My Little Effort

To make the future better... these are my new shopping bags I use when I go shopping anywhere and everywhere!

f/1.8, 1/160, ISO 125

My Baby Sister

This is the first time I've posted in MONTHS, but I was very able to complete this challenge without anything getting in my way! :) I've missed you all very much and this picture is of my little sister who just turned 17. We had a party for her at my grandma's house yesterday, where I snapped a few shots of her! I hope this will get me back in the hang of the posting for each challenge.

Featured Photographer: Candace

What camera do you use?

My main camera is a Nikon D300. My back-up is a D60.

What is your favorite photography subject? (or, what do you like to take pictures of the best?)

I love taking pictures of anything beautiful. My goal - as far as my photography business goes - is to focus on Weddings/Engagements/ Bridals/ Families/ Events.. etc.

I can’t think of anything more amazing than being responsible for capturing all the emotion in that most important time for a couple…. When they’re getting married and starting their new life together.

What camera equipment is on your wish list?

Right now, I really want a great zoom lens – specifically, the Nikkor 70-200mm- but it’ll be a while, that’s a $2000 lens. Just don’t have those funds right now.

What are your hobbies outside of photography?

Outside of photography… I have a hair bow business, called “Sassy Girl Bows”. I started doing that when my daughter was about a year old and I was spending way too much on boutique hair bows. I taught myself to make huge, multi-layered bows custom matched to her outfits. Now, I don’t make the gigantic ones much anymore for her, but I still make them custom for lots of kids in my area.

I also love to write. It’s my goal to write a novel before I die. J I’ve started two and gotten half-way through… become stuck and put it aside. Hopefully one day, I’ll successfully finish one.
And I love to read! I’m always reading at least one fiction novel at a time and I am also addicted to photography/Photoshop books. I LOVE them!


Tell us about your family! (married? Kids?)

I’ve been married to Tony for seven and a half years. We have two children, Emma (4) and Noah (1). We want to have at least one more child, but probably two more. I’d love to have another boy and another girl. But we’ll just have to see what the future holds for us. My husband works in Iraq as a defense contractor for 46 weeks of the year, so I do my best to keep things going around here and to keep us very busy. It’s not too bad, because we do get to talk daily and I have my family living all around me, so that makes it a lot easier for us to pass the time!

Where do you live? (you don’t have to be specific if you don’t feel comfortable)

I live in a very small town… Stedman, NC. It’s about ten minutes from Fayetteville, NC, which is the home of Fort Bragg. I’m sure you’ve heard of that on TV with all the talk of sending the troops from there overseas.

Do you have a blog you would like to share? (family blog or photography blog?)

My family blog is: arnoldfamily4.blogspot.com
My photography blog is: graciejamesphotography.blogspot.com

I’d love to have you guys follow/read my blog! It makes me so happy to get comments; I get so excited to read every single one!! And I’d LOVE feedback on my work. That really makes me happy!!!

What is the best photography advice you have ever received?

Hmmm… this is a hard one. Honestly, one of the things that always echoes in my head is to get down on the same level as the subject. Pictures with children are SO MUCH better when you’re on their level, not photographing them from above.



What (if any) editing program do you use?

I use Photoshop CS3 and I love it! Now that I'm used to it, I don't know how I ever got by without it.


10.Can you share your favorite 3 pictures with us??

Of course!!

These are our three nieces. The blonde on the right is Tony's brother's daughter and the two on the left are Maura's daughters. Maura and Tony's brother, Johnny, just got married on June 6th. Theirs is the wedding that I shot. They make a beautiful family!

These are my two handsome men. I love them so much!

This is my best friend, Amy, she says this is going to be on an easel at her funeral saying that this is her, running into heaven! :)

The Natural Reaction

I would imagine this reaction is very natural for being seperated from your birthday cake. :)


f/1.4, 1/400, ISO 3200

Splash

Emma's afternoon was spent circulating into and out of the pool, always making a huge splash when she went back into the pool.

Yes... I know this is a stretch, but this was a HARD word! :)

It's Time

This is the sign that Mommy's run enough errands and it's time to go home and put the poor little boy to bed.

f/2.0, SS 1/160, ISO 200
d300, 50 mm prime lens

Abandoning Tradition

Some of you know that today was my first wedding and it was so Amazing, Alive, and several more A words, I'm sure. One thing I really tried hard to do was to Abandon the traditional, tired shots. This one of the girls jumping was one of my very favorites of the 900 or so I took. Wow, I'm tired. It was a fantastic day! :)

Pure Happiness

This is my cousin Carrie's little boy, Aidan, he's always such a happy little boy. Just makes you want to kiss him all the time. :)

ISO 200, f/2.2, 1/1000

My Boy

This portrait of my sweet Noah shows his personality perfectly. He has the sweetest laugh and grin where he shows all his teeth while scrunching up his little nose. I love it.

cc

f/5.6, 1/640, ISO 100

Such A Sweet Tooth

I have had SUCH a sweet tooth lately. So today, I let Emma pick something from the bakery at the grocery store. She chose this little tiny sprinkly cake. She loves it.

More Old Stuff

I love old farm equipment. You probably already know this. Today we visited with some great friends of ours and they live on a huge farm full of cool old stuff. It was a great day.

f/1.8, 1/1000, ISO 200

Memorial Day

This is the display of flags at the Airborne and Special Operations Museum here in Fayetteville in honor of Memorial Day. Each flag represents a Hero's life lost in war.

Choose your challenge: Hero

f/10, 1/1000, ISO 200

Swinging

My sweet girl was fluidly swinging to and fro all evening long...

I got several shots of my family that I'm in love with this evening. Tony's leaving Monday to head back to Iraq and we won't be together again until December, so documenting every moment is very important right now. If you'd like to see more of the pictures from tonight, you can check them out on my family blog. :)

This picture: f/2.8, 1/2000, ISO 200

Shooting Portraits Like a Pro

Two of my very favorite Digital Photography books are called just that... The Digital Photography Book and The Digital Photography Book Volume Two. They are both written by Scott Kelby and I consider him a virtual genius... at least in the photography world. He is a dedicated Nikon and Photoshop user, so if you're a fellow Nikonian of mine, you may very well have heard of him. He teaches workshops for Nikon and for Photoshop. He's the president of NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) and also the editor and publisher of Photoshop User Magazine and Layers Magazine. I'm sure lots of you already know this, but for those of you who haven't discovered him, you should totally check him out!

Some of the places you can find him are...

kelbytraining.com and scottkelby.com

I decided to focus this tutorial on learning to shoot portraits like a pro. He devotes an entire chapter in volume two to this subject. Here goes...

1) Don't Leave Too Much Headroom.

Personally, this is what drives me NUTS when a random friend or family member takes a snapshot of me or anyone else for that matter, which is why I'm almost never in pictures, because it makes me crazy when I look at the screen and half the picture is air. Okay, now that I've vented about that... This is fastest way to ruin a portrait. Just don't do it. Don't leave too much space above the subject's head. :)

Kelby details the rule of thirds in a different chapter of this book and as far as headroom goes, it basically states that your subject's eyes should be in the top one-third of the frame. If you do this, you'll avoid too much headroom.

I chose to demonstrate this with the cutest little boy I know.

Too Much Headroom...

Taken Using the Rule of Thirds...

2) The "Sun Over Your Shoulder" Rule is Bogus.

You might have heard of this rule which says that you should always have the sun over your shoulder, or behind you so that the subjects faces are always lit. This, however, is pretty much the worst thing you can do. It pretty much guarantees that they'll be squinting and this is the last thing we want. Right? Right. It also causes them to have harsh, direct light bolting right down onto them. Instead, he says to try to keep the sun behind them, so that there's a flattering rim of light around them. Then you can use a tiny amount of flash to put just enough light on their faces to help compliment the natural light that's around them.

Also (this is totally me, NOT Scott Kelby), if you shoot with the sun behind your subject, you can catch one of my very favorite things.. sunflare!!!

3)Shoot Profile Shots in Horizontal

The reason you never want to shoot a profile shot in vertical is because they look boxed in and this tends to be uncomfortable to the viewer.

Here's that adorable little boy again. I don't know who he belongs to, but he should totally be a model for Gerber... ;)

See how this just looks wrong, but still... incredibly cute? ;) You just don't know who or what he's looking at. It looks like he's looking at the walls of a box.

When you shoot a profile shot in horizontal, it gives the subject more breathing room and they just look more comfortable within the frame...And... just in case you're curious about what that little bundle of sweetness is looking at... it's my dad.

4) Trendy Composition Tip

Turning your camera at an angle is a very popular technique right now. I love to do it. I was hesitant to post the picture below, because I was thinking.. hmm.. I may be breaking the number one rule in this one (too much headroom), but I think I just did pass with getting her eyes into the top third. ;)

Since most portraits are taken in either horizontal or vertical, doing something different like angling is always fun and... different!! :)

5) Cropping off the Top of Their Head

This is going a step farther than not leaving too much room above your subject's head. This is a very popular pro technique that fills your frame with your subject's head. Kelby says that although it's perfectly fine to cut off the top of the subject's head, side of the arms, shoulders, hair, etc., you should never cut off their chin. People are used to seeing shots where the top is cut off, but the chin being cut off is a very uncomfortable composition.

And I had to squeeze in a picture of my sweet girl... her brother's been featured five times already. Gotta give a girl some exposure...

And here's my best friend and fellow photog, Amy, again... isn't she so beautiful?

6) Tip for Posing Group Portraits

The next time you go to pose a group of people for a portrait, instead of lining them up, try having them gather around and object or on a couch or chair. You'll find that they'll naturally arrange themselves around it or on it.

Also, for a more compelling group shot, put your subjects in a tight pyramid shape. Try to make sure they're all touching... arms around each other... heads really close together. It gives the shot a more fun-loving, casual look, and also provides a sense of energy and fun to the shot.

7) When Using Window Light

Positioning the Subject: The most beautiful light for portraits is the window light from a north facing window. The window acts as a diffuser and the larger the window, the more soft and diffuse the light is. You should position your subject with their shoulder facing the window... so that the light comes across them and creates soft shadows on the far side of their face.

Where You Should Shoot From: You want to be pretty much up against the window, shooting at a slight angle back towards your subject. Your subject should be about 6 feet or so away from the window.

Okay, this is where I'm going to end this tutorial. I feel like it's already gotten a bit long and drawn out. Sorry if I've bored you to death. Scott Kelby offers up many more suggestions in the book on how to shoot portraits like a pro, but these are the ones that really stuck out as being the most important to me.

And for the sake of not plagiarizing...

The Digital Photography Book Volume 2, Kelby, Scott, Peachpit Press, December 2007. Chapter Three. Pages 71-100.

All Images were taken by me. :)

The Changing Front Door

I love wreaths. My front door always reflects the changing of seasons with a new one. When I saw this one out shopping a few weeks ago, I knew it was just made for me. I love how the main circle part is just brown stick-like branches (isn't that a sophisticated term?) and the front is little white blossoms. I love it. :)

The Balance Between Good and Evil

Here's my sweet baby boy giving evil a kiss. :) His good daddy was there to protect him, though.

He was so all about being all over this scary alligator statue, my daughter, on the other hand was terrified of it.. until her little brother showed no fear, then she would sneak a little closer. Never this close, though. He's gonna be a dare devil.

~cc~

The Key to Youth

... is maintaing your sense of adventure! Ok, this may be a stretch, but hey.. this is my submission.

Today, at the beach, these awesome guys were out here doing whatever extreme sport this is. I got some amazing pictures of them and this is one of my favorites! It was so much fun watching them. I took almost three hundred pictures of them, but of course, I only kept about fifty.


I'm including this picture in the post so that you could see what they were doing. I thought it was windsurfing, but Tony insists that it's not windsurfing, but we're not sure what exactly it is. Do you know? If you do, please... do tell...

The specs on the top pic are.... f/ 5.3, 1/1250, ISO 200.

~cc~

Voting: HOT

Okay, I am so new at being a helper around here that I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be doing this post or not! But it hasn't been done yet, so I'm guessing it's my job to do it. :)

So, here goes.... we are going to vote today for HOT!! You guys did so awesome with my word! I was really, really impressed by all the different pictures we got in.

Make sure to word your votes...

Best Overall:
Most Improved:
Shout-Outs:

I know there are going to be lots of people being voted for, because everyone did such a great job!

Oh, and before I forget, Mindy, Brittney, and Felicia were our winners with WISDOM, so let's try to vote for some others this time around! :)

Have a great day and Happy Voting!!

Handy Husband = HOT

My husband spent his day today staining our daughter's playhouse to match the new cedar playset! Handy Husband = Super Hottness!! :)

f/3.2, 1/160, ISO 200

Challenge: Hot

My word that I came up with is hot. I hope this is a good word for you guys. I had another one, but heat is what is on my mind this morning. This post is going up a little late because our air conditioner was all but working last night, so I hardly slept at all!! I'm so sorry it's going up late. Please forgive!!

I can't wait to see how you guys interpret this word!!

Please have your pictures posted by tomorrow at midnight and...

Happy Snapping!!! :)