MomShots

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 D40, 40x, 60, 3000 or 5000 you do this by pushing the little plus/minus button on the top right, near the shutter release button while you are turning the dial on the back.

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…

To change the aperture on a Canon you hold down the AV button and turn the wheel or on other higher end Canon models you just turn the wheel on the back and don’t need to hold down the button. Please correct me if I’m wrong. I don’t have Canon experience and looked this up on Google.

If you have another brand of camera or are having trouble figuring out how to change your aperture please look it up in your manual. If that is still confusing, try doing a Google search or shoot me an email (MomShots@yahoo.com) and I can try my darndest to find out for you.

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.

Shutter Speed: 1/50, Aperture: f/3.5, Focal Length: 50mm, ISO: 200

When I first started out in the World of Photography, nearly two and a half years ago, I was really confused on what some of the key terms meant. Words like Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO were all so confusing and didn’t make a lot of sense to me. I didn’t find definitions of those words in my camera’s manual yet the book kept using them over and over again. It took some time and patience on my part to seek out and and understand what those terms meant and what their practical applications were.

If you are in the same boat and are seeking to figure out what those terms mean, you can find some answers on Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman’s photography site. She has reposted a four part series explaining, in great detail with examples of what Aperture and Shutter Speed mean.

You can find Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four at each of these links.

I’m kind of taking the lazy mom’s way out here by pointing you to someone else’s hard work instead of taking the time to explain in my own words. However, if you still have questions or want my take on it, leave a comment or send me an email and I’ll be glad to talk about it. You can always email me at MomShots@yahoo.com.

As a side note, I’m really excited by all the responses I’ve gotten about this new 52 week project. Let’s work together to keep each other motivated! I’ll be posting my weeks here to help remind and motivate you.

Obligatory MomShot… This photo has absolutely nothing to do with this post. I just think it’s kind of cute because Ulysses is being such a tough guy and is all decked out in Nerf gear. I can’t very well have a MomShots post without including a MomShot, can I?

Shutter Speed: 1/200, Aperture: f5.0, Focal Length: 58mm, ISO: 640

I was playing with my kids on my bed and taking some random shots this morning. They were making faces and showing me their newest Lego spaceship creations. While I was quickly snapping away, I had my White Balance on Auto.

Maybe I should back up a little bit. Do you know what White Balance is? A simple way of explaining might be to say that White Balance is the basis for how your camera judges the colors that it “sees”. If the color white has a blue tint, then all the other colors it sees is going to be biased towards blue. Same goes for red. If your camera sees white and thinks it has a red or pink tint then all the other colors will lean towards the red side of the color wheel.

You may have noticed taking photos inside and think that they look too orange or even too blue. I always get photos that are heavy on the oranges when I take photos in my living room and kitchen. This photo below is a prime example of what I am talking about, my niece is sitting in an orange basket, but what we are concerned with is the overall warmth of the photo. See how her skin tones are very yellow?

EXAMPLE of heavy on the orange.

White Balance on Auto. No Flash. ISO: 1600, Shutter Speed: 1/30, Aperture: f/4.8, Focal Length: 48mm

The point of the White Balance is to tell your camera exactly how you want it to see white. Your camera probably has a a few options that you can choose from. They usually have Auto, Sun, Shade, Incandescent (or Tungsten), Fluorescent, and Flash. Those are the pretty much the basics but some cameras have an additional Custom setting - and there are varying degrees of how custom you can get that depend on your camera.

I generally keep my White Balance on Auto because I can pick up my camera and snap some shots quickly (good for kids) and then if I find that my Auto setting isn’t meeting my needs I adjust to the kind of light that is present.

Back to my original inspiration for this post. I was snapping a few shots of my kids while we were wresting and playing on my bed. The first few shots were kind of grey-blue looking.

EXAMPLE of White Balance on Auto. No Flash.

