Basketball...with no strobes

ISO: 1600 f/2.8 shutter speed: 1/250

         So yes this is from a little while ago, but I haven't done anything with it yet. This was my little brothers championship game and I came straight from shooting an assignment so I had gear in my car, so at half time I went out to my car to grab a camera so my mom could have pictures of Matt playing basketball. The gym was very dark and I couldn't use flash or strobes so yea, I now have some grainy pictures. I bumped my ISO up and luckily had a f/2.8 lens and for the most part tried to keep my shutter speed as high as possible. This picture turned out alright for my circumstances but I definitely had to bring up my exposure in Lightroom and I de-noised it some and brought the clarity up a little bit. I was using a 17-50mm lens which was really nice and since I didn't have strobes I was able to move around more which was very helpful. For this picture, for example, I was sitting on the sidelines, like literally right on the line. This isn't the best, but it's not terrible and it'll please my mom so that's good.

Birdies :)

ISO: 160 f/4.0 shutter speed: 1/1250

ISO: 160 f/4.0 shutter speed: 1/1250

ISO: 160 f/4.0 shutter speed: 1/1250

          So these pictures are from when I went to Mexico back in February, I just haven't taken the time to process any of the pictures I took then until recently. Well, I really only processed a couple for blogs and haven't had time to finish the rest yet. I'll get to them eventually. Anyways, we were walking down the beach right before a storm and we went out on this deck and there were birds everywhere. I had a 17-50mm lens so I was trying to walk really really quietly and slowly so they wouldn't all fly away. Most of them did, but several stayed so I was taking pictures while slowly walking closer. I really wish that the top of the post was wood and not that ugly metal thing because that just really bothers me and makes it meh. I had a hard time white balancing these because of the color of the ocean and the sky and yea it just didn't want to look right for me, but I did the best I could. I think my favorite of these is the last one just because it has the wood and rope and it's not just an ugly, metal thing with bird poop all on it.

          

From a little while back

ISO: 200  f/7.1  shutter speed: 1/800

         This was taken while in Colorado over Christmas break. I was snowboarding with a camera around my neck for a couple runs one day. (Probably not the smartest idea since I'm a newbie snowboarder aka not good) Anyways, I was following my brother and sister to try and get some pictures of them. At one point they were ahead of me and so they sat down to wait on my catch up. I saw them sitting there like that and decided to stop behind them and capture them. I really wish I could have been lower down but we were on a mountain meaning I was on higher ground than them so there's not really anything I could have done about that. I wish my sister's jacket didn't blend in with the snow/mountain so much but that was not in my control either haha. Anyways, I still like this image and am glad I took the risk of carrying a camera while snowboarding.

Baby Shower

ISO: 800  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/50

ISO: 800  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/50

ISO: 2000  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/40

ISO: 800  f/5.6  shutter speed: 1/125

          So Alex's baby shower was at our house and my mom kept asking me to get some pictures of it. The first two pictures are of tables and how they were set up. My mom wanted a picture of those to remember how they were set up so she could refer to them for future when she needs to decorate again. (A friend set up at our house for the baby shower.) In both of them I had to use natural light to my advantage and use as much of it as possible. The first one, I think I went and opened the blinds a little to get some more light because it was dark. I couldn't decide the best way to get the table to be able to see everything, well I take that back I thought the best was would be from above but I didn't have a way to get high enough so i just went with if the table had eyes- it's eye level. I have several other pictures for my mom's sake that are not on here so don't worry, there are some close ups. For the 2nd table it was super dark and then someone walked in the house and when they opened the door it helped tremendously so I kept it open for a couple minutes, took a picture then closed it.

         Oh goodness gracious. The next picture (3rd) was just not working very well for me. Talk about mini catastrophe (mainly because all of the hostess' wanted this picture). It was super dark, I was without flash and I already had run my ISO way up. I didn't have a f/2.8 lens and I wasn't about to use pop-up flash. So I help really still and did what I could with what I had. And oh my freakin goodness. I just realized something terrible. Terribly terrible. I did have a falsh. I had gear for something else that night and I had a flash! I could have used that, I could have avoided all the awfulness of this picture. I could have had a lot better image without trying to bring the exposure up and fill light and all that. AHHH! Why did I not realize this at the time. :(

          And for the last image. I just couldn't resist putting it up. It cracks me up and describes their personalities perfectly. They are all sisters and I was getting a picture of the 3 of them together with the Middle Sister wine bottle or something like that. Anyways, they started talking and someone said something and they all reacted. I really like this picture and it makes me laugh every time.

