Practice makes...improvements.

I have the privilege of shooting a wedding in June which I'm super pumped about.  Oh my god, right?  A wedding is a huge deal.  I am in charge of capturing those perfect moments to preserve them forever.  Whoa.  That being said, I have been trying to study my camera and practice, practice, practice.  I have been going in the backyard, with my books in tow, and practicing what I am reading about.  This lesson was about ISO, which in easy terms, is the camera's sensitivity to light.  Although my lesson to myself was ISO, I always need practice shooting manually period.  I had my aperture (the area of focus) set very small and practiced focusing on different parts of the stairs, etc.  I think it's a pretty neat sequence of focus traveling down the stairs.  

 

Here was my first lesson on ISO.  This sequence is from lowest ISO (100) to highest ISO (3200) and the day was fairly cloudy.

 I love focusing manually on different things and I can never get enough practice.  Sometimes I think I have it focused perfectly but when I look at it on the computer I realize I could do better.  One thing I want to focus on for the wedding is background. I want to have rich, interesting, relevant backgrounds.

ISO lesson number two was with my broken hammock.  I didn't realize I still had my ISO set high, meaning the sensitivity to light is very high.  Imagine if this had been a picture of her in her wedding dress!  Oops.  The good thing about mistakes is that if you pay attention, hopefully you won't make them twice.  Thank goodness for the immediate picture display on the camera.

This is with a lower ISO.  Much better.

There are awesome picture ideas on Pinterest.  This is just a little practice for this!

ISO lesson number three was with Jules.  If I didn't tell you it was a setting, you might think this picture was taken after the sun had set. Because the sun was  behind the clouds, the ISO needed to be set higher.

A little higher...

There we go, except my model was not ready.  :)

Practice, practice, practice!

It won't make me perfect but it will make be better.  :)

Chelsea

Long time, no see.

I always have great intentions of bogging and I am hoping to get back into it.  For me, blogging and pictures go hand in hand, so if I have no pictures I never think to blog.  I haven't been very good with my picture taking lately so here is what's been happening according to my iPod.  The kindergarteners had written me s sweet letter the last time I visited them.  These were there words and written by their teacher.  BTW I finally got Sub certified so I am official.

 All the sisters have been working at the Gap.  I like to say, you fall into the Gap and never get out.

 Tiffany fixed Maggie's hair for Homecoming and did a wonderful job.

And now for a dog update:

Sookie somehow went from this to the following picture.  

These pictures of William and Sookie were taken maybe 8 months apart.  She is no longer a puppy, she is a dog.

 This is Jessica and Mark's new addition, Baron.  He is so sweet and timid.  He is actually coming over for a visit to hand with Grandma for a while.

These videos and a few of my favorites of them.  Mitchell and Shelby also visited us and we had a dance party.  Enjoy!

Chelsea