I often get questions like this...

Why do my pictures look like the background is so dark? How can I take a better picture of my child indoors?

You know, like this...


The trick is a technique called dragging your shutter. Basically, you set your camera settings to properly expose the background and let your flash take care of your subject...



If I did not use my flash, that image would have shown a dark subject, hidden in the shadow as the lamp is behind him. But that little bit of pop from my flash lit him up perfectly to to create a more natural looking image.

I bounced my flash behind me where the ceiling meets the wall to create a huge softbox type of light in the room. Kind of like turning my wall/ceiling into a big light. This will light up your room and give you all the light you need. The very top image in this post, I had the flash aimed directly at my subject and so the area behind him did not get illuminated properly. This DIY softbox effect lights up the entire room and does the job nicely.

For a little more depth to your image, you can bounce it off the wall to your side as well as sligthly behind you and create a softbox off to your side that illuminates the room well and gives a little dimension to your subject by creating very faint/soft shadows...



Much nicer, don't you think? :)

is a beautiful place to live.

A view from my backyard...

50 mm 1.8, I love your bokeh...

Steph & I rocking R&R's wedding coverage

There is so much I have on my mind to say on this topic, that I really can't put into one simple post. So I'll spare you a large novel and just give a little shout out on the subject of why Professional Photographers charge what they do. Hopefully, this will enlighten some on why they need to charge appropriately and maybe also shine some light for others who have just always wondered.

CLICK HERE ---> Why Are Professional Photographers So Expensive?

And since a post is no fun without pictures, here's a snap of my little man running to his favorite person in the world - me. :)
(At least that is what I'll tell myself!)

Last weekend, I took Jey to his little friend's bday party where the theme was Tie Dye! He was very leary of the whole thing because he hates to get dirty on purpose and all those colored dyes would have freaked him out for sure! He seemed okay with dictating to me where to tie and what colors to use although he was still convinced it was all just lame.

The next morning I rinsed the shirts and washed them and he was quite amazed at the end product! We also made one for Joshