This weekend I dragged my ass out of bed super early (on a Saturday!) to go check out the hot air balloons at the Spirit of Boise Balloon Classic. I was tired (and no one else in my family managed to crawl out of bed that early, so I went all by myself – yes I’m looking at you, Brian and Joe!) but I’m so glad I went! I took tons of pictures, of course, and really loved wandering the park and checking out the balloons. Besides the awesomeness of the balloons, they had a flyover (some really cool planes but I don’t remember what kind they were – can you believe how informative I am?) and a pancake breakfast to support the Idaho Foodbank. There was a decent sized crowd, but I was still able to wander around right between all of the balloons as they were being inflated and then took off. I will definitely be going again when/if the Balloon Classic returns!

A few of the shots I took are below … some of these are available in my shop, too!

My friend Shanna asked me to take some first birthday photos of her gorgeous younger daughter, Devorie.  (Ok, actually Devorie doesn’t turn one for another month or so, but we had to get them in while they were in Boise a couple of weeks ago)  Devorie has the cutest personality – and look at those amazing blue eyes!  Thanks so much Shanna, I had so much fun!  Here are a  few of my favorites from our shoot (the first “official” shoot in my home studio – YAY!!)

A few weeks ago I signed up for this really fun idea by Piper at One Sydney Road.  An alphabet walk – a bunch of different bloggers going on a walk around their neighborhoods, taking pictures inspired by a letter of the alphabet.

My letter is J (of course) and today was my day … but I’m a loser.  It’s been a rough day, and I’ve tried to walk as little as possible.  So, one lonely J-inspired photograph to share … and then go visit the many other non-loser bloggers who accomplished much more with this super-fun idea.

July

Welcome to the next installment in Photography 101!  I started with an intro post and 5 quick tips to take better pictures, then we moved on to an introduction to aperture.  Today we will continue on in this journey to using our camera in manual mode by discussing the basics of shutter speed.  (Remember in our aperture discussion we talked about the three things that make up exposure?  Aperture, shutter speed, and ISO – don’t forget!)

Essentially, shutter speed is the amount of time that the shutter stays open to let light in.  The longer the shutter stays open (which means the shutter speed is slower), then the more light gets in.

Shutter speed is usually expressed in fractions of a second.  For example – on my camera, when it says 125, that actually means the shutter stays open for 1/125 of a second.  When it says 320, it actually means 1/320 of a second.  Your camera may display the entire fraction, or just the bottom number.  Be sure to read your camera manual to determine exactly where and how your shutter speed is displayed.  Additionally, as you get into slower shutter speeds (where the shutter stays open longer), you could get into whole second increments, which adds a bit to the confusion.  On my camera, whole seconds have the ” sign after the number.  So I know if my camera says 30 – it really means 1/30 of a second – but if it says 2″, that means 2 whole seconds.  Again, you will have to read your camera manual to determine how to tell what your shutter speed is set to.

So, what does shutter speed do for you?  Well, in addition to allowing for the correct exposure when combined with aperture and ISO, it also controls blur in your photos – in two different ways.

Blur can affect  your photographs by either the camera moving during the time when the shutter is open, or by the subject moving when the shutter is open.

Camera shake occurs when you are holding your camera in your hand (not on a tripod or other stable surface) and your shutter speed is slow enough so that your natural wobbly, shaky hands cause your photo to be blurry.  I personally don’t shoot anything slower than 1/80 handheld (and even more than that if I am shooting professional portraits and it is important that I get tack-sharp images).  But this could vary for you depending on how big your camera and lens are, how steady you are, etc.  Do a little experimenting – but if you notice a slight blur to a lot of your images, you may want to check that shutter speed.

Motion blur occurs when one of the subjects of your image is moving.  For example, if you photograph your child whizzing by on his skateboard, if your shutter speed is set too slow, you might just see a big blur in your photograph.  When you bump your shutter speed up higher, you can sort-of “freeze” the action, and get a clear picture of your kid on his skateboard.  I took some example photos for you below.  In both of these images, the pinwheel is spinning.  In the image on the left, I used a much faster shutter speed, and you don’t see much blur – the pinwheel doesn’t even appear to be moving.  On the right, you can see the blur of the pinwheel as it spins – I used a much slower shutter speed there.

So, a note about how shutter speed and aperture work together – on the left, I set the aperture to f1.8 – this let more light in so that I could use a faster shutter speed (which lets less light in) and still get a correct exposure.  On the left, I used a f2.2 aperture – letting less light in and allowing for a slower shutter speed.  (I also had to change the ISO a bit between the two images – in our next installment we will go over how ISO affects all of this).

Just like with choosing an aperture, there is no “right” or “wrong” choice in shutter speed.  You need a correct exposure, but you can see in both of these photographs I was able to achieve the correct exposure by using different settings on my camera.  Use your creativity to decide whether you want to see the motion blur, or whether you want to freeze the action (or some setting in between).

Welcome to Photography 101 – or “how to use your camera in manual mode”!  I started last week with an intro post that gave 5 Quick Tips for Taking Better Photographs – and this week we will continue with a more in depth discussion of how to get the creative results you want using Manual camera settings.  Today we start with aperture.  In my opinion your aperture setting is the first and best way to change the look of your photos.  So, let’s learn how to use it!

First, an overview of exposure in general:  In order to get a photograph that is correctly exposed, you have to understand the interaction of three elements.  Aperture, which we will discuss below, is essentially the size of the opening in your camera’s lens.  Bigger opening = more light comes in.  Smaller opening = less light comes in.  The second element to correct exposure is shutter speed.  How long the little window stays open and lets in the light is another element to getting your picture correctly exposed.  The last setting that controls exposure is your ISO.  ISO is basically the sensitivity of your camera to the light.  Higher ISO means it takes less light to get correct exposure, and lower ISO means it takes more light.  You really need to understand all three of these settings on your camera in order to be able to effectively use your camera to it’s fullest creative potential.

So, let’s get started with aperture.  You will commonly hear aperture referred to as an “f-stop”.  Or a photographer will tell you what aperture setting was used in a certain photo by listing a number after the letter f: f/1.8 or f/8 for example.  Aperture numbers can be a bit confusing, because the smaller the f number, the LARGER the opening in your camera – which means more light is coming into your camera.  So, remember – small number = more light, big number = less light.

Another very important thing to know about your aperture setting is that it controls the depth of field.  Depth of field describes how much of your picture is in focus.  If you use a large aperture (which is a SMALL f number) then you will have a smaller depth of field – less of your photo will be in focus.  If you use a small aperture (which is a LARGE f number) you will get a larger depth of field.

To make it a bit simpler – the smaller the f-number, the less that is in focus.  Bigger the f-number, the more that is in focus.

Here are some sample shots to illustrate:

In each of these cupcake shots, I left my camera and my focus point in the exact same spot.  (I’m focused on the front cupcake with green sprinkles).  You can see on the far left picture, where my aperture has the smallest number, there is not much of the image in focus.  You can’t see any detail on the pink- or blue-sprinkled cupcakes, the pattern on the bottom paper is only in focus near the green cupckake.  In the middle picture (where I move to a higher f number) you can see more detail in the blue cupcake and more detail in the pattened paper.  In the far right image, where my f number is highest – all three cupcakes are in focus, you can see the pattern in most of the image, and you can even see the wrinkles in my background paper.

In each of these pictures I had different shutter speed settings, in order to get the exposure the same while I changed my aperture (remember you have to have all three elements working together to get a correct exposure … ).  We will discuss the interaction of these two settings next week, but for now I wanted to show you that you can control how much of your photo is in focus by adjusting your aperture setting.

Tune in next week for a lesson on shutter speed – and how aperture and shutter speed interact!

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Do you live in the Boise, Idaho area?  If so, there is one week left to enter the giveaway and win a Portrait Session!  A free session for one lucky person in the Treasure Valley!

So, last week it became pretty apparent that Brian and I needed some couple-time.  Um, yeah.  It’s getting pretty bad around here people.  I posted this little story for everyone to make fun of last week on facebook:

We haven’t had the time (or taken the time, really) to talk to each other about anything more meaningful than who guest-starred on Sesame Street today and how much it sucks that people schedule 8 am meetings on Monday mornings.  We haven’t had a meal that didn’t involve bits of food being tossed at us from across the table, or fights about who is cooler– Tony Hawk or Michael Jordan?!?

So, I came across an idea that apparently all the cool bloggin’ mommies are doing out there … 52 date nights.  (I think it was started by Simply Modern Mom, but I found it on a local Idaho blog – Doin’ it All, Idaho Style)  I think it originated as a new year’s resolution kinda thing, but since we all know I don’t like to rush right in to anything without procrastinating carefully weighing my options, we are just starting now.  Mid-June.  (actually, I didn’t discover this idea til last week, so technically I didn’t procrastinate.  I’m not late this time … ANYWAYS. I digress.)  So, the gist of it is this:  52 weeks in a year, the goal is to have a little mini-date with your spouse once per week.  The idea is that they are free (or really, really cheap), usually at home after the kids are in bed, and very simple.  But, you have to actually plan something and make it a little bit special (I’m thinking me falling asleep on the couch in front of the tv at 9:00 pm while Brian is forced to scrunch into the corner of the couch because I’m hogging it all is not gonna work for “date night”).

Cell phone pic we took on our date night

When I shared the idea with Brian, he was excited to try it out, so we planned our first date night for this weekend. We have a little fireplace thingy on the back patio, so we had a little campfire and drank a few glasses of wine.  I can’t say the subject of Sesame Street never came up at all, but mostly we talked about grown-up topics.  It was simple, easy, and so nice to just spend some quality time with my husband.  I kinda like that guy.  It’s too easy to get all caught up in day-to-day life and forget how much I like him – as more than just a dinner-cooker and diaper-changer.

Want to join in the fun?  You can find some romantic ideas here at Simply Modern Mom, and at this cool blog Love, Actually which has tons of romantic ideas.

Edited to add:  You can see all of our date-night ideas by going to the 52 Date Nights category.

This weekend I created a facebook page for my business … and I really need some people to “Like” me so I don’t have a lonely, sad little page! So, in honor of my new page, I’m going to hold a giveaway for new fans of my page.

First, the exciting info: The winner of the giveaway will win a free portrait session – up to two hours, at the location of your choice, with as many people as you think we can cram into 2 hours. Want to get a head-start on Senior pics? We can take those. Are you expecting? We could do a maternity/family shoot. Just need to update your family pictures? We can do that too!

The details:

1. I live in Kuna, Idaho – so this contest is open to people in the Treasure Valley only – if you live in the Boise/Meridian/Eagle/Kuna/Nampa Idaho area (or are planning to visit), please enter!
2. In order to enter, head on over to facebook and “like” my page.
3.  Then come back here and leave me a comment and let me know you want to be entered in the giveaway!
4.  You can enter more than once by posting about me, my page, or this giveaway on facebook, twitter, your blog, emailing all your friends and relatives … anything to help get the word out!  Be sure and come back here and leave a comment for each of the extras you do.
5.  Giveaway will be open for the remainder of June (last day to enter will be 11:59 pm MDT June 30th).
6.  I’ll use Random.org to choose a winner and announce it here July 1st.

You can find out more about me here. You can read about the usual portrait pricing options here. You can see some examples of my work here (or on facebook!).

Good Luck!