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New Class!!!

After students finish the Beginning DSLR class and the portraiture classes I teach I always get asked what next? And I've also had hundreds of requests for a class on how to use a flash so...here it is! This new course is on how to use an external flash on-camera.

 

A flash of Brilliance-

Using natural light is fantastic, and you can create beautiful images if you can find the right light, but what happens when you can't find beautiful available light? Or worse, what if there really isn't even enough light to get the shot in the first place? Knowing how to use an external flash can open up many photographic doors for a photographer. It will allow you to shoot any time of day or night.

In this class we will teach you:

• How to use an external flash in TTL mode so that the camera and flash work together automatically to meter the exposure, giving you the flexibility to capture the right moment.
• How an on-camera flash can create natural or flattering light, rather than the typical deer-in-the-headlights look often associated with flash.
• How to bounce your flash using the ceiling and the walls and still achieve directional light.
• How to mix your flash with available light so it either blends in naturally or selectively draws attention to your subject.
• What light diffusers and other modifiers can and can’t do, when they should be used, and how to wade through the hype!

First class will begin January 30th. Look for more information in the coming month on the price and length of the class. For now go here to watch a video on what equipment we will use in the class and the best info on buying external flashes for this class!

Here is an example of what a difference properly using a flash can make:

 

Pretty big difference, right?

Click here for sign up info.

Rockstar Diaries!

My very cute and very sweet friend Naomi posted about my Christmas Starry Woodland mantle yesterday along with a tutorial on how to make paper trees! Check it out!

 

And for those of you wondering, yes she really is as cute, and as talented, and as nice as she seems on her blog!

The things I do for my boys...

Grant and Cole decided that they wanted to be Harry Potter and Ron for Halloween and they begged Mark and I to join in. They wanted Mark to be Sirius Black and with his long hair and beard he does look really similar. I got assigned Bellatrix...hmm... all the boys were good guys and I was assigned the evil crazy one? What does that say? ;)

They always have a Trunk or Treat each year and you KNOW Mark and I have to have the funnest car around right? Ha, no... that actually was not the plan but a close friend called and convinced me that everyone was expecting something great so we threw our costumes and trunk idea together the hour before we needed to be there! I'm pretty sure we were the only parents dressed up. Awkward? Yeah. But the kids had so much fun and the boys were really happy we went along with their theme so it was worth the embarrassment. We gave away glow necklaces instead of candy and they had to play a ring toss game to get one. Mark spoke in his best British dialect/Sirius Black accent the whole night. I think the kids really loved it although most were a little afraid of me!

I wish we had, had time to take real pictures but we were running late so here are the instagram snaps.

If we showed up at your Halloween party would you be friends with us?

 

My Halloween House 2011

Lately I've been loving decorating for Holidays with random things pulled from around the house. Don't get me wrong I have Halloween stuff but not that much it fits into two boxes so I use natural items and my own collection to fill in. It helps to have a house that is already mostly black and white. A little orange goes a long way.

My mantle. I went with more of a natural theme this year and I used a lot of crows, spanish moss, real moss, and books.

Above the dinning room table. I hung branches I painted silver with crows, spiders, vintage inspired party supplies and chinese lanterns.

Here is a detail of the photowall and the table. I had to get a photograph of what was on the table. This is replica of the stage, Mark uses it to plan out each scene before he goes to rehearsal. This is the set for Chirstmas Carol. 

The entry- my dog looks sad because he wanted out the front door I had open but I wouldn't let him go. My Mom and I made the flags hanging on the stairs. And by my Mom and I, I mean I told her what I thought would be cute and she did all the work and real designing/sewing. 

The living room

Here are details of the living room table and entry way. The photo isn't anyone I know but I have a tendancy to buy old photographs at antique fairs. I know it's weird, but I feel sorry for the people in them, no one knows them or loves them anymore so I buy them to give them a home.

