Well, I’m back from vacation and really wondering why I live in such a cold climate? Aside from the obvious enjoyment of spending some time in the tropics in the middle of the frigid winter, spending time with family, catching up on some reading, and not having to cook anything for anyone, my favorite thing about vacation is getting to turn my lens on my own kids for a change. Every winter break we go away with out brother and sister in law, and niece and nephew, this year we chose Jamaica. It’s great for the cousins to get to spend a whole week connected at the hip, it is really a special time for them. I also enjoy getting to experiment a little with new lighting techniques, and my children are willing subjects (NOT) once I bribe them accordingly. This year the bribe was allowing them to buy new apps for their itouch.
PHOTO TIPS, FOR PHOTOGRAPHER FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS… I get about 8-10 emails per week with technical questions from other photographers and photo enthusiasts
For all my photographer friends out their, one of my new years resolution’s was to give some photo tips and insight into how I shoot more often on my blog so this is for you… My mission was to balance the gorgeous sky at dusk with the proper exposure on my subject so several nights I went out at around 6pm to take advantage of the setting sun. I exposed my camera for the sky( very slow shutter speed) and used my flash on manual mode (set at a very low output level) to expose the subject properly. One of the biggest obstacles was getting the focus right, when I could barely see them. Obviously the camera couldn’t focus at all so I had to manually focus, what I ended up doing was using my iphone to light their face so I could achieve focus and then asking them to pull it away so I could take the shot without the obvious iphone glare. An example of my settings on the moonlit image is, ISO 1000, aperture 2.8, shutter speed 1/30 (I have a pretty steady hand) and my focal length was 100, my flash set to manual also was at 1/4 power. [caption id="attachment_1119" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="sunset and very windy"]
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[caption id="attachment_1122" align="aligncenter" width="655" caption="a chip off the \"old\" block"]
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[caption id="attachment_1124" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="gorgeous ruins at sunset"]
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[caption id="attachment_1129" align="aligncenter" width="655" caption="my jungle boy"]
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[caption id="attachment_1131" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="a local fisherman with the catch of the day"]
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[caption id="attachment_1134" align="aligncenter" width="655" caption="awesome sky"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_1136" align="aligncenter" width="728" caption="undercover niece "]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_1137" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="local trying to see my son\'s face through all the hair, now if I did that..."]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_1138" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="cracking up on \"the rave\" out at sea"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_1139" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="He came shooting out of this tube slide like a speeding bullet!"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_1140" align="aligncenter" width="655" caption="My nephew and future tennis star"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_1141" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="I swear I feed him..."]
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