MomShots

That is goals for 2012. Not actually 2012 goals. That would be a lot of goals. I’m not that much of an over achiever!

Happy New Year!

This is an exciting time of year for me. I love to reflect on the goals I made last year and create new goals for this year. I did pretty well on my 2011 goals except I didn’t complete two of them. I did not run a 5K race and I started a 365 project but gave it up after a good few months. You can see my 102 days worth of effort here.

This year I have a good little list of goals with such standards as loose weight and make a conscious effort to be more cheerful. I just realized that I didn’t put any photography goals on my list. I believe that I need to add one on but I don’t want it to be another 365 project.

A few things I really enjoyed about that project was that I had my camera in hand all the time. I had a fun time thinking about photography so frequently and sometimes I felt like I was growing a little artistically and technically. However, I also found that I enjoy taking photos much more than I like uploading them, sorting through them, editing them and posting them online. That was my downfall. That whole editing and posting part really killed it for me.

I think I could do a photo project if I took a smaller bite. I’m thinking of doing a year long project for 2012 with weekly photos and month long themes. I still need to work out the details.

Are you planning any photography goals for 2012? Any big projects? Or just working on learning some technical information like how to shoot in Manual?

Here are just a few of my favorite MomShots from 2011. These were taken early in the year during my 365 project.

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What are your 2012 goals? Do you want to work on a goal together?

I just found out about this great site called Everyday Elements. It is such a great resource for anyone looking for more information about Photoshop Elements. She offers online workshops to teach Photoshop Elements and she teaches a beginning photography class. All at amazing prices!

These classes would be great for yourself or as a gift. Check them out. I’m sure you’ll be as sold as I am! You can find all the information right here.

Are you working on any projects in preparation for the holidays? I have a bit of sewing and a few crafts to do with the kids. I’ve been looking at lots of blogs trying to find inspiration and ideas for decorating my house and meals to prepare. I have been trying to log some creative time every day of one type or another. I just finished sewing curtains for one of the windows in our family room. One window covered, about a hundred more to go!

I am also working on getting a halfway decent photo of all four of my kids together. I want to give a copy to grandparents for Christmas. Plus it would be nice to use one for Christmas cards. I am determined to get cards out this year. That means I have to get them designed and uploaded to the printer today so I can receive them in time to mail. I need to get busy!!!

While gong through the photos I have taken this month I came across this one. I wanted to make a quick post about how abstract is not always a bad thing. You don’t always have to see your subject’s eyes or have a clear view of their face. Sometimes a photograph can highlight chubby little arms, a dimple or cute toes.

Another idea is to put a few abstract photos in a group. I put these two photos together and then grouped them with a photo that shows my daughter’s face. It kind of ties them all together.

Have fun and play with your subject. Try some intentional abstract shots and see how you like them.

We recently took a little weekend trip to Southern California. On our way from Utah to SoCal, we stopped at our favorite hotel in Las Vegas, the M. It is on the extreme south end of The Strip. So south that you really have no idea that it is still on The Strip at all. But it is our favorite. It is so nice and they always give us amazing prices.

This trip was no different. We showed up without reservations, as per usual. We were given an amazing room, as per usual.

Our room was a triangular room on the 11th floor with floor to ceiling windows that looked out over the entire Las Vegas area. Not a room for someone with extreme acrophobia. I have been known to get a little white knuckled in height related situations but not this time. All I could think about were places that I wanted to put my boys to take their photo.

The beautiful morning light came and I pulled out my camera and started bossing my boys around in hopes that I might get one or two good photos. I came away with a few that I liked. This one is my absolute favorite. It may be my most favorite photo of these three brothers that I have taken in a very long time.

Do you see the problem with it? The focus is soft.

That means that it is ever so slightly out of focus. Ever so slightly.

What that really means is that my aperture was too wide. I couldn’t fit all three boys into the same plane. My depth of field was too narrow. I needed to open up my aperture just a tiny bit. This was shot using my 50mm lens. The aperture was set at f/1.8. That was my mistake.

The rule of thumb for shooting groups of people is to use at lease an aperture that is equal to the number of people in the photo. For example, there are three people in this photo so my aperture should have been set to f/3.2.

Next time…

Anyway, I decided to play with it a little bit in Photoshop and ended up adding a bit more grain. It almost makes my lack of focus seem intentional. Ummm, yeah. Intentional…

Oh well! I don’t care. I love this photo so much. I am thinking about printing it out and hanging it up in my home.

Sometimes you just have to ignore those kinds of mistakes and get on with your life. If you love a photo then you just have to go with it. You can’t beat yourself up over little mistakes. You have to move on and just do better next time, learning from your mistakes.

This is me moving on and learning from my mistake!

More shots from our hotel room:

These are a few of the other shots I took, including a snap of myself. I don’t take shots of myself very often. Here is me and our amazing view.

Magnus making faces at himself in one of the mirrored pillars.

My sweet baby toes. A very wide aperture of f/1.8 makes this shot. Everything except her big toe is out of focus and blurry. A more narrow aperture would have made the other toes in focus, or the rest of the room depending on how much I narrowed it.

There’s what is called a “Hot Spot” on Ulysses’s nose. It is that bright triangle. In photography, that is generally not acceptable. Too bright. No data recorded. I’m ignoring it in favor of his smooth, youthful skin being kissed by the beautiful morning light.

Again with the wide aperture of f/1.8. This time it makes Gar in focus while Uly is lost in bokeh (that’s the fancy schmancy photography word for blurry).

Well, that’s a bit from our trip. My MomShots Tip for this post this: Move on and learn from your mistakes. Don’t beat yourself up over shots that didn’t turn out exactly as you wanted them to. Try to figure out why your photo is not exactly how you’d have liked it to look and what you need to do to remedy that in the future. My big issue in this little photo shoot was not adjusting my aperture. For some reason I was stuck on using a wide aperture and it bit me in the tookus!

A few more MomShots Tips that you can find in this post are:

I promised last week that I would discuss composition and the Rule of Thirds. I need to deliver on that promise; at least a little bit…

So the Rule of Thirds. Have you heard about it?

No? Hmmmmm…. How can I explain it?

I like to think of it as splitting a photo into thirds, both vertically and horizontally.

What exactly does that mean?

This is what you do… Place an imaginary grid over the top of your composition, like such.

Your goal is to make the subject line up with one of the lines.

That’s the gist of it. There really is a bit more to it than that, but that’s the starting point.

Here’s an example of a handsome young man I was recently able to photograph, Zack. See the original photo and how I framed him? He was right in the center. I did not follow the Rule of Thirds.

When I edited it, I cropped it and laid a Rule of Thirds grid over the top and rearranged how Zack sat in the composition.

I want to say that I didn’t actual place a grid over the top. Is that silly that I feel like I should say that? I just want you to know that this is an imaginary grid. Got it? OK…

I lined Zack’s body up with the far left line and also put his face on the top horizontal line. It’s kind of a double whammy since I lined him up with both horizontal and vertical lines. That’s not really necessary but it can’t hurt, right?

Here’s another example. My niece Gina. I can’t get enough of her! She is so beautiful. Here is the original:

I really liked this one. Her one eye is in sharp focus and you can see that when you lay the imaginary Rule of Thirds grid on top, it matches right up with the bottom horizontal line. Score! I didn’t have to do any editing or make any changes except to make it black and white.

The last example I want to show you is a bit more interpretive.

I really liked this photo of my son at the beach. I thought it caught a bit of the whimsy and joy he was experiencing. Every single time we would see a beach on TV, drive by a lake, river or even a puddle, Magnus would shout out, “Beach! Beach!” He has been wanting to go to the beach so bad this entire summer and this was his two hour chance to go. He was making the very best of it.

Sidenote: Did you see what I just did? I totally accessed the emotional aspect of photography for myself. This is why I take photos. This affects no one but me, but it is the number one reason I point that camera at my children. I’m sure you can all relate. It’s a MomShot and DadShot thing, isn’t it?

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

Now I lay the Rule of Thirds grid over the top and I see that things don’t quite line up. Not exactly, anyway.

But do you know what? I really like it like this. I think that the lines on my Rule of Thirds grid line up enough that it works.

Or maybe that’s my motherly emotions shining through.

Either way, I like it!

Plus, that’s the awesome thing about holding the camera; you are the boss! You get to choose how you want to frame the photo. You can choose to follow this rule to the letter, or you can choose to interpret it anyway that you would like.

Those are my three “C’s” for today. I think they speak for themselves. I am always saying that we need to get closer. Closer and then even more close to our subject. We want to fill the entire picture with our subject. We want to see those shining sparkling eyes, rosy cheeks and pouty lips.

What else can I say about this? Why wouldn’t we want to fill the entire frame with our subject?

Composition is a great thing to think about. We haven’t really discussed the Rule of Thirds much here. I haven’t been really sure how to explain it. Look at the photo below and see the yellow lines I drew on it. These lines break the photo up in three sections both vertically and horizontally. Basically you want to put the subject of your shot on or around one of these lines. It is more pleasing to the eye.

We will discuss this more in depth later, but think about it next time you have your camera out. Put the eyes of your subject, or your subject itself on one of these lines and see how you like your photo. Do you like it better?

The final C is Cuteness. Is this self explanatory or what?!? Just get out that camera and capture all that cuteness that is dying to be photographed! It just never stops. All stages of your child’s life need to be documented and you have the skills to do it. Take lots of shots and then take a few more!

Summer is zooming along! How is your summer progressing? We came back from a trip to SoCal last night. It was really a business trip with a little vacation thrown in. My husband had a bunch of meetings and the kids and I tagged along for the ride. We enjoyed spending time with family, going to multiple pools and spending a little time at the beach. Never enough time at the beach, in my book but I will take what I can get!

Photographically speaking, I have been trying to work a little more on my composition and focus. I have also been trying to think a little bit more creatively in my shots and using composition and focus to help them turn out better has been fun.

One of the things that I have been reminding myself about is to check the background. Is there something in the background that is distracting or unsightly? If the answer is yes, then I need to get up and move to a different angle. If that doesn’t help, then I may need to move the subject to a different spot.

Here is one where I wish I would have paid more attention to the background.

I like a lot of things about this picture, but there’s a pesky car in the background. Even though it is blurred, it is still really obvious that it is a car. I don’t know what I was thinking!! I cropped it and the car is mostly gone, but it is still there.

This shot, below, was taken in the same yard. I was just facing slightly more to my left. No pesky car in the background, just a nice bokeh tree.

Backgrounds. Pay more attention!!!!!!!

Action shots have been fun to play around with. Using a fast shutter speed, I am able to freeze the ocean, water droplets or kids in mid stride. The trick with a fast shutter speed is to use an aperture that is wide enough so that enough light gets in. Here is a sequence of Gar sliding down the slide into the pool:

Another trick is to set your camera to take multiple shots. I hold down my shutter release button and it takes a whole bunch - click, click, click, click, click, click, click. Until I let go. Most point and shoot cameras have that option too. It is a great option for active kids.

So next time you are out with the kids, think about action and backgrounds. See what you can do to avoid ruining great pictures by putting cars in the backgrounds and think about what you can do to capture the daily action that these rambunctious kids are overflowing with.

I had a little experience yesterday that made me remember that not everyone has the same cavalier attitude about snapping about on a camera that I have.

After church everyone was asked to go out onto the lawn and pose for a congregation photo. Everyone scrunched together and waited for the person who owned the camera to make sure he could see everyone in his viewfinder. There was a little drama about getting everyone in but after that passed, the camera was handed to someone who was not in our ward (congregation) to actually take the picture.

He stood up there and took one picture.

Yes, I said ONE.

Then he looked out from behind the camera and asked the owner if he should take another one.

So he then proceeded to take ONE more. Then he looked up again and asked if he should take a one more.

I shouted from the throng, “It’s digital, take a bunch!” A few laughs were emitted around me.

He proceeded to take ONE more.

A total of three shots were taken for a giant group of people.

My mind was blown! I couldn’t believe that anyone would ever consider taking so few pictures. But then I was brought back to reality. My attitude toward taking photos must be atypical from the average person’s attitude. I am whole heartedly of the belief that taking more photos is much better than not taking enough. I push that shutter release button with no fear.

So I want to share my experience with you and remind you to push that shutter release button with out fear. You are not shooting on film so don’t be afraid to fire off 10 shots in a row. Then you can choose the nice ones and delete the rest.

Push that button. Over and over and over!

Obligatory MomShot of the day is a slight smile on the face of my 6 week old. She just started smiling for real now.

I received an email from MomShot’s reader and mother of two seriously adorable twins and five other stunningly beautiful children, Stesha . You know how I love my questions!!! Thanks for sending it in.

Stesha said:

What photoshop actions do you use and prefer?

Well, Stesha that’s a great question. Since I’m a cheapskate I only have free actions. I haven’t found room in our current budget to purchase any of the cool action packages that are out there. But within that limitation, there are many options available. I have both of Pioneer Woman’s action sets but tend to only use a few of them regularly.

I almost usually always use her actions called Define & Sharpen as a first step. Then I often use Boost. I really like vivid colors so that one is my favorite. I like to play with some of her others like PW’s B&W but I don’t use that regularly. I also use the Slight Lighten or Slight Darken if my exposure is not quite how I want it. From her 2nd set I like to play with some of the actions like Seventies, Sepia, Sunshine, etc. Those are more fun things to play with than my regular standbys.

After I’ve got the photo how I’d like it I usually save it as a .PSD file and then use the Flatten action to get rid of all the layers and save as a .JPG so I can work with it in either a collage for my 52 week project or upload to Flickr to be used online on MomShots.com.

