Tuesday, February 16, 2010

picture perfect weekend

This past weekend was absolutely PERFECT for so many reasons. I mean, naturally it was perfect because  classes were canceled on Monday because it was President's Day, but everything else just seemed to fall into place around that.

I think my favorite part of the weekend was Saturday. I got to spend the entire day with Nikol and Stephanie. We hung out at my house for a little bit then got some different outfits together and headed out to Moro Bay so we could have a photo shoot of Steph. The light was absolutely beautiful and the location was perfect because we had settings with forrest, meadow, and beach. Stephanie was a wonderful model. She is so photogenic and so willing to do anything we asked her to do!

Here are a few favorite shots from my collection of 400 pictures that I took while we were there:

Typical Stephanie face... I love this one!



After we got back to our house, we made dinner, watched "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," and got back to photography! We hung up sheets in my room to make a sort of studio setting and used my lamp as our studio light. It ended up being really fun! I just need to learn how to use my camera a bit better in that lighting. Here's a sample of some of the pictures:




This one doesn't look like Steph, but I really like the lighting! (And the black and white balance)

Nikol being the rock-star she is! (Check out some of her photographs here)


I really liked this angle... where her feet look unnaturally small. I stood on the bed and held the camera up to take this one.

There are a few more that I want to post, but I have to edit them before I can post them.

This weekend I learned why I like being behind the camera lens... I'm a sucky model! Nikol barely got ANY good pictures of me! I'm just not naturally good at it like Steph is. That's okay though, because I am really proud of the photos I took this weekend. I think they look, if not professional, above average for an amateur photographer.

I had so much fun taking these pictures and I"m so proud of how well Nikol and I did with our photography. Hopefully this isn't the end of our photo-escapades. We talked about taking photography classes and I really hope that happens!

I'm so proud of myself for taking these pictures, but any constructive criticism would be fantastic!

P.S. This blog is such an inspiration to me. She has fantastic stories, photos, and photography tips. Love it!

2 comments:

Karen Russell said...

Just wanted to say thanks for your comment on my blog!

You got some lovely shots here and you have a real eye for composition.

The key to shooting in harsh, direct light like you were shooting in (in some of those shots) is to position it BEHIND your subject so no harsh shadows are falling on their faces.

Sometimes that will fool the light meter in your camera into underexposing your subjects but you can deal with that by using Exposure Compensation (check it out in your manual if you're not already familiar with it) or by shooting in full Manual mode.

Would love to have you in class sometime!

Dalia Feinholz said...

Your pictures are beautiful! The photo shoot sounds fun... I'm so glad you posted some of the pictures! You are such a talented photographer :)