A whole lotta nothing...

Spent the weekend in Yellowstone National Park for a family reunion this past weekend! The weather was gorgeous...the company was great...but we really lacked in the

"animal viewing department"!

We saw a whole lotta this! Bare fields. We still had a great time though and enjoyed our many, many hours in the car with fighting children. :)

Just wanted to say that I am so very, very behind on editing. The only downside I see of shooting RAW is the enormous amounts of time I have to spend on this dang computer. I think I am going to start shooting jpg with all my everyday type shots and save RAW for paying sessions only! I just don't think I can take another minute sitting here at this computer!

Anyone out there feel my pain?

PROUD!

I am not going to lie here. This post really makes me cry. Cry for good reasons. Cry for bad. I remember moving into our first home 10 years ago. I met a good friend there. A friend that I have always loved, admired and have a very close bond to. When I moved from this neighborhood, a strange thing happened. Her kids grew up. I remember her boys being young, sweet, handsome, genuine, young, young, and young. Well, my friends....he is still all those things, except, no longer young. In fact...he is a man. How did this happen?

Reporting or shipping off for duty in February!

I am very proud of the man he has become. I am proud of his decision to serve our country. I am proud that he is graduating high school early. However...I refuse to use the word my other friend used when she saw these pictures. "Man, he is HOT!". No...I will not use that word. Because, he is still a little boy in my eyes. A handsome young man? Yes. But....a "hot soldier"?

It scares me how fast this growing up thing happened. It makes me realize how fast time really goes by. Still, I am proud of this kid. I hope the very best for him. I know he is going to do really great things.

As for photography tips? This sessions once again proved how difficult snow can make things. It was so bright outside that I couldn't see my screen to check my histogram. I couldn't see what settings worked best. I felt like I was in the dark. But...it was so bright! So confusing. I tried to hide under my coat to see what was going on. That did help a little. At least enough to see if I was way over blowing my images. Yet another reason to start shooting in RAW. Any of you attempting the shooting in the snow? Any great tips?

As for shooting seniors? I love it. I think they are the best subjects. They are so fun! If you are looking to improve your own photography, I think seniors are a great practice! Way easier than babies/kids. They are easier to direct and they hold still! Nice! So, if you are getting old like me and have friends that have graduating seniors...give them a session for a graduation gift. Pictures last a life time!

Congrats "Soldier Boy"! We are so very proud of you!

Shooting In RAW!

I know that for this being a new blog, I am kind of jumping ahead of "the basics" of photography, but I figure I would just post things as they come up for me, what I learn, then pass on what works for me. As far as the technical parts of shooting in RAW, I have to admit that I have no freaking clue how to explain it. BUT, I do know that it works. It saves me pretty much every time I take pictures. Even though I do have a pretty good understanding of exposure, shutter speed, aperture, blah, blah, blah, I still mess up. A LOT! I never get perfect exposure on all of my shots, in fact, I get perfect exposure on very few shots. This is where shooting in RAW has literally saved many many shots for me. The best way to know if your camera shoots in RAW is to look in your owners manual. It will tell you exactly how to set your camera to RAW mode.

I will show you an example of RAW saving my own butt right now....

Holy Moly....What a mess!

I was asked to shoot some pictures of my Stake Relief Society Presidency for our upcoming Stake Women's conference and dinner. This proves just how amateur I really am...All the settings on my camera were wrong. I don't know if one of my kids messed around with them without me knowing, or what, but I ended up with a whole lotta of messy pictures. I knew they were a little over-exposed, but when I got home I was wondering how in the world I would explain to this group of women that we needed a do-over. Fortunately, I shot these all in RAW.
I was able to change the exposure with the ease of a slider in Camera RAW CS3. (photo shop)

PHEW. Not a perfect picture by ANY means, but good enough to at least get the point.

With some more photo shop, I ended up with this. Still not a perfect or amazing shot by any means, but WAY better than the original straight out of the camera shot. There is NO way this could have been saved if I had taken it as a JPEG. In my ((very un-professional)) opinion,

Here are my cons to shooting in RAW:

1. The files are huge! They take up WAY more memory than a JPEG.

2. Every shot has to be post processed. This takes a lot of time!

3. Usually a JPEG shot is more than good enough quality for most everyday shots.

How I was converted to RAW:

I certainly did not understand RAW at all when I first tried it out. I was nervous that I wouldn't know what to do with them. So, I decided to shoot in a mode that took a RAW image and a JPEG. This took a ton of memory, but it really proved the difference between the two. Seeing side by side comparison of the two exact shots was enough to make me realize that I was going RAW and would NEVER look back. When you shoot in RAW, no white balance is set. You get to choose the final outcome of your photo. When you shoot in JPEG, you camera chooses what it thinks your photo needs. Sometimes, I think it does a pretty good job, but I noticed my camera, when shot in JPEG mode made my photos darker than I liked. I had to always compensate and guess what settings would trick my camera to expose properly. This almost never worked. My camera also added too much of a warm ((red/orange)) finish to all my photos.

Here is an example of some of the photos I took in both JPEG and RAW. Visually seeing these straight out of the camera, side by side after shooting, I knew I had to start shooting in RAW all the time. To save time, I only post process the images I will be using. The way I look at it, is that I have digital negatives waiting for me to process when I need a certain picture. It works for me now. I do have to say that it was really overwhelming at first. But, after going RAW....I know I will never shoot JPEG again! It will make your good shots fantastic!