family christmas photos: 2011

i took all these pictures... the tripod and delay-timer are my friend. :) 

my sister + the afternoon light= gorgeous.

i did a shoot with my beautiful sister while she was home for christmas. the light was amazing, and these are completely unedited. enjoy.

photography #13-15

i've gotten way off my normal posting routine, but i took lots of great pictures over Christmas vacation.
i only had one official photography assignment for weeks 13-15. we learned about portraiture during the class before break. for homework i had to take one candid shot and one technically correct 3-quarter view of a face. for the three-quarter view there are three things to remember:
-the nose cannot extend past the outline of the face.
-only one ear can be visible. (even if it's hidden by hair)
-there has to be a little skin by the far eye.

three-quarter view 

candid :)

here are a few [or a million =] shots from vacation:

i took our family christmas picture, did a shoot with my sister, and have an assignment from last week that i will share soon... 

photography #12

this past week, i was allowed to do a free shoot. mmm, very fun. :)

the goal was to keep working with exposure settings and experiment with some new ideas. i did several shoots, but my favorite was playing around with the lights on the christmas tree. it was so hard to pick just one for my submission, but i decided on the top picture. 

gorgeous ornament

the christmas lights' reflections on an ornament

sparkly light and dainty glass bell

christmas lights- panning

i'm all cought up on the weeks i missed this past month, and i don't have any photography homework due until after new years. but of course, break is just an excuse to have more time to take pictures, right? merry christmas!

photography #11

week 11 was all about exposure... i learned how to use spot metering mode and the zone system and a few other complicated things. the first part of the assignment was to find a white wall and take 5 pictures of that wall in each zone. the top shot is the correct exposure because the white is bright with detail. the others show the different zones and how the zones go from light to dark. the second part of the assignment was a free shoot that was focused on learning how to deal with and get used to the new exposure settings. i was allowed to choose one picture from the free shoot to submit. i picked the bottom photo because i love the pastel colors of the sky and the contrasting silhouette.