Truthful Tuesdays

I encouraged my son to crawl (in fact, I think I begged him), and I do love this.... his cute reaching out to me and the camera...

But I also **HATE** it b/c then I miss a cute shot :-(  or I cut off limbs...

 

But I guess it is worth it... b/c then I get cute shots like this...

and this....

I used to always ignore these shots... but this post made me go back & look at them anew.  They are so real.  They are so what our life is right now... me chasing my crawling (soon to be walking) boy who gets into everything!!!  I am sure I will look back and these and will miss this stage too.

Oh yes, and to answer Elizabeth's Truthful Tuesday question on Confessions From A Working Mom ...

It is TOO early to decorate!  Lol, especially with a toddler!  I shudder to think of the trouble the tree will create.  We usually decorate the first weekend in December, but who knows when it will happen this year.

Grab the button, play along with the MckLinky on your own blog, or just answer the question by leaving a comment.

Not me Monday!

Jumping on the blogging train... but in a photo kind of way....

As you saw in my previous post... I would NEVER EVER let my baby fall over backwards while taking his photo, that would be a horrible thing to do! 

Not only that, I definitely would NEVER EVER continue taking photos of him when he started crying after said fall. 

I also would never let my son take in a mouthful of rocks while taking his picture at the park.  Now THAT would be disgusting!!!!  A good photographer would never allow that to happen... not to mention a good mother!

Of course I would never say it was worth it for some cute shots!

Lessons learned while photographing a 6 month old

Pick props wisely (watch out for a lot of white, which can easily be over blown)

Use a diaper cover ;-)  Dispo diaps just aren't attractive to photograph.

If they can't sit up consistently yet, put a pillow behind them so they don't bonk their heads ;-)

Frame the picture wide so as to not cut off limbs... and get a new perspective by putting the camera low.

Why are crying babes so cute to photograph?

In the midst of a nice portrait session February '08....

I discovered that baby butts are cute!

So I took a few pictures....

 

And tried an edit (do you like it?  Can you SEE any other edits I made?)

But someone became unhappy....

But... I discovered that was cute too.... so I tried another.

Aren't I terrible?
It remains one of my favorite shots ever.

Evolution of a sneeze....

'nuff said.

:-)

PROBLEMS!!!!!

Ok, a few problems with my photos.....

cute, right?

WRONG!
A stupid piece of hair is stuck SOMEWHERE in my camera. 

No.  It ISN'T the outside of the camera, or I would have wiped it off ;-p


My Camera.  It is a Canon PowerShot A610.  Quite nice for a point & shoot.  Bit of a pita to change f stops & shutter speeds & white balance... but I can deal .... kinda.
But I can't change THIS:

What you ask?
GRAIN.  Look at how grainy this picture is!  This camera will only let me set up to ISO 800 and it looks AWFUL!  Generally, the lower light you are shooting in, the higher the ISO (which is the "film" sensitivity to light) you use so that you can get a proper exposure w/ proper shutter speeds.  Well. This. Looks. AWFUL!  But I am limited... this is the only camera I've got.  :-p  So bear with me!


So... lower light... use a flash, right?  We've been over this... you've seen what popup flashes can do (see my earlier posts).  So... I use a "diffuser" over my popup flash to help disburse that harsh light.  Well, here is what happens when the diffuser (here a burp rag) doesn't completely cover the popup flash....

Now... I would use a white/ opaque film canister to cover up my popup flash... but I can't find one... anywhere!!!  :-p

However... popup flashes have their uses... you know, when you don't care how artsy the photograph is... you just want to quick capture the moment.  It also looks neat in water ;-)

I must say THANK YOU!!!!! to Blogger for making photo uploads & formatting easier... that means you will see more posts from me :-)

Please... tell me... what camera PROBLEMS do you have????  What solutions have you found?

Finally... some time to post!

Sorry I've been gone so long.  :-(  But, here are a series of posts (hopefully!).

Feb 2008, Experimentation w/ in camera (&later in CS4) B&W & sepia:

Original Shots (PowerShotA610 settings):

Since the color one above was my favorite shot, I decided to play with it in CS4 to see what color changes I could do.  I am really horrible at changing colors... but I love B&W & sepia so much.  Sigh.  What did I do right, what did I do wrong?

CS4 Auto B&W adjustment

CS4 Manual black & white change.  This one feels "fuzzy" to me.  I like nice clear SHARP photos.

CS4 Auto sepia change

CS4 Manual sepia change

I like sepia, but these just aren't doing it for me.  I guess I need to play a little more.  Anyone have any good links to sepia changes in CS4??

I searched online CS4 help for color conversion to black & white (and color conversion to sepia) to get my instructions.
Here is where I got the sepia info: http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/jennifer/sepia-tone.html

What do you like?  What do you hate?  I'd love to hear some feedback!!!!

Perspectives....

Trying to broaden my horizons:
Different lighting:















Unique angles:


















A cute picture done poorly (P.S. I HATE LOW LIGHT & HIGH NOISE. :-p

A clue into implied motion

An unintentional shot that I really liked....


This was the first time as an adult that I took a picture that implied motion (thank you restless baby who still couldn't move too much!)

Just pointing and shooting... the difference between natural light & pop-up flash

I think the pictures say it all (please pardon the grany-ness of the natural light photo, low light, high iso= NOISE).
Flash:




So many blown out hot spots... the highlights in the eyes are pinpoints.

Window light:


Please note: this was a point & shoot!!! I was just experimenting, this wasn't meant to be an amazing shot.

Lower light, but the eye highlights seem natural and there are fewer "hot spots". There is also more depth to the lighting.