Family Pictures

My first "real" attempt at using my camera: family pictures. I had a bit of time to get used to how things worked, so I decided to give it a shot. No pun intended. I think they are okay, but not great. They need a lot of work.

Things I like about this picture:
I think for we're in good positions, we look natural and it doesn't look forced or too posed.
I like how the tree is on the side, giving it a bit of personality and not taking attention away.
This has nothing to do with the actual taking of pictures, but I like our outfits, they seem to blend in well enough and yet have a bit of the pop that they need. I hate family pictures of everyone wearing white shirts and jeans. Ugh! Although, I have to give these people the benefit of the doubt - do YOU know how hard it is to coordinate several people, but not be too matchy-matchy, and not make anyone upset with what they have to wear so they're pouting in all the pictures? I know how hard it is, and sometimes white and jeans is what works. And that's cool. 
Things I would change:
I don't like the background. I think it either needs to be a bit more blurred out, or completely different. At least take away the houses and the light pole. Those throw it off.
The lighting is a bit...wrong. I think it might be been a bit too harsh, because the sun started to just barely come out when we took our pictures. I might need to look into getting a reflector, or perhaps experiment more with angles. Using the flash may have also helped.
Overall, it simply does not look professional.

I love this picture. I think the pose is great, the expression is cute, and the lighting looks really good to me. The only problem was Daddy making a funny face in the background!

This one, again, is the background. I mean, behind us, of course. ;) The house there is so in the way.

So I've concluded that the main thing that bugs me in these pictures is the setting. I don't know this area well yet. It's hard to find somewhere online, because there are so many. So we settled on a park close to our house and I think we could have done a lot better. There are a lot of things to think about when taking pictures, and when you have a squirmy child and it's cold outside, you've just got to get it done. Hopefully soon I'll get to know this area a lot better and know of some better places to go.

Introduction

I believe I first started getting really interested in photography when I was around 12 or 13. It may have been a bit later than that, I can't remember exactly. I had a simple little camera, and although I badly wanted a DSLR to play with, I had a lot of fun learning about photography with my camera and my family's video camera, which took extreme close-up shots (very bad quality, though!). I got a book about it and learned a few photography basics, like the rule of thirds, and simple things that can make the difference between a really good picture and a terrible picture.

I had fun looking at things at a different angle and finding new ways to see regular things. This picture was photoshopped a lot.

The main things I learned from playing around and reading, though: one, you do not have to have an expensive camera to take good shots. Two, having an expensive camera does not, by any means, make you a good photographer. It has the ability to take good pictures, but that's about it.
Nothing bothers me more (okay, maybe some things do, but this is a huge pet peeve of mine) than people who think that if they have a nice camera, they must be able to take wonderful pictures. Or someone who thinks that if only they had a nice camera, they would be able to. This is simply not true. A lot can be done with a point-and-shoot! Yes, it has severe limitations, but with some creativity and a good eye, you can get some great shots.

 This was taken right after it rained in MN. The sun came out, and was setting, and I got this little gem. It is not photoshopped, but it is extremely low quality. Any print of it would be very grainy.

I loved taking pictures with my little camera. Growing up, I would go around our farmstead for hours, just playing with things and trying to get cool shots. I definitely got a few that I was proud of. I did feel quite limited by it, but I didn't let that stop me. Whatever I couldn't do on the camera, I would do my best to fix it on Photoshop. Of course, sometimes all the creativity and all the photoshopping in the world just didn't cut it, and I wouldn't be able to get it how I wanted. But the main thing was, I didn't let the limitations I had stop me from getting great pictures. I knew that I could learn so much with a basic camera, so I learned everything I could.

This was taken in downtown Nauvoo. I set it to nighttime landscape and turned the flash off, and had my camera on a tripod. It is slightly edited, for color. There was a bright blue sign that stuck out. It's a bit fuzzy. I don't think my camera could handle it being so dark, even with a tripod.

 
I wanted more than anything to be a photographer, growing up during my teenage years. It was like...my dream job. But in all honesty, I was too scared. I was scared that I would not be good enough for it. I wanted to go to college and get my degree in photography, but I didn't, because I thought a degree in an art would just be silly for me. You have to be some prodigy to be able to do that, right? That's how I felt, anyway. That I would never be good enough. I met someone right after I got married, and she was a photographer. She was in school for it still, and I was talking her and said something like "Oh, I'm so jealous. I would love to be a photographer." and she said "Well why don't you then??" ever since then I kept asking myself that. Why don't I? Why can't I do it too?

 There is nothing really that special about this picture, but I took it on my cruise to the Bahamas. I loved the colorful apartments.

I just kept going on the way I had before, doing my very best with what I had. I got some pretty good pictures of my daughter. I wanted to continue on and at take pictures of friends' kids, and maybe someday go farther. However, if I wanted to charge people for pictures, or even just ask them to come over for a quick photo shoot, I felt like I would indeed need a better camera. Point-and-shoot could also be called "hit-or-miss", I think. Sometimes you get awesome shots. Sometimes you spend an hour and get one shot that just happened to be in focus where you wanted it. Sometimes, you spend two hours and not one single shot comes out quite right. That is downright depressing. Other times, you get a few good ones, but they're still off a bit, so you spend hours on Photoshop seeing if you can get the right effect. I definitely didn't have the confidence, with those odds, to ask people if I could take pictures of them.

This is our 2010 family picture. I blurred out the background a bit. I think I may have exchanged a head from another shot as well, but I can't remember.

So to be honest, I did need a better camera to go farther. I couldn't get consistent, good shots with my camera. That's just the way it was. And really, I didn't have the money. Who knew if I could ever get people to pay me for pictures? I was scared that if I put money into it, I would never get any money out of it. Not only that, but I simply didn't have that money lying around anyway. I kind of gave up for a while. I even stopped taking many pictures, because I was just tired of fighting so hard to get good ones. I was tired of blurry pictures where I didn't want the flash on but it wasn't quite bright enough to get a clear shot without it. Yeah, sure, I could get cute shots of my daughter with the cats, or her making silly faces or poses, but nothing really good. Just everyday around-the-house shots.

I always loved this picture. The problem? The focus. If you look close, you can tell it's on her hat, rather than on her eyes. My auto-focus wanted her hat, because it was closest. Other than that...I think it's a great picture.

And then, I got a Christmas present from my brother. I don't know exactly why he chose to spend the money on it for me. I can only assume that he sees potential in what I've done and thinks I deserve it. I don't know what else it could be, but I am so excited to get into it. It might take a little while, because I have a lot to learn, but...I will do my best. :)