Third place!
Thanks to Olea & Adam for being such great models.
I know I’m tooting my own horn but it’s such a nice way to start my weekend. I wanted to share it you, my friends.
Obligatory MomShot for the day. It reminds me of warmth and summer.
60mm, shutter speed: 1/2000, f/2.8
Processed with PW’s action Define & Sharpen and Totally Rad Action (TRA) Cinnamon Toast at 70%
So I was thinking that I need to remind myself to get the camera out every single day and practice what I am learning. Maybe you need a reminder to take a MomShot every day too. Maybe not. Thinking about learning how to use our cameras and thinking about what makes a great photograph is nice but unless we actually get out our cameras and take those MomShots, we are not going to progress as fast as we’d like.
Some people are involved in projects like the 365 Project. That is where you take a photo every single day for a year. Can you do that? Personally, that’s too much pressure for me right now. I know I will miss days and then I’ll probably end up abandoning the whole project. That’s setting myself up for failure and I don’t like that. However, I could probably do a 52-Project or something less demanding. A photo a week is better than nothing, right? I DO take more than one photo a week so right there I know I’d be OK.
I am going on a road trip next week. My sister and I are going to drive up to Bellingham, Washington to visit our parents. It’ll just be me, my boys and my sisters. We are going to have a blast. While I am gone, I plan on getting out my camera every day and taking a MomShot. I always find inspiration when I travel, it’s the nature of going to new places. I’m excited.
I think I am going to do a MomShot a Day Project for the time I am gone. I’ll try to post them as the week progresses. Anyone want to participate with me? We could put them in a special Flickr group if that works for you. Let me know. Its always fun to have company!
So after talking about how I was going to write this post, the actual post is going to be like those stories your friends start to tell you and then end up stopping in the middle. You are anticipating the ending for a few days and you ask about it and they say they’ll tell you later. Then when they finally do tell you, the story is not even as funny or as exciting as you had it built up in your mind. Anyway, here you go… 
The subject is Catchlights.
The message is to look for them and photograph them.
So backing up, some of you may be asking what a catchlight is.
“Jessica, please tell me what exactly a catchlight is. I keep reading this word but I’m not sure I know what it is.” There, I asked the question for you.
Well, a catchlight is simply the reflection of your light source on your subject’s eyeballs. As fun a word as eyeballs are, catchlights are even more fun. I say that because catchlights can come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors. They can be the blue screen of a computer monitor, the yellow light of the sun shining through a window, the reflection of your flash or the glint of a birthday candle or like in one of Luann’s example the reflection of a hot air balloon. Sometimes, when looking closely, you can see the your own self portrait.
…Catchlight is a photography term used to describe either the specular highlight in a subject’s eye from a light source, or the light source itself. They are also referred to as eye lights or Obies, the latter a reference to Merle Oberon, who was frequently lit using this technique. A catch light may be an artifact of the lighting method, or have been purposely engineered to add a glint or “spark” to a subject’s eye during photography. This technique is useful in both still and motion picture photography. Adding a catch light can help draw attention to the subject’s eyes, which may otherwise get lost among other elements in the scene.
One of the results of a photo that has catchlights is that it gives your shot more dimension and depth. Catchlights help the photo not look so flat. They help to bring your photo to life. They sometimes appear to be the embodiment of that “sparkle” or “twinkle” in the eyes that is so often mentioned.
Since I have become aware of catchlights I notice them all the time. I will be watching my kids while they watch a DVD and I’ll notice the reflection of the TV in their eyes or I’ll notice the reflection of the blue sky while we are going for a walk. I see catchlights in their eyes all the time and have really enjoyed thinking about how those moments would turn out in a photo.
My challenge for you is to start noticing catchlights. See how varied they are. Look for different colors and shapes. Notice how much dimension they give to the eyes.
The following are your photos that have catchlights. I was so excited by the response of people sending in pictures for me to use. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!
Click on the images below to see them a bit larger. You can see some of the detail a bit better that way.
Edit: I really wanted to do a better job of giving credit to each of these contributors. The following list is their names and a link to their blog if I have it. Thanks again for your help in putting this post together!
Luann Hawker
Jennifer Cavanaugh
Clint Long
Julie Taggart
Kerry
Rachelle Kolb
Jen Iverson
Gayle Vehar
Lindsey
Celeste Grover
Melinda Brookshire
Jenna Nelson
Bethany Balsis
Rachel Land
I have been tossing around a post about the Rule of Thirds, but maybe you’ve noticed, I really haven’t written much lately. Actually, that’s not true. I do have a post about catchlights that is written, I was just having some trouble getting your awesome images all put together. Long story; scratch disk full, took care of that one night, next night installed Aperture and now today I’m busy trying to get my house ready for a trip to visit my parents next week. One of these days…
However, there is this awesome photographer named Rich Legg. He makes his living by selling his images, usually in stock photography. So yeah, he’s good. He’s also a really cool and a totally funny guy. He’s a member of the Photowalking Utah group and I got talk with him a few times. He just started writing for a photography site called Photography Bay and the first article he wrote is about the Rule of Thirds.
