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Confessions of Portraiture / I See You

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Confessions of Portraiture

For anyone who has read this blog, you know that I am not a portrait style photographer.  However, I am of the opinion that everyone should expand their horizons and learn new things.  When I am teaching someone, I usually use the phrase “If I am not learning, then I must be dead”.  I have taken this attitude and applied it to photography.  When I first started photography it was in a primarily documentation aspect.  Since then, I have come to love the artistic expression which can be found in the many different styles of photography.

I have a habit of seeing something and then deciding that I need to do it too.  Not because I want to recreated someone’s work, but because I have a never ending desire to learn how it was done.  I love the technical area of photography and feel the drive to perfect my knowledge of it.

Over the past few months, I have added several areas of experimentation to my “toolbelt”.  Some have been more successful than others.  I have made it a point to learn portraiture, astrophotography, time-lapse and tilt-shift, to name just a few.

When I took on portraiture, I began reading and learning some of the aspects of a good portrait.  The other day, I put some of those tips and techniques to use.

I must confess, I am beginning to like this portraiture thing.

Today’s Photo:  I See You

I was having a great time the other day chasing my children around.  One of them hid behind a metal pole and began peeking out at me.  It made such a cute scene, I decided to get both of the children to pose for me.  I think I am beginning to get the hang of this portraiture thing.

You can find one of my first attempts at portraiture (this was a pure accident) Daddy’s Little Patriot.  And don’t miss last Saturday’s Daily Photo, which just happens to be another portrait.

I See You ©2011 Just Shooting Memories (all rights reserved)

 

Movement / The Drive-By

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Movement

Photographing movement can mean two things, movement of the subject or movement of the background.  You accomplish this feat by using the same mechanisms for both, a slow shutter speed.  For me, creating movement during the day has been difficult.  There is usually so much light that you cannot get the shutter speed slow enough. I guess with the right kind of filter, I would be able to, but I just have a polarized filter on the camera for now.

I have found that to blur the background, I set the camera to shutter priority and the shutter speed around 1/30 of a second.  This allows me to get fairly good crisp photos of the subject and, depending on the speed of the subject, good movement in the background.  Decide what area of the subject you want in focus and then follow the subject with the camera and attempt to keep the subject framed as you want.  The beauty of this technique is that most of the time, the background colors are the only thing that matter.

On the other hand, to blur the subject, I set the camera on a tripod, shutter priority and a shutter speed somewhere below 1/30 of a second.  To keep camera shake out of the picture, use a remote shutter release.  As the subject moves through the photo, push the button.  If the subject is not blurred enough, make the shutter speed slower.

Today’s Photo:  The Drive-By

I decided to take sometime with the family the other day and just watch my children ride their bikes.  I promised myself prior to going out that I was going to put the camera down.  Of course when I got outside, I began seeing all the photographic opportunities.  So, I had to get the camera.  My youngest was riding her bike at a very unsafe speed, at least I don’t think I ever rode that fast when I was that young.  I convinced her to drive in circles around me while I took photos.  I found out quickly that she has the precision driving skills of an Indy Car driver.  Or maybe like the Drift Racing drivers, she almost had enough speed to start drifting and was only about 6″ from me most of the time.

Here is another portrait of my Little Treasure.  And don’t miss last Friday’s Daily Photo.

The Drive-By©2011 Just Shooting Memories (all rights reserved)

Dreaming

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I know a lot of people who are switching to Google+ and now spend less time on Face Book.  However, since Google+ is just by invite now, stop by the face book page and say hello.  If you like what you see here, make sure to like the Face Book page.  I am really interested in getting to know the readers of this blog.  I am fortunate enough to get to travel sometimes and don’t want to miss the opportunity to meet some of you if possible.

Today’s Photo:  Dreaming

I have two very girly girls.  They like the usual girly things.  Princesses, Barbie, Tinker Bell, etc.  You get the picture.  The other day, I walked into their room and say the youngest sitting at the desk.  She was staring out the window.  I quickly grabbed the camera and snapped this photo.  I can only imagine what she was thinking.  Maybe Princesses or Barbie, I don’t know.  She promptly became the shy, camera unfriendly little girl that I know.  (The other one is usually not as shy).  I tried to find out what she was doing there, but immediately gave the normal child answer “I don’t know”.

I have a hard time not taking all my photos of the children, but here is another photo of The “A” Team with her bling.  But you can’t miss last Saturday’s Daily Photo.

Dreaming©2011 Just Shooting Memories (all rights reserved)

Almost Lost (A Portrait in Flowers)

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Congratulations to @britefrog (twitter) for getting to the HDRspotting invite code first.  I have a few more and I am going to be posting them randomly until they are all gone.  For anyone who wants one, I put the post up at midnight EST.

Today’s Photo:  Almost Lost (A Portrait in Flowers)

I am fortunate enough to live next to a flower garden.  Unfortunately, I almost lost the girls in the flower garden during this photo shoot.  Do any of you have children?  Are they as willing subjects as mine are?

Almost Lost

Umm…

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For Easter this year, I took a few photos when we got home.  I am fortunate to live in a very good place for location photography.  I am beginning to use it more and more for portrait type photos.  I seem to find myself trying out new techniques more these days.  I am of the opinion that if I don’t push my photography talent to the edge, I may not learn all that I think I need to.

I was taking photos of the kids when I got the questioning look from both of them.  I think they may have seen me through the camera lens.  What do you think?  I think their thoughts were: “I see you” and “Do I look stupid to you.  I see you behind the camera.  You can’t hide from me.”

Umm

Really, my hands not in the bag

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This is another old photo I found while exploring my archive the other day.  I happened to to catch my daughter in the middle of grabbing something out of a bag.  No, I don’t remember what it was, but I do remember that this is her guilty look.  “what daddy, I not doing anything wrong”…Girls.

Really, My hand's not in the bag.

The Girls

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I am going to do something unusual tonight.  I am posting two photos because I was unable to choose.  I was going through some of my archive photos and ran across these two.  These are some of my earliest work and I learned so much from taking them to processing them.  I find that I use some of the techniques I learned on a regular basis after agonizing over these for hours at the time.  I have changed nothing since first processing them, so let me know what you think.

 

Nuts

Nuts

 

Little “Little A”

Little

I am amazed at the wonder with which children see the world.  I can only dream to convey my own wonder at the world through my photography.

 

The A Team

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I have never been a portrait person, but I have decided to try my hand at it.  I think right now, my impromptu photo sessions are how it will have to be.  I don’t know though, I have had several people ask for time.  For those of you who asked…soon.  However, I was able to capture several shots with my little “A” team.  I would just say “A”, but she is mean/resourceful/tricky/crazy enough for the whole team.  I was amazed that she actually stood still long enough for this, but some of the expressions were well worth it.

the_a_team

Daddy’s Little Patriot

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As July 4th approaches, I ran across this in my archive.  I have gone through several different processing techniques over the last few years.  Selective colorization was one of them and this was my very first attempt.  The more I process photos, the more there techniques become blended together for me.  This was July 4th several years ago.  I was going to hold this one for July 4th, but I like it so much, It could not wait.

daddys_little_patriot

On the Hunt

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I love scavenger hunts.  There is nothing like collecting clues, putting them together and finding something cool.  Maybe I need to start a group near me that has them on a regular basis or maybe I just need to get serious about geocaching?  So, I think my youngest is going to take after me, she is like a maniac at Easter egg hunts.  The older one is not far behind.

On_the_Hunt

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