Last Call: Work Your Camera Contest

Hi Internet! I've missed you this past week. I'm blogging via my iPhone from LAX. I'm waiting to catch our flight home from LA to Spokane. I can't wait to come home!!

Anyway this is your friendly reminder to get your photo entry turned in for the depth of field contest. I'll announce the winner next week!!

MWAH!!

The WORK-YOUR-CAMERA CONTEST!!!

I've been getting LOTS and LOTS of questions and comments here at the blog, in my email and on my Facebook page about camera settings, aperture and manual mode.  It seems there are a fair amount of ladies out there with pretty sweet cameras who are intimidated or frustrated by their lack of understanding about these technical aspects of shooting.

This makes me sad. :( 

But it also makes me happy!!   :)  

Because... I was there!  Nine months ago I was you!  And now... while I am certainly no expert I feel like I'm the boss of my camera and I don't let it give me any guff. ;)  

One of my lovely blog commenters (yes, commenters are very dear to my heart) asked for a little Depth of Field Lesson.  You know me.  I aim to please!  So here's a little lesson on DOF.

Here's a definition taken from a photography website:

"Depth Of field (DOF) is the amount of distance between the nearest and furthest objects that appear in acceptably sharp focus as seen by a camera lens. This field varies with the focal length of the lens, its f-stop setting, and the wavelength of light."  <-- Anybody else get that?  ;)

So in SUPER SIMPLE terms... the DOF determines how blurry or how clear the background of an image is.  You will notice in the majority of my images on the blog I am a fan of a very shallow DOF.  It's really noticeable in my nephew's photo here.

Notice I focused on his eyelashes (with my aperture set to 2.8) and the rest of him sort of blurs away.  If I would have set my aperture to 8 or 10 he would've been totally in focus top to bottom.  So the "lower" the number the more blur.  The higher the number the less blur and more in focus.  Get it?

So, so far we've learned the DOF is determined by the Aperture setting.  There is a very easy way to experiment with this.  Set your camera into Aperture (A, AV, AP) mode.  This will allow you to adjust your aperture setting while allowing your camera to determine the other settings (shutter speed).  The aperture range will vary based on the lens you are using.  Many kit lenses have a f-stop (aperture) that goes as wide (low) as f/3.5 or f/4.  

There is one trick that is going to help you in this.  You need to set your camera to have a single focus point.  If you look in your viewfinder you may notice a bunch of red points.  Each lit up red point is a focus point.  In order for me to focus on my nephew's eyes only I had to turn off multiple focus points and just have my center focus point lit.  This is easy.  It will be in your manual and is worth looking up.  It will change your photography in a GREAT way!! :)

Here are a few examples of DOF.

 The top example has a deep DOF (they used a higher setting like 6, 8, 11) where the lower example has a shallow DOF (setting of 1.8, 2.8).

Here is an in-depth article for those of you who really want to learn more.

Now on to the contest!  

For the next week I want you to experiment with depth of field and aperture.  Really push yourselves.  Take lots of pictures.  Move the f-stop (aperture) lower and higher.  Focus that center focus point on different parts of your image and see what happens.  Did I say take LOTS of pictures?  Then choose your very favorite image.  You can email it to me at sidles@comcast.net OR you can upload your photo on Michelle Sidles Photography Facebook Page!  The entry deadline is July 11th! The winner will be picked by a group of unbiased judges who live in my house and on my street! :)  

And what will you win??  

Your very own copy of the award winning DVD "Beyond the Green Box: Understanding Your Digital Camera" by Brian Townsend & Me Ra Koh.  This DVD empowered me to really start playing with my camera and helped me understand what had always seemed "too technical" to understand.  

Are you Ready??

Get set!!

GO!!!!

**Eligibility:  This contest if for amateur photographers only. 

If you are a pro/working photographer you are ineligible to win the dvd (you're too advanced to need it anyway)... although you are encouraged to submit an entry to possibly be used as an example on the blog. :)  Please include your camera settings...because we're all curious about that sort of thing! :)  Thanks! 

**Note:  I will be taking one week off to observe the 4th of July holiday with my family.  If you need to contact me, please email me at sidles@comcast.net.  I will be checking my email daily. 

Hayden: 9 months

My brother & sister in law came for dinner the other night... along with the current focus of all our affections: Hayden.  They came for dinner but stayed for the photos. ;)

Here are Hayden's "nine month" pictures.  

This is something that I've really come around on... since we're keeping it real here on the blog. 

When my kids were little I did the old Kiddie Kandids sessions.  3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 1 year.  Why?  Because I didn't know better and that's what I was instructed to do.  Seems kind of arbitrary, doesn't it?

Now I think a much better way to approach the first year of life is "Milestones."

Newborn (those first precious days) when baby is still fresh and bendy and sleepy.  Those are priceless.

Then the Sitting Up stage.  When my kids were three months old they were just blobs. (Cute blobs... but still).  The teenager doing their session would lay them on their bellies (aided by a sloped beanbag) and then prop the elbow up and place their chin on their fist.  :(  It's the most unnatural thing really.  I don't like those pictures at all and they are currently in a drawer in my basement. ;)  So waiting to do a session until they can sit makes for a much more REALISTIC photo op.

Then the Crawling/Walking stage.  Again.  These are milestones.  And all kids do not develop on a 3, 6, 9 & 12 month schedule.  So waiting until you see a change in your baby seems like a much more logical approach to scheduling photo sessions. :)  Just my humble opinion.

So here is Hayden... who is in the crawling stage.  He is on the verge of walking so we thought we'd catch him  now... and then again closer to say a year (when we're sure he'll be walking). 

And here is Hayden on our trampoline.  At first he was unsettled that the "floor" lacked a certain solid quality. ;)  

But then after a minute of bouncing with mom decided that a floor with a little give is really pretty awesome!!  

And of course, another awesome milestone... REAL FOOD!! :) 

 And lastly, my second shooter in training (Aaron - age 9) caught this spectacular shot!!!  

Let's hear it for Milestones!! :)

Sneak Peek: Hayden

Little Hayden came back for some more photos!

For my newer blog friends, Hayden is my little brother's baby. My sweet nephew! And his awesome mom, Mandi (who is also my awesome hair stylist) has been so great about filling the role of practice subject(s) since this past September!

Mandi was my FIRST maternity shoot... when I go back and look at her shots it's crazy how much my photography has changed in 9 months. Except for my awesome OFF WITH THEIR HEADS! shot. :) That's always been there and always will be. It's a winner in my book! ;)

Hayden was also my first IN HOSPITAL birth documentation subject. ;)



After she had Hayden, he was my first newborn shoot... don't get me started on those photos. I'm tempted to delete them from my computer. ;) But he's cute despite my skills so I will keep them.

And here he is at 9 months old. He is just starting to take some steps so we figured we'd better get some shots before he started out-running me. There are more to come. :)

At this rate he will have better photo coverage than my own kids!! ;)

Ballet Rehearsal: Fun Portraits

Another highlight for me was shooting the littlest dancers. They each had a chair where they were to be seated when it wasn't their turn to dance. I had a great time going from chair to chair getting headshots of these tiny ballerinas. It was so fun. And while I believe that there is room for me to photograph all kinds of people and occasions it reaffirmed my belief that photographing families and children is my calling. So here are the last of the ballet images on the blog. 

If you are a parent or family member looking to view or order pictures you can follow this link:
Academy of Dance: Summer Recital 2009.

Thanks for allowing me to share the culmination of an entire year's worth of hard work from all these kids, their parents and their amazing studio & teachers!

Ballet Rehearsal: Wings of the Theatre

This was the most terrifying and fun part of the shoot for me. Terrifying because I was standing in almost pitch black with my camera shooting (without flash) at people I could barely see. Why in the world would I think I could get *anything* in those conditions?

Well, remember the Lewis & Clark Caverns a month ago? God was preparing me for this shoot when I traipsed through those caves with no flash. Here I was again in seemingly impossible conditions but I felt like it wasn't impossible. In fact, I had the final outcome of these images in my mind's eye as I was shooting. It was all in theory though until I got home and was able to view the images on my computer.

Talk about happy!!!! :)

This last one is very special. Look closely and you may recognize a certain member of my family. :)

Ballet Rehearsal: Backstage Dressing Area

I did it! I shot backstage at Natalie's ballet dress rehearsal on Friday night. We were in a windowless set of rooms with fluorescent & uneven lighting which was a big challenge. I tried putting my external flash on my camera but I just wasn't loving the washed out, flashy results. So I popped it off and spent the evening dancing all over manual mode and all possible combination of settings. What I sacrificed in the process was I ended up with more grain in the images than I would normally like. However, I think the grain adds to the gritty, feverish backstage feel of the images so overall I'm so happy.

The first set of images I have is from the backstage dressing and waiting areas. This was a wild shoot. I was sweating! Thankfully I had my friend Sarah there shooting with me. She is a mom of a dancer and also a wedding videographer when she's not wielding her Nikon. So she was a calming influence for sure. :)

These were fun shots to get. Sara, the beautiful ballerina in the first shot was so sweet to me. When I first entered their dressing area they had the overhead fluorescent lights on. I suggested how nice it would be if the makeup lights were on. She went over and started rearranging all the lights in the room for me. And she is blessed for doing so. When I saw the image of her applying her make-up my heart skipped a beat. What was so thrilling to me is that many of these mirror shots are totally unedited. I couldn't find any editing technique that improved them at all so I let them be. :) That is an awesome feeling as a photographer. :)

There's more coming tomorrow... including some really exciting ones in the dark wings of the theatre. Let's just say that my Montana Caverns practice really paid off! :)

Ballet Rehersals

I am so excited! My friend Sarah and I have the awesome opportunity to photograph the dress rehearsal for Natalie's ballet school performance today! Natalie has taken ballet at the Academy of Dance in the Spokane Valley this year.

How did I find this school? I didn't have the benefit of word of mouth as none of Natalie's friends dance. So instead I looked up ballet schools on the internet. I sorted them by location & checked out websites. There was one that caught my eye. It was mid-summer though and they weren't open. But I still wanted to check it out and get a feel. So I tied on my running shoes and ran there. That was probably the most favorable aspect of the school for me at the time. It was so close to our house that I could run there! ;) Of course as the year has progressed I came to realize that is not the best asset the school has to offer. Natalie's teacher (and owner/director of the school) is Kristen Potts. She is FANTASTIC!! She has such high standards for the girls in terms of behavior and how they carry themselves. And she also has high standards for the parents, which as a person who has coached kids in cheerleading, I can REALLY appreciate. Flakiness is not permitted. :) Technique and musicality are stressed. Natalie has thrived in this environment and even at the end of the year is disappointed when class is over.

This studio was recently voted the Best in Spokane. If you are curious there are LOADS of reviews at that link so you can get a better feel for what people think of the school. Don't take my word for it.

Anyway, be looking for heavy ballet coverage the next few days! And say a prayer for me as I shoot in a new environment (which I like to call): "backstage ballet."