So don’t wait for my never coming posts, go read his and see if you learn something new. Click here to go to Rich’s article.
Wouldn’t it be fun if we had a forum and we could go read Rich’s article and then we could all come back here and discuss? Yeah, that would be fun. But we don’t. Not today, anyway. So if you have any thoughts about what he said, I hope you will post a comment and share. Maybe we can get a comment discussion going instead.
We’re versatile. We can make do.
Obligatory MomShot. Taken for Father’s Day 2008. It’s nice to look back and see how we’ve grown. I like the composition but my exposure was off. Notice the Rule of Thirds is being followed here. At least it is in my mind…
Did you notice how infrequently I posted last week. It’s funny how some weeks are like that. Then there are other weeks, or even days for that matter, where I will post a whole bunch. That’s probably because I’m not one of those bloggers who have a schedule. I just post as the whim strikes. That’s pretty much of how I operate in most aspects of my life. I’m an “As the Wind Blows” kind of girl.
Anyhoo… So Sunday was my wedding anniversary. We celebrated on Saturday and Sunday. It was great!
We have been married for 12 years now and for some reason, I was really excited for this milestone. Much more than I was for 10 or recent past anniversaries. I don’t know why, I just was. Maybe it is because when I was a kid we could only have birthday parties on certain years and 12 was one of those years so now as an adult the number has a bit more significance than others. That’s probably it.
I actually have a photographic point to telling you this. The tie-in here is that for an anniversary present, Ben got me a copy of Aperture 2. That is the Apple pro-level photo editing and managing software. I have read many great things about it and I’m excited to try it. I’ll probably be installing it tonight or tomorrow after I have my current to-do list checked off. I’m excited about it and I’ll let you know what I think.
I use iPhoto to manage my photos but I don’t use it to edit them, I use Photoshop CS3. I have been pretty happy with that relationship until I tried to switch over to RAW and then I encountered some minor hiccups. iPhoto would convert my photos into JPGs when I imported them to Photoshop so I wasn’t able to use the Adobe Camera RAW program and that was a bit frustrating. Then I solved my problem by bypassing iPhoto and pulling the files directly off the camera. That works but I don’t like it as much because I like to have my photos all organized in iPhoto so they are in one place and I can easily find them.
Aperture is supposed to fix this problem. I’ll let you know after I install it.
It’s a new week over at iheartfaces. The theme is Natural Light. Since that’s pretty much all I use I thought I would enter. I am going to enter in both the children and adult categories this week. I rarely have adult photos to use but I am going to use one of the shots from my sister’s anniversary photoshoot. I have posted both of these up here previously so sorry for the repetition.
If you are thinking about entering the competition, DO IT!!! It’s super easy and super fun. It is great to look through the other contestants and get inspiration. I love it. The deadline is Tuesday so go get crack-a-lackin’ and one of you natural light shots to enter!!!
My 
Kid’s category entry:
This is my entry into the Adult’s category:
The final word from me today is about iheartfaces giveaway. They have partnered with Photojojo for this contest. I am pretty sure I have mentioned them in the past. I love Photojojo. They always have the best newsletters full of either awesome products or projects to make that have a crafty photographer in mind. I always look forward to new newsletters from them. They never disappoint!
So I just read this awesome post on a blog I follow and I wanted to lead you over in that direction. The blog is called Digital Photography for Moms and she often has great tips. This morning her post was about shooting in RAW vs. shooting in JPG.
If you are not sure what I am talking about let me explain a little bit:
These are file formats. I believe all digital cameras can shoot in JPG. You can usually choose how large of a file you would like it to use - small, medium or large. I believe most DSLRs have the ability to shoot in both JPG and RAW.
When your camera saves your file as a JPG, it compresses it and then runs the file through an algorithm that determines what the final result will be. Basically your camera makes choices for you like how blue or dark the image will be.
When you shoot in RAW, your camera doesn’t compress the file. It saves this giant file and then when you bring it into your computer you can make choices about how you want it to look. If your white balance was off or you have areas that are a bit blown out, you can often save those pictures and correct them to look better very easily.
So from that really simplified explanation, you can see that shooting in RAW gives you more control. There are a lot of benefits from shooting in RAW.
I have been shooting in JPG all this time and I just switched my camera to RAW on Saturday night for the Photocamp photowalk. I was really surprised by how much control I have in the editing process. I could lighten some of my images or change the white balance. It is pretty cool.
So I’m still experimenting with it and I’ll get back to you with more information about it. Don’t feel like you need to switch over this very second but it is a fun change and it opens a new level to my post processing.
On another note, I need to announce the winners of our giveaway from Friday and I need to put together that much anticipated catchlight post. I’ll get on those as soon as I can. Things have been a little crazy in my part of the woods lately. I was so obsessed with my presentation from Photocamp that now it is time to get back to reality! So the point of this little paragraph is that those posts are coming soon. So hold your horses! I’ll get on those items soon.
Obligatory MomShot:
A little triptych I made using images from a morning shoot after I gave Mag chocolate cake for breakfast (yeah, I’m that kind of mom too). I really liked how it turned out. I love the brightness of the colors and the lightness of the background. Even though you can see my brown chairs and cupboard behind him, there is a certain “airiness” or “lightness” about these shots that I really dig.
The shot on the left and the one in the middle was shot at 50mm f/1.8 200 ISO, the shot on the right was shot at 50mm f/3.5 200 ISO. All shot with natural light. I decided I’m going to start giving you my settings. I always like it when other people do that so I want to do the same for you.
I had a blast at Photocamp. It was so much fun to just hang out with people who were into the same thing as I. I got to meet a couple MomShots readers and a bunch of people from the Flickr group Photowalking Utah.
I felt like my presentation went OK. I had a lot of fun doing it. Hopefully I was able to give some information that was helpful to someone. If nothing, at least it got people thinking about taking pictures of kids. I was hoping that people would participate and offer their thoughts and tips and I was really happy with how much participation I got. I think it helped that my presentation was in the afternoon and so people were a bit more relaxed.
In the morning sessions, I was feeling really anxious about my class later in the day but my anxiety was for nothing. I am notorious for doing that.
I put my presentation in PDF format on a new tab called Photocamp Notes. You can download it if you are interested in reading the gist of what we discussed.
I feel so honored to have been asked to speak. The other presenters were all very talented and skilled photographers who I learned so much from. I am super excited for next year!!!
These photos of me were taken by Luann, who I finally met in person and had a blast hanging out with and going on the photowalk with. Thanks Luann!
And Kerry; I didn’t get to talk with you. Thanks for introducing yourself. I wish I would have talked with you more. I thought I’d see you again and I never did. I hope you had a fun time and learned some good stuff.
I asked for your catchlight photos and I received them. Thank you so much!!! You all are so awesome!!! I am super excited to write up the post about catchlights. The thing is, it might not be until next week. So it WILL happen, just not as soon as I originally thought and said.
I have this bad habit of biting off more than I can chew. I don’t do it intentionally but when the time comes and everything is due, I end up staying up all night and trying to finish all the projects at once. As I’m typing this I am thinking it might be a time managment problem instead…
I am having flashbacks to fashion design school. The night before a big project would be due I would stay up pretty much all night working like mad on it. In fact, one of my final projects for a specific class stands out in my mind. I stayed up all night busting my butt trying to get it done. I had until something like 10pm to turn it into my teacher at school and after that we could drop our projects off at her house. I remember driving to her house at 4 in the morning and leaving it on her doorstep in the middle of the night. Good times…
So the point is I think I need to do the catchlight post next week because last night I woke up around 2am and couldn’t get back to sleep until about 7am because I was thinking about my presentation on Saturday at Photocamp. I haven’t finalized everything I am going to discuss or my examples. I need to sit down and do that today so I can sleep tonight!!!
So before you point at me and call me a liar for not having the catchlight post ready, I would like to console you with a little giveaway. I would like you to answer a question for me. The answers will probably be used in my presentation.
Here’s the question (actually it is two): Why do you take photographs of your children? What do the photos mean to you?
Answer that in a comment for one entry. Post a link back on your blog for another entry, leave a separate comment with the link.
I have 5 prizes to give out so there will be many happy winners! Deadline is Friday, March 13th.
Obligatory photo. This is from last summer when we would go up to this great camping spot and have picnics and kind of “day camp” but we never ended up staying the whole night. Maybe we will this summer.
There is a cute little photographer named Julie Taggart who is located in Utah County. She is hosting a giveaway for one of her family photography packages. If you are in the area you may want to enter her contest. A winner will be chosen on March 14th so if you are interested, jump on over there and leave her a comment.
Way to follow your dreams, Julie!
Ok, first off… Thanks for all the responses to the request for your photos with catchlights in the eyes! It has really made me excited to sit down on Monday morning and write up this post. There is still time for you to send in your photos if you are thinking of doing it. If I haven’t emailed you back personally to say thanks yet, I want you to know that I am thankful. It is so exciting to me to get your feedback. I originally designed MomShots with the intent that it would have a community or village feel where we could all help each other. To date, I haven’t been able to implement many ways for that to happen (yet!). So your responses and willingness to share your images makes me feel that spirit again.
Catchlight post to come soon!
The other thing I wanted to say was that I recently joined a brand new blogging network for women and mothers. You may have noticed their badge on the right sidebar over there. —-> One of the things they requested from me was a banner ad for my site so I had to sit down and design one last night. I am really pleased with how it turned out and it has inspired me to put some work into the header on this site and change the image to be more like the banner ad. I love all the photos much better then the one that is currently up there. So hopefully that change will happen soon.
I wanted to show you the ad I made. Maybe you’ll see it on other members of this Women & Mothers blogging network’s sites. Here it is:
