52 Week Personal Photo Project

52 Week Photo Challenge: Week 9-12

July 10, 2017July 10, 2017 hlopez86

Week 9: Still Life
Taking pictures of still life seems easy but it takes a bit more to make them interesting. Me, not a still life photographer. I shoot people but I gave it a go. I love reflections so I went with that!

Week 10: Perspective
Didn’t really get a good one of this, I kind of showed this one in another weeks so I went ahead and just took a picture for fun. It is a little bit different perspective.

Week 11: Split Tone

On the side panel in Lightroom there is a Split Tone Panel. This Panel controls highlights and shadows, learn more here. I used this panel to give this image a vintage feel.

This is what the Split Tone Panel looks like.

blog pic

Here is another I did for fun! Gave it a little bit of a tinted black and white instead of true black and white.

Week 12: Orange

This week was orange, take a picture of something orange, an actual orange, however orange is interpreted. I took this picture of my little one playing on her small slide. Of course you can’t see any orange but there is orange on the slide. This one was my favorite for the day though!

(I used this cutie a lot since she still cooperates for me!!)

52 Week Photo Challenge: Weeks 6-8

June 8, 2017 hlopez86

Week 6

Ok so I didn’t do this one. I have no excuse, honestly I didn’t really like the topic and had a hard time finding something to fit. Plus life got hectic so I just decided to skip it.

I did however take a picture for Memorial Day so I will share that one instead! I LOVE this picture. I had another idea of what I wanted to do, it was along the same lines but my kids were being kids so we took this one in the front yard while Daddy stayed close to make sure the flag didn’t touch the ground. I am really happy with how it turned out. This one will probably go on our wall!!

Week 7: Forgotten

The idea of this week was to take a picture to tell a story of something forgotten or abandoned. I’m sorry that I didn’t get too creative with this one. I did not leave my house this week and instead of showing the massive amount of forgotten dishes in my sink, I chose this toy.

I have three little ones and they are great at destroying my house in a matter of minutes. So no matter how much I clean, my house always looks, lets say, lived in! Every day before nap and night before bed all the toys have to be cleaned up. Every time the kids get everything picked up but one toy. It’s not the same toy each time but there is always one that gets left out, usually making it all the way to the door of the playroom but never in. I chose Jake, from Jake and the Neverland Pirates of course, as my forgotten. Everything else was placed in it’s home for the night but on this particular night, not Jake. This poor guy was left right outside the door, so close yet so far… The good thing for Mr. Jake though is that in the morning, he will be the first toy played with 🙂

Week 8: One Shot

This weeks challenge was to take one shot and only one shot. The idea is to really think about what you are going to take a picture of. Focus has to be nailed, composition has to be planned and timing (at least in my case) needs to be perfect. With little ones, I usually have to take multiple shots in a short amount of time if I want one of them looking at the camera or actually smiling. They move fast! So to challenge myself I took a picture of miss Rylan inside at home, since she never stop when we are home. I use back button focus so I needed to make sure not only that my focus point was correct but that my actual focus was as well. I wasn’t too worried about her actually looking at me since I prefer lifestyle but I did have to make sure my shutter speed was fast enough to catch her if she was moving.

Not the best picture I have ever taken but I think I accomplished my task. She is in focus, no blur from motion, I framed the image well using the rule of thirds and even managed to get her looking AND smiling at me. My one shot is a keeper! 🙂

52 Week Personal Photo Project, Uncategorized

52 Week Photo Challenge: Week 5

May 22, 2017 hlopez86

Week 5 of my personal 52 week photo challenge is Ten Shots. This weeks challenge was to take 10 shots of the same subject or in my case I chose an activity my kids were doing. The idea for this is to take shots from different angles, distances and focal lengths.

Shooting from different perspectives can really change the feel and story of a picture. I love to change things up and try to shoot from different angles and distances regularly. Laying on the ground or standing on a stool to take a picture can make a huge difference in an image. Of course everyone wants that one good picture of the whole family looking at the camera and smiling to display on their wall but I enjoy detail shots. Getting up close and personal to my subjects and capturing the details. This challenge was a lot of fun and left lots of room for creativity.

Here are a couple links that have examples of different perspectives to try and the importance of perspective, check them out!
https://digital-photography-school.com/perspective-photography-dont-just-stand-move-feet/
https://digital-photography-school.com/power-perspective-photography/

Here is a good example of changing the perspective. This first image is a typical image of kids painting. Oh and you’ve got to love that face big sister is giving!! Again pretty standard picture I as a mom would take of my kiddos painting. I was standing normally and a few feet away from them.

Now for this one I got down on my knees and really focused on the painting, not the kids. I love how you can see his messy paint covered hand and the paint on the table. To me it gives a completely different feel than the one above. I know from this one just how painting with a 2 year old is, not just that he is doing it.

I let my kids paint and enjoy as I stood on a chair, knelt down, took a few steps back and a few steps closer to them and just tried different things. I really love some of the images and can’t wait to print them and put them up in our toy room! Here are my 10 shots for week 5.

10 shots collage

52 Week Personal Photo Project

52 Week Photo Challenge: weeks 3 & 4

May 17, 2017 hlopez86

Ok so I forgot to post my weeks 2 and 3 so I will post them together. This past month has been CRAZY busy. Now time to catch up!

Week 3: Land (artistic)

This week was about taking time to find creativity in whatever the category is. This week was Land. The idea is to interpret the word however you want, take an image from whichever angle, of whatever, however. A time to let my artistic juices flow.

I had a lot of ideas for this one but when it came down to it, I just took a picture of where I was and what, at that moment, land meant to me. It’s not a great picture, or really a very artistic one in my eyes, but it fit the category for me. The picture is what we do with the little bit of land we have set aside. This piece of land is for growing vegetables. This picture shows just how good I am at growing, I left the seeds in the pack and they grew from there haha. Honestly, this little bit of earth is where I turn those tiny little seeds into something that can be eaten. It makes me feel great being able to grow my own food. I love that I can show my kids how to do it as well. I love my little bit of land, to me it is so much more!

Week 4: Mirror

This weeks goal was to tell a story involving a mirror.

This was easy for me to do since my girls are OBSESSED with the mirror. This is typically how I find them after I dress them in the mornings. Sometimes when they are missing I will find them in front of the mirror just looking at themselves. My littlest one likes to give herself a kiss every time she goes by. Man do I love these girls!

52 Week Personal Photo Project, Uncategorized

Photo Project Week 2: SOOC

April 23, 2017April 23, 2017 hlopez86

This weeks challenge was to post a picture SOOC (straight out of camera) meaning just uploading it straight from the SD card with absolutely no edits. This is a great challenge actually. Far too often photographers rely on editing software to “fix” their images. Obviously I edit my pictures, all photographers do anymore just to get each image to its full potential. A good picture can become great with just a few simple edits. I am not one who completely transforms images in Photoshop though, I do use it for some more involved editing, but I prefer images to look and feel real. I like true emotion and color. I do have a few editing styles that I like and tend to use them when they work but overall I like real.

The challenge this week was a good one for me since I have been working very hard on getting my images as good as possible in camera so that my editing time is cut down a lot. Having pictures done correctly with the camera saves LOTS of time and gives better results in the end. There is so much that goes into taking pictures with a camera, way more than just pointing and shooting. Here is a good post about the power of SOOC and some tips to achieving it. Every day I am learning and experimenting on what works for me to create the perfect, or as close to it as possible, image straight out of camera!

Here are two images I took while playing around with my kiddos. I did all the adjustments in camera and just uploaded the images off my SD card.