This little mouse has a great story, last year after the roof was taken off in the storm we had to have a lot of the house repaired. It took all summer and into the fall so the painters were just finishing up detail work after I put up Halloween decorations. I was trying to keep all the scheduling and traditions the same even though we were in chaos because I thought it would help the boys. The last job in the house was to paint the trim on the stairs and as the painter went along he painted little details on the mice. Like smiles and eyes. It delighted both the boys and me! Such a small silly thing but that painter reminded me that among the chaos were special tiny details that bring happiness and can help you get though anything.

Hope you like the house!

The reason I am the way I am...

I was able to visit my parents this weekend while I was in Utah for work and photographed my Mom's new Halloween mantle for her. I thought you would all love to see it. They just added an new beautiful room to our house so that we would have a space we could all fit in when we all come home to visit. The family now has eight grandchildren so space can start to feel cramped! My mom came up with the design for the room herself and it is stunning! I wish I had taken a full length view of it. Next time I will!

Doesn't this look like it came straight out of a magazine? My Mom is amazing.

Here it is up close.

And here is a photograph with my Mom and Sebastian in it so you can see the scale and how big the fireplace is!

That is the same garland that we made together several years ago and Target and Making Memories picked up the design and sold them.

Now you can see where I get my fondness for holiday decorating. I'll post my matel tomorrow although it's not nearly as lovely as this!

I don't mean to brag but...

my Mom is really beautiful. And looks young for her age. And as I've gotten older I've come to appreciate her unique sense of style. She always stands out in a room of women, I'm sure in part due to the fact that she really is tall, she is 5'10, but mainly because she just has an amazing presence. How did my 5'3 self not luck out on any of that?

She came to be with me when I had Sebastian. Most people seemed a little shocked that I wanted her there in the room with me and not just around after he was born and I know I'm a grown woman myself but she is my Mom and she went though it herself 4 times and I don't know, I just feel better knowing she is there. Plus Mark says she keeps me calm. He has a little problem with blood and seeing me in pain so she helps him too.

Anyway, I don't know why but I didn't end up with any photogaphs of her and Sebastian at the hospital. I realized that the morning she had to leave so I hurried and set up a little photoshoot. Look at him smiling in his sleep. He already loves his Grandma.

I love her too!

 

Family Ghost Photos!

Here it is! It's the first video tutorial I've done for the blog on my own, so if it's not perfect you'll have to forgive me! If you have any questions or you like it and want more tutorials in the future let me know in the comments and I'll answer them there.

The screen doesn't start showing for the first 20 seconds so don't worry if it's grey at first.

 

 

There are ghosts among us!

If you've been reading this blog in past years then you know I really love holidays and decorating for them.  Christmas is my very favorite because of the meaning and religious aspects, but Halloween is just so fun to decorate for! My sister and I were talking about how there are really only three styles that people decorate in for Halloween.  Scary (blood, bones, monsters that sort of thing), Cutesy (brighter colors like purple, orange and green, cartoon like characters and pumpkins) and Vintage (black cats, pumpkins and old signage sometimes from the 30's and 40's sometimes leaning toward Victorian).

I don't like scary anything, I don't like horror films... (correction - I hate horror films), and I do not like haunted houses. I've never understood why people think being scared is fun, but I do love suspenseful movies like Rear Window and the new Sherlock Holmes so it makes sense that my style is vintage based. 

I have made a lot of my own decorations. Remember this garland I designed and Making Memories used as inspiration for a garland they sold at Target? Now that we are in a house and not a tiny apartment, I've been whipping up a few new projects that I want to share here. I know it's just September (don't worry I'm not hanging up Halloween decor just yet!) but I wanted to give everyone time to be able to use the ideas for their own Halloween decor.

The first project up is creating your own family of ghosts. These images aren't hard to do - it just takes a little time and some photoshop know how. I was thinking - if anyone is interested I could do a little video tutorial here on my blog. Let me know if you are interested in the comments. Maybe I'm the only crazy one who would want to do this...

