I have a New Photoblog!

Hello, hello!! I have a NEW photoblog, so head on over to my new site! It's not 100% complete yet, but it's showable. :D My Blogger blog will continue to stay up for a little while in order to direct people to my new site.

www.beautyandlightphotography.com/blog

Beth & Dana ~ My First Clients!

This past week has been quite exciting for me as a photographer! As the Lord would have it, I was contacted by two separate people (friends from my homeschool group) who asked me to photograph their weddings. Yes, I said weddings! Yeah, I know...are you kidding me??? :D

I am sooo honored to have been asked, especially given my novice experience. I agreed to do both ceremonies and photographed the first of the two weddings this past Saturday! Below are some of my favorite pictures from Beth & Dana's ceremony. It was actually a wedding vow renewal for them as they celebrated their 20th anniversary. It was very intimate and totally casual. A lot of fun! I am so thankful for this experience. I learned a lot! THANK YOU Beth & Dana for this wonderful opportunity! You guys ROCK!

Click image below to view full slideshow!

I have to mention that their ceremony was at a state park and the weather on this day was a very cool 90 degrees! LOL. When I say I learned a lot, I wasn't kidding! This was my first official photo shoot ever, outside of sessions I've done with my family. So I had to learn about positioning subjects, working with the lighting (which was during the least favorite time of day for a photographer -- midday!), and trying to interchange my lenses without missing an important shot. (I don't have a second dslr)

Oh, I almost forgot....I did have my 10yo son with me with his camera as my "2nd photographer"! LOL! It wasn't planned, it just turned out that way. He was great! I loved that we were working together as a family. Actually, 3 of the shots in this slideshow are from his shots! I'm such a proud mama! :D

Tip: Star-shaped Sun Effect

Have you ever wondered how to get that star-shaped sun effect that you see in many pictures?? I have! Well, I stumbled across a DPS thread yesterday that shared this exact tip. So, I am passing this tip along to you! :D

You can achieve this look directly in camera by simply changing the size of your aperture to its smallest opening (largest f-stop, such as f22). After learning of this, I immediately went outside and tried it. And lo and behold, it does work! The above shot was taken yesterday during midday with an f-stop of 22.

Now how simple was that???? Try it with both a small aperture and a larger aperture and see the change! :)

Btw...according to the thread, this would not damage your sensor if you use a very high shutter speed.

DPS Assignment: Headshot

Here is my submission for this week's DPS assignment, "headshot" - from the neck up, making the face your feature... it can be a self portrait or a portrait of someone else. I guess it's no surprise who I would use for my subject! LOL. This shot was taken just this morning at our breakfast table. I used my "nifty-fifty" lens. (This len has not come off my camera since it arrived almost 2 weeks ago!)