my pictures processed today. Hallelujah. 

Awkward Family Photo

ISO: 1000  f/2.8 shutter speed: 1/80

So, last night I was out until 10:45 working on different pictures this being one of them. I was told to get a picture of Sarah Hacker playing the piano with her parents helping her. When I got there, they told me that Sarah had never played piano before in her life. So, we had to change the game plan and just do a pic of them sitting on the couch. A boring picture might I add. I am not proud to call this mine at all, I wish I would've had a creative instant thought but yeah, that didn't happen. So here is my boring picture but it's not awkward like it would have been had it been the piano one. Oh well.

Court Presentation!

ISO: 400  f/8.0  shutter speed: 1/100

ISO: 640  f/5.6  shutter speed: 1/80

ISO: 1250  f/2.8  shutter speed: 160

ISO: 1250  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/160

This was the homecoming court presentation pep rally and the girls were SO PRETTY! It was fun shooting it, but a little stressful at the same time knowing that they HAD to turn out and the portraits were a necessity. All the flashes and pocket wizards and syncs weren't cooperating very well which was very frustrating. They wouldn't go off at the right time and one would go off but the other wouldn't. We finally had to have Woods holding the sync into the flash to get it to work. These would not be possible without the help of other people. The first picture is the actual portrait for the program- the one where we had to have woods holding the sync. The next one is also for the program, and I was really disappointed because it wasn't in sharp focus. I was told that it would be fine for what it was being used for, so I guess that's good. It's still frustrating though. The last two images were taken during the ceremony where I was sitting in the most awkward position to get them. A tripod was straddling me with Bigma and it kinda looked like I was giving birth to a tripod. Very very weird. The things I do to get pictures. (btw I layed in a graveyard to help Rush with a pic last night for a while, I'll blog about that later though) And, just to let ya know this has been a super crazy week. I have been out late every night doing something for photography. Ok, that's all for now.

Pre Game

ISO: 1000  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/200

This was taken at the pre game (after being trampled) as the guys were warming up. I have discovered that I love shooting pre game! It is so much fun, even though everyone was trying to attack me that night. Anyways, I kinda like this picture. I like that the coach is in it and watching them as they practice and the wide angle of it. I wish the 2 guys standing behind 93 weren't there though. I also wish I was moved over to the right a little bit or maybe the left. I don't know, just a little different angle. The colors are nice and pop and yeah. Overall, I think I like this picture. I was using the 5D and the 24-105mm lens with a 580 flash.

Welding!

ISO: 100  f/7.1  shutter speed: 1/125

ISO: 100  f/7.1  shutter speed: 1/125

ISO: 100  f/7.1  shutter speed: 1/125

I took these pictures a week or so ago, I've just now gotten the chance to process them. I saw some welding pictures on flickr so I called my cousin and asked him if he could weld for me. It was really cool, and SUPER bright. I had to keep my eyes closed while shooting. I got it ready and when he started welding I closed my eyes. I tried keeping them open one time and I was seeing spots for a long time after that. I also had to have a trashcan in front of my feet since I had shorts on so I wouldn't get burned. I couldn't decide which picture was my favorite but I narrowed it down to these. I used the 5 and the 24-105mm lens for this picture.

Homecoming Court

ISO:320  f/5.6  shutter speed: 1/320

These are the girls that made court! (I was so excited for Cluur and Amy) Potter had asked for a pic with the sky as the background where I was below them, but the sky was really yucky so I changed to the grass as the background and standing above them. Rush found this place for me to stand that was really high up and in the bushes but it was fun climbing up there. This is cropped for how it was going on Tiger Times Online, so that's why it is really rectangular. I was using a 5D with the 24-105mm lens.

Pink out!

ISO: 1600  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/160

ISO: 2000  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/160

These pictures were taken at the pink out pep rally last friday. Our school was exploded with pink! I was running around like crazy that day, but it was so much fun and all worth it. I like these two pictures because they are  sharply in focus. The second one I wish you could see more of Haley's face. I was using the 5D and 24-105mm lens with a 580 flash. My flash was not cooperating with me very well so that was kinda frustrating, and I kept having to change my settings. I didn't know to get the flash on the 70mm with the rectangle beside it, you couldn't have the white reflector pulled out which I did, so I learned something new :) haha, but yeah I'm so glad to have learned that now

FIESTA!

ISO: 800  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/50

ISO:160  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/640

ISO: 160  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/500

Claire and I got to go to the hispanic heritage thing the other day at Texas A&M. At first I wasn't really excited about going, but it was so worth it. We got free food and it ended up being pretty cool. They did a lot of dancing as well. This was a great opportunity to get pictures of minority for the yearbook. The first picture is of them getting food (obviously) and the second is when the dancers were getting people from the audience to go dance with them. I like the excitement of the image but the building in the background is distracting and I wish it would disappear. The last picture is of the lady giving away t-shirts. I like that the shirt is in the air and people are reaching for it but it kinda blends in to the table in a way :/ However, this was a really fun assignment to shoot, and I got out of class for it which makes it all that much better!

Tyler Lee Football Game

ISO: 1250  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/320

ISO: 1000  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/125

ISO: 1250  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/80

These pictures are from the Tyler Lee game a couple weeks ago. It was not a good game. Every play was just like a huge dog pile so it was not good for taking pictures. Everything was turning out awful. The first picture would have been a decent one but our guy is not in focus. The red guy is. This was happening to all my pictures since our uniform is white and there wasn't the contrast needed to make it focus. After that and being all frustrated, I started to just take different pictures. On the second one, I was trying to make it where it was like drill team was watching color guard/ the band perform. The last image was just the coach giving plays. I was shooting this since the actual game was not going good at well. 

Volleyball

ISO: 2000  f/2.8  shutter speed: 1/320

I shot the jv volleyball game last night. We had to use on camera flash and the lighting in the gym sucks. I had to bump my ISO up to 2000 since the lighting is so bad. I was getting frustrated at this game as my images were not turning out good so I decided to try something different, so I went up the bleachers to get a pic of half the court that shows our whole team playing. I like the angle and the idea of this picture, but it's a little dark and grainy. The focus was driving me bonkers and what I pressed the shutter on to be in focus would not focus. I don't know what's happening to me and focus points. It's no bueno. So, yeah.