ISO: 800, Shutter Speed: 1/60, Aperture: f/4.5, Focal Length: 35mm

I turned on the flash because it was just a bit too dark. This is my result. You can see the difference, I’m sure. Much warmer looking. His skin has that nice creamy, pink appearance that is much more accurate to how he really looks. Not all sallow and grey looking.

EXAMPLE of White Balance on Auto using on camera Flash.

ISO: 800, Shutter Speed: 1/60, Aperture: f/6.3, Focal Length: 105mm

Then I decided that I didn’t want to take shots with the flash because I wasn’t liking the dark shadows that show up. I opened the window blinds a bit to let in some more light. My problem was that my camera was still on Auto. Auto just wasn’t making the correct reading. It was still too grey looking.

EXAMPLE of White Balance on Auto with a little more sunlight coming in.

No Flash. ISO: 800, Shutter Speed: 1/60, Aperture: f/7.1, Focal Length: 92mm

So my next step was to adjust my White Balance. Since I decided to adjust the White Balance I had to determine what kind of light was available to my camera. I didn’t have the ceiling light on in my room and so the light was coming in through the window, but even though it is sunshine I decided to put my White Balance on the Shade setting because we were not in full sunlight.

EXAMPLE of White Balance on Shade.

No Flash. ISO: 800, Shutter Speed: 1/60, Aperture: f/7.1, Focal Length: 92mm

See how much better and more realistic the colors are in this photo? It has nice pink tones, soft shadows and generally just looks better.

So as not to play favorites between my boys, I am adding one more photo example of the White Balance set on Shade with my youngest son. You can see how the colors on this photo are far superior to the first two photos at the top of the page.

EXAMPLE of White Balance on Shade.

No Flash. ISO: 800, Shutter Speed: 1/60, Aperture: f/7.1, Focal Length: 52mm

Next time your photos are showing up with a goofy tint, try thinking about the type of light that is available and adjust the setting on your White Balance. You can also play with it to create an effect to further your artistic expression. For example, a photo with a blue tint might give the impression of cold.

I have a photo that I took at the end of summer 2008. It was a very chilly day and my son was outside barefoot playing in the yard. I took this photo and didn’t adjust my White Balance. My camera was seeing the light as having a slight blue tint. I actually really like that tint because it shows me how cold it really was. On first impression, one might look at this shot and say, “Oh, too bad you didn’t adjust the White Balance.” But I like it that way, it’s part of my artistic expression on this particular shot.

EXAMPLE of White Balance setting to create a mood.

No Flash. Shutter Speed: 1/200, Aperture: f/1.8, Focal Length: 50mm

In the future we should discuss White Balance even further. A lot of cameras will let you tell your camera what white is. You can set a Custom White Balance and tell it exactly who the boss is. But that’s for another day. Have some fun playing with your White Balance settings and see what you think.

I have two things I want to discuss. Quickly.

The first is Photocamp Utah 2010. I’m super excited about going this year. I’m not speaking so I won’t be stressed out about it but that also means my ability to meet people is going to require more work on my part. I am not really shy but I don’t tend to meet people easily. So promise me you’ll seek me out and say Hi, OK?

Registration opens for Photocamp Utah 2010 on Monday, January 11, 2010 at 9am. The fee is a totally reasonable and awesome price of $15.00 I’ll try to post another reminder on Monday so everyone who wants to gets a chance to sign up.

This year the venue will be located in the Salt Lake area. It is going to be fun, entertaining, exciting, educational, inspiring and all around fun (I am aware that I typed fun twice). I hope that if you are in Utah you will make the effort to go.

Second.
This is my MomShots Tip of the Day…
I wanted to mention that during these winter months we often have overcast days and grey skies. I am of the belief that grey skies are wonderful for taking photos in. I love the soft light and shadows that fall. You will still have slight shadows in the same places you would if you were taking a photo in bright daylight, they are just softer and less harsh. I think those softer shadows tend to add some dimension and texture. I know that not all photographers agree with me on this. It’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it!

