Volunteering to work with local organizations

    When the idea of working with the Girl Scouts for a portrait session first came up I have to admit I was a little intrigued at the idea and as I learned more I realized this was a great opportunity to take something I love and introduce and teach it to a younger generation. 

    It had been a while since I had the opportunity to get out the entire portrait studio and it was nice to see the interested faces of the young scouts as everything was taken out of the cases and set up. Due to limited amount of time I was only able to teach them a limited amount of stuff compared to what there is to learn, but it takes years to learn the art and it feels to me like I'm still learning every time I take my camera out.

Below is a couple of pictures from the shoot. No the last 2 pictures do not contain any seniors. The 1st is group photo of troop #2281

2nd My self and my daughter

3rd troop leader and her daughter

With this setup we were able to take the pictures and provide a print to the person within about 10 min with a limited amount of editing being done as I brought my computer and the printer. This had made many seniors that took advantage of this program very happy. I am hopeful that if we have an opportunity to do this again we will be able to expand the number we serve and make many more people happy.

Using Babies in Photo Shoots

One type of shoot that I personally find to be kind of challenging is shoots that involve babies. One hint that I can give is to be in a situation that can permit the use of a high shutter speed because the little creatures do not like to sit still for very long. In the shoot that I did I was out doors in the bright sun light that permitted me to use a low ISO (200) and a high shutter being sure to lessen the chance of motion blur as the baby moved swayed and otherwise tried to escape.

Another helpful piece of advice is to have another person there to actually entertain the baby and play with him. As the photographer this is something that is near impossible for you to do if you want to get the good pictures. Also like I have said before, with the digital age you do not have to worry about the cost of developing film so take lots of pictures. For the 7 pictures that I have on this post I selected them from over 100 pics that I had taken.

Also like I have said before, before posting pictures of children that are not yours, be sure you have permission.

So be sure as summer is approaching to get out and enjoy the great weather and take your camera with you to take some great pictures. If you have suggestions for future topics please leave them in the comments below.

Idaho Falls (The Falls)

About a week ago I had the opportunity to takeoff as a family for a little vacation to Idaho Falls. There I found some great opportunities for pictures at the falls. I thought that today I will take a moment and share some of the pictures from that trip. I hope everyone had a great summer and had a great opportunity to take pictures. Now that fall is starting to show up there is going to be more opportunities for pictures involving many colors. which for those to start anytime around you if they haven't already. Feel free to share pictures you may have of fall colors in your area as they start to arrive. Fall for for photography may be one of my favorites.

Air Show Part 2

A few weeks ago I went to an air show in Great Falls Montana. For this post I wanted to share some more pictures from the air show. This time the pictures are some of the static displays from the show including the B-1 Bomber. It is always fascinating to get to go to events such as this. With this event they made it so that we could see military equipment from the Army, Air Force, and Navy.

So if you have an opportunity to go to any type of military show or air show these are great places to be able to take pictures. Other festivals and events that may be occurring in your area including fairs if there is still any going on near you are also fun places to practice taking pictures.

So when you have a chance go out, take advantage of what is happening around you for opportunities to take pictures, and be sure to have fun while doing it. Photography is all about having fun, especially if you have family that you can take with you, and enjoying the outdoors.

Army

Navy

Air Force

Wonders for editing

Can you believe it's already August. That means fall is just around the corner and a whole new world for pictures with the wonderful variety of colors. But that is not for a little while yet.

Today we are going to look at editing once again. There has been one program that since I have started writing this blog I have learned a lot about how to use and it can make large differences in the finished images. These pictures are not some examples of some of my better stuff but it is a good example of what Light Room can do. This is a program that I checked out a text book from the library to help better learn the program. Below is some before and after edit examples to show what can be done. 

For those without access to Adobe Light Room other free editing programs can do similar stuff but I can't say to how great an effect. 

So till next time continue to enjoy your summer and be sure to take your camera because you never know where that next great picture may be.

Before - Under exposed image                                                            After - with corrections

 Before - again Under exposed Try to find the dragon fly.

                                                                                          After - Cropped and exposure adjusted                

                                                                                                  unfortunately the dragonfly is blurry. Try photographing one sometime its a challenge. 

Before - some areas under exposed some over exposed                

    After - Able to adjust different    

                                                                                                      area while brightening the shadows        

So as you can see a bad picture that you take does not mean it is destined for the recycle bin. It may take some time and little work but images can be salvaged.

Great Falls Air Show

Over the weekend I had an opportunity to go to an air show featuring the United States Air Force Thunderbirds, which provides great opportunities for photography. Whether it is planes on the ground set up for people to look at or looking towards the skies for high flying acrobatics and aerial stunts. One of the trickiest parts to photographing an air show is the speed which the planes are moving providing the challenge of tracking a plane that may be moving at 300+mph and having your shutter speed set right to be able to freeze the object for a clear picture. The other big challenge is trying to focus at that speed. This is a situation where auto focus can be both your friend and enemy. I'll discuss tricks that I used for focusing on objects in a field of blue in future posts. So if you have a chance to check out an air show I would highly recommend it. If you want to see the Thunderbirds who put on a spectacular show check out the link above to see where the closest show to you may be.

Be sure to enjoy your summer and take your camera with you. Even if you are not planning to take pictures you may find that you want to. So go out take lots of pictures and as always be sure to always be safe in your activities. 

Rule of Thirds

When you go out and take photos a rule to remember to help compose your pictures is known as "The Rule of Thirds". Dispite the fact that you may feel that the subject of your photo should be centered, if the subject is located in one of the thirds, it will help the image provide parts of the story, as in showing a subject entering from one side or leaving towards another side. If you check the menu on your camera you may find the your camera has a setting to display a grid to help you see your screen in thirds to help you visualize the rule to help use it in your photography. 

Next time you are out taking pictures try experimenting with positioning including the use of the rule of thirds and see what this can do for you photography. 

So grab your camera and head out and take pictures and remember to always be safe in you photography activities.  

Here is some examples of how the Rule of Thirds can be used,

With this picture you can see how the plane is taking up the left 2/3 of the image leaving the right 1/3 for you to visualize the plane to move into knowing it is about to take off.

In this picture, it is broken in to 3 parts. The right 1/3 of the Fram has the jeep driving out of the frame while in the center 1/3 you have a plane moving from left to right. This can be told by the left 1/3 of the from being empty showing everything in motion to the right of the image

Some times when you are photographing fast moving objects the Rule of Thirds is hard to get. Even if objects are centered sometimes it can still make for nice pictures such as the one above. The trick is you just don't want to shoot every picture centered. Try experimenting, you may be amazed at what this one little trick can do.