July

   
     The start of the month of July has had it's ups and downs. I ended June with a themed session, family session and a wedding, perfect right? Yes of course!! Until July hit and a few unexpected events happened that put me behind on a number of things. I am finally caught up for the most part, blogged the family session last Friday which felt amazing. I was also able to take, edit and upload pictures for various projects on the internet that I am a part of. 
    I am showing just a few of my favorites and will make their own blog posts when I am finished fully with the sessions. Enjoy! Of course, if you would like to schedule an appointment do so Here or email

Of course, it was the 4th of July and we had to try writing with sparklers.

I have never been "normal" so what makes me think I would like anything but out of focus (on purpose) firework pictures. They are so much prettier than the "normal" ones, don't you think?

A little help from my friends

    The past week or so I have been doubting my choice in choosing photography as my life goal. Not because of the pictures or my ability but because there are so many obstacles, hurdles and blows to the ego. Most artists are sensitive souls so why choose an art that people can criticize? The easy and most honest answer: To show the world the beauty we see. Simple enough, right? You would think so until you realize that to keep affording gear, updates and software you should probably try to sell some of it. When I say criticize, I don't mean to your face-picking apart the shot, I mean by getting someone to buy it. When you don't sell, it is a criticism, after all, if it were as amazing as you think it is someone would buy it no matter the cost right? It is the same concept with photographing people: selling sessions. I work hard at being seen on the web via Facebook, Google+, Twitter and my actual website. Facebook so far is the #1 resource for getting the word out to others. When I have a session I make sure to show "sneak peeks".This works very well for the clients friends to see my work, especially if the client tags themselves or comments or even shares the image. Facebook, in recent months, has caught on to this and has decided that small business page owners will not be automatically seen in the newsfeeds of individuals who have "liked" the page, instead the page owners are now being forced to pay money to boost views of the post. I appreciate the likes on the pictures I post, it helps my reach along with my confidence without having to pay out of pocket to get views. 
    This blog also has helped my web site move up in the Google search pages. Google feels that if you get enough interest (comments) on a blog page that is linked to your web site it is a relevant site and therefore you jump up in the search. Crazy but true. 
     I continue everyday to work hard on this en devour I love so much and trudge along to become relevant in the eyes of Google and Facebook, just need a little help from my followers and friends (Like, comment, become a fan, +1 it, RT it). Same with the rest of the small businesses out there trying to get ahead, so go give them a like or two and maybe a comment to boost their day. Doesn't cost you a thing and it will mean so much to the person you are giving it to. 

My baby girl says HI!

Love this face!

The gorgeous White family {Snohomish Family Photographer}

Last year I was given the opportunity to photograph this family whom I adore. Nicole is one of those moms that I admire so much for loving her children with all she has, the kind of love you see in her face when she looks at them. They love her right back as well, as you can see in one of the photos where I had them all placed and posed and right as I was about to hit the shutter she moved to grab mamas leg and hug it tight. They all did this in some form throughout the process and while it isn't the "perfect" award winning photo, it is the most cherished and real. That is what I aim for. www.StephanieStevensPhoto.com

Practice Practice Practice and then Practice some more.

     I belong to a group of AMAZING photographers that started a page for photographers to showcase their work. We have weekly themes to submit images to and we showcase our top ten favorites on our blog and the winner gets to be showcased on Facebook in our timeline cover picture. You can find us here Honestly, Photography. 
We will also submit our own pictures, of course just for encouragement never for judging. This week the theme for submission is Eclectic. This is a tough one to convey, which is why we picked it, to help us all break out of our comfort zones and get creative. I had been thinking and thinking of what to do...AND then it hit me late one night! The next day when my daughter arrived home from school I told her what I wanted her to wear and asked her to do her hair and off we went, even though it was supposed to rain. First picture is the one I submitted and the only one I was expecting to take until I saw a few more jump out at me. This is what happens when you get outside of your comfort zone and have fun. 

Learning as I go..

I have grown up with a camera in my hand, shooting anything and everything. Always with a point and shoot, afraid of anything more technical and unknown. The past few years I have decided to learn new things-maybe because as I grow older I rebel against the saying "can't teach an old dog new tricks" HA! I'll show them! If you didn't know already, I'm a bit stubborn-ok ok a lot stubborn.

Learning a DSLR wasn't as difficult as I thought, 3 years later and I'm still learning. It is a slow process because I am self taught taking it all in and learning the ins and outs. I, of course, have all the basics down and am now learning all the things my camera is capable of doing and pushing the boundaries.

The best lesson that I will share with you, exposure and why it is important. Controlling your settings, be it on a point and shoot, cell phone or DSLR, is very important to getting that perfect picture. You can use your shutter speed and/or your aperture to control the exposure. I use spot metering on my DSLR and it will tell me if my subject is over or under exposed. If my subject is under exposed I can do a few things to fix it: 1) Lower my aperture and/or shutterspeed 2) up my ISO 3) use my exposure button to correct.

The examples are by using my spot metering and adjusting aperture and shutter only. There are many different ways to achieve proper exposure, this is just a short quick view into one of the ways and how it can affect your look.




This example my camera told me I was under exposed. ISO 640 f 5.6 1/1600

Next example I over exposed. ISO 640 f 1.8 1/1600

This example I upped the shutter speed. ISO 640 f 1.8 1/2500

You'll notice I did not make small adjustments, I made quite large ones in the beginning to really show how to control exposure. My third shot isn't quite where it needed to be, adjusting my ISO to 500 most likely would have given me the perfect straight out of camera picture. I was happy with it and my teenager was about to give me the "that's enough look". 

Since I wasn't able to get the perfect shot I uploaded them into my editing program and did a quick adjustment. Here is one of the many final products: