Yearly Archives: 2014

We are ALL guilty of hoarding!  All of us… maybe not television status but we are all guilty of hoarding something!  Most people don’t even realize it but every single person is a digital hoarder, especially of our images!

It is just sooo convenient and awesome that we can take pictures digitally, we can upload them all to our computers and we can share with just one click of a button!  It’s also awesome as a photographer that we can do the exact same thing for our clients!  We can upload the images to a gallery and with one click our clients can send that gallery out to family and friends, download those images right on their own computer and even share them on Facebook!  It’s just so easy!  It makes our life easy and I do love it!  A LOT!

In all this online sharing… printing is something that seems to be fading away.  We share our lives now on the web when we used to share our lives in albums and prints!  Times have changed so much since Facebook has made it’s way that now if I want to see what’s going on in my friend’s lives, I just check out their images online and I can see how big their kids are and how things are moving and shaking for them!

I LOVE having all my images on my computer!  I am so guilty of hoarding all my images on hard drives and in folders!  I have hard drives that fill a drawer and I have to buy a new hard drive each year:  one for clients and one for just family!  See… total digital hoarder.  One thing though that being a photographer has taught me is the value of images and seeing them in print!  Taking them OFF the computer where they just aren’t appreciated as much or seen as much as they would be when they are given a special place in frames on the walls of your home.While I LOVE all this new technology and this instant connectedness, I will say there is absolutely nothing… nothing like seeing your family and your loved ones around your house in print, in frames!  

Tuck and I always joke before people visit our home that our house is a shrine to Linc.  We have so many pictures of him all over the house and I am constantly changing them out with newer ones or more seasonally appropriate ones!  This is the beauty of printing your images:  there are some that you will find that you love seeing every day.  Some that you will never want to change and they will find a permanent place or spot in your home.  Then there are others that will have their shining moment and, when the time is right, make their way into albums or keepsakes boxes.

You are investing so much already in your images when you hire a professional photographer, so why not truly appreciate those images by giving them a place around your house where you can see them while you are doing every day tasks?!  I LOVE when I’m doing the dishes and I look over and see the image of Linc and Tuck snuggling with Wink around Thanksgiving time.  It was right before Tuck deployed and it has and will always have a special place in my heart.  Every morning and evening as I stood at that sink with soapy hands and washed dishes while Tuck was over seas, that framed image gave me peace of mind and hope.

I have i phone images framed of times when the moment was so perfect and I just had capture it but had no camera on hand!  They have amazing print labs for instagram images and even some that come in stickers or magnets for the fridge!

Another huge bonus of prints is finding the right pieces that fit the theme of your house!  This was a big project of mine while Tuck was away.  These book shelves were a big task for me.  I’m great at capturing moments and stories.  I’m great behind the camera.  I even found out that I’m not too shabby with a paint brush and a hammer!  I am not great a visualizing how a room or a space can all come together for the greater aesthetic good of a room.  My photographer BFF Elizabeth Friske however is a genius!  The two of us spent many nights together just working out the details of this one space.  She rearranged all the little odds and ends (even brought some of her own beachy magic over) and I supplied the goods, frames, images etc!  I even painted and crafted a bit too!

There are so many ways to honor your memories!  Printing is an incredible way to enjoy your images and your memories every single day!  It’s easy, it’s not expensive (there are so many amazing printing options out there now) and it’s FUN!  I LOVE searching for the perfect frames and you don’t have to look for expensive ones either.  Let me just share a not so secret, secret with you… TJ MAXX has the BEST  frames around and they have fantastic prices!

You can even be creative and search on pinterest for out of the box ways to display your prints!  I have two different window pane frames in my house with two differnt styles of print displays:  one where the pictures are transferred onto the glass (permanent) and another where we just switch the pictures out on a monthly basis using tape.  Yes… tape!

Where do all our prints go when we switch them up?  On a bulletin board, in albums, and even in a keepsake box with letters I have to Lincoln for when he’s older.  Don’t be afraid to print for fear you might want to change them around and aren’t sure what to do with the “left overs”.  Trust me, that’s what pinterest is for right?!

So stop hoarding your digital files TODAY and go print right now!  There are some amazing labs out there just waiting for your upload!

 

 

 

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GREAT

  • Big Boy Bed!  Still working out amazingly!  Linc’s still sleeping in it all through the night and hasn’t had the desire to get out of it once we tuck him in.  His sleeping has been much more peaceful and our bed time routine is now all of our favorite parts of the night!
  • ElePHHHHANTS with a tongue that sticks out in all sorts of ways and gets tangled and moves outside of the mouth!  It’s AMAZING and I will never ever correct him on this EVER!  Linc used to say elepents… now he says elePPPPHHHANTS which is on the right track to being pronounced correctly but it’s hysterical.  He sticks his tongue outside of his mouth and then the tongue just kind of runs away from itself.  It’s AWESOME!
  • Mud puddles… all the time!
  • Published!  I’m really excited that this fall I will be featured on a couple of blogs and that’s really a honor and I’m truly blessed!

WEIRD:

  • Setting the alarm off inside the house.  I forgot I set it last night and then quickly tried to open the door to let the dog outside.  That thing is LOUD and it scared and panicked ALL of us!
  • I bought my girlfriends BOB and I was super stoked about it.  Tuck and I had been talking about upgrading to a BOB since he likes to race and wanted to take Linc on longer runs.  I got an amazing deal and she was giving me the low down on it.  She explained to me that the handbrake didn’t lock so not to leave it parked on a hill because well… it won’t stay put.  Linc and I said goodbye to my girlfriend and her boys and we took the BOB and parked it in our garage.  We walked inside, closed the garage door and we went upstairs to nap.  I came downstairs after a while to see a BOB hanging out in the middle of the street just staring at the house.  I laughed and thought man that’s an expensive stroller for our new neighbors to leave lying around.  About 10 minutes later, I realized OH CRAP… that’s OUR new BOB and ran outside to realize that I guess we live on a hill and the time it took for me to close the garage door with Linc… our new BOB rolled down the driveway and into the street!
  • Getting pulled over… and getting a ticket, in front of your house!  Yeah that happened!
  • I made an awesome dinner… and then we had to order pizza.  Wahn Wahn!
  • Sneeze-Pee.  It still happens to me and my baby is 2!  When will it end!!!!!
  • I keep thinking lately about all the sweet little things I do for Lincoln and how that’s going to effect him later on in life.  All I keep thinking is how I should write an apology to his future wife!  “Sorry you will forever have to rub his back and head!”  I’m just really so sorry!
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It’s Tuesday… can I get an AMEN!

Some days Mondays are well… just another manic monday!  Cue the chorus please!  Yesterday our monday was a total monday in all sense of the word so I’m super happy it’s Tuesday!

I’m also super happy it’s Tuesday because Tuesday’s are the days I get to share little things I’ve learned along the way on how to get that one good picture of your wee one!   We’ve talked about how to get the best smiles and laughs!  We’ve talked about how to get that natural shot and even which lenses are best!  Today let’s talk about getting OUT of the auto mode!

Auto mode is amazing when you are first starting out!  It allows you to get to know your camera and get the feel for taking pictures and bringing it along wherever you are going!  Auto is where we ALL begin!

But after a while, auto can be really limiting.  Auto lets the camera dictate the shot.  The camera decides what looks best and where the settings should be.  It decides the aperture and the shutter speed.  It determines your ISO and that can make your photos crisp and clean or noisy and grainy.  Auto basically lets the camera do ALL the work and takes away all the creativity of photography!

So basically what I’m saying is you should be trying to get OUT of auto mode once you find yourself comfortable with your camera!

Depending on how brave you are (and how much time you have on your hand) you can go at this full speed ahead and start working on manual right away OR you can take it step by step and work your way through the different technical modes.

Most DSLR camera’s offer aperture priority  mode (meaning it lets you control how much light you let in to the camera), or you can focus on shutter speed (which allows you to control the speed at which your camera’s shutter is opening and closing!)

I know this all sounds SOO confusing right now but the best way to learn is to PLAY AROUND!

Let’s talk about Aperture priority to start!  Most camera’s have this and it’s marked by AV, for all you Nikon users switch your camera to A!

Aperture priority is responsible for light and depth of field!  It’s also responsible for bokeh and that’s the beautiful out of focus background that everyone loves so much!  It usually looks like bubbles or blurs and it’s amazing!

To get started it helped me to start thinking of my camera like my eye!

The aperture is like your pupil and how it dilates.  When you have little light, your pupils dilate allowing for more light!  This is how the camera works… you would need an aperture like 1.8.  When you have a LOT of light, your pupils get really small to account for all that light!  Just like your eye, your camera would need a smaller opening so a smaller aperture would be required like 5.0.  In photography and speaking about apertures in particular, larger numbers are actually the smaller numbers!

Still confused?!  Check it out on your camera!  Set your camera to Aperture mode and play around and watch the lens of your camera.  You can actually SEE the lens open and close and the width at which it opens during different apertures.  It will look exactly like your eye.  It’s kind of cool really.

Also when we think about our eyes, think about what you see!  When your eyes are dilated (meaning your letting in light and your aperture is set at something like 1.8-4.0) your focus is really narrow.  Your depth of field is really shallow.  So creatively your setting up your subject to be the only thing that matters.  The background might be out of focus or blurry creating that bokeh even.

When your eyes are smaller accounting for lots of light (like full sun) and your aperture is set at a number that is 6-20, then your depth of field is going to be greater allowing for more things to be in focus!

I know most of you have been to the eye doctor before and had your eyes dilated.  Come on now, please tell me I’m not the only one!  When I go for these tests, I always bring a book with me because it takes FOREVER!  Whenever I start to feel confused on apertures, I think back to having my eyes dilated and trying to read a book.  I can read a book completely fine when my eyes are normal.  That’s because my eyes are at a normal dilation.  When they dilate my eyes, I can read a book up until a certain point and then my pupils are so big and so freaky looking that I just can’t even focus on the words on the page.  That’s how aperture priority works!  When your lens is wide open (at an aperture like 1.8, 2.0, 2.8) your focus is going to be limited to one or two things only!  The rest will be blurred!

This is really where YOU get to choose and be creative!  This is why it’s soo much better to be off the auto mode!  You get to decide:  do I want my subjects to be the only thing in focus with a beautiful soft background that’s totally non-distracting!  OR do I want my subjects to be in focus as well as the background and in bright light?!  The choice is totally up to you and you can play around with both options and see which you like best later!

You get to be in control~

Shutter speed is a bit different and I’ll save that one for next Tuesday!

For now, start to practice with your aperture priority and gain control over your creativity!

Let me know how it goes!  Ask me questions and send me your captures, I would love to see what you can come up with!

If nothing else, trust me and be brave.  Getting out of the auto mode and into the more manual modes will completely change your life and your pictures!

xo

B

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