For those of you who know Neela (my assistant during sessions, and a wonderful photographer on her own I might add) here are a few from her most recent session. As a fellow photographer, Neela knows just how hard it is to capture images of children in general, but especially YOUR OWN KIDS! So I try to do these sessions for her whenever possible so that she can actually have images of HER with the kids. Anyway, I thought those of you who know Neela would like to see her with her lovely husband and their two sweet and funny little girls! Enjoy...
Categorized In:
arizona
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children's portraits
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photography
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scottsdale
My husband and I went for a hike today to see if there was water still flowing in Cave Creek today (after all our rain) and found that the creek was in fact flowing (but not as much as we both thought it would be). Anyway, it gave me my photo for the day... there were a couple water crossings during the hike, and at this one I just loved the colors of the rocks under the water (as I crossed the creek in my bare feet - since I didn't want to hike the rest of the trail in wet boots!). I know those of you that live where water is always flowing in the river beds and creeks may think this is pretty lame as creeks go, but in the desert any water is precious and a reason to celebrate. Can't wait for the spring wildflowers!
Categorized In:
arizona
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cave creek
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photographer
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photography
I love still life photos... just pick your objects, find the right lighting, arrange appropriately, and have fun. Today's subject comes courtesy of the local farmer's market. I bought a bunch of flowers and took them home and put them in a vase. Later in the day when I walked past the flowers and saw them against the backdrop of the art on the wall I decided to make this my photo of the day. Then to illustrate the point of using different backdrops to get a new look, I moved the vase outside against the sky, and also used the water in the pool as a third look. I did not do a studio set up since I wanted to illustrate what can be done without studio lights and backdrops. In a later blog I will do a studio still life and discuss studio lighting techniques. The lighting you choose - from soft, ambient light, to high-tech lights - is critical in determining the mood of the photograph. Play with your own still life images using different lighting and backdrops to see how the same subjects can look so different.
Flowers inside against art on the wall gives a soft romantic look...
Outside against the sky a totally new look...
And against the soft reflection of the pool a nice color contrast...
Stay tuned for more fun with still life photography!
Categorized In:
arizona
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fine art photography
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photographer
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scottsdale
I have been PRETTY good about my photo a day project, even though I don't post all of them here on the blog, but yesterday I got busy and forgot to get an image before we were suppose to meet some friends for dinner. So I took my camera with me to the restaurant and decided to play with a low light situation without flash. Using a very high ISO (1600) allowed me to still hand hold the camera (shutter speed was 1/30 with a wide open aperture) to capture this view of the provisions delivered to the table prior to the pizza. The pizza disappeared too fast to get a shot without everyone's hands in the way! So next time you find yourself in a low light situation, try using a higher ISO and refrain from using the dreaded pop-up flash!
By the way, yummy pizza at Pino Cafe at Mayo Blvd and Scottsdale Road if you are in the area! And yes, it is owned by a frenchman, go figure.
Categorized In:
arizona
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commercial
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family
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pet
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photographer
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scottsdale
I wanted to get a quick shot of this cute little baby (we had just done a larger family reunion and were wrapping things up, but I just couldn’t resist this “over mom’s shoulder” grab shot as she was walking away) but the background was not pretty and the light fading fast, so using a wide open aperture (that is a smaller f-stop number for those of you just starting out) I was able to blur the background and just focus on her face. Learn your f-stops and shutter speeds so that you can quickly make the proper choices to either sharpen or blur your backgrounds based on the look you want to achieve (obviously in landscape images you may want a greater depth of field to get details in both foreground and background, but as a general rule for portraits you want less detail in the background so that the eyes stay on the faces in the portraits. Take your camera OFF the AUTO mode and play with apertures and shutter speeds until it all makes sense for you. Have fun…
Categorized In:
arizona
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children's portraits
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photography
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scottsdale
We have had some crazy weather for Arizona... no outside portraits in a few days, but still doing my photo a day project (gives me a reason to take a break from the boring bookkeeping I have been doing in preparation for taxes - yuck). Anyway, here are a couple from the last two days. My dog KC and I have a standing playdate every afternoon that I do not have a session, and the rain yesterday caused us to cancel the outside playtime. Habits are hard to break, so at 4:25 she went to the door and looked for Jake... I'm sure she would have been happy to play outside and just couldn't understand why her humans were not as thrilled about it. The other photo is from this morning. We were BETWEEN storms for a brief period, with round three on it's way, and I captured these cool clouds with a bit of blue showing before the gap closed up and the rains came again. We don't get to see these clouds often, so it was fun to capture them before they "disappeared".
"Rainy Day Blues"
"Between the storms"
"The best thing to do when it rains is to let it rain"
Categorized In:
arizona
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pet
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photographer
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portraits
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scottsdale
Today's personal photo of the day is from a parking lot in Cave Creek. Old rusted out Dodge truck... cool colors and lines. I love getting up close to capture details like this. It was an overcast day today (a rare thing in Arizona) so it helped keep colors more saturated in the photograph.
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Categorized In:
arizona
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cave creek
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photographer
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scottsdale
neela commented on February 7th, 2010
LOVE,LOVE,LOVE this!!!! Gorgeous! Nice shot!