A few other actions that I use are the Triptych and Diptych action from the Coffeeshop. She also has other storyboards that I really like to use occasionally. The Coffeeshop also has some actions that relate to color but I don’t use them very often. I suspect that I will use them more after my daughter is born because there are a few that give the photo that soft pink glaze that I think is sometimes really cute on little girl photos. Those just haven’t really gone with my sons’ photos very well. I really should go through her list of actions and figure out if there are anymore that I could use.

If you are in the market to purchase actions there are some really great ones available. MCP Actions, Eye Candy and Totally Rad Actions all have really great packages for sale.

I just did a Google search and came across quite a few other places that have cool free actions like these. I am kind of excited to search some more and see what other gems I can find!

Do you have any favorite Photoshop actions? What’s your favorite process using Photoshop actions?

So you got your fantastic new camera and you’ve been clicking away at everything under the sun. You may have gotten brave and moved it out of Auto and tried out some of the different modes. You may have even tried to shoot some shots in Manual mode. If you have, I am so proud of you!!! I think it’s kind of a big step to to try out the different modes and start to get familiar with how your camera works and how photography works. It’s pretty exciting!

When I first started with a DSLR, my camera didn’t have an Auto mode. The Nikon D100 only has Manual, Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority. So I was stuck hunting and pecking and trying to figure out what I was doing for a long while before I finally got the hang of it.

I really wanted to share with you my method for learning how to shoot in Manual mode. This worked for me and maybe it will help you as well. This is by no means the only way to learn to shoot in Manual, but it is the way I recommend.

Have fun!!!

Step 1: Turn the dial on the top of the camera to “M”. Ignore all other settings and modes. You can do it. Wipe the sweat off your brow and let yourself go. It’s not as hard as you might think and you will be so happy with your results.

Step 2: Open up your aperture. By that I mean, turn your aperture setting to the lowest number your lens will allow you to go. If you are wondering what aperture is, I think of it as how open my camera’s “eye” is. The lower the number, the wider the opening in your lens is and more light is allowed in. There are other factors that come into play with this, like depth of field, but I don’t want to worry about that right now. We can discuss at a later date. Check out this post if you want more details about what aperture is.

If you have a Nikon D70 through 700 you do this by turning the dial on the front right, below the shutter release button. And honestly, if you have a D700 and don’t know how to do this, I would be glad to trade you my brand new D90. I don’t want to talk down to you but seriously, that’s the current camera of my dreams…

Step 3: With your aperture wide open, you are now going to only play with your shutter speed. You just leave your lens alone and adjust how fast your camera “eye blinks” (that’s how I think of my shutter speed). If your camera “blinks” slowly then more light will get in and your image will be brighter. If your camera “blinks” quickly then less light will get in and image will be darker.

Just a side note to confuse you… There are other implications of using a fast shutter speed. You can freeze action when your camera “eye blinks” fast or you can blur motion if that “eye blinks” slowly.

Your camera has a cool tool called a light meter that can help you decide how fast your shutter speed should be. I didn’t discover this trick until I had been shooting in manual mode for a few months. I will share it with you and hopefully save you months of hunting and pecking. Obviously if I had read my manual from cover to cover I may have understood that but when I first started out I don’t think I understood enough about photography to even know why a light meter would be a good thing to use.

This is what your light meter generally looks like. If you look through your view finder you should see something similar on the bottom of your view.

How to read the light meter:
Point your camera at something you want to take a picture of. Your camera is going to gauge the light that is bouncing off of your subject. Your light meter has a plus symbol on the left and a negative or minus symbol on the right. In the center is a little “0″ and/or a larger vertical dash. The goal is to adjust your shutter speed to get your light meter to read “0″.

As you are pointing at your subject, press your shutter release button down half way and as you do, watch what happens. Do you see those vertical lines on the bottom? Move your shutter speed control (email me with your camera model if you aren’t sure which dial this is) and watch as the little lines move toward the left or the right.

Do you see that?

Now move the dial until the light meter is telling you it is at “0″.

Now push the shutter release button down the rest of the way.

You have just taken a photo that your camera believes is properly exposed. Nice job!

My suggestion is to now go play with your camera. Take lots of different pictures using different subjects and in different light. Get a feel for how this affects your photo. Watch what makes an over exposed (really bright with white spots) image and what makes an underexposed (very dark) image.

As you become more familiar with what proper exposure feels and looks like then I suggest start adjusting your aperture. You will then be able to see how shutter speed and aperture can work together to create some really cool images.

The key, for me anyway, is/was to start small with a bite sized concept like shutter speed. It really helped me to get familiar with my camera and comfortable so that now I can much more quickly adjust everything and take a properly exposed photo the first time. Usually.

Now go out there, open up your aperture and watch your light meter as you adjust your shutter speed!!!

An oldie but a goodie MomShot. Using a wide aperture you can get that nice blur in the foreground and background, keeping your subject in focus.