Photography Lesson #2 Creative use of Shutter Speed

For this assignment we took Jill's kids to the motocross track to ride motorcycles.  Papa and Capri were quite content to ride around and around past us while we took pictures.  Over and over and over.  I got pretty bored with the whole taking five pictures and bumping my shutter speed up a notch.  But I did it!  Well, sometimes I only took three pictures.  But the one above is my favorite freezing motion picture.

And this was my favorite implied motion picture.  Can you see the roost Aiden is getting with his back wheel?  This boy is getting very comfortable on a bike :)

For creative use of shutter speed I always have to try my hand at panning.  I should get out of my panning rut and try something new, but I don't quite have panning down yet, so I keep working on it. 

This is the best I got.  Capri's face is in pretty darn good focus, Dave's is a little blurry, but not bad.  Implied motion right there.  And thus ends our second week assignment that took us three weeks to do.  Three weeks is still better than never, I say :)

R.E.S.P.E.C.T

This is what our mailbox at the seminary looks like.  See the pole that's hooked into the mailbox on top and chain link fence on the bottom?  It rusted and fell over, so we called the FM Group to fix it.  Last October.  At some point they put up a new post.  Then a couple of weeks ago they put a new board on the top of the post to hold the mailbox, but THIS is how they attached the mailbox.  I'm standing on the road where the mailman would be IF he delivered to a mailbox that looks like this.  (He doesn't!)   And we haven't had mail delivered since October.  I hope someone important isn't trying to reach us.  Just sayin'.   ANYWAY . . .

On the menu for Family Home Evening was Shredded Beef Burritos that were SO yummy and SO easy to make.  Here is the recipe.
Slice an onion into thin slices (or rings) and place in the bottom of a crock pot.  Place a  3-4 lb Beef roast on top of the onions and sprinkle one package of Taco Mix over the roast.  Let it cook for about 5 hours on low.  Then shred the beef (it will shred very easily) and sprinkle another package of Taco Mix over the shredded meat.  (I left out the 2nd package of Taco Mix because the meat tasted taco-y enough to me at that point.)  Warm a burrito sized tortilla however you like to - I did mine in a frying pan on the stove because Kimbrey says that's the only right way to do it ;)  Place a spoonful or so of meat on the tortilla, add a Capri sized handfull of cheese (sorry, but that's how we did it!)  and roll it up!  This recipe said it would make 16 burritos, but we only got 13.  I'm sure it wasn't because Dave and Capri were eating the meat by the handful while I was frantically rolling burritos :)  Serve with Jill's yummy Pico de Gallo, sour cream, cilantro, and whatever else floats your boat!  Also, Jill made Spanish Rice that was the perfect compliment!!
And now . . .

THIS is what we did for Family Home Evening Monday night.  We had a lesson on respect.  Sock puppets were made.  (I would say everyone made a sock puppet, but THAT didn't happen ;)  This was Aiden's.  I helped him, which is why I don't have a sock puppet.  It was a joint effort. 

Those who DID make sock puppets really got into them.  I finally had to set a time limit because we still needed to talk about respect and have a puppet show.

This is Jill's.  And Capri's.  Capri was much more into painting glue on paper than on making sock puppets, so we let her do that.  She was really good at it! 

And THIS one is Kara's.  She is a closet artist.  Dave asked her if art was her favorite subject in school and she said, "Yes!"  It's a cute little Land Before Time Dinosaur. 

And then we had a puppet show.  About respect.  Aiden wanted to make a puppet theater, but we didn't have time for that.  Maybe for Cozzen's Camp :) 

I love how Aiden's sock puppet can totally get in Jill's face - something Aiden can't do in real life.  Take THAT you little wimpy armed girl with the see-through button dress.:):):)  Oh, Fun times at Family Night. 

Photography lesson 1, Part 2

The assignment for this lesson required an outing, so when a friend of a friend called and asked if I could spare an hour on Saturday to take a few engagement  pictures of her daughter, I was so excited because there was my outing!  It turned out I was taking pictures of  Kate Hudson and Tobey Maguire.  Not really, but you have to admit they bear a striking resemblance. 

The file info on this picture is f/4.0, sputter speed 1/250 sec, ISO 200 and I was in aperture priority, mainly because it was so bright outside that I was having a hard time reading the manual information on my camera.  I like how they fill the frame and, even though my aperture was 4.0, the background is nicely blurred.  I was able to stand on a rock and get slightly above them so my angle was nice, with Amy looking up at me.

This picture is similar, but with a more eye level viewpoint.  by aperture was f/2.8 in this photo, with a shutter speed of 1/1600 and ISO still 200.  I could have easily lowered my ISO to 100 and been fine, but I routinely shoot with an ISO of 200, so I didn't think to try lowering it.  I wish I had asked her to tilt her head a little so both eyes were showing clearly, but I really like this composition and viewpoint of this one.

This photo was taken with my K-7 (my old camera) with my new lens.  We took this one up on the motocross track :)  My aperture was f/4.0 and shutter speed was 1/1250 with an ISO of 200.  I think this is a cute picture, but the there is a skyline merge that I could have avoided by getting above them more.  I was a little handicapped because Dave was supposed to bring me a step ladder, but he forgot :)

I'm just throwing in these last few for the heck of it.  These guys kept trying to pay me, but I finally convinced them it would be more valuable to me  if they let me play around with the sun in a few shots.  This is one where I was trying to do something creative with sun flare.  Still not perfect, but better than I've been able to do before!  I like how the sun makes it look like a little magic is happening between them there ;)

And another one.  This one was pretty faded by the sun, but I thought making into a black and white worked well.  It was such a cute pose I couldn't leave it out.

