Welcome to Manual

For awhile now, everyone in the photography group I am in, have been talking about shooting in manual and how it's so great. I never really thought much of it and figured my shots were just as good in the sport setting. Well, yesterday, I realized just how WRONG I have been!! I was just messing around with my camera yesterday while the pups were napping and I realized how hazy my photos were turning out. Just to see how things would change, I switched my camera into manual mode and quickly saw just how different the shots looked when I was actually using the right settings!! It's safe to say, once you go manual, it's very hard to go back!

The only problem with manual shooting is movement….as long as you have a quick enough shutter speed, the blur isn't noticeable. However, when you start needing a tripod…that's when manual becomes sort of a pain. So sometimes, shooting with the settings on your camera can help you get a shot especially when the situation you're in, isn't ideal for a tripod to stabilize the camera.

Enjoy the selection below. These might be some of my favorite photos I have ever taken, or at least in a long time. The black and white one of Lumen and Hannah sleeping is probably my favorite from the bunch. Really captures just how sweet Lumen really is. Enjoy!

The Calm Before the Storm

It has been one of those days where the rain has come and gone. Anyone with dogs really dreads rain because that means our precious babies are cooped up in the house all day. Luckily we had a break in the rain earlier and I was able to drag the girls outside to play ball and release some of their bottled up energy.

Before we went outside, I started taking some photos inside since the lighting wasn't awful and I wanted to take the opportunity since it doesn't come around often. Lumen (the White Shepard) was sleeping on the floor just far enough away from me that my macro lens could focus on her. She was semi sleeping but knew I was taking photos of her. The best part about Lu is that she tolerates me taking her photo and rarely moves! I had a vision of what I wanted to capture, but it just wasn't really working out. Of course once I was about to probably get the shot I wanted, Hannah decided she needed to lay near Lumen and was totally in the way of my amazing shot! Of course I couldn't make Hannah move because then Lumen would move, so I had to be creative! I ended up shooting from the couch over Hannah to get to Lumen behind her. Luckily the photos turned out pretty well.

Remember how I wanted to do a before and after shot? Well last time I tried the photo really wasn't the best to do that with but I think I still got the point across. This time however, I have the perfect photo for a before and after! Since I was shooting over Hannah to get to Lumen, part of Hannah's back was in the shot I had of Lumen in the corner. In the camera the photo looked kind of cool, but once I opened it in Photoshop, I realized that it looked like I had a black blob in the corner of my photo….UGH! Luckily Photoshop is so amazing and has all these great tools to help get rid of that kind of stuff!

Before 

After 

As you can see in the photos, I cloned out the black and made it look like the floor. Unfortunately, this is not my best work with cloning….now that they are side by side I can really see it. However, I worked on it for so long that I just had to move on.

The rest of the photos below are also from this afternoon. Enjoy the selection below. Check out the crazy big paws Lu has below too.

Let's Catch Up

Wow! I can not believe it has been over a month since I last blogged! The even sadder part about that, is I really haven't picked up my camera in that time frame either. Last month I did take some family photos, but not everyone is on social media so I didn't post them to protect their privacy!

So much has happened this last month! School started, the weather started getting amazingly nice, and the pups have been going through some intense training. Because of all of this going on, I haven't had much time to pick up my camera! No excuses, I know!! So, here is my post that is LONG over due! I finally got two days in a row off from work and school so I decided I better get my camera out and use the time to get some photos.

Lately, I have felt that when I take photos of the dogs, they all turn out the same. Same photo, different day. So, I have joined a couple of photography groups on Facebook that let photographers from all walks of experience share their photos and have strangers comment on them. Unfortunately, since I haven't taken photos in so long, I haven't had the chance to really post on there. Luckily that can change now!

For a while now, I have wanted to do a before and after part on this. However, I never really had a photo that showed the amount of work I did to it. I decided to just bite the bullet and try it on here. The photos below aren't the ideal photo for a before and after, but there is enough of a difference to show.

Before 

After 

For these photos, there is really only one setting that I changed. The setting Levels, I upped the lighting and created contrast with the blacks. Instead of the photo being more gray, there is now a contrast between the different colors. 

Often most of the photos taken only need a little adjustment. However, sometimes I get a photo that needs a lot of work and I often really enjoy the challenge. However, when I started taking these photos, I started taking these photos at about noon when the sun was way to bright. The first half of these photos have awful lighting and aren't even editable! Later that day, I went back out and got much better results with the lighting. Enjoy the rest of the collection below:

While The Weather is Nice

The weather has finally turned and it is beginning to feel like summer outside! Since it has stopped raining and we have had consistently warmer temperatures, we have been spending lots of time outside with the dogs soaking up the sun. We started off celebrating the warmer temps by redoing our front garden. It's not officially done, but close enough that we can live around it! When we were gardening the dogs were behaving so amazingly that I couldn't help but take a dog break and take some photos of them. Of course taking pictures of the dogs turned into cuddling with the dogs and get distracted from what we were actually suppose to be doing. Luckily we eventually got back to work and I actually forgot I had taken the photos about two weeks ago.

Earlier this week, Dee and I were taking about how much Hannah loves playing in water wether its the pond, her baby pool, or the hose, she just loves to play in it. Since Hannah loves to play with the hose so much, we decided she needed a sprinkler to keep her occupied. This morning we finally set up one of the 3 sprinklers we got her. She loved playing in the water and eventually learned that she could pick up the sprinkler and move it to where she wants it to go. It actually was really funny and super cute. Luckily Hannah wasn't being too crazy with the water that I was able to get my camera out and take a couple photos of the water and her playing.

Enjoy the photos below. More to come soon.

They're Growing Up Quick

It has been a while since I posted some photos of the babies. They are growing up quickly and developing the best personalities as they continue to grow. Below are recent photos of the puppies, Hannah is now six months old and Lumen is now four months old.

Spring Fever

Finally I think it is safe to say that spring is here!! The weather is finally starting to warm up during and the flowers are starting to appear in everyone's yards. For about a year now, my aunt and uncle have asked me periodically to come and let their dogs out if they aren't going to be home. I always love being able to go over there for a couple reasons. One, I get to take Hannah and she can burn off some of her puppy energy...or most of it! It's a win win for everyone. The second reason is that Jude and Gail have the most gorgeous garden ever! Every time I go there I always kick myself in the butt for NEVER bringing my camera with me! The last time I was there, there was the most picture perfect sunset happening and of course all I had with me was the I-phone..(which as much and I love it, it didn't do the sunset justice). However, this time when I was asked to go over to their house I made sure I packed my camera right away. Unfortunately, yesterday I was fighting with rain and had a very limited window to get the photos in. Luckily I was able to get some quick shots of their garden. Take a look below. I want to note that the only thing edited about these photos is levels which is a huge deal that that, is the only thing I had to change! Enjoy the selection below:

Shadows

Even if you know nothing about photography or photo taking in general, you know that shadows can ruin a photo if they are not intentional. On Easter weekend, Colleen and her boyfriend Matt were in town and I of course took the opportunity to take some portraits of them. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans for us. Saturday afternoon was so sunny that it was creating horrible shadows on both Colleen and Matt. Luckily I was able to get two photos that were semi decent to share below. The first photo is actually one of my favorites just because of the lighting. The second photo is actually a replica of a photo I took of Matt and Colleen when I was still working with film photography. I still think the film photo looks better (I wish I had it on my computer to compare the two!), but I am pleased with the lighting. Enjoy the selection below: