Joy of Love: Days Six & Seven

Day six prompt: who they love.
Day six camera tip: continue with metering & selective focal points.

Day seven prompt: generations.
Day seven camera tip: none (take a break).

Lucky for me, we took a little break from camera tips so I could finally dig out my camera manual & learn about metering & focal points. Can I just say OMGIAMLEARNINGSOMUCH! Thank you, Willette! Seriously. I nearly gave up with trying to adjust my exposure myself & only just finally figured it out tonight! I was ecstatic & felt so accomplished after I learned, though. I'm so glad I am taking this class. It's challenging me to really learn everything about my camera.

When I received these prompts in my email, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Fortunately for me, the concept sort of killed two birds with one stone. Greg's brother & sisters all grew up playing traditional Bolivian instruments. Greg & his brother even had a band that performed all over LA at museums, festivals, malls & public concerts. He still plays, but only private concerts on his charango for Collin & me. Collin loves his Dad's charango. He's a little obsessed. During this shoot, he literally sat still for an entire 45 minutes just playing with it...& gently! There is nothing gentle about Collin...& FORTY FIVE MINUTES of staying in one spot?!?!?! Unheard of. Greg has passed on the love of traditional Bolivian music to his older son, Adam. Adam even self-taught himself how to play the panpipes (another traditional instrument Greg plays...yeah, he pretty much can play any instrument you put in front of him...I love this about him). This is something I hope Greg passes on to Collin as well...& that Collin passes on to his children...throughout our family's generations.

{  Oh, don't mind the green fluff coming out of our couch. I need to sew up the pillow. How embarassing!  }

{  This was the picture I took after I *finally* figured out how to adjust my exposure/metering manually!  }

Joy of Love: Day Two

Today's prompt was: how they look.
Today's camera tip: position.

I feel like I am always pretty aware of my position when I take a photo....unless it comes to lighting. Since I struggled with that, I put our TV on (which is directly adjacent to a big window) to distract Collin while I tried different positions & experimented. Once again, I am my worst critic & I'm not happy with my results, but I am getting the hang of the lighting situation....on auto. Gah!!!!!! I am focusing manually, but I cannot get a good picture in my house without it being dark & grainy. I've tried everything! This class is forcing me to try & try again, though...which is a good thing.

Sorry about the Collin overload...but this is my blog & IDOWHATIWANT!

PS: Don't forget to enter my supa cute print giveaway! Click here!

Joy of Love: Day One

I am participating in the February 2011 Joy of Love Photography Class. It's completely free & anyone can sign up! There is still time if you want to join in. You'll get a daily email with a tip & a photo prompt. You do not need a, "fancy," camera like mine. You could even use your camera phone. In the wise words of Yo Gabba Gabba, "Try it! You'll like it!"

Today's prompt was: what they do.
Today's focus: natural lighting.

Willette photographed her husband working from home. Unfortunately, Greg works away from our home & more often than not, he worked well into the evenings & doesn't make it home until 7PM. This made for today's focus (natural lighting) even more difficult for me than it already was.

We have shit poop brown walls. This means any natural light we get is sucked into the vortex of our ugly, brown paint. We are changing this soon, but right now I struggle with lighting.

I tried to stay really aware of my light sources with these photos. I wasn't happy with any of them & may even give this another go after nap time.

Collin & I have a morning routine that consists of a little bit of TV time while we play & eat. This is what we, "do." Our little mid-morning activity together.

I became incredibly frustrated with my camera & myself during this little lighting challenge. I still don't know my camera the way I should & I couldn't get my settings to produce the photo I wanted. On top of it all, Collin isn't exactly a great subject to practice on lately. He is all over the place, constantly running & throwing his hands in the air...a miniature Tasmanian devil of sorts. After I put him down for his nap, I practiced some more with an inanimate object & finally got a picture I liked. So much so, that I've decided to enter it in the Paper Mama's Valentine's Photo Challenge.