On Location- New Orleans

A good morning to all.  Hope everyone had a great weekend. Im thankful to be done with a lot of things, the website and some advertising. Thanks for hanging in there with me. I wanted to post some of my favorite shots of work thru some of my travels and of course what I can actully find on the computer!
This shot is in New Orleans.  At the end of Canal Street- Cemetary. Im not sure which one it is. The street cars were running behind, causing us to miss the last chance to actually get into the cemetary. All my shots had to be taken outside, the sun quickly setting. In a haste I took what I could but I did manage to get a favorite shot or two in. If you dont know anything about how New Orleans buries their dead. Know this, due to sea levels, they have to put their loved ones above ground. The plots are mostly concrete and gravel of some sort. Passing the superdome you get a good view of how massive these cemetaries are. They are so big that they have streets named for navigation.

This next shot is after a long night of walking, what seems to be forever. You burn calories quick! Choosing to take  a seat at Igors for one of the best burgers in the Garden District on Saint Charles Ave, I decided to snap a few shots of the lights set up along the outside of the building. My creative mind was tired, my body ached, but on the way back with a full belly. I had to take some night shots! Not many around at this point.. no one walking, even the taverns were getting quiet. I snapped this and I really enjoy it. It reminds me of the night, the burger and of course the 2 hurricanes I drank before I walked back to my hotel room.

And where to get that delicous burger? Igors!!! I have been going to this place since I was 13 years old! Still the best hurricanes, burger to get and if you need to do ya laundry, sit a spell.. in the back, kick back and enjoy the company of night, the friendly chatter and some good jukebox tunes!

In these next two photos. I knew I wanted to capture motion of the street cars at night. The thing that happened here is,, the St Charles Ave cars stopped running early in the week. I did not know they would shut down for several weeks. I did have my set up, getting cars passing by, working a few angles for it,,  They did however, run the cars this one night, while working on them.  When I realized they were, I quickly adjust my angle, i had to run to a spot in between a few parked cars and only was able to get three shots. No time to adjust and retake. That was it, it was over! I was thankful to get what I got.

Thanks for reading! All comments are welcome. Let me know how you all are. See you soon! x Stacey

New Website Is Here!!

Whoohoo Hello to all my shutterbugs! Its been a crazy time. I hope you all are doing well. Im still batteling the sickness. It was a task to get the website running, between indexes and domains and lots of reading, uploading and linking. I think its finally come to a close. Please drop by the website. More contents will be added along the way, imported blog and comments, lots of other whistles and bells. So enjoy and I look forward to hearing from you all.

~Stacey

 http://www.layman-photography.com/

Favorites

Hello, hope everyone  is doing well. Im running trials on new software, so basically I've created more work for myself! I did want to post a few photos, some of my favorite photos are those that make you keep going for your camera, the "Ah ha" moment. The moment when you capture an image and the emotion stays with you , just as you remember it.

When I photograph weddings there are a few moments that you know will be extremely emotional. As a photographer you wait, watch and hope you dont miss it. These moments are so private that sometimes they are hard to catch, small looks across a room, a mother watching in the background, a father letting go of his little girl.. sometimes they are guarded with their feelings. Sometimes its so overwhelming that they can not keep it in.

In this shot below. A groom is dancing with his Mother. The song being played was "A song for Mama" by Boyz II Men. During the dance the buzz of the reception is going on but when the Groom started sharing his heart in the arms of his Mother, the entire reception got quiet. Everyone could feel the love this grown man had for his Mother. I have never teared up behind the camera until this shot and it was a wedding last year

Mamas are the best!

My Favorite Bridal Photo

Well, I have two and I had a hard time narrowing it down. I have had many brides in front of my camera over the years. Many many I love, but I had to pick.

