shooting a couples engagement session is awesome

shooting your preschool friends engagement photos with his beautiful fiance

is the 

best.

so here is amber + matt

i may have been the one shooting them today

but

they freakin murdered it.

how do you like them apples, ay?

i showed a bit of this sort of style with mark + sarah’s montana wedding 

i’d say it’s a bit more relaxed.

no photo shop is used, i don’t really pose you, and it feels more like an experience rather than forced look.

let me know what you think.

 i asked “sam + grey” to come out and try this session with me.

they obliged (i mean who wouldn’t want free pictures, right?) ha.

and so this is them, being awesome.

i’ll have their whole story posted soon.

actually probably not their “whole” story but most of it. a glimpse, if you will.

i mean i know what you were up to, but man!

i have been shooting so many newborn sessions recently 

it’s crazy!

and incredible.

if i don’t say it enough,

thank you.

thank you for allowing me into your new world.

for allowing me the honor of capturing your miracle.

i truly do consider what i do an honor-you trust me enough to capture the most unique, special, and timeless moments in your life.

a perfect example of what i’m referring to, sweet little mika.

my favorite newborn photo to date: mika and her dad.

thank you, sarah + adam!

i am and always will be a nerd.

i’m fairly certain i wore my hair in a pony tail everyday- with bangs.

i wore overalls, the tommy hilfiger ones- please tell me you know that ones i’m talking about?!?

and i certainly thought it was awesome to stay after school to paint the periodic table on the wall in the chemistry lab

yep, i was that was me.

now take a look at paige- a sweetheart who is much cooler than me

ok let me give you a bit of background on this next picture.

we’re on the beach snapping away taking photos

up walks this guy.

“hey, can i take a picture with her and put it on my facebook?”

me: “um… that’s up to her”

paige being the sweetheart that she is, agreed.

i’m fairly certain she made this guys week.

i’m mean seriously, look at that grin

on a side note: if you are ever debating on whether or not you should have your hair and make-up professionally done for a photo shoot- do it.

the ladies at luca bella salon did an amazing job with paige!

one of our high school seniors.

but

i will.

you’ve been working hard everyday learning the ins and outs of your camera

so now we need to know how to actually line up the photo “properly”

the rule of thirds simply means you are supposed to visually “break down” an image when looking thru the viewfinder or LCD screen into 3rds.

both vertically and horizontally.

there is A LOT more that goes into this “rule” but we are just learning, right? so lets take it slow, slick.

i’ve grabbed a couple of quick samples for you to see what i am referring to. (why the visual? we are artists, everything has to be visual for us, duh.)

in these pictures i placed the subject in an area that i wanted to be a point of interest.

the reason i hesitate to post about the “rule of thirds” is because for me everyone sees an image differently and interprets it how they see it.

making them an artist, a storyteller, a memory keeper.

i understand there are still times when the rule of thirds should not be broken or should at least be taken into consideration… 

you know when you are out with your family at an amusement park or somewhere and you ask someone to take a photo of all of you?

you get the photo back and what happens?

you’re either super far away in the photo, your heads are cut off, or only half of you are in the photo.

ridiculous.

seriously, look through the camera and center it.

it shouldn’t be THAT hard, right?

on the other hand, you have your sweet little grandma having the time of her life at your wedding.

snapping away, photo after photo

nothing will be in focus

but who the heck cares?

that is why you hire me as your wedding photographer.

i’ll capture all your stellar dance moves AND

your sweet little grandma.

i will leave you with this advice for today:

take the time to look at your subject and the surroundings thru your viewfinder/LCD screen BEFORE you take the photo.

more than likely you are using a digital camera- you can take a million photos.

Why not take ONE and nail it?

let that 1 picture tell the story, not 60 million average pictures. do you get what i’m saying?

 enjoy seeing the change in your photos.

and of course

enjoy your weekend!

i hope so. otherwise you are still going to suck. ha.

next up

SHUTTER.

your shutter is what you are hearing from your camera when you take a photo.

you’ll find the shutter speed at the top of the camera next to your aperture (see the photo from yesterday’s blog)

the boring part is that your camera records shutter speeds in fractions of a second- since that is how quickly it opens and shuts.

it is the shutter that opens and closes for each photo

the quickness of your shutter opening and closing will depend on what you set your shutter speed to.

does that make sense?

the shutter is how long an image will be exposed to the camera.

a quick shutter would be somewhere around 4000 a slow shutter would be somewhere around 30.

the higher the number the faster the shutter.

the biggest thing that helped me learn about my shutter was listening to my shutter.

if i heard a long or slow sound when i was holding my camera then i knew for ME my shutter was too slow and therefore i needed to make it faster in order to keep my picture from being blurry.

it’s pretty simple, right?

let me give you a refresher before you get overwhelmed and quit reading- assuming you haven’t quit reading already

1. your ISO is treated like your film (remember when you would buy a roll of film and it would say 400 or 800 on it?) that is what your ISO is being set to

set your ISO low ( 100-400) when you are in bright places and bring it up higher when it is darker (800-2500)

2. your APERTURE determines the depth of field as well as and most importantly the amount of light that is let into your camera

the lower the number the more light that is allowed in

3. your SHUTTER determines how long the camera will be “open” and exposed to the subject

**in most cases i can not hold my camera when my shutter is below a 30th of second- i have terribly shakey hands so every photo turns out blurry.

try keeping your shutter around 500 and see how that works out for ya!

now get out there and put it all together!

start with something easy: a plant, tree, car, etc

*set your ISO

ask yourself (is it really bright outside? is my object in the shade? is it very dark?)

*set your APERTURE

determine if you would like the WHOLE object in focus or just the tip of the leaf/mirror of the car/etc

*then set your shutter

is your object moving?

NOW GET OUT THERE AND GET’M TIGER!