This month my challenge was to tell a story. A friend of mine, her fiancé, and their dog (who I call Honey Fluff) were able to help me out with this. Ironically, the story turned out to reflect their love for one another, which is so fitting what with Valentine’s Day still on so many people’s minds. We recently had some incredibly nice weather for this time of year, so we decided to take a walk in the park. I didn’t feel the immediate urge to “GET THE SHOT” like I’ve often felt before. I really felt calm and enjoyed catching up with them and realized I’d get the shot eventually, so I didn’t need to stress about it. After about an hour or so, we wound up in a small grove out of the way of other people. I sat them down on a log and Honey Fluff sat in between. It’s always a little difficult when shooting pets, but my friend brought treats along, and we were able to distract her with them to get some great images. This month I didn’t so much learn a technique, but I did gain an even […]
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Let me preface this by saying yes I fell for the hype. I had been using my trusty 40mm pancake lens for years now but I kept seeing this “nifty fifty” everywhere. Seeing how inexpensive it was, I thought heck, why not give it a try? I was not as amazed as many online voices seemed to be. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great little lens (that’s far better than the 18-55mm zoom that comes with most entry level rebels) but it didn’t give me the WOW factor that I had expected. In hindsight, I think I should have just waited and saved up a bit more to get the 50mm 1.4, but I’ll just plan on upgrading later once I have another camera body. I should also note that these are my experiences with my T3i. Things may be different on a newer cropped sensor or full frame body. So with that back story out of the way, I’ll list pros & cons of this lens and share my final thoughts. PROS -The focal length causes no distortion -The ability to have a shallower depth of field and congruently creamier looking […]
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In the same way I took a topsy-turvy path to find my love for photography, I also stumbled upon my overall “style”. I tell you it was difficult. At first I was just snapping away enjoying the life with no real rhyme or reason. I even did minimal editing because I wanted to keep that candid look. Pff, that sort of candid looked like anyone with a camera and an idea shot it. And there were still remnants of yellow… blech. I continued to shoot my editorials, but there wasn’t a particular editing style bringing them together. Once I made the decision that photography was more than an additional skill I possessed, I decided to look outwards for advice. I read countless articles on how to find your style and many of them had more or less vague suggestions to “just keep shooting and it will come to you.” These were not the words I was looking for. But I went with it, since that’s all I really could do. I still had my beloved Pinterest board to inspire me as well, so it wasn’t the end of the world. I knew what types […]
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This month’s challenge was to use two concepts from Lindsay’s book: have your subject in the frame multiple times & shoot through crystal. I wanted to continue along with my Holy series, so with those specific techniques in mind, I knew this was the perfect opportunity to tackle my ‘Trinity” shoot. As the name suggests, I wanted to capture the The Father, The Son, & The Holy Spirit all in frame. Now this could be easily achieved in post by cloning my model two more times, but that would take away the challenge of trying something new. So I brought a few different materials that might give me my desired effect. Here are a few images and what I learned from each iteration. I found that although the crystal did split up his image, it wasn’t exactly what I wanted (I think the crystal was too small.) So I experimented further with other materials like a metal mesh-like candle holder. This gave an awesome texture that framed him, but it wasn’t glass, so he wasn’t multiplied. I tried by having my model move his head while I had a slow shutter speed. Though […]
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Sometimes, creative juices dry up and we find ourselves wishing we had projects to work on. We could mope about in the world, slice off the nearest passerby’s arm, then run and hide in a cave somewhere OR we could throw the mope aside and loudly proclaim, “IT’S CHALLENGE TIME!” I’m personally going to go with the latter. Specifically I am drawing inspiration from the 52 week challenge envisioned by Lindsay Adler. She is an amazing photographer with a very clear vision and has the great ability to teach others. I highly recommend you check her out if you haven’t already heard of her. Alright enough fangirling, back to the post. During the time of me trying to define my brand/find my style, I stumbled across her book and was quite curious. With her challenge she had specific techniques or solutions that she wanted the shoot to answer. She planned a different challenge for each week of a year. But, considering I have a full time job and don’t have access to an endless supply of models, I’m going to modify this challenge and make it a monthly one. A couple years ago, […]
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It all began with a youtube video. I know, sounds strange, but the path that ultimately led me to becoming a photographer was not straightforward at all. Back when I was in highschool, a junior or so, I loved watching youtube videos.] Like…everyday for multiple hours a day. Because in 2009 that was still relevant. I remember thinking that the people I watched seemed to be having so much fun making these videos. I knew viewers like me enjoyed watching them, so I decided that I wanted to start making my own videos as well. I began on a “trusty” point-n-shoot canon powershoot that was hand-me-downed from my dad. The quality was questionable of course, but I was having fun and that’s what really inspired me in the beginning. I wanted to answer questions and help people, but in a humorous way. Eventually I started to include more fashion and natural hair videos to help & inspire people too. (In case anyone is interested, my youtube username is ShekinahShazaam and there’s still a bit of content on there.) I haven’t made a video in quite some time partly due to my aging macbook’s weakness with […]
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