The first one is of MerriBeth. I love how creative she was and how much she wanted me to do anything that came to my mind. Such a wonderful thing being a photographer is to have the freedom to work! In this shot we met at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens where we walked into the Japanese Gardens. In a small section there is a clearing to the left after you pass the gates. Hidden but a great spot! I had a sheet which I always take with me to do such shots. I had her lay back as I pulled her train up.  The light was very harsh so I had her close her eyes so that she could relax between poses. When I seen her with her eyes closed, I knew this was "the shot". This hangs in my office and its been called "Sleeping Beauty", this has been the most used phrase by many, so everyone named it for me. MerriBeth is still my biggest fan and by far the most photogenic bride I have ever worked with!

This next shot is of Andrea and was taken at the Children's Harbor in Alexander City. Located on acres of water with numberous light houses.. this one light house was small but it is one of the areas the venue allows the bride to get ready. I walked into this area and my mouth dropped! I had NO light, brown planks for walls and ceiling. The only available light was with the window, YES , I said window,  not windows. I couldnt even keep the door open for more light to fall into this abyss. It wasnt until Andrea turned around that I finally see the beauty in its natural light. It was meant for me to take this photo. I took the shot, several actually, changing the composition a bit more each time. When I looked at the first shot. I was surprised. I didnt want to use the other ones. The vision I had seen and the want to capture it actually all came together in one shot!  What she was doing was looking out the window, saying" I wonder who that is?" A few guest had started to arrive. I didnt pose her. I just paid attention and it paid off! This is another photo that hangs in my office! Know when to professionally disappear. You will be surprised at the things you see!

The Histogram

Hello my shutterbugs! Hope everyone is doing well and have great plans for this weekend!.
 I want to take a few moments to discuss Histograms. A very useful tool. Most digital cameras have it. Look for it.

WHAT IS A HISTOGRAM?  HOW DO YOU READ IT?  HOW TO APPLY IT?

How man times have you looked at the LCD on the back of your camera, seeing with your eyes what seems to be a good exposed photograph, only to view it on your screen and see that it was darker than you wanted , or that you lost massive amounts of details? Did you say many? Well It was the same for me when I started photography. Then I kept asking and studying and found a tool that is to this day so valuable to me that I always use it!

 

A histogram is the reading located on the back of your LCD. Most cameras have the option to view the photograph and the histogram at the same time. Look to your camera’s manual to find out how to display it on the LCD . I highly recommend that you do this. This will help you with exposures. It indicates brightness using a graph to measure shadow and light.

Left side represents dark and the right side represents light. The horizontal access reading left to right is what is indicative of reading exposure. The vertical readings are the brigthness of each pixel in the photograph.

If your reading is all the way to the left the darker the exposure. If its all the way to the right the brighter the exposure. I found a good article by following LightStalking on twitter who offer articles with their newsletters.

http://www.lightstalking.com/histogram

As much as I hate to say this, but today is a really busy day for me now that I got the husband back to work, highly medicated for his sinus problems. I can concentrate on starting to clean up my website and actually grab my camera for some much needed therapy. <chuckles> I try to photograph something everyday and try a new techniques, but we all know that can be hard to do with so many things that need to be done in a day! I wanted to give you some readiing that will help you with exposures and encourage you to keep learning.
  On another note: I have a model that has agreed to take on one of my projects, knowing this could take months to complete!
Thank you to Lynette! What a trooper!
 My locations to do a modeling portrait sessions will include, of course the studio, sloss furnaces,The Alabama Theatre (if i can get the paperwork approved) and downtown locations in Birmingham. All times are currently tentative. I am offering the opportunity for anyone in my area to come along for the ride! If you want to bring your cameras and learn, please email me and let me know, which session you want to attend. I can only take so many before the prices change, out of my pocket! I am paying for the use of sloss with other locations to get us in for the day, so let me know now if you are interested so a date can be set up! I will of course do another post dedicated to this project.
 Have a great weekend everyone and I will see you all on Monday!

New Associations

Hello everyone! I hope things are well for you. Things are getting back to normal on this end. I wanted to share with you some exciting new contacts and information. Layman Photography is  now associated with the Alabama Professional Photographers Group on Flickr and now offically with Linked In.
 Dont forget to find me on skype or send me a mesage so I can add you! (layman.photography)

Have a great day!

Showcase!

Hey everyone, hope all is well. I am still recovering from the dilemma of the dentist visit. I finished my crown prep work after 2 hours and went home, only to have one of the two fall out!! Ah things happen but it set me back what seems to be a week in all works. So moving on....
  I want to encourage you all to make connections, mingle and just have fun. WE ALL can learn so much from so many people. I am enjoying all the new infromation due to the social networking I have begun this year. Facebook, twitter, flickr groups , etc. I find things I think are worth showcasing and passing along. Not all of it is just written information and tutorials.
  I have  a contact on my flickr : accoliT orcaM  from Italy who is an architect. He enjoys photography and he has a natural talent for  composition. Having traveled to many places , he captures images and shares. He knows how to engage his audience! Take a look at Marco's work. I think you will enjoy!
Please keep in touch and dont forget to add me to skype to discuss techniques and photo critiques. Add me by searching for layman.photography or send me a message anywhere you can find me and I will send you an Add Request!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/onilocram/

Favorite Ceremony Shot

Hey everyone. I hope you are all well. I wanted to get started early. I have a lot of things to get done on website. Also included is a dental appointment! Whoopie ! I wanted to let you know that I put new photos on flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/laymanphotography/

Im also posting one of my all time favorite photos. This photo is still one of my favorites of a ceremony. I love the leading line. Many times as a photographer at a wedding, we often find that after exchanging of the rings, a few shots of Mothers, the guests and the bridal party, we are mostly waiting on the kiss. I wanted to give the b/g something different and I was in the learning phase of my career. Basically where we are on the blog as far as basics and techniques. I can not recall, but at the time this is about the 4th or 5th wedding I photographed. I realized that my ceremony photos were suffering. I had more time to be creative. There was less time spent worrying about proper flash and exposure levels. I had become more comfortable and confident.
The pews in this shot were not empty, I simply leaned over next to a guests, softly said excuse me with a smile and what I was seeing I was able to capture! I love when things come together. Its ok to be what I call , professionally intrusive at a wedding. Everyone knows you are there to capture precious moments. I will not distract anyone if it causes turmoil.

Shutter  1/25

Aperture F5.6

ISO 400

Modes on the Camera

Lets just dive in shall we, get it out in the open so we can move on to the things I know you want to hear about and learn.

Dial Modes on a camera.

ZONES-  There are three of them. Full Auto, Basic and Creative

FULL AUTO- Normally a Green Box- The camera will shoot fully auto, picking your ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture.

BASIC ZONE-(Auto presets) all you do is press the shutter for the Image mode you are in. These are represented by small icons.

The small face- Portrait Mode

The Mountain- Landscapes

The Flower- Close up

The Running Man- Sports

The Star by a person- Night Portrait

The bolt marked out in the box- Flash Off

PORTRAIT MODE: This mode is still an auto mode.  This mode will go into evaluative metering of your subject, background and foreground lighting situation and then picking the proper exposure for your subject and blur the background, allowing your camera to set the aperture. A large aperture, meaning a smaller number, it gives a narrow dept of field, keeping your subject the main focus.

Let’s look at the word portrait. Portrait is a painting or drawing of a likeness of someone generally of their face, often taller than wide in its measurements. This means that the subject in a general case is the focus where the background often gets set aside or blurred out as a result. So please, when thinking of a portrait make sure your final images is vertical. This is not always the case it’s just a good thinking rule to apply if you are calling your image a portrait. Having said this, no way am I saying you can never turn your camera horizontal for an actual portrait. All Im saying is, if you are in Portrait mode on your camera your background will soften/blur, so, much of it isn’t needed and the habit of turning your camera to vertical when you have a person in front of you will also put your thinking cap on and you will learn and see the relationship in Portrait mode and help you understand how important composition is to a photographer.

LANDSCAPE: Sets up your aperture giving depth of field based on the fact that you are telling it by putting into this mode that you have a wide scene you want to photograph. Your entire scene has several points of interest that you want to capture. It is preset to take photographs selecting aperture to properly take a landscape shot. Normally a small aperture (big number) Also using the evaluative metering mode, which we ill discuss metering modes at a later time. In a nutshell, it’s calculating your entire scene for proper exposure.

CLOSE UP: Also known as Macro- derived from the word macroscopic- being able to see objects closely with the human eye. Good for flower and insect photography. The narrowing depth of field makes it hard to focus since you are so close. It is best to level yourself and use a tripod to help stable the camera and get a clean shot.

SPORTS: Freeze Action! The camera will track as you move or pan your subject using its auto focus points. Press the shutter and it will continuously focus for continuous shooting. The automatic setting will also push your camera into AI Servo mode. This means it knows you are tracking a moving subject and goes out of the one shot mode to continuous bursts. You can hold the shutter down and rapidly fire shots when the achieved focus of the subject is recognized by the lens from its many focusing points.  

NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY:  Good for the night portrait when you want to flash illuminate your subject while picking up natural available light in the background. The camera goes into one shot and uses a slower shutter speed to sync with your camera’s flash.  So opening up your shutter to capture the scene in the background while allowing your subject proper illumination will create some interesting shots. Its fun. Go play!  Make sure you and your camera/subject are stable you are opening up the shutter so any movement will blur.

FLASH OFF: Easy one, turns off your flash be it built in or external. My camera has this setting, yours man not.

CREATIVE ZONES:

P: Program mode it’s like full auto but the difference is you can set changes like custom functions, Metering, focusing, flash settings and your image recordings, jpeg/raw, etc. You can not do this on Full Auto

TV or S: Shutter speed mode. Lets you select the shutter speed desired while letting your camera set up the aperture.

Why two abbreviations? Manufacturers. S= speed, Tv = time value and as I said in earlier posts. Think of shutter as simply a measurement of time.

AV or A: Aperture Mode/ Aperture Value. Lets you select the aperture while letting you camera set up automatically the proper shutter speed.

M: Manual Mode. Lets you set both shutter and aperture. If you do not own a handheld meter to check your exposure, let’s be honest, not many of you will  not acquire one and if you want one, chances are you will wait to purchase as most of us have to get the basics set ups first and are on limited budgets. Check your exposure level indicator in your view finder; this will help you know how far you are from standard exposure levels. When you press your shutter halfway you will see at the bottom right a few numbers... It will look something like this…

Reading left to right, 125  is your shutter,, 4.0  is your aperture and the -2….-1……` ……+1…….+2….. The icon in the middle is your standard middle level of exposure, the level mark underneath will indicate if your exposure will be under or over depending on which end of the scale it sits.  If you want to move it to another level in any direction, find the dial by your shutter button and begin moving it to the desired direction. This will help but in by no means will it be what you want exactly, it’s not a way to learn proper exposure its simply a suggestion given the shutter and aperture you have selected. The camera has no idea what your vision for the photograph is. It’s a tool, don’t expect it to think for you always and be right ;-)

A DEP: Automatic depth of field. There is a button most likely located on the body. Mine is on the opposite site where I grip the camera by my lens, it’s used for previewing your depth of field. What is depth of field? (DOF)

It’s the amount of distance between the nearest and farthest objects that appear in acceptable sharp focus. Remember you are the creator of your own images. There are not many rules for this, simply how you want to perceive or speak to the viewing audience.

If you have this button on your camera you can press it to view your range of focus.

 Practice, comment and if you want a critique of your work please don’t hesitate to email me.  List your settings if you can so I can have a better knowledge of how the imaged was made. This next coming week I will be diving into a new program to redo my website which needs a MAJOR overhaul and is long over due and urgent! I will post as soon as I can. It may just be a few images on thirds or how its made. I am also going to post my all time favorites and why.  I enjoy stories behind each photo. A peek into the life of a photographer and the things we have to go through to get the shot we want.  Next we will be  using angles applying flash photography and how to pose people. I know i gave a good Zeltsman link earlier in the blog but maybe I can help you even more on the topic. Ok my shutterbug freaks! I love you guys, I appreciate you and always want to hear from you.! I am asking for your input on doing a new idea of Talk Tuesdays via Skype. So if you have not made it to my contacts please do so and let me hear form you. Would you be interested in this idea? Please let me know. Look for me on skype layman.photography-birmingham, Alabama.
Love you guys!

The Print is DEAD ??

 I have mentioned in conversation with a few good friends on how I thought the print was dying. Seems more and more things were just online. The social sharing media with our computers, smartphones..  etc..I did struggle to get my photographer mind away from acutally printing my images.. Like the new Designer Photo Albums that I now create for my clients has become one of my best new products.(photos&Video to follow)  A Design that artistically displays photographs and tells the story of a wedding day. I am truly enjoying jumping more into all the new social networks, facebook, twitter and blogging especially. I do have the gift of gab! When I speak about photography I feel passion and being able to verbally express it, I feel myself light on fire! Of course there is no substitution for an actual print, they are still amazing! An actuall print to me is still so very grand. I do miss the "want" of having them, printing them.
 The new digital era of course has taken down walls and exposed us all to new things. I imagine how I would be effected if I have never been able to view the power images of one of my most influential photographers- Photo Journalist - James Natchwey. Reading about his life and hearing his experiences while looking at his work carried me to try harder, learn more and never stop. The same goes for David Beckstead my inspiration of  the new look of Wedding Photography. I do embrace the new medium and also hold a soft spot in my heart for the print!
  This article is a good read on the subject. I hope it sheds some light on what we as photographers and consumers have had to deal with. The photographer had to adjust as well as the consumer. The ease of sharing photos and all the new prosumer cameras , left clients hesitant to pay a professional. It just seemed so easy to bypass the need for a professional in the beginning and Im thankful that this thinking has taken a back seat. The new digital cameras made it easy to process photographs, less expensive. It also gave more freedom to the shutterbug to experiment, produce and mass email all their work. Lots of people picked up the camera , changing thier professions or just helping a family member on ther wedding day  offering stunning images and failed to deliver. It wasnt till lots of blurred, dark images kept rolling out that everyone finally remembered what professional photographers are!

Also with so many smartphones on the market, the need for a seperate camera will start to die as well. No facts, just my opinion. Why carry the two when one will do for sharing that funny photo of your child playing? Besides, right then and there you can share it with any and all social networks with the touch of a few buttons. No longer needing to stop, sync up to your computer, how wonderful,, and it is!  It is wonderful to me also in another way. The lack of sales , hopefully will trigger the major manufactuers to put their money back into the professional photographer's camera. Maybe just maybe... prices will reflect this too. It would be nice to get more equipment I want and need and have the quality remain or redeem itself.  I cant wait to see the changes of this world, perhaps capture it in an image or two and like the rest of us,, keep up!
Here is the article. Thank you for reading and please share your thoughts with me. Id love to hear form you!
http://www.andyadamsphoto.com/photo2/

FUN STUFF! PHOTOGRAPHY CONTESTS

Lets take a break for some fun stuff. It so easy to get burn out on anything. I thought this would be fun especially if you are reading and applying the information from the blog. Post those new creations you have made as you are learning. Voting once a day is allowed. After votes are in,, the judges then make thier choices!
 Enter to add your own photo or vote on your favorite. Contests is for the month of Feb.
Yes. I posed a photo too! Good luck everyone! Let me know if you enter so I can take a peek!
http://currentphotographer.com/



Contest Starts  2/01/11  Contests Ends: 2/20/11
1st, 2nd and 3rd Prize winners. Check contest rules for more information!