To Photoshop or not to Photoshop

I came across this article yesterday and it made me pause and thing about what I’m learning in Lightroom and Photoshop and how I plan to use them to touch up photos.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/27/wednesdays-intriguing-people-31/?hpt=T2

With my two beautiful daughters, I don’t want them to ever feel like they need to keep up with somebody else’s image or perceived ideal.  I’ve always found the human herding instinct very fascinating though.  What make so many people like particular face or body shapes?  Is it just the instinct to follow the rest of the herd and adopt their practices?  The older I get, the more shallow this mentality becomes to me.  So, I’m not connected to myself enough to have my own opinions?  I should just follow what others think or say?  Not everyone is this way, but I know I am to some degree. 

Photography is great for me in that way.  It helps me to slow down and explore beauty where I’ve never paid attention to it before.  To take time to really think and explore my perception of something from a view that I’ve never seen it before.  To realize how amazing every single person really is.  Who they are, what they’ve done, and the potential that they have to do so many great things.  I hope I continue down this path exploring everything as the herd moves around.

As for the article on Photoshop.  It’s helped me realize that I don’t want to portray people as something they are not... assuming that’s the goal of the photo.  I could see myself trying some more abstract and “artsy” things that would definitely change the way a person looks.  But then the focus would not necessarily be reality.  I still plan on using Photoshop, but I plan on using some discretion.  Do I remove that mole or just lighten it because of the harsh contrasting light.  I’m working on a family portrait right now and have no qualms about swapping heads from other pictures to get all 5 of the kids smiling in the same portrait.  Although it would easier to get all of them looking at the camera in the same shot in the first place :)

Farewell to Kami

It’s hard to believe that Kami has left on her mission.  She in the Provo Missionary Training Center now, but will soon be heading off to Guatemala.  She’s grown up so fast!  When Christi first took me home, Kami was just a little string bean who loved to show off and ask for wedgies.  Kami has always been very responsible and self motivated.  I’m glad that my kids have her to look up too.  They all adore their Aunt Kami and are always very excited to see her, talk to her, are even reminisce about something she’s done.  It’s going to be tough not having her around for the next year and a half, but there again, she is setting a great example for all of us by serving this mission.  We’ll miss you Kami.  Have fun and work hard.

Here are some pictures we took with Kami after she spoke in church last Sunday.  You know, so we could remember her in case she falls of the end of the earth and doesn’t send us pictures while she is on her mission.  Hint… hint…

The Awesome Alston children.  They turn even more awesome with each brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and grandkid that is picked up.
  Notice that Kami only wanted a picture with Alicia, the sister-in-law.  None of the brothers-in-law made the cut… :)  Just kidding, I set up the shot.  Not her.  I’m know for a fact that she thinks very fondly of all of her brothers-in-law.  In particular… me.

Proud parents.  Kami is their last one.  What will they do now?  I hear they have plans to spend a lot of time in Gilbert visiting their children and grandchildren. 

Go Sister Alston!  Be AWESOME!

Baptizing Josh

I was lucky enough to baptize Joshua this last weekend.  He is an amazing boy.  We practiced several times before the big event and he could stop talking about how excited he was.  I take that back, once the baptism actually started, he turned to me and told me that now he just felt warm with the spirit.  When we talked about the interview he would have with the bishop before his baptism, he already had all the answers right there and I could tell he was working off his own testimony and not ours.  I think the are great expectations for Josh.  I know I have them.  I’m confident that he will be a great person.  He is well on his way.  He has so many talents.  The one that stands out most in my mind is his charity.  His is easily moved and loves to do secret little acts of kindness for others.  I think his brother Jonah is picking that up now.  What a good example.  We love you Josh!

I know this blog is for my pictures, but I couldn’t very well take these pictures when I’m in them.  So, complements of Leah, here are a few from the day.

Babies and Toddlers

An old friend, Jacquelyn Dalton, brought some of her kids, grandkids, and foster kids over last week for some portraits.  It was my first time trying to do something semi-formal with little kids that weren’t my own.  I discovered that is more fun being on the camera end than when I’m a parent worrying about how my kids are acting while their picture is taken (thinking back to experiences of having pictures taken of my kids – oh the pain!).  My lesson learned here is that I can tell parents that we’ll try to coach the kids, but sometimes they are just going to do what they are going to do.  So, we might as well step back, enjoy the moment, and get the best pictures we can of whatever they want to be doing.  Jacquelyn and her daughter, Caitlin, played the “cool under pressure” parents while the kids and I roamed around our backyard seeing what adventure was next.  I can see where a photo shoot with high energy kids could have been very stressful, but, lucky for me, I got a great family for my first experience.  I think we ended up with some great photos too. 

Anyways, on to the show!  I started out with a group shot thinking that we could capitalize on the attention span up front.  I think that is the right approach, but I may need some better attention grabbers for next time.  Any suggestions?  I’ve used whistles, whoops, and funny faces.  None of those worked for me to get everyone’s attention all at once.  From left to right we have Jayden, Maria, Aiden, and Mason.

The Dalton are a saintly family for bringing in so many foster children.  Especially for targeting special needs children who may of come from a distressed background.  Maria is one of those, and you could really see the love she now has for Jacquelyn and the other kids.

Jayden was champion.  He had oral surgery earlier in the day and I’m sure he didn’t feel up to someone trying to get him to smile.  To help get his attention, I showed him some picture of himself on the camera.  After that he came over and gave me a hug even though he was the one who didn’t feel like being there :)

Mason brought the energy of an entire football team.  He was anxious to show me his Kung Fu and then have me chase them around the yard from one place to another.  He wasn’t shy of the camera.  I just had to be fast enough to capture the picture.

Aiden was right there with Mason in all the fun.  I can’t help but think he should be out modeling clothes for the Gymboree or some place like that.

Thanks Jacquelyn and Caitlin for letting me practice taking pictures of your children.

One last thought….  I’ve always been a bit introverted or at least non talkative, and this photo shoot was another learning experience for me that people photography will be a great opportunity to improve my social skills.  I started out thinking wildlife photography was going to be my main game, but you get a lot more smiles and people connect a lot better with pictures of people.  It’s very rewarding to have people tell me how much they like a picture or to see how they react to it.  I’m afraid I find the instant gratification a little too rewarding though and have to stop myself from trying to show my pictures to every person I meet.  I think this is common for other photographers too.  As soon as one of us mentions it, we have to show each other some work we’ve done.  My wife and family have been troopers.  I review almost everything with Christi and sit with anticipation to see what she thinks of each shot.  I like that she doesn’t necessarily like the same photos that I do.  It’s interesting to hear why she likes this one or that one or what she noticed first in a picture.  Photography is FUN!

Savannah and Camrie

Out of all my kids, Savannah is the most anxious to pose for pictures.  She’s been wanting to do a photo shoot with a friend for a while, but timing hasn’t worked out since she has synchronized swimming on the evenings when I do my photo shoots.  Finally a Saturday lined up and Savannah got her friend Camrie to come model with her.  Savannah is also the family member most interested in photography next to me.  I love it!  You can check out her blog here: http://savvysmiling.blogspot.com/  In fact her latest blog is about the chair we used below.  She bought it at a yard sale specifically to use for photography  :)  I think she has a great eye too. 

I had hoped to get out and try some locations around town, but we ended up spending most of our time in the yard here.  Girls and flowers just go together.  Here are some of my favorites from around the yard:

Becca came along for part of it too and I caught this one from afar while she was sitting on a ladder in the sunflowers.

We had a little time left before the sun went down.  So, we headed over to this street I found that has a bunch of random paint stripes on it.  They must use it for testing or cleaning stripe painters.

I can’t help but play around with the pictures.  I’m sure that I’ll eventually develop some standard styles that I use as my core, but for now there are so many options.  Here are a couple that I liked when playing around with black and white.

 

I’m so glad I have daughters that are patient and like to have their picture taken.  Thanks Savannah, Camrie, and Becca.

I’ve officially set up my first family portrait shoot for next Saturday.  I’m excited!  I also had a few eBay bucks that were going to expire.  So, I’ve ordered some different light modifiers to play around with.  More toys!  I can’t wait… but they’re shipping from China.

A Weekend Away

Last weekend Christi and went to the cabin on Mt. Graham for a get away.  Woohoo!  We love our kids, but we left them with a sitter and took off for two days of just us.  We had a great time hiking, four wheeling, sleeping in til past ten, reading books, and talking.  The best part was having time to focus exclusively on each other.  Of course, that was the worst part too.  Because when we got back home and started our regular duties it felt like it used to when we were dating and couldn’t be together.  Like the times when we had to go to class or go home to get some sleep.  It’s that ache in my stomach when I was stuck at BYU finding our first apartment while while she was in Tucson finishing the details for our wedding.  I’m glad I have last weekend though to help put it all into perspective and remember how happy I am when focused on Christi.  Life is busy, but hopefully writing this down will help me take more of those wild and crazy home with six kids moments and remember how I started it all with her.