We spent the weekend in Fredericksberg, Texas. It's an old German town and it's perfect for finding spooky looking backdrops. The first two images are of Cole. All the clothing is from Zara. The first is from a distance and I've found that full lengths look a little better than the close ups for these. This image is a little more whimsical.

This next image is a little bit more scary. The only difference is really that he made a serious face and I offset the background so it's slightly blurry.

On a side note - what's the only thing worse than a scary movie? A scary movie with creepy children in it.

Fredericksberg still has it's jail from the 1800's. It was the perfect backdrop for Mark's ghost photo. His beard and long hair help the vintage factor. He is growing it out for Shakespeare auditions this fall.

I'll have to post the images of Grant and I later. I have to say if you have boys like mine that don't like getting their photos taken, this project is great. What boy doesn't want to have a ghost picture taken? My advice is to sneak a few smiley good ones into the shoot. They never have to know, and you end up with a good photos you like and spooky photos they think are awesome!

 

 

Roman Holiday

Last summer Nicole Hill and I taught a workshop in France. It was amazing, I can't believe I haven't ever shared any photographs from it. I took hundreds of photographs with my big old Canon 5D Mark II but I also decided to take a little tiny point-and-shoot. Literally an hour before we left for the airport I picked up a Sony Cyber-shot because I thought it would be fun to try out the panoramic feature it offers. It was fun to play with on the trip, but I didn't even open up any of the photographs until tonight. Life has just been so crazy this year.

Mark came with me on the trip because he needed to go to Albania during that summer to do some scholarly research for a few weeks and I wanted to go with him so I could see where he had lived and what life was like there. It has been a dream of mine to go to Italy since I was a teen and our flight between Paris and Tirana had a layover in Italy so we decided to spend a few days in Rome. Plus as a bonus Mark speaks Italian and I have never gotten to hear him in action. You have to love a boy who speaks romantic languages!

Anyway, the point of all this is that I've finally pulled out the old Sony to see how all those panoramics turned out. I'm not going to do a a full revue but lets just say I'm not really impressed and I wouldn't really recommend it. The camera is NOT good in low light and even in bright light it is difficult to get a truly sharp panoramic. But for some reason the images from Rome called out to me. So I did a little bit of editing and here they are:

In order from top to bottom- Outside the Colosseum; Inside the Colosseum; The forum from the base; The forum at the top; Trevi Fountain with hundreds of visitors; The Teatro Dell' Opera dI Roma outdoor summer preformance in the Ruins of the baths of Caracalla; The Spanish Steps. 

Hope you like them! I had mixed feelings about Rome. It is beautiful, but it was so, so hot! And you really couldn't see much because it was covered in people everywhere you went, not that I can complain because I was one of them. I think I'd like to go back in the Fall someday. My favorite part by far was the Opera. Sitting in ruins, watching Italian opera with your husband? Totally romantic.

Oh Shoot!

I've had a lot of comments and emails asking when the next beginning DSLR class will be taking place. We weren't going to offer another one this year but we've been getting so many requests we decided that I should teach it one more time this year.

 "Oh Shoot!" is a 6 week DSLR class. It covers all the settings and buttons on a camera, how to use manual settings, how to expose images correctly in tricky situations, how to look for good natural light,  create beautiful compositions, and how to focus.  There are videos in the class, PDFs and MP3s of all the lessons, live video chats where you can get extra help right from me, a forum for even more help, emails 5 days a week, and a gallery to share images. I know that manuals and self help books can be confusing so I try to explain things as simply and clearly as possible with both visual, audio, and  written guidance.

The class starts September 5th. You don't have to be online at specific times unless you want to attend a live video chat for extra help with questions. The class is yours forever after you buy it. It doesn't expire so you can come back at anytime if you want a refresher.

Registration begins Monday, August 29th at 9:00pm eastern time. There are two versions of the class you can sign up for. Go here to register and find out more.