Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Bundle of Joy

Some requests lately has led me to branch out and do things I haven't done before. This time it was portraits. Not that I haven't ever shot portraits before, but not in a "serious" way. Sure, I've terrorized my relatives and chased them around with my camera, I have done candid shots and I have done the occasional family picture, but this is my first time trying my hand at studio-ish shots.

Aren't they a lovely family? It's so much fun shooting a handsome couple like this and their pretty baby boy. Baby Carson is only 10 days old in these shots and utterly adorable. I always forget how tiny babies actually are, and their itty bitty hands, and teeny weeny feet... squeeee! This is why I love photography - you get to capture precious moments like these.

Since I'm totally new to doing things like this, I asked my first customers to do some homework. I wanted them to think about what kind of pictures they wanted and to choose a setting with the best light conditions possible. They did their homework well, naturally, since mother is a fellow teacher, and when I arrived things were well prepared. They had moved some furniture, prepare a cozy "bed" for the baby and timed everything well so that baby Carson was awake and happy. This made my job easy as pie. A hundred or so snaps later I was ready.

Post-processing portraits is a bit more complex than post-processing flowers, landscapes or abstracts. I always run an "action" (what Photoshop calls a macro) that makes several copies of the background layer and then adds a number of adjustment layers. Tweaking these, doing some general touch up and a bit of sharpening is usually enough in the cases I mentioned, but portraits are something else.

Thanks to W1K I found this great tutorial on how to enhance eyes and how to work with the dodge and burn tools to enhance specific features. Little things like that can really make a difference and make your shots sparkle. I may take a bit more time, but it's well worth the effort, and it's fun to post-process pretty subjects :)

So, yet an other experience richer I am happy to say that it is a lot of fun to branch out and test my limits. I'm going to try and test more new things in the future.

/MrsHjort

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Action

A colleague of mine recently asked me to come and shoot a football game. He plays forward in one of the top five teams in town, and wanted me to capture some of the action. I've never done sports before, but was I intrigued by the challenge of shooting a game. Would it work to use my Sigma macro lens? Would there be enough light so that I could do short shutter speed shots without too much grain? If not the Sigma lens, then maybe the Nikon could do the trick, but would I be able to zoom enough to get close to the action? That, and many other things started spinning around in my head.

So today at lunch time, I packed my gear and headed down to the football field. It was quite a challenge to time the shots, and I had to be on the ball (pun intended) all the time, which is a lot of fun for a photographer. Composing was definitely tricky, and it sort of became more like instinct than the way I usually work - carefully thinking things through.


To my surprise, using the Sigma lens worked fine. You see, it has a tendency to be quite sluggish, though previously, I have only used it for macros. However, this time the depth of field was not as crucial and only small adjustments were required, which it handled quite well. To be on the safe side, I switched after a while and shot for a while with my trusty Nikon lens, before switching back and shooting the end with the Sigma. As it turned out, I needn't have bothered - the Nikon might be the most versatile of the two, but the Sigma turned out to have the edge this time. It's zooming capability was just what I needed.

So, I shot 300 shots or so, that way I was bound to get a slam dunk or two, and I'm happy to say that I'm quite satisfied with the result. It was a lot of fun and I'm one experience richer :).

/MrsHjort

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Wonderful Spring

I've had a very productive day today. I just love how much more energy you get when it's light as you wake up in the mornings. The boring browns outside are finally giving in to green and the first flowers are blooming in my garden. Finally spring is here!

I shot this pretty Snowdrop just this morning, and the weather was no nice I decided to stay outside, grab a shovel and do some gardening (I didn't even need a jacket). So, now the flower beds have been cleared and the boring brown dead things have been cut away. Ah what a nice feeling to have finally begun with the spring chores!

Later, Mr and I went to Ikea to buy some shelves for our newly renovated library, and after that, as Mr went off to judge a football game, my energetic fingers just could not stay away from the boxes for very long. I grabbed a screwdriver and bippity boppity boo, up they went, easy as pie (I love Ikea!).

I never expected to get so much done this day, I have longed for a day of doing absolutely nothing all week, and as it arrived it turned into the exact opposite. I "blame" the clear blue sky, the spring wind and the twittering birds.

/MrsHjort

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Happy Brithday Mr

Yesterday was Mr's birthday, the 6th of mars. That day an unspecified bunch of years ago was a very good day. It brought me this wonderful kindhearted intelligent man who loves strawberries and never lets the child in him die.

We've been married for 7 years now, lived together for 10, and I have to say that we're still ridiculously happy together. A colleague of mine recently said that assembling furniture from Ikea really tells you something about the state of your marriage, and I have to agree in our case. We've always been good at cooperating. Though we might be "cheating" when it comes to the Ikea analogy since we've both worked with assembling in the past.

In fact, an even better analogy would be that working in the same company as your spouse gives you a good indication of the state of the relationship. We've worked together in two different companies, and at one time, we even shared the same office, and we loved it! We used to joke around a lot, and sometimes we would have "post-it note ball fights". I guess we're both pretty childish at heart haha. But really, nothing says "I love you" like when you suddenly get a little paper ball thrown at you, and find a heart drawn on it as you unfold it.

So here's to Mr, my husband and mischievous best friend in one. I love you with all my heart!

/MrsHjort


My Father, a Tribute to a Kind Man

This blog post is going to be longer than usual, and even so, how can one summarize one's feelings and memories of a person within the p...