Pregnancy Pictures

ISO: 200  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/250

ISO: 200  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/500

ISO: 200  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/320

          One of our good friends, Alex Benefield White, is pregnant and due this summer (so exciting!). She didn't want to do the whole maternity photo shoot thing, but in her baby book is a place for a picture of Alex pregnant, so she asked me if I would take a couple pictures of her the other day. She had an idea of what she wanted which was good because other wise I wouldn't have known how to pose her. The sun was not very cooperative when I was taking them, but I did the best with what I had. In the first picture, I really wish I would have moved to the left so the bright, white sky wouldn't be in the picture. (Of course I would notice that now and not then.) In the second one, yes I know the background is bright, but it actually doesn't bother me for this particular image. Looking at it though, if I were to do it again, I would have angled her a little more towards me so you could see more of her left arm instead of just her left hand. However, at first her left hand wasn't there and she didn't look pregnant so it's a good thing we noticed that and had her put her hand there. And the last picture took a couple minutes of trying to not make them look awkward. At first, Alex's eyes were closed which just looked weird, then she turned her head which also looked weird but finally she just opened her eyes and looked at Cody (her husband) which looks so much better. Oh and also at first her left hand was up by her right hand which again made her not look pregnant rather just bigger than she is (well was before she was pregnant and will be again after she has the baby). Anyways, these were my favorite of the pictures I got of her.

Portraiture is difficult

ISO: 400  f.4.0  shutter speed: 1/1000

ISO: 400  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/1000

ISO: 400  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/1000

           So Paige asked me to take her senior pictures and I told her I would. I have never really done portrait/people since my main focus has always been action shots so this was a new challenge for me. I am not used to having to worry about my subject so much so there were a lot of picture I had to delete because of things I didn't think to tell Paige. In all of my pictures I didn't worry about the background first which made my editing process go a lot slower. I had to go through with a brush tool and burn down the background and brighten Paige to make her stand off a little better. The first picture I really like of her except for the fact that her hand is holding her ear. Perfect example of me not being used to having to worry about those types of things. I really wish I would have noticed that and told her to move her hands. The second picture I just think is really cute. She was laughing at something her mom said. And the last picture I really liked since she wasn't aware I was taking a picture, but I had to crop it not to my liking because Woodsies leg was in the frame. (Woods went with me.) Her mom really wanted Paige sitting in the flowers and I like the look on her face in that picture since it is very natural and not at all forced. Her face, however, is also a little dark since it is in the shadows; I still like this picture though. I used a 7D and a 70-200mm lens for these pictures, and Smith told me (after I finished of course) that I should have scooted back and been zoomed in all the way or not been zoomed in at all. While I may not have done the best job, it was a great learning experience for me and thankfully her mom was very happy with the pictures.

Nail Polish

The set up:

ISO: 100  f/5.6  shutter speed: 1/200

The doesn't want to drip except green shot:

ISO: 100  f/5.6  shutter speed: 1/200

The accidental advertisement shot:

ISO: 100  f/5.6  shutter speed: 1/200

The of course the ugly color would drip all over shot:

ISO: 100  f/5.6  shutter speed: 1/200

          So I was on Pinterest the other day looking at still life images since we had been questioning what exactly still life is during class. I came across an image of nail polish stacked with drips coming out that I really liked so I decided to try and re-create it. What Pinterest neglected to tell me, though, was that getting bottles to stack is not easy and getting them to drip how you want is even harder. The photography part of this was the easiest. The first picture is zoomed out and my set up. I stacked books and taped white paper to them and set the nail polish up on that. I didn't have a lot of time, so the paper taping is not perfect and that shows especially in the last picture where you can see the shadow of overlapping paper easily. That really bothers me. Ugh. Anyways, one of the first major problems I came across was getting the nail polish to stack. I tried and tried and tried and they just wouldn't stay until Smith finally found sticky-tack. That stuff works miracles. Except for the fact that it is blue and you can see it in some of the pictures. Once I finally got them to stack I got my settings on my camera and was all ready and took of the lids and crap. They all had different amounts in them meaning some bottles weren't dripping or even close to dripping and others were flowing profusely. Example: 2nd picture. The green came flowing out and there was no stopping it. Well great. I'm no expert with nail polish and it didn't want to cooperate with me whatsoever. Woodsies helped me try to clean up and tip over at the right time to get a better image and thank goodness for her help. The third picture was kind of an accident shot. I was taking the picture, Woods just wasn't ready to flip the green back over, but I ended up liking it. If that was done a little better it could be an advertisement picture. Ok, well I guess if it was done a lot better but you get the idea. I just like how you can see Essie (the brand name) and then there is other nail polish all around it and there just so happens to be a puddle of green. 

         Anyways, I had fun taking these pictures, but they are by no means anywhere close to perfect. I was using a 5D with a 24-105mm lens and I had a flash off to the right angling down. If I were to do this again, I would move the flash to change the shadows (they bother me) and I would have to get some different bottles of nail polish that might be a little more cooperative with me so I could get the drips how I wanted.