Here are a couple of pictures from our trip:

Rebecca and Kaitlyn at the Park

Sorry to post twice in a row, but Christi is at book club and I’ve got to post when I can post so that I can spend more time out taking the pictures.  I love my girls.  They are so excited to having me learning about photography.  Christi and I have made a tentative schedule so that I can spend Tuesday and Thursday night as well as some time on Saturday doing photography.  It’s a great time to practice with my kids and their friends.  I recently took Rebecca and her friend Kaitlyn over to Discovery Park for a photo shoot.  Unfortunately, Savannah has synchro on Tuesday and Thursday and she seems to be just bursting at the seams to get out and do the same with one of her friends.  We’ll have to dedicate a this Saturday to her if we can.  I think Rebecca and Kaitlyn had lots of fun at the park and I learned a lot.  In particular I’m learning that I need to meter differently or better some how.  I’m not sure if it would be better to get a grey target or something to meter off of.  Hopefully, I’ll just get better with practice at knowing if I need to compensate a bit so I don’t have to do it later in Lightroom.  I also can’t wait until I can know to how to pose people better for the light.  During our shoot at the park, I spent a lot of time moving around and adjusting.  Just trying to get their faces lit up to my liking.  It will save so much time in the future once I have a better idea of how to set up from the start.  Thanks Rebecca and Kaitlyn for your patience with me while I used you as my smiling guinea pigs.  Here is some of the results:

Photographing My First Wedding

Leah (http://www.leahdavisphotography.com/) was kind enough to let me tag along for my first experience in wedding photography a couple of weekends ago.  She’s got some photos up on her site too.  I had a blast doing this wedding.  And being the secondary photographer was the way to go for me since I could watch Leah work her magic and learn.  It was great fun to meet all those new people and to be able to sit back some times and people watch from afar.  Plus I was doing photography.  So, what could be better then that?

Ryan and Jen (the happy couple) have been together for over 12 years and had the cutest little 2 year old girl, Paisley.  I’m a sucker for little kids.  It was a challenge for introvert me to step out of my comfort zone and get to know people well enough to make them feel comfortable in front of the camera.  I can see that this skill is critical for being a successful people photographer.  Leah has it down pat.  She is everyone’s friend the instant they meet and does a great job of coaxing out genuine smiles.  Anyways, here are some of my favorite photos from the wedding.

  Cute little Paisley showing her smiles for Leah.

The father of the bride giving Jen away to Ryan.

The dishes are done, dude!.

Ryan’s mother passed away recently.  He kept a picture of her in this locket on his boutonniere to remember her.
  Another one of cute Paisley on the 18th fairway at Sunridge Canyon Golf Club.  I tried a little Lightroom “preset” that I created here.  It’s more of a washed out look with red highlights.  The jury is still out on whether or not I’ll use it much.  It may be better for an urban, modern portrait look.

I was having so much fun taking pictures, I didn’t  eat any cake.  It looked delicious, but I was already feeling wired from the excitement of trying to capture everything that was going on.

Paisley getting her groove on with her backup dancers.

So, some of my key lessons learned on this outing are…

1.  Get out there and meet people.  Get to know them and make them feel comfortable in front of the camera.  They won’t usually feel comfortable unless they can see that I’m comfortable.
2.  People like it when you show them the pictures you took of them.  I love LCD on cameras.
3.  Be prepared for every lighting situation.  We went from harsh shadows and bright sun during the wedding to a dimly lit reception area.  I can’t wait to get some faster lenses.
4.  Have a plan and list.  Leah had scribbled out the poses she wanted and such. 
5.  Be prepared to spend a lot more time editing than taking the pictures.  These are only a few of the ~800 pictures I took.  Leah had more than that and there is a lot of sifting, picking, tweaking, critiquing to get the final keepers.  Luckily, I enjoy working on computers.  It’s great fun to play around with a picture and try to get as close to reality as you can or play around to make something new.

Overall, lot’s of fun!  I’ve got a long ways to go, but I’m willing to work for free right now.  So, let me know if there are any other wedding photographers out there that are as nice as Leah and willing to let me shadow them.