Birds in the Backyard

One advantage to having a ton of trees is that we also get a lot of birds.  Here is a dove that was repeatedly going off for more twigs to build a nest.

 
Here is a sparrow that was posing like an eagle.  I figured out after this shot that the CPL filter is not the best thing to have on when capturing birds.

I’m not sure what kind of birds these are.  Does anyone know?  I thought this was a cool one of his ruffled feathers.

Then there are the hummingbirds.  When I was out taking pictures of this one, there were 3 different humming birds flying around chasing each other.

I love having a backyard with a lot of birds.  As long as they don’t eat the chicken food.

Simon and Rebecca Become Models

I had a blast last Saturday night as a secondary shooter for Jen and Ryan’s Wedding.  Leah was so great to let my inexperienced self join her and watch her work the magic.  I learned so much from her in one night.  It’s 10 times better than trying to learn from a book.  Leah is so great at making people feel at ease and letting their real smiles out.  That was the first big “Ah Ha!"  Then there was the lighting…. talk about tough.  The whole thing was outside.  So, we had to deal with sharp shadows cutting right across the wedding and very low lights once it got dark.  Did I mention that it was fun?  I can’t wait to do it again.  I’ve got a ton of pictures I want to post, but I’m learning Lightroom right now.  I want to wait until I can use Lightroom a bit better before I post the wedding photos.  I’m sure Leah will have some soon. 

In the mean time, I’ve turned Simon and Rebecca into my models and used them to practice on.  Here is my first slide show made in Lightroom.

Here are a few photos of Rebecca that I’ve been working on in Lightroom also.

Action Cropping Up

It’s great to have a riparian reserve area so close to us.  When I first got my camera, I spent several days sitting down at the ponds trying to take as many pictures as I could of the birds there.  It’s kind of funny to look back at my pictures from only a month ago and see all the things I would change now since I’m so much more advanced :) .  One “highlight” that I’ve learned since then is that it is typically best to expose for the highlights.  Unless, of course, you don’t want that.  These cranes are fascinating to watch.  This one was doing a dance of some sort.  Jumping around, flying short distances, and then finally plunging into the water to catch a small fish.

Many of my pictures ended up overexposed on the white cranes because I metered off the darker backgrounds.  I’m learning… slowly.

Here is one of Simon that I played with to try and recover some of the dark areas, since I did it the right way and exposed for the highlights on his face.  The sun coming through the window was like a spotlight on his face and everything else went dark.  I liked the darker picture, but you couldn’t tell as well what he was looking at.  What do you think?  The first one is the original darker image.  The second one I used fill light to bring back the dark areas a bit.

Weddings on My Mind

Come June next year, I will have been married 15 years to my best friend.  15 years!  Wow, time is flying by.  I’m trying to prep for a wedding shoot, as the second shooter, on Saturday with my SIL, Leah.  I went back through the pictures from our wedding and found this one.  Yes, it really is me.  Christi is still growing more beautiful every day, but somehow I’ve changed a lot.  I’d like to see that tux fit me now… 6 kids later.  Or even after 2 years of being married.

I’m stoked about doing a wedding.  I think it will be the ultimate in photography to capture those moments that people always want to look back on and remember with happiness and joy.  An anchor point or reference in their life.  That’s my goal.  My hope.  To have somebody look at the pictures I’ve taken and remember what they felt at that moment, or to be able to feel the emotion of the captured moment even it’s not them or they weren’t there.  Our wedding photographer (Lance Fairchild) did a great job, and I hope I don’t botch it for someone else’s wedding.  Luckily, I’m the secondary shooter.  I’ve got a long way to go before I would trust myself as a primary shooter.  They’ve got Leah who always does a great job of making people feel comfortable so that she can capture the moments. 

It feels like the last night before an exam I’m not ready for.  I’ll be spending every night this week cramming for their big day.  Thank goodness I have my best friend to bring me back to reality and remind me when I’m getting a bit obsessive on something.  Photography can easily suck me into the zone, but Christi is the anchor I need to keep me in reality and make photography a joyful life long pursuit rather than a burn out.  Enjoy the journey.  Right?  In fact, I think I’ve already been through this once.  I picked up photography back in 2002.  As most of my hobbies go though, I burnt out.  I think this time it will be different.  I’ve learned a lot about taking time to enjoy the journey since then and not letting balance get out of whack.  I’m happy to be a man, but sometimes that dang tunnel vision gets in the way of more important things.

Cabin Favorites

Here are some of my favorites from our cabin trip last weekend with the Bowman’s.  I think the bird houses will be a keeper for me.  I need to figure out how to translate the colors correctly when converting to JPGs for the web.  The RAW file is so much more colorful.  I think the flower probably would have looked better cropped in tighter too.

And here are some of my other favorite people shots.  They’re keepers too!