These photos were taken on an overcast day in Washington in early December. My parents designed this osprey t-shirt and we needed some model shots for their blog. I like this grouping because of the silly attitude that Ulysses is showing. I love shots like this!

So next time the sky is cloudy run outside and take some photos and see what you think!

Third.

I know I only said there would be two things but I thought I’d throw in a third just for good measure.

We have had a couple of wonderful guest posts and there are a few more lined up. All levels of photographers are welcome. All levels of experience. All levels of talent. All levels of interest… Etc. Am I getting my point across? This blog would be greatly enriched by your personal stories, photos and thoughts on photography. I even have a guest post coming up that is going talk about photographing pets. Since pets and children have so many of the same challenges I’m excited to see what her thoughts are on the subject!

Send me an email if you have any interest in being a guest blogger. I would absolutely love to meet you and help share your images and thoughts.

MomShots Tip of The Day: Grab your camera and capture those funny moments that make you laugh. Easy. Simple.

Yoanna's beautiful daughter in the NICU. Photo courtesy Yoanna.

I received an email last night from Yoanna, a new mother in London. This is what she said:

My daughter was born July 24th, 2009 and she is still in the NICU here in London.. I have taken some photos of her but havent been able to take “good” ones because she is on so many tubes (ng and breathing tube) and 4 iv’s, and sometimes in the isolette. Do you have any idea how I can take memorable pics during this time? What should I focus on? She is near term now, 6lbs 2 ounces, 9 months gestation…. I was able to take a couple good photos before like with my wedding ring around her wrist and the huge pacifier-to-face ratio lol….. (poor peanut) lol Anyway, any help would be wonderful. thanks

First of all, Congratulations on your daughter’s birth! What a joyous occasion and cause for celebration. I know I speak for all of us when we say how excited we are for this little person to join your family and begin her journey with you.

Thanks for sending me the email, Yoanna. I think this is such a great question for MomShots! It’s what we are all about - learning to take better pictures of our kids in all situations. Since I don’t have any personal NICU experience I started with my research; doing Google searches, looking at Flickr examples, asking people I knew who had NICU experience and other photographers. It was really interesting and fun to hear these stories and get ideas that might help Yoanna and any other person who may be dealing with a similar situation.

Some of the challenges that come with taking great MomShots of your child might be the blue light that is often present in the NICU, even the florescent and the myriad of LED lights could pose a challenge as well. Other challenges might be tubes, cords and other medical gadgets and gizmos that obstruct the view of your beautiful child. The inability to move your child around to find a more subtle background or pose them in a more photogenic position might be a challenge as well. I think these challenges can pretty much all be overcome with some planning, discussion with the nurses and preparation.

The blue light may or may not be an issue for you, either way, setting your white balance is a definite must! You might be able to get along fine with the auto white balance setting on your camera but if that is not working you will need to use your custom settings. I can’t tell you how to do that for your specific camera so this is a chance for you to pull out your user manual and follow the instructions. If you have specific questions about definitions or terminology that might be confusing in the manual, I am sure I can help you with that.

Another way to combat the blue lights is to shoot black and white. Black and white is really flattering to babies. Babies are often born with red splotches on their skin that take a few weeks, and often even months, to go away. This can be easily camouflaged with black and white photos. You can either set your camera to shoot black and white or you can change it to black and white after you have uploaded to your computer. Personally, I almost always change to black and white when I post process my images instead of switching my camera to the black and white setting. I feel that it gives me more options that way. If I decide I really do like the image in color I can keep it or play around with the colors to make it more like my intended goal.

You may need to increase your ISO setting, depending on how much light is available. If the room is dim, with not much light present, a high ISO setting will help you get more details. The thing to remember is that the higher the ISO, the more grain or noise your shots will have.

The amount of noise depends on your camera so you need to be familiar with what kind of results you get at different ISO settings. With my camera (Nikon D-40x), I get pretty good results at an ISO of 800 but when I boost it past that it gets pretty noisy and I begin to loose detail. You will need to play with that and see what works for you.

