November, 2011

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School Pictures

Friday, November 18th, 2011

Our daughter’s school pictures came in yesterday. I always hated picture day and never liked any of my school pictures. Our daughter’s turned out well. She has this faked, force smile on her face – or maybe she is saying ‘cheese’ – either way it is very unnatural. But she is still adorable – fake smile and all. When I showed the pictures to my husband, he replied that it reminded him of himself at that age (shocker since everything our child does reminds him of himself). Now here is the funny part. He said that he would have to teach her how to smile for pictures. Now from the day she was born, she has been the star of 99% of every photo I have snapped. The other 1% – as you can tell from the archives – is of cats and nature. So the girl knows how to smile for a picture. Of course I will have to say that a lot of photos I have of her she isn’t smiling. But she can certainly smile on demand.

It just struck me as hilarious that he was going to teach her how to smile for pictures. She can smile for pictures. Sometimes she does give her goofy smile and then I persuade her to smile more naturally. This I feel is the photographer’s job to get the best smile from their subject. However, I know that school pictures they run the kids through like cattle – so a bad picture is usually the result. Also in my daughter’s defense, I have never taken her to get her photo professionally done. Between the pictures I take and my talented sister-in-law, I have enough professional quality-looking photos of her.

Here is the picture in question. It’s not bad. She still is quite adorable.

Posted in Kids | No Responses »

Oak Tree

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

One of the tips I have recently learned about photography is using existing frames as part of the picture like an archway or other structure that could frame your photo. I used this one that is holding a grapevine to serve as a frame for the red oak tree. I had to get low to the ground – which was difficult since the dog took that as a sign that I wanted to be licked and loved.

I will try this technique again with other subjects. I had taken a few at the pumpkin patch that I will share later.

Posted in Nature | No Responses »

Pumpkin Patch

Monday, November 7th, 2011

Friday was my daughter’s field trip to the pumpkin patch. I decided that it would be fun to go along and after reading through two photograph lessons from the HP learning center, I was eager to take some photos using what I had learned.

This photo I was trying to apply the rule of thirds where you imagine drawing off your picture into thirds – vertical and horizontal. At the points that these line intersect are supposed to be points of interest – where you want to try to place your main subject. So with this picture is what I tried to do with the tractor. I like the picture but not sure. I think the tractor should be smaller to really represent the rule of thirds.

It was very cold that day. Thankful to get the pictures I did get while I could still feel my fingers.

Posted in Nature | No Responses »

HP Photo Classes

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

One learning community that I love is the HP Learning Center. Classes are free and they offer a somewhat broad range of topics. Mostly the topics center around business – as would be expected. They do have several classes on photography. I decided that it is high time I start learning more about this hobby that I love.

I want to take memorable pictures – and arrogant as I am(or that’s what I’m calling it) I thought that just by doing that I would learn. I’ve been humbled and now believe that it is very important to read advice and learn more about the things you care about from other perspectives. I can’t know it all and it’s just plain crazy to think I will magically become good at something if I just snap a lot of photos without thinking about it. I am ready to start learning and applying that to my photography.

So if you want to learn more about photography, you should check out the HP Learning Center. I’m taking Beyond basics: Fundamental photography techniques. I just finished lesson 2 (of 4) and can’t wait to apply what I’ve learned so far this weekend as we are going back to the pumpkin patch Friday and the Ren Fest on Saturday. Both events should present many photo-worthy moments.

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