Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Monday, October 22, 2012

quiet & inquisitive




:)


Sunday, October 21, 2012

BIG DADDY Phone Dump!


I knew it had been too long since I last downloaded my iPhone photos. I admit, though, I was a bit surprised that there were over 1100 of them! That took a while.

I'm still thinking a lot about composition these days, and as I looked at my instagrams, I thought - you know, Instagram is a wonderful thing. It forces you to squeeze a story into a 2" square and a caption. I think that's helped me improve my dslr shots. Looking for interesting lines, using the background/foreground, arranging things for a balanced whole... I've been working on composition while only half realizing it!

It's been a crazy fall. Full but full of good things. From this point on, though, it looks like we'll have a little breather before the holidays. So needed.

Here's the fall so far, via Instagram. Enjoy!






















































See? I told you it was a big ol' phone dump.

My instagram feed is private, but if you're interested in following me, just send me an email (jamandsacky@yahoo.com) with a link to a blog or some kind of online presence proving to me that you're not a weirdo with a sketchy plan, and I'll give you my Instagram username :) Easy.

Peace!


Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Composition


I mentioned last week that I'm taking Ashley Ann's current SnapShops course. It's already been great so far and we're only a few days in. I'm looking forward to the class getting more interactive as more of my "classmates" share their practice photos. I've had my camera out each day this week, trying to implement the principles Ashley is teaching.

Today was a great chance to try to work through the material covered so far. It was a gorgeous day here in sunny Ohio! It was the perfect day for an adventure at a local nature park.



The sun was too strong for decent photos in a lot of spots, but there was enough partial shade to work with here and there. It was good practice just to keep my eye on the lookout for optimal lighting conditions or to try to manipulate the harsher light a little when I could, like with backlighting.





My goal with today's photos wasn't so much to "tell a story"... I was just focusing on composition practice. So, there isn't really a whole lot of continuity between photos, except for location and my kids!



If you're visiting my blog from the class (first of all - hi!), I should mention that these photos were shot in manual and they were post-processed... edited. Sometimes, significantly. Like the photo above. That's a post-processing crop. I am no where near ready to crop like this straight out of camera. I was just trying to get something in focus! I cropped it later to get it composed the way I wanted it.



That's my niece, Lulu. My sister and her crew joined up with us :)



Second verse... same as the first.



Of course, my own sweet baby was there, too. But, whenever she was out of the stroller, she insisted on being in the direct sunlight. Except for these shots that I somehow weasled out of her...







Oops. I think I just snuck in "storytelling" with that one!





Love this one, especially. It just kind of happened. I didn't tell him to climb up there. I was trying to get a shot of Punkin by herself. Kids are creative!



And... last one. My boy. My boy who needs a haircut.



Just so you know, I took 196 photos today. 1.9.6. And I only kept 50 after seeing them on my laptop. And of the 50, these are the ones I liked best. Just keeping it real.

And that's that! Alright... next post, I'm in the mood for a legit phone dump!

Later taters.