Why am I doing this?

You may wonder what the purpose of this blog is. You have seen thousands of photography blogs, some with useful information, others with amazing photos...others that just make  you smile.

The purpose of my blog is purely selfish. It is a way for me to document my adventures in learning all that I can about the art of  photography. As a relative newbie to the field, I still  have so much to learn. In fact, I am on a quest....to know as much as I can....to better myself as a photographer. 

This passion not only applies to my hobby, but also to my family. I want to share stories, images and informative bits about being a mother and a wife.

So considering my purpose for this blog is mainly about growth, both professionally (semi) and personally, I thought I would share my first photo I took with my beloved Canon EOS 40D and the most recent. This is to compare how I have grown...if at all!

 

A portrait of my daughter taken when I first got my DSLR. Sure she is cute....I know that. But the light on her face was too harsh and too much strong shadow. I think that she also competes with the background which is not good in a portrait. Your subject should be the focus, not the background. Another problem I had at the time of taking this photo was that I would only use the automatic settings and only shot in JPEG format. In post processing, the only conversion to black and white that I knew how to do was greyscale conversion, hence the flat look of the picture.

 

Here is a portrait I shot recently of a little boy. In shooting this shot, I did quite a few things differently. I chose a better time of day to shoot, in this case it was nearing sunset. I also used some fill light (when needed) to brighten any shadows on his face. I did not 'force' him to pose. I just followed him around and chatted with  him. We became good buddies and just before I shot this pic, he gave me a big wet leaf as a gift....the coy grin was the result of his being pleased with himself. In post processing I used Photoshop and adjusted levels, curves and added a tint. The end was a much richer black and white image.

Neither shot is perfect...certainly not pro quality (although my 5 year old shoots better than some so called pro's). But I have learned alot about how to make an image look better.....mostly!