My Blog

Welcome to my blog!

Thanks so much for dropping by my blog and taking a peak. Now I never claim to know everything, or be perfect, or even being able to spell! I work really hard to not only be a good photographer, but have a personal connection to my clients and understanding what they want (especially when they might not know). In addition I love to help others improve their own pictures. Let's face it...no one can afford a personal photographer to follow them around 24/7 (but if you do know someone give them my name!).

My blog has a collection of advise, current photo experiences and the personal updates. My new 2012 series (TT- Tipsy Thursday) is a combo of all kinds of questions I've received, things I've seen & even those mistakes I've made in my years of shooting. I'm ALWAYS in need to know what other people want to hear about, so please email me with ANY suggestions. Again thanks for stoping by and hopefully you enjoy!

Blog

Thursday, 31 May 2012

TT- Photographing Flowers

Tipsy Thursday #20

Flowers and even interesting plants can make some great images. Image just using your own cool pictures to decorate your home rather than spending lots of money on some artist's work. Here's a few tips to get started:

What's in your background is part of the photograph as well! Busy and distracting backgrounds can pull from your real focus. You can use a white/black piece of paper, beautiful blue sky or something simular.

Put your iso as low as you can.

Your camera probably has a macro/close up mode (that is marked by the flower). There is a tendency to get some blur so a tripod is a great idea as well.

Auto focus is a good thing but with this situation it's hard for the camera to focus sometimes on what you want to focus on. So if you can pick your focus point/use manual.

On that same point of focusing, take many many shots. When I'm photographing my tomatoes I take many shots...just the slightest difference in focus can make a HUGE difference.

Remember that you don't need the typical angles with flowers...and unlike people they wont complain sitting there for so long like your kids will! Try cutting parts off, close ups of the center bloom, even photographing up the stem at the back of the bloom. See what you can get!!!

Posted by: AT 08:30 am | Permalink | Email

Thursday, 24 May 2012

TT- Dirty Sensor

Tipsy Thursday #19

Notice some black dot or line on your pictures...you might have a dirty sensor. The computer inside your camera has a electric charge that loves to attract dirt and dust! If you're not sure if it's a dirty sensor, take a picture of a white wall (if you can use a low aperture 'high number'). If you don't change your lenses or don't have that option with your camera chances are you wont have an issue, it's hard for the elements to get in a point and shoot camera. But here are a few tips to keep from getting that dirty sensor if you do change lenses:

Turn your camera off when you want to change lenses and have your lens ready to swap when you're changing.
Avoid changing in windy, wet or dusty situations.
Hold your camera open end down so nothing that can just fail in and keep it open as little as possible.
With a blower, blow off the back side of your lens before putting it on your camera. If your camera is dirty you can clean that off as well. Keep the dust away as much as possible with switching.
Cleaning your sensor is a source of debate. Some say you can't do it yourself and have to do a professional cleaning. Only thing I'll say is DO NOT EVER touch your sensor, rub it with a standard q-tip or freeze it with can air. Those are the top mistakes people make. I've been lucky and any issues I've had I have used a hand held air pump and lightly blown off any dust.

Posted by: AT 12:23 pm | Permalink | Email

Thursday, 17 May 2012

TT- Back It UP!!!

Tipsy Thursday #18

I tell people all the time to keep their digital images in more than one place. Personally I have two external drives (to make it simple an external drive is like the storage part on your computer but it's separate from the computer). The first drive is one I use all the time and keep all my data on, I keep no files on my computer's hard drive. I then periodically copy them to my second drive as a backup to my backup. When it's stormy out the drive gets unpluged for fear of it getting fried and when I'm out of town (or something like Ike comes to town) it goes into the fire/water proof safe. External hard drives have really dropped in price over the last few years and are well worth the investment! A side note to all this is, it's also great to have your images on an external drive since you can take it easily to a new computer if you upgrade. Small price tag for peace of mind!

Posted by: AT 08:01 am | Permalink | Email

Thursday, 10 May 2012

TT- Digital vs. Optical Zoom

Tipsy Thursday #17

Cameras (point and shoot kinds) have two kinds of zooming to consider when looking at buying a new camera or using an existing one. Optical is when the actual lens is zooming in and digital is when the camera takes the pixels and digitally zooms in. Always look at the optical and NOT digital. The clarity is not going to be as good with digital and that's something you can do after the picture is taken. Getting a crystal clear image is the ultimate goal! If you're out shopping for a new camera the information should say if it's digital or optical (if it doesn't chances are it's digital and they're just hiding that from you).

Posted by: AT 09:28 am | Permalink | Email

Thursday, 03 May 2012

TT- Flash Some Light!

Tipsy Thursday #16

I hear it all the time that "Why do have a flash if it's bright outside?" Especially with really bright days it's very helpful to use your flash and here is why. If you have someone outside you want to photograph and you put them in the direct bright sunlight they will squint and never look "normal". But them in the shade and now you're dealing with a dark subject & bright background. The flash can help you get some light on the person. If you want to cheat, put your camera on "portrait" mode if you have it, it's the icon that is a shape of a person. That tells the camera your needs and then you can get better results from the camera. Treat your camera like you would your child at times...if you don't tell it what you want don't expect to get the best results!

Posted by: AT 10:33 am | Permalink | Email