photo tip...

So yesterday I did not write a blog. My fault, but we did write 2 in one day a couple days ago. Any ways today we wanted to share a quick photo tip from our fellow friend.

Tip o' the Day: Dare To Be Different! Got that Not-So-Fresh feeling?  Today's tip will take care of that! It seems like a decade ago… because it was.  College was a fun time for me; I chewed up photo classes like daily vitamins, growing stronger with each one. My favorite college photography professor told me something during one of our independent study class sessions that I’ve never forgotten: Every single session you do, I want you to do something completely different that you’ve never done before. That was easy at first.  And then it got really, REALLY hard.  Since then I’ve photographed 350ish weddings and more than a thousand portrait sessions.  For that reason alone it’s easy to see how difficult it would be to do something new and that I’ve “never done before” for every single session.  Let me just say this, though: it is possible!  I know because I’ve done it. The second reason this is hard is because you’re clients usually see images on your blog or website and, to a degree, choose you based on those images.  You might be afraid that you’re not meeting client expectations if you don’t give them the shots they’ve seen, want, and love.  However, you have to take care of YOU.  I believe my professor instilled his meesage in me to keep me fresh or, more importantly, prevent burnout.  I believe that if you keep the creativity part of you burning white hot, you’re not going to experience burnout. Above and beyond, friends! P.S. One of my subscribers suggested to me to include a link where you can forward this to friends so they can sign up (thanks, Brent!).  If you like this tip, send it to someone you like and have them subscribe!  Let's lift each other up!

Leading lines

Today I'm going to chat about another composition tool I use a lot called leading lines. What it is, essentially, is including some sort of line in your image that subconsciously makes your eyeballs examine the entire frame. That, after all, is the goal of an image, You can mix, match, and combine these composition tools for ridiculously cool pictures!

You can use pretty much anything as a leading line, and it doesn't even have to be a straight line. A river flowing throughout your image... a gripping horizon line... street lines (even the dotted ones work!)... all are examples of using this in your photography. Cool tip, eh?

Already everybody! Line up!!

something fun....

this is a super quick post. ( I have a bit of a headache) be sure to come back tomorrow. we will be sharing a picture and telling you how we created the lighting...
talk to you soon,
wade

tip o the day starts back up tomorrow too.

our tip to you...

On the weekends we want to take some time to give some photography tips to fellow photographers. Todays tip--- Know your clients before the shoot. Your shoots will go 100 times smoother and more fun for both you and your client if you know more about them. Your pictures will turn out better also cause both you and them will be relaxed.

talk to you soon,
wade

2 post today

Hey we wanted to put the tip of the day out here for ya. Just to let you know we will not be posting these on the weekend do to our fellow photographer being swamp. So instead I will be writing photo tips for ya on the weekend.
Talk to you soon
Wade
If you got the tip from yesterday... YAY! It was a toughy but goody! Today's tip is much less instense in terms of jargon and technical settings. Hooray for that!

There are two other ways to get that yummy shallow depth of field (or, as my friendly moms with cameras call it: blurry background). The first is to get CLOSE to your subject. No... really close.

Everybody do me a favor: hold your hand four inches away from your eyes and stare at it. Notice (without looking around) how blurry the background is. Cool right? Now... extend your arm all the way out, still looking at your hand. Notice that the background becomes a little clearer? Mega cool! The same principle applies to photography. The closer you get to your subject, the more your background will go out of focus.

The final way to get a shallow depth of field is to increase the focal length of the lens. Wait! Say whaaaat? What does that mean? Oh, easy... it means "zoom in." Yep, that's my final trick... zoom in. What it does is compress the background. Now, you can really do this with the 17-55 kit lens that comes with a camera. We're talking 100mm, 200mm, or 300mm. (the shot above was shot at 135mm at 2.8, fyi!)

Okay! There we have it! Now you know three great ways to get a beautifully shallow depth of field

Hello Spring!!!

As I'm sure you can tell from the weather, Spring is pretty much here! This is one of our favorite seasons to take pictures in! It's not too hot but yet the colors are all bright! The grass is green and most of the flowers are starting to bloom! We LOVE to shoot outside and have some great outdoor places! Please contact us to set up your sessions today! Talk to you later, Jess

we are at 100......

So yesterday the post was on the handy I phone. I was away from my computer all day so I didn't have a chance to look at all the fun stats that I like to keep up with. Long story short WE HAVE WRITTEN 100 BLOGS AS OF YESTERDAY. So today is 101. We want to celebrate by giving a free 8x10 for the first 10 people to comment on this blog post.

Here is the tip o the day.

Tip o' the Day: 3 Ways to Attain Shallow Depth of Field (part 1) I'm going to teach you how to be shallow today.  :)  The GOOD kind of shallow.  At every Shoot Your Kids workshop I do, the number 1 question I get is: "how do I get a blurry background in my photos?" Today, I have your answer!  Well, part of it.  I'm going to explain a LOT in this email, and tomorrow I'm going to share the two other (EASIER) ways to get a shallow depth of field (or blurry background). Lenses have apertures, or a mechanism that adjusts in diameter to allow light to pass through to your camera.  The size of the opening refers to an f/stop, and have common numbers such as f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11 (notice they're either whole numbers or decimals - that's important to remember, especially when we're going to go over shutter speeds down the road!).  Okay, all that might be mumbo-jumbo, so let me clarify! As a photographer, we get to adjust the aperture to regulate how much light goes through.  We do this by changing the f/stop.  Easy enough.  We set our camera's f/stop (check your manual, all cameras models are different) to a certain number, which affects depth of field.  Okay, did you get that? "Okay, so... what f/stop do I need for a shallow depth of field?" Answer: the lower the f/stop NUMBER, the shallower your depth of field! Some lenses (the ones we use, and that I include links to below for your convenience!) have really LOW number f/stops, so we can get super shallow depths of field!  The image above, for example, was shot at a f/1.8.  (Meredith used the 50mm 1.2L lens on that shot) On a side note, if you want a LOT in focus, you're going to set your aperture to f/11ish.  See how that works?  Low for shallow, high for deep (just think of it in terms of water if it helps. Deep water is high.  Shallow water is low.  MAN I'M GOOD!  hahaha!) For portraits, I'm always shooting at f/2 or below, and a lot of the time I'm shooting at 1.2!  Sometimes it's so shallow that noses are out of focus when the eyes are in focus (so I shoot a LOT and bracket focus).  Got it?  Good! Now, let's all go be shallow photographers! talk to you soon, Wade