Week 3

Sadly, I am already posting late!  This week I do have a valid excuse though since my 10 month old sneezed on me (well, directly in my mouth) and I have been fighting a nasty cold ever since.  I didn't have much energy to do photos over the weekend and today I sound terrible, but strangely feel better.  Anyway, I picked a subject that has provided a lot of joy recently, but then swapped it out for a last minute photo opportunity that caught my attention...

Originally I was going to post the photo of my new faucet - the one where water actually flowed with force!  Recently our water pressure in the kitchen and master shower have had issues.  We bought a new faucet and shower head and bingo!  We now have water pressure again.  In the meantime, we either need to clean out our hot water heater or replace it because it looks like there was possible build up that broke free and plugged up both areas.  Since this water heater has been around since 1988, I think it might be time.  Okay, I derailed ... photos.  Here is what I picked:

Photo Details:

Exposure time 1/100 sec, Aperture f/2.0, ISO 400, Focal Length 50 mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm, handheld

Why This Photo:
The end result was way more interesting than a running faucet (even though that made my life much happier).  I was about to run upstairs to process when I saw the candle and thought, "Huh, let me flip off the lights and see what I get."

Challenges/Lessons Learned:
Don't always stick to your plan - other random stuff may actually be better!

Carter Photo of the Week

Photo Details:
Exposure time 1/125 sec, Aperture f/1.6, ISO 400, Focal Length 50 mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm, handheld

Week 2

Living in the NW in the winter means that we have a LOT of rainy days where it is difficult to get outside to find interesting subject matter.  This week I embraced our schedule and decided that Little Ava's birthday party was the right venue to try to find the next photo.  I walked away with about a dozen shots that I would have considered for this blog and instead of sharing a Carter photo this week, I am going to share two photos from the party.  My winning shot:

Photo Details:

Exposure time 1/160 sec, Aperture f/1.4, ISO 400, Focal Length 50 mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm, handheld

Why this Photo?

This young lady was stunningly beautiful when photographed.  I like how she is looking directly at me in this moment and how the sunlight is playing off of her hair (in the rare moment where the sun did peek through).  She looks like an absolute angel and has almost an inquisitive challenge at the same time.  I added a tiny bit of light vignetting to the image to continue the halo look.

Challenges/Lessons Learned:
The lighting was tough as the sun keep peeking in and out, making the room quite a bit lighter or darker depending.  I need to get faster at adjusting my camera settings so that I can quickly adapt to new conditions.  Also, I love how much children move, but try to not be intrusive and keep up with the movement so that I can get their faces - this can be hard, but thankfully I will be able to gain a lot of experience here!

Substitute Carter Photo of the Week:

Here is an interesting example of a happy accident.  I didn't get my settings changed fast enough and ended up having a really dynamic backlit situation.  I like how this turned out as it shows a soft and sweet moment between mother and son.  I originally was going to do this in black and white, but ended up using the "Faded Foto" preset instead because I like how it brought out a soft color.

Photo Details:

Exposure time 1/80 sec, Aperture f/1.6, ISO 400, Focal Length 50 mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm, handheld

Week 1

I have a few lessons learned this week...  Not super crazy about what I ended up with, but here goes... this is from my Mom's Night Out at a Wine Bar on friday:

Photo details:
Exposure time 1/10 sec, Aperture f/1.4, ISO 800, Focal Length 50 mm, Lens Canon EF 50mm, tripod

Why this photo?
I took a few photos of just wine glasses together and one of wine glasses, an appetizer, and one of the moms in the background eating one of the apps - except I promised I wouldn't post any of people eating!  This one was more interesting with the horses head shown on the bottle and the food leading up to the drink.

Challenges:
LOW LOW light.  I brought a tripod with me knowing that it would likely be the case and knew that shooting people would be out unless I used a flash (which I was hoping not to).  I need to adjust the white balance on my camera to a custom setting, as it always comes out warmer than it should and I end up adjusting it after the fact in Lightroom.  Another challenge - trying to still be social while setting up and taking photos ... this is something that I will need to just get over.  I felt bad that I wasn't participating in the conversations while I was setting up and shooting and after the fact I really don't think that people minded.  Also - a monopod would have been nice as space was tight.

Lessons Learned This Week:
I need to take my camera everywhere with me.  I was driving into work on Thursday and the sunrise on Mount Rainier was beyond incredible.  It was hot pink across the entire mountain and I WISH I had my camera, as that would have made it as the photo of the week.  I got a new backpack camera bag for Christmas to allow for easier toting, so I shouldn't have that excuse anymore.

Carter Photo of the Week:

This may not be important or interesting to most people - but it is HUGE in our family!  Carter - our nine and a half month old toothless wonder - is FINALLY getting his first tooth and I had to wrestle with him to get this photo.  He was not very happy with me, wailing the entire time, but I can see the tooth & got a photo of it!

Photo details:
Exposure time 1/250 sec, Aperture f/5.6, ISO 800 (was so excited, forgot to change it until after the fact), Focal Length 55 mm, Lens Canon EFS 18-55mm kit, handheld with flash

Let 2010 Begin!

After spending a week full of long evenings filing and tagging all twenty five hundred photos I took in 2009 (and that was after I deleted all the crap ones), I feel finally ready to start photographing in 2010.  I probably should have called this blog "Project 104" because each week you will likely see a photo of my nine month old son as well as another photo that I took to actually learn from.  I know that my mother will be happy that I will devote at least one photo a week to him, hopefully the rest of you will enjoy it as well.

I have always admired people who can commit to taking and posting 365 photos in a year - I can't do it.  I can hardly remember what I ate for lunch yesterday let alone try to remember to take at least one photo a day.  I figured I would start with a managable one a week until I am able to quit my job and then pretend I actually have more time.

I am shooting with a Canon 40D (upgraded from my 20D last year) and have dreams of getting the Canon 5D Mark II someday, but I think that day is a long way off.  I am working on trying to get the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens first.  I told my husband I was willing to sell his body to get it - still don't have it unfortunately.  Read into that what you want ;-)

I do however have the Canon 50mm f/1.4 that I love, as well as the Canon 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6, Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 and then the kit 18-55mm.  I borrowed my brothers' Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L lens and fell in love with the L series.  Now I will beg, borrow, and steal to try to acquire them.

I will post my first photo for my weekly project by end of day Sunday, January 10th and will try to continue posting during that timeframe each week.  To start the year off right, here is a snapshot I took of Carter, my nine month old, on New Years morning.  It is hard work being this cute (and yes, the superman curl does that all on its own - we do not pose it).