If your ISO speed isn’t doing you any favors you may find good luck using a tripod to hold your camera still so you can take pictures with a slower shutter speed. That way you can set your ISO speed lower so you don’t have any noise and then with your slow shutter speed you can take clear shots of your sleeping baby.

Another kind of fun idea might be to use a tripod and take a low light shot showing all the lights that are on the baby. For example, if they have those little blood oxygen counter light thingys (like how technical I am?) attached to a toe or finger you might be able to get a close of up that light shining through in the dark.

Along the same lighting line of thought comes additional light sources such as your on camera flash, and off camera flash, portable studio lighting, etc. Different hospitals have different regulations regarding flash photography and you will need to discuss that with you child’s care providers. A white sheet or hospital baby blanket could be used to bounce light and as a backdrop.

Wedding Ring in NICU. Photo courtesy Yoanna.

Yoanna, I love the idea of putting your wedding ring on her arm. This shows just how small and precious she is. Showing perspective like this is a really good idea. Other ways you can do that might be to have your husband hold one foot between his fingers and take a shot of that. I am sure her little foot would be teensy tiny in comparison to daddy’s giant hand. Also at feeding time, if she is being bottle fed perhaps you can show your hand, her face and the bottle in one shot. If you have a favorite toy for her it might be fun to to place that next to her and compare sizes. Or the foot of the stuffed animal in comparison to her foot. Anything that shows perspective and how much she is growing is a good idea.

One suggestion I received from a friend on Twitter was to photograph the baby next to one specific toy each week. This way you will be able to see how much she has grown over time.

My friend, Trina who had twins in NICU, gave this suggestion:

Schedule your visit for diaper change time, if they are very little they will barely let you touch them at other times. If you really plot ahead maybe at bath time they might take some of the wires off.

Another friend, Jenny who also is the mommy of twins who were in NICU, gave this great advice:

Take lots and lots of pictures and focus on things like little hands and toes (if tubes and wires are covering the face). Depending on the seriousness and the shape that the baby is in it can vary greatly. Some babies can be held all the time and fed and everything is normal, just have to be monitored. Others have to be touched carefully, and not at all sometimes. Towards the end of our NICU stay the babies were in open cribs and had no wires or tubes on. They just had to had their temp. taken every so often and be observed during feedings and all that, so it could be just like taking any other newborn hospital pics.

Another small piece of advice I can give is to think about backgrounds. I do not know if hospitals have regulations about different fabrics that can or can not touch the babies but if that is not an issue, think about bringing your own cute receiving blankets, pieces of interesting cloth that you might spot on the shelves of the fabric store or other any other material that might make an interesting background for detail shots such as feet and hands. Fleece and faux fur makes a great background for photos because it tends not to bounce the light all over the place and adds interesting texture.

Take lots and lots of pictures from all sorts of different angles. Shots from above, shots with your baby’s nurse, shots looking through the crib, shots looking up at her face from her feet, diagonal shots and anything else you can possibly imagine to try to capture interesting shots that you will enjoy looking at in the future.

One twin in NICU. Photo courtesy Trina Grant.

I think my standard advice of getting really close is a good idea here and could really enhance photos taken in the NICU as well. Play with your zoom feature, zoom lens or just move your camera really close to the baby and grab great shots of tiny toes and noses.

Try adjusting your aperture to play with depth of field (low aperture number means you can focus on one specific thing and everything else will be blurred) to get some interesting shots of details.

My very last piece of advice is to pull up Flickr or Photobucket and even Google (all though I had much more interesting results on the other two sites). Do a search for photos that are tagged with NICU and see what comes up. There are a few really great shots that might inspire and excite you.

Thank you very much for this great question, Yoanna. I really enjoyed learning about this and think I might be a bit more prepared the next time I am in the hospital with the need to take photos! I wish both you and your sweet little girl good health and hope that this is a little bit helpful for you and any other parents who find themselves in a similar situation.

Seriously, what is my problem?!?

