Photo a Day

I still find my self afraid to shoot and completely imitated. The desire to learn and accomplish is still there though. To help me through this I am challenging myself to a 30 day Photo Challenge
Beginning April 1st.
1. Self Portrait
2. Something Green
3. A bad habit
4. Black and White
5. Shallow depth of field
6. Shadows
7. Love
8. Happiness
9. Spring
10. Memory
11. Pavement
12. The letter 'C'
13. Faceless self portrait
14. Open door
15. Sunflare
16. Something you love
17. From a high angle
18. From a low angle
19. Hands
20. Pink
21. Eyes
22. A kiss
23. Water
24. Silhouette
25. Bokeh
26. Feet
27. Vintage
28. Motion
29. Sadness
30. Candelight


Wish me luck!

Photo 2

So this week, my focus has been on shooting in manual only. A photography friend of mine advised me that this would be the fastest way to learn the settings on my camera and the quickest way to improve. We went down to Galveston for a family outing and I was proud that all of these shots were taken in Manual. I was surprised how blue the pictures turned out. I am not sure why, I am wondering if had I used the flash if that would have done the trick. I used my limited CS5 knowledge and touched up each picture. I am happy with the outcome. This is starting to excite me instead of terrify me. And that in it's self is an improvement. (I hope it's obvious which pictures have been fixed, but if not...The second picture in each series is the doctored photo.)

The book Understanding Composure has been the most help in understanding manual.

Photos 1

These 2 pictures are the reasons why I have invested a lot of money and am committing to invest a lot of time to photography. I want to cherish and capture my children's childhood. They seem to be growing faster every year and I have a very poor memory but as I look at pictures my mind is flooded with moments I had forgotten. I have always thought photography was kind of cool but was completely overwhelmed by the thought of becoming a photographer. As I was living in Grenada I was amazed as I watched my friends learn the art and rather quickly. They have captured beautiful pictures of my family and were able to build businesses around their talent. At this point I am not looking to earn money from this but I would love to get over my fear and capture some memories that will make me smile for years to come.

So the point of this blog is to document my journey of learning photography. It's a place to see progress and to record what I learn. My hope is to study a concept through the week and then to shoot something demonstrating what I have learned and to post it here.

I don't claim these pictures to be perfect.
So far this is my best work.

I really like how this picture turned out. I haven't made up my mind about the shadows yet though. I know nothing about lighting.



I love this photo because of the emotion in the picture. I love the smile on J's face and the movement of his feet. Although ultimately I would like to figure out how to crop out the strangers in the background but at the same time I like having the lady there because she brings a spirit of relaxation that represents how I felt as I observed my toddler having a great time chasing the pigeons around the courtyard.

Although I understand the theory of shooting in manual I haven't put it into practice and so unfortunately I am shooting in Auto most of the time.