McFarland Mom's Camera Club

We've had our first official meeting!

It only took a year to corral everyone together, but I did it =) I found the cutest red antique desk at a local antique store and took some pictures of the girls for their "official" back to school pictures. They didn't turn out too bad so I bribed our club with the use of the red desk. It worked! We actually had 2 groups of Moms meet up to talk about photography and take some super cute pictures.

 Isn't Christopher the cutest?

I believe we've decided that having a "photoshoot" is a good way to get people together. I was thinking for Oct we'd work on some fall/Halloween pictures and for November we might just get together and talk about Christmas card picture ideas.

Stay tuned!

 

Ok, I'm going to blow off the dust on this blog and fire it up again!!

Even if no one reads it (why would you, I never post!!) I decided it would be a good way for me to just put down my thoughts on this journey I'm on to figure this photography thing all out.

So the first thing I want to do is post a before and after. A year ago I went to a class and took with me a picture of my daughter Sophie on her 3rd birthday. I wanted help with my pictures. The picture I took was taken at Chucky E. Cheese. I love her happy grin but was upset because I thought the picture looked horrible and I wanted to be able to take better pictures of my kids. I thought the picture looked dark, didn't like the shadows and basically looked to me like I took it in a cave.

 

Ok so fast forward to last Friday, we took the kids to Chucky E's for lunch and I took this picture. Ok, it's not the most exciting picture ever taken, but I wanted to show that indeed I've come a long way in 2 years. This picture is bright, colorful and taken at the same place.

 

Again it's not the most exciting but I wanted to use it as an example to what I've learned in the last year. First natural light is my friend! I did not use a flash for this picture. I hardly ever use a flash for anything anymore. I've figured out how to shoot in manual and control the ISO so I can use natural light. (There is more to it than that, but that is the main thing. If you really want to know email me and I'll try to explain what else I've learned)

So just wanted to post a before and not quite an "after" since I'm really just getting started on my journey,but more of a progress report!

win a new lens!

Ok, not from me, but if you go to MCP actions blog

http://mcpactions.com/blog/2009/07/08/win-an-slr-lens-brand-new-tamron-lens-%e2%80%93-18-270mm-or-28-300mm/ Jodi is giving a Tamron away!!

I know I Haven't posted in foreva, but I swear I will be back soon with all the things I've been learning. Or should I say all the things I'm learning I don't know yet!

Oh, and if you're a student of John's, please contact me again. I read your email and am sorry but I lost it so I couldn't respond. I'd LOVE for you to join me on this journey to get off the green box!

Susan

So I had my first "shoot"

Ok that makes me sound way better than I am. I actually have a cousin who was kind enough to let me takes some maternity pics.

 

I thought this was sort of cool. It was the first pic I took. =)

Custom white balance...just do it

Ok, so far our little group has not exactly taken off like I had hoped it would. Maybe after our Scrap From My Heart event I can work on getting this going again. However I do want to share one thing...

Custom white balance!

I've been messing around with it and the proof is in the pictures.

 

Ok this is obviously before I balanced. Now I took this one our bed, which where I usually have the best light. We have 3 windows in our room and the bed is right in the middle. However today is an overcast day so the lighting wasn't so great.

 

Holy White batman!! This is after I custom white balanced. It's really easy, check your manual on how to do it. On my old D rebel XT I first take a picture of something white. In this case, I just shot the rug. (You fill the frame, even if it's blurry). Then I go in to menu and select "custom white balance" and it will ask to select a picture. Select the all white picture you just took, and now your camera is balanced for your lighting. This saved me a ton of time in photoshop and even that probably wouldn't have saved my Valentine pics of little Gus. =)

Camera RAW and white balance

Ok I did it! After the horrible pics I took at the CLM pre-k Christmas program, I decided to try shooting in camera RAW. I guess I figured they couldn't get any worse. So I switched it over and *wow* it's so much better! I've just dipped my big toe in but here's an example of the flexibility of shooting in RAW and being able to fix the white balance in post processing.Here's an example of Gus (as I now call him) in his high chair. f 5.6 1/60 ISO 1600

 

next picture I took that I fixed the white balance

 

Hopefully you can see the difference, I can =) Go ahead and try it! Now if your camera can shoot in RAW you'll either need the program that came with the camera to process the RAW pics to jpegs, or photoshop. (not sure about elements)

Have fun, Susan

What's on my Christmas list?

This is:

http://www.sundancecatalog.com/PRODUCT/Women/Shirts/44892.html?omAdd=yes&pbAdd=-1

How cute is this? I'll have to ask Santa if I've been good this year!

Whhhooo hoooo! I'm the photo of the week =)

I'm in a group called, "Babies in hats" on Flickr and David's picture was chosen as the photo of the week.

 

Ok, I know it's not a Pulitzer but you have to start somewhere so I'll take it! =)

Show us what you've got!

Ok, so we're obviously not meeting today like I'd hoped. Not everyone could meet and my husband was scheduled to play paintball. (don't tell him I told you, but he wimped out because it's cold. LOL)

So.....how about getting some chit chat going on our flickr group? (See link below 2 posts ago) Join our group and then let's start by posting your favorite Halloween pictures. (Could be this year, could be from years past) Post as many as you'd like, we'll all oooh and awww with you. Then for kicks lets see a Halloween blooper. Could be a technical issues like over/underexposed or someone not cooperating etc.

Can't wait to see what you post. =)

Oh and I picked up another member to our little group-welcome Sara!

My favorite blog

<a href=”http://www.mcpactions.com/blog”>MCP Actions Blog | Resources for Photographers</a>

I love this blog. Jody's actions for photoshop are very easy to use and her blog is full of all sorts of good tips on editing. Check it out!