I’m pretty proud of these images. Overall they look pretty good. Color is good, crop is good, and exposure is ok, a bit bright but pretty good. I find the biggest challenge for me to get perfect in camera is white balance. This is the overall color of the image. When shooting outdoors you can notice images looking a little blue, or when shooting indoors images tend to be yellow or orange. This is the white balance. The goal is to get white to look white. I have been breaking away from auto white balance and giving manual a try. So far so good!

Really these SOOC images are good. I made it easy for myself by placing them in front of a white door in natural lighting from the windows. When outside, white balance can be a challenge when moving to different locations, or turning towards different lighting sources. Overall I am happy with my challenge this week.

I did edit the images just to show the small adjustments I would make. Still nothing major and I could just leave the images as it since I feel they look good, but for the sake of continuing to improve I went ahead and did the edits.

Again not too different, just lowered the exposure and adjusted the temperature just slightly. I also cropped some just for fun.

52 Week Personal Photo Project

52 Week Photo Project: Week 1

April 14, 2017 hlopez86

Week 1: Rule of Thirds

Week 1 in my 52 week personal photo project is focusing on the Rule of Thirds. This is something every photographer learns right away. It is the one rule most, if not all, pictures are based on. For me I use the rule of thirds without even thinking about it anymore so my pictures this week are pretty normal for me. I did however pay better attention in order to show the rule a little better. This rule is again a guideline for pictures but not the only way, this rule is one that can be broken and still have great composition or “balance” in a picture. If you want to learn more about the Rule of Thirds HERE is a helpful link.

This picture is of my youngest. I just love capturing pictures of them doing every day things, like playing with rocks.

I followed the rule of thirds here by keeping her in 2/3 of the picture and aiming to have the center of her face (usually on eye, I’m a little off) on an intersection point of the grid. Have you every noticed the grid that is either in your camera viewfinder or when you go to edit your pictures? This is to help with this rule. Below you can see how I used the rule in this picture.

Untitled

The grid is very helpful especially when cropping your pictures. If you want to learn about photography I highly recommend reading about this rule. Again the rule can be broken but it is a great way to obtain good composition in you pictures!

This week while using and focusing on the Rule of Thirds I also aimed to tell a story, a story about who my children are and how we spend out time. Here are some more pictures I captured this week. Apparently I also aimed to get all my kids in the exact same spot in my pictures, clearly I have a go-to.

Hope you enjoy following along on this project with me, I’m excited to keep growing as a photographer and help others learn with me!

52 Week Personal Photo Project

April 8, 2017 hlopez86

Last year I followed different blogs and tried to do a 365 day photo project for myself. The goal was to take a picture daily, edit it and post it. This project was to help me learn more about my camera, editing, and general picture taking to continue to improve. I had a lot of fun doing it, got a ton of good pictures of my kids, but I stated to stress when I missed days or didn’t have the time. With three small children, taking and editing pictures every single day for myself was hard. I have found that it is so much easier to do things for other people than to do things for myself.

So this year, instead of 365 days, I will be doing a 52 week personal photo project. Ideally I would have like to start at the beginning of the year but better late than never! I will be focusing each week on a different photography skill or editing method. I will be taking time to improve the skills I have as well as learn new ones that will help me improve for myself and my wonderful clients. Most of the pictures will be of my adorable babies, I mean they are just the perfect models, but I will try to branch out as well. I aim to do a couple pictures per weekly challenge and post them to my Instagram and here on my blog. I’m so excited to partake in this project and to share in this with everyone. I will try to post information and links to the topics I am working on that week for those interested in partaking and learning. Follow my blog and my Instagram to keep up with this great project.

This month I made a huge camera upgrade (YAY!!) so took time to do all the necessary setting up and calibrating. For my photos this week I just decided to take pictures of anything, getting a feel for the new camera and getting back into editing for the spring season. Below are just a couple pictures of my beautiful girls. Meet Avery and Rylan!! My son was uncooperative so wasn’t able to get any pictures of him this time.