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.