Chrystal's photo shoot

I asked for volunteers to practice on. Chrystal offered as she is doing photography at school this year. So we agreed it was a practice session to see how well the lights worked and this is some of what I came up with. 

It was fun and incredibly silly but Chrystal was a good sport and came up with sitting ideas and while I came up with shooting ideas. We used all the lights, half the lights, the hair light, a fan, a hairdryer for motion and several hats and scarves as props. Thanks Chrystal. I appreciate the help.

Let's play catch-up...

So I have taken lots of photos this year. Lost track actually of how many but lots. Christmas run-up is always a busy time at school. We had the Fall Sing in September and Spirit of Christmas in December and I took multiple shots during the shows for the kids to tag themselves in on Facebook. I love doing it because I get to see who likes what and what they have to say about themselves on the posts they make. This year I was asked by the Yearbook department to supply about twenty shots from both shows for the yearbook. I can't wait to see myself in print. LOL. So I am going to post some of the pictures I took. My faves. Let me know what you think....

 ALA Fall Sing 2011

ALA's Spirit of Christmas 2011

Business beginning

Having said it would happen sometime, I am now finding that there is more interest in the business than I realized. Guess I should have just asked in the first place. I am planning on doing high school seniors and some portrait photography. I already do school events and sport photography and will continue to do so. I have an interested parent in a baby shoot. That's scary, but I am excited too. I just need the 7D back, so I can feel confident about it all again. The 10D really isn't my ideal camera at this point. The lighting gear and backdrop stuff is all set up. I asked on Facebook for some test models and got two offers so far. Chrystal will come and she actually wants some senior photos done later in the year, so there's a client in waiting. McKel (Kenna's daughter) wants her baby photographed. Serena wants me to redo daughter Serena's senior photos as they weren't very good apparently and were charging way too much for one photo. So there's a second return client. Marchelle said her daughter would sit too. Excellent. These are going to be favors. But after these, there will be charges involved and costs to cover. It seems like Kami wants to sit too. I owe her some portraits of her and her husband. Need to figure out the whole light off the glasses issue I seem unable to fix. Hopefully, with the new lighting system, this should be gone as I can place the lights out of the view of her glasses but still get great lighting.

Hurry up and get fixed 7D. I really need you. But a 5D Mk IV would be very welcome too XD.

First portraits with the new lens

I decided to take a couple of photos of my friend's kids for a Christmas present, so I called Serena and asked her to bring Anna up and not tell their mom why. Serena made up an amazing excuse and came up here for a quick photo shoot. I took several flash-less shots of both girls and chose two that worked the best. The lighting was quite literally the lights in the basement, no flash. I think they are ok. The backdrop would be better if it were more plain/mottled as opposed to Monica's volcano painted on the wall. But I think the lighting worked quite well. Here are the two shots I chose.

New lens

I was given a nice new lens for my birthday. Apparently, according to my father, who is the go-to guy when it comes to photography, my new Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM is an awesome little portrait photography lens. This is good news, considering I have been planning to go this route with my photography for ages. Sadly however, I asked for a lighting kit and backdrop system for Christmas and received a Kindle Fire, which whilst great and probably useful, I have on my iPhone, iPod and my MacBook, so was totally wasted on me. Not being the ungrateful cow you might think, I asked if the Kindle was in place of the lighting kit and I was told that we need to discuss it but that the money isn't available any more. Doesn't look like that to me! But hey, if I want him to move out, I need to respect his need for money to do so. So I will sell my Kindle Fire when he's gone and buy my lighting kit myself. All hail sneakiness!