I’ve got all these ideas for posts but I can’t seem to get my act together and actually write them! I want to discuss learning to shoot in Manual Mode, Distracting Backgrounds, and a nifty little tip I just learned about how to make your portraits have a blurred background when you shoot with a point and shoot camera.

Good stuff, huh?

So why can’t I get it together?!?

Well in the mean time, I want to leave you with some Senior portrait shots I took of my niece. The thing I really enjoyed was that she just started posing and having a fun time. I didn’t have to do a lot of directing and telling her what to do. She had some great ideas and we just wandered all over my grandma’s property, in North Idaho, taking shots. It was really fun.

As I was editing them I really noticed that I wasn’t entirely aware of the shadows that would fall on her face. There were a handful of shots where she had dark shadows under her eyes. I think it ruined a few shots that could have been pretty good.

MomShot Tip: Watch where the sun is putting shadows on your subject.

Besides the granular “noise” in this shot, I think the shadows really ruined a nice smiling picture.

These I think are better. We changed direction and just had fun.

I like the crop on this one and think it looks good in Black and White. It is kind of a “Here I Come World” pose. It makes me happy.

I really like the off-kilter angle of this shot. It adds a fun element to her portrait. I wish I had done more at an angle. It’s funny, I used to shoot a ton of angled shots but have kind of gotten out of the habit of that. I need to do that more often!

This one has some shadows but I don’t mind them. I guess if I were more of a perfectionist/professional there is no way this would have made the cut, but I’m not and I like it!

How could you not love this one? You can almost hear her laughing. I love the shy, downward glance. I also like it in Black and White. It just adds something nice.

I think I’m really into these shots where her face is on the side of the frame. I think it’s a phase I’m going through. The shadows aren’t too dark here either and I like that it gives her a sun kissed kind of look.

This one is one of my favorites. It’s not a typical portrait because you can’t really see her face but I love it. She’s sitting in this beautiful green hammock and looking back over her shoulder. It kind of captures the weekend at my grandma’s house. Maybe that’s why I love it.

Well, there were many more but these few are some of my top favorites. I didn’t do a whole lot of intense editing to them so they might have that unfinished look that professional photographers usually have. I’m not sure, but I’m kind of against a lot of editing right now. I think it is part of my quest to be a better photographer. I am not saying No to all editing, I just wanted a more real look.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these. I sure had fun taking them and wish I could have had more time to take a bunch more. Hopefully this week I can get it together and put together one of these posts I have been mulling around in my brain.

Thanks for the great photos for the messed up background post. I’m really excited to write that one!

One of my personal goals for taking photos of my children is to capture their personality. I want to be able to look at my MomShots and see the joy and love of life that my children exude through every poor in their bodies. I want to look at those shots and be forced to smile because my children’s vibrant delight and love has been captured by my camera.

How do we do this? How do we take photos that help us see through the mud pie smudges and peanut butter smears and into the soul of our children? Or how do we take those great shots that actually capture the mud pie smudges and peanut butter smears? Sometimes we want to remember those grubby little mugs for who they really are and sometimes we want shots that make us feel like fantastic parents who actually can keep our children clean for longer then 2.5 seconds.

One of my favorite ways to do this is very simple. It is quite simple but has made a huge difference in how much I enjoy looking at my own MomShots. This particular trick is to get really, really close. I have found that by filling your camera’s viewfinder with your child’s face makes for great photos.

Variations on this tip can be really fun. You can focus on your child’s eyes and fill the frame with his entire face or you can choose to only have part of their face in the frame. You can experiment with your child looking directly at you or looking away. You can also play with capturing their emotions up close and personal; alligator tears have never looked so pitiful as when they fill an entire photograph.

As the photographer, you have as much or as little creative control as you choose to give yourself. You can experiment to your heart’s delight and if you are focusing on getting close to your subject your shots will often amaze and delight you.

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.

Wikipedia says this:

…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…

60mm, f/9.0, 1/160, on-board flash