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.