Taylor {Snohomish Senior Photographer}

I am blogging all past sessions. Taylor was my first ever senior and getting ready to graduate from Snohomish High School so of course we had to use the city of Snohomish as a backdrop of her photo session. 2012 High School Senior session 
 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. 

Why I shoot RAW vs. JPEG

  No two photographers are ever the same, we all have preferences and ways of doing things that makes sense and that works for us. RAW vs. JPEG is one of the biggest discussions and can be very controversial. I prefer to shoot in RAW simply for the fact that I am not always quick enough with little subjects to remember to reset my ISO or shutter speed. Nine times out of ten I am but that ONE time I am not, I can usually save the image in post processing, like this one:

This is my little cutie pie and we were out playing in the middle of the day (worst time for pictures) facing this way had the sun shining on her and facing the other direction the sun was behind her so I was switching my settings as she was running circles around me! This setting was perfect for back lighting but not so much for direct sunlight. I was able to add the color and shadowing back in while in Lightroom. It is not completely perfect but for me, since I adore that look she's giving me, it will go in her baby book.

Thanks for reading. Leave me some blog love and tell me or show me your best save.

Stephanie Stevens Photography

Never miss the little things

Sometimes we get so busy and forget how we will miss all the little things. I was always a bit shy with my camera capturing my kids' moments. I realized one day, who cares what others think! When I look back at these moments I am not going to remember that someone was looking at me like I was weird, I am going to see a gorgeous picture of my little one and remember her when she was that age. I encourage you all to get out and get some moments!!

My girls always hated sitting pretty for me and we used to fight about it so much that I almost dreaded the moment it was time for that Christmas card or simply sending pictures to long distant relatives, then I was introduced to lifestyle photography and realized how much I loved that style. It is fun, less hectic and it truly shows emotions and a child's true self.

My best advice to get lifestyle, for all you mom-tographers at home, get on the ground with them at their eye level. I cannot stress that enough. Does not matter what kind of camera you are using, the best saying is "Your best camera is the one you are using". Don't worry, sometimes it takes a lot of practice, but you will get it and a lot of times my best pictures are ones I thought I had messed up.

Do not worry, she spit out what little she
actually got. 

 She is quite the little stinker. She is either telling me what to do, stealing my stuff or hogging the couch!

Adventures in Photography

Adventures in Photography

I have seen a few pictures online of "levitation" and have been in awe of them. As I was viewing a few Photoshop tutorials in an online group of photographers all helping each other out from all over the country, I realized that I needed to learn my program and jump in. What better way than to try a levitation photo right? I must be crazy because it's not for the "newbs" LOL Anyways, I can't tell you how exactly I edited it, YouTube can do that for you as it did for me, but here it is: The first 2 are the backgrounds and the third is one of the final products.

I will be trying new locations and different variations so stay tuned and be prepared for my creativity in the months to come. 

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:

Creativity thrives through a new lens

I took the plunge and ordered a micro lens. I had been contemplating the purchase for almost a year, especially since there are so many and such different levels of pricing. I always knew that I wanted an 85mm lens so when I saw the 85mm micro I went with it and have not regretted going with the less costly lens. The super fast focusing and gorgeous bokeh and coloring has made this my go to lens.