Week 10

Finding time for photography weekly is becoming more and more of a challenge. Our lives are so incredibly busy, especially this time of year, that the demands of work and home end up taking precedence. This week’s photo is a cute one of Carter as he played peek-a-boo in our tall recycling can.

Photo Details:
Exposure time 1/200 sec, Aperture f/1.8 ISO 200, Focal Length 50 mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm

Why This Photo:
This is the best one that I took out of the dozen or so that I shot.

Challenges/Lessons Learned:
I had a “duh” moment last week as I was thinking through some of my earlier photography where Carter’s cheeks has a slight graininess to them. The ISO was set too high, contributing to that, so now I am trying to keep my ISO under 400 if at all possible. With this particular photo, I put the can next to our sliding glass door to get good natural light, but the end result was blowing out the exposure on one side of Carters face, and a shadow on the other. While I don’t mind some over exposure and shadow for interesting photos, this one is too much. I needed to adjust my settings for less light next time (ideally the Aperture so that my depth of field was just a bit more).

Week 9

I passed my stomach virus along to Jeremy this week, so I ended up flying solo with Carter to my Uncle Al's 75th Birthday party.  I am REALLY happy with my backpack camera bag, especially when I have a baby bag strapped over my head and a kid and blanket in my arms!  Anywho, here is an adorable shot of Grandpa and Carter, hanging out at the party.

Photo Details:
Exposure time 1/250 sec, Aperture f/2.8 ISO 400, Focal Length 50 mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm, handheld with flash bounced off of ceiling.

Why This Photo:
I finally got a really good photo of Grandpa with Carter, of course I had to post that!

Challenges/Lessons Learned:
Getting the lighting right was a challenge, I still am not confident with a flash.  The left side of Grandpa's face was in a shadow from how I bounced the light, so I had to adjust the exposure post-processing.  Also there was a person above Carter's head in the background that I tried to pull out.  I am really loving Lightroom!

Week 8

Nuthin.  Sorry, I have nothing to post for this week - we were battling a stomach virus, I had to travel for work and sadly, photos were not taking priority this week. 

Week 7

This weekend was beautiful - Spring weather in February, which makes me love El Nino!  We got into the 60s and what better way to spend the time than playing in the park.  Lots of challenges this week because the right time of day to get Carter to have fun was the absolute wrong time of day for lighting ... harsh high noon!  Hope you enjoy the end result!

Photo Details:
Exposure time 1/2500 sec, Aperture f/4.5 ISO 400, Focal Length 50 mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm, handheld

Why This Photo:
Carter is such a little man now, this was really fun to see he and daddy walking together.

Challenges/Lessons Learned:
There was a bike and a sweatshirt and a bunch of white lines in the background.  I pulled them out so the background wasn't as cluttered and tried a few different treatments before landing here.

Photo Details:
Exposure time 1/320 sec, Aperture f/3.5 ISO 400, Focal Length 50 mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm, handheld

Why This Photo:
The background color was great - nice & bright and made Carter's eyes look even bluer.

Challenges/Lessons Learned:
He was sitting in the shade and it was really difficult to get the right exposure, not to mention if he stood up, half his head was in the sun!  I am getting faster at flipping through shutter speeds to get the correct exposure for him.

Week 6

This weekend ended up being extremely busy for us - I played in a mother-daughter soccer tournament that would have been wonderful to take some photos during, except it was raining the whole time and I ended up playing way more than I expected.  Valentine's day was then spent running around and I forgot my camera at home.  I did take some photos of Carter eating lunch like a big boy in a restaurant with my iphone, but they weren't necessarily post worthy.

So that means this week I will just post a Carter photo, taken in the morning light.

Photo Details:

Exposure time 1/100 sec, Aperture f/2.8 ISO 400, Focal Length 50 mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm, handheld

Why This Photo:
What is not to love about this photo? (Such a proud mama)

Challenges/Lessons Learned:
I usually shoot in bursts - lots of the same shot or as he is moving around.  I tend to throw away 90% of them, but that is why I love digital.

Week 5

Now that we have a child, we are learning that you end up going to at least one birthday party a month.  This month it was for the twin boys in our neighborhood (they are about 6 weeks older than Carter).  Nothing better than messy frosting on your first birthday!

Photo Details:
Exposure time 1/60 sec, Aperture f/1.4 ISO 400, Focal Length 50 mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm, handheld


Why This Photo:
LOVE Nate's eyes and the color of the frosting and his bib.  The expression on his face is so serious, like he is trying to figure out what the heck was going on.


Challenges/Lessons Learned:
For this shot I used natural light, the rest of the shots I used with a flash.  While I prefer natural light shots more, I need to start working more with the flash!

Carter Photo Of The Week:

It's all about Superbowl and here is my handsome man enjoying the game in his Seahawks jersey!

Photo Details:
Exposure time 1/80 sec, Aperture f/1.8 ISO 400, Focal Length 50 mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm, handheld

Week 4

I have three VERY late posts - one of the bi-products of working full time is that when things get busy, this is the first thing to slide.

The photo from this week is from our cabin.  Fish Lake froze over (despite the warmer winter - we had one good spell of very cold weather that resulted in a deep freeze for the lake).  Ice Fishing is quite the sport in the winter time up here - the fishermen use an auger to drill through the ice and create their own little fishing hole.

Photo Details:

Exposure time 1/640 sec, Aperture f/13, ISO 400, Focal Length 300 mm, Lens Canon EF 70-300mm, F4-5.6, handheld

Why This Photo:
I tried using my zoom lens to see what would happen here - the fishermen were so far away, that I wanted to try to show some perspective of distance, while still being able to maintain a little detail.

Challenges/Lessons Learned:
Snow photography is tricky - I kept messing with my metering modes to explore how to best get some detail without blowing out the photo.

Carter Photo of the Week:

Daddy and son sleeping on the couch at the cabin - so precious!

Photo Details:

Exposure time 1/100 sec, Aperture f/1.4, ISO 400, Focal Length 50 mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm, handheld