{MAMA}razzi Projects

As many of you know, I have a love of photography that I have yet to really capitalize on.  I dabble here and there, but have a loooooong way to go to learn all there is to know about taking the perfect photos...and even the photos that aren't so perfectly perfect.  Right now, I have my little Nikon D60, which has been a great learning tool (Eventually I would LOVE to upgrade to a newer/better Nikon model...but that's just not in the budget at this time. Donations currently being accepted! ha!). I have been able to start taking the camera off "Auto" and begin shooting with more manual settings.  If you get the combinations of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO right (along with a variety of other factors), the photos taken on manual settings turn out a million times better than those taken with auto settings.  The trick, however, is getting those combinations right...

I have been reading numerous articles on various photography websites and several interesting blogs, and I have recently purchased the book Photographing Children Photo Workshop by Ginny Felch to help me improve my skills.  Now, I don't particularly have a desire to go professional, per se (don't have the funds to splurge on all the necessary equipment or more professional instruction), but it might be nice to be able to continue making a little money on the side by taking photos for family and friends and improving on the quality of those photos (I have already had the opportunity to take photos for several wonderful families! Perhaps I will start a new blog with those photo sessions?!).  At the very least, however, I would love to just be able to take great photos of my own little family for us to cherish for many years to come.  The addition of Rylie has definitely been a huge influence on my desire to discover my inner-photographer!

Anyways, back to the book...  It has been a great tutorial for me so far.  I have never taken any sort of photography class, so I have found this book pretty good because it starts out quite slow and ensures understanding of basic camera functions and elements of photography.  I think that I really understand the concept of composition, but I definitely need to work on knowing when to choose what camera settings and how to get to those settings very quickly (little kids do NOT wait around for you to fiddle with your camera!).   There are a ton of photos throughout the book as examples, and each photo is labeled with the camera settings used to take it (aperture, shutter speed, iso).  Not only are the photos and descriptions very helpful in figuring out the settings that I should be using with any given set of circumstances (i.e. cloudy day, indoors with low light, bright noon sun, etc), they are also a source of inspiration!   At the end of each chapter, there are Assignments.  So, I thought I would try to complete those assignments and add them to this blog as I finish them.  Of course, my main subject will be the one and only Rylie, but I may throw in a few others if I get the opportunity and really want to show them off!  :-)  Please remember that I am only a beginner photographer...but hopefully as I continue this journey you will see the quality of my photos improve!

The first assignment I have now completed is from the chapter Seeing the Light.  We woke up this morning to a rather foggy day and, of course, it is way too cold to go outside, but I thought it might be cool to try and snap off some photos of Rylie in front of some windows and "see the light", without using any on-camera or external flash.  I chose black and white for this project because I like the emphasis it puts on the light source and the shape contrasts between the light and shadow.  I call this collection "Good Morning, Sunshine".  Take a peak:

 Just for fun....

Some of my favorite photography websites/blogs:

Digital Photography School
Photojojo
BetterPhoto
Sesame Ellis
Beyond Snapshots
Photo Lovecat
http://shuttersisters.com/
The Pioneer Woman

In my camera bag:

Nikon D60
35mm 1.8
18-55mm
55-200mm

Wish List:

Nikon D700 (or the rumored and very hyped-up D800 soon to be released!)
24-70mm 2.8
50mm 1.4