We did a lot of this . . . they were a happy couple, these two!  We teased Ben about being a city boy.  All too often I had to say; "Ben!"  because he was looking off at the pretty scenery instead of at me, or his cute fiance.

Their first date was December 21st, and they are getting married on February 21st.  A quicker romance than ours!  They are a cute couple and I had a lot of fun with them.  Thanks for being my photography assignment outing Ben and Amy.

Photography Lesson 1, part 1

For the first part of lesson #1,  I used Charlie as my co-operative person who would sit and play quietly while I looked and then took pictures from different angles.  I gave her a little box filled with some old jewelry so she would sort of quietly sit and play with the stuff.  It worked pretty well :)

This picture was shot at f/3.5, ISO 200 with a shutter speed of 1/160 sec.  I was in aperture priority.  This was shot from a high viewpoint, which works well because I have the carpet as a background instead of pieces of furniture.  Charlie's face is in the top third of the picture and the jewelry box in the bottom third.  I wish she was smiling, but the seriousness of her face looks like she just got caught playing in something she's not supposed to be playing in, so it works well for this picture. 

This picture was also shot at f/3.5, ISO 200 with a shutter speed of 1/200 sec.  I was in aperture priority.  This was also shot from a high viewpoint, giving me carpet as a background, but I was off to one side of her instead of right in front.  In this picture, Charlie's face is in the top right third of the photo.  I like that there is a necklace in her mouth and a pile of them on the floor next to her, telling the story of her playing with the jewelry.   

This one was also shot at f/3.5, ISO 200 with a shutter speed of 1/160 sec.  Still in aperture priority.  This was shot from more of an eye level, and, while I love that she is getting into the little box in this picture, there are several legs of furniture in the picture, causing a distraction, and one of them even merging slightly with the top of her head.  I wish I had either shot this one from a higher viewpoint or moved the chairs. 

f/3.5, shutter speed 1/200 sec, ISO 200, aperture priority.  Again, I love her interaction with the jewelry box, but there are legs from a chair merging with the top of her head.  I needed to change my angle or viewpoint to avoid that merger.  

The Removable Flash And How It Transformed Me

When I was asked to take pictures at our Ward Christmas party, I knew it was time to get that removable flash for my camera that I had been putting off for years.  I was nervous about trying to learn one more thing when I was so overwhelmed with what I was already trying to learn about photography, but now it was time to bite the bullet.  So, Dave got me a flash for my birthday.  Actually, it was several weeks after my birthday, but that's how we roll.  And then, I did everything I could to control the situation.  I offered to decorate the room so I would be comfortable with what was there and in charge of where we were placing Santa.  I went down the night before to practice bouncing the flash, trying it off the walls and off the ceiling.  While I was practicing, Santa walked in :)  so he sat in the chair I had in place for him and let me practice on him.  I was in as much control as I could be.  And it ended up working out great! 

These are Traci Carling's cute little boys.  Even though they were moving around some, they are still in focus - yay!!  (I have focus issues :(  )

It ended up working out best to bounce the flash off the ceiling slightly behind me.  With a diffuser over the flash.  Our Santa made the comment when I was trying out the pictures the night before that many times the pictures people take of him turn out kind of yellow.  He was impressed to see that these didn't.  He even asked me for copies of some :)

Now I use that flash ALL THE TIME!  Especially on indoors shots.  I used to not bother to take pictures inside because they would always be blurry.  But not with my handy flash!!  This cute picture I took of Charlie trying to use the plug end of a string of lights as a hammer on her toy was taken without a flash.  I had plenty of light from the big window behind her.  But that is not always the case at my house.

This evening Capri was playing outside on the digger.  The sun was down and it was getting dark, so I just set my camera aside thinking I wouldn't get any pictures tonight.  Then I remembered THE FLASH!  For this one I bounced the light off the side of the garage . . .

And for this one I bounced it off the cement from below.  I am a flashing fool.  It has transformed my picture taking.  But fair warning, I don't pay attention to whose eyes might be blinded when my flash hits them full in the face.  Because anything goes when you're trying to get the shot :)

Taking Care Of Business

Today little Charlie was sick.  She had a cold and a fever and didn't feel good AT ALL!  But she still helped me take down the Christmas tree.  The little Trooper. 

And she played some tunes for me on the piano while I did the high part of the tree :)

Of course, we had to stop often and wipe her little nose.  I finally brought a roll of tissue into the room with us, which she thought was fun to play with. 

Yes, it's true I would not have just smiled and taken pictures while my kids unrolled a whole roll of toilet paper.  But by the time you're a Gramma, you've learned a few things.

One of those is that toilet paper is pretty easy to pick up.  And the joy it gives a sick little girl is worth the  mess it makes.  And, she did use some of that tissue pile to wipe her nose :) 

Flarp

New Years Eve fun will, from this day forward, always have to live up to the year of the Flarp.  For us, Flarp was a fluke.  It was just something we grabbed for Bingo prizes when we were at the store.

Who could have guessed a product that made inappropriate noises when you pushed on it would cause PEALS OF LAUGHTER?  Over and over again.  Wait a minute, we're talking about a table mostly full of boys.  But they weren't the only ones laughing . . .

                  Aiden is poised for the Flarp dip.  And, see?   These boys are still laughing over the last one!

                                                        Getting it out of the container . . .

                                                                         Getting ready . . .

And FLARP!!!  I love that this photo has a hand with flarp dripping off it coming in on one side, and a hand with ear plugs dangling from it coming in on the other.  That's how you know how loud the laughter was!  And what caused it :)

 Capri has THE BEST laugh!  And she thought this Flarp stuff and the sounds it made were just as hilarious as the boys did.  

                                          She laughed until I thought she was going to be sick!

Yup, for a successful New Years Eve celebration, you've got to get yourself some Flarp.  It's a barrel of laughs :) :)