Show & Tell

Photography Class -- Show & Tell
So I took an 8 week beginner photography class as I have mentioned before.  While I am far from satisfied with where I'm at as a "photographer" -- I definitely learned a lot and saw progress in what I was able to do with my camera from the beginning to the end.

The following are a few "fun" pictures that I took. These are all unedited and taken in my backyard.  

This pictures is "special" to me for two reasons. One -- it was one of the first times that I was able to get the "depth of field" how I wanted it (sharp focus up front and blurry in the back) -- a hard concept that I have yet to master. It is also special because it is a picture of my favorite things in my yard...my raspberry bushes. I hope they are as wonderful and plentiful this summer as they were last summer.

This picture, and the one following it, were taken while STANDING in my backyard...but looking over the fence into my next door neighbor's yard. She has a fascinating collection of all kinds of eclectic things. I didn't manage a good picture of the windmill or the street sign collection, but they are pretty cool. These are both unedited. I had a photoshopped version of the top one and it looked pretty cool...but alas, it disappeared on the flash drive.

 

So my teacher said that as part of our class fees he would print out a couple of large size photos for us. Sweet! Right? Only, that really put on the pressure. I have to have pictures worthy of hanging on my wall???? I'm not ready yet! What will I photograph??? Well I should have stuck to wagons in the snow and dead raspberry bushes...but I had the brilliant idea to take pictures of my kids. Let me share the nightmare with you!

It started okay...my sister-in-law Debbie (a great photographer) came over to help me get set up and brought me these fun frames. I'd seen pictures like this elsewhere and loved the idea. I had the kids all dress in black (I didn't really pre-think this...it was just what two of them had on so we went with it). The first round of photographs went okay. I got some good shots. But we had to stop when Renae had to leave to go somewhere. I got a good one of the girls and Debbie snapped some nice ones too.

It is all a blur now, but the drama began when I looked at the pictures on my computer later. Mine were all so fuzzy! I guess I wasn't focusing right -- the angle, the aperture, the lighting...you name it and I was doing it wrong. So the next day I had all my kids get dressed up again and we took another round of pictures. It was kind of a cloudy day, but it seemed bright enough. Wrong. The pictures all turned out dark and horrible. Day 3 of photographing my now sick of it kids was sunny and bright but my metering was off or my patience was gone or something but the kids looked great but my photos were still really grainy and fuzzy when you zoomed in at all. 

I was in tears. The kids had had it and so had I. If it wasn't meant to be hung on a wall I would have just called it quits and chalked it up to a learning experience...but I had a free 11x17 coming! This needed to be good. So I humbly (or frantically) called up my sister-in-law and asked her to come bail me out. She didn't have a car that day so I had to drive across town to pick up her and her 4 kids and bring them over to my house. She was so kind to drop everything and come. Her pictures were fantastic...at least the photography quality. My kids were so done smiling and holding up that dang frame that the magic and cuteness seemed to be all gone. Sigh. But we got a few pictures that I can proudly hang on my wall. Did I take any of them....yes. A few.

 

 First...some of the out takes.

Get me out of this frame!!!!!

 Sadie crying...I think this might have been right after the 

"Sadie got hit in the eye with the frame" incident. Yes, it left a lovely bruise.

Colby pouting. He might go berserk if he has to take one more picture!!! 

Aren't I the meanest mom?!?

And here are some of the "keepers" (most of these have had some minor coloring and lighting adjustments done in photoshop -- but nothing major):

 The boys (taken by Debbie)

 

 The girls (taken by me!)

 My favorite one that I took of all 4 kids. The kids look pretty nice (happy, natural)

 ...but it is a grainy picture when you see it big. Sigh.

 The one that will be on the wall big (taken by Debbie) -- really good quality photo

...but can you tell that Renae had been crying 5 minutes ago and that Colby is in pain? I can!

 I really love the kids in this picture, but someone (me) accidentally 

didn't get the top of the frame in the picture so it is just kind of odd.

I actually really like the pose and the kids' smiles in this one...but the lighting is all wrong. 

Eric came home from work as we were shooting pictures the first day (notice I am still smiling, so I know it was the first day). I made him jump in a frame with me. Not my favorite picture of us...but I can't remember the last time we had a picture of just us. This will go on the portrait wall as well.

So I've learned a ton. Enough to know that I am not ready to try "portrait" photography. People (especially kids) are too hard. I will go back to my wagon wheels in the backyard...or just taking candid photography that doesn't have to go on my walls. I'll leave the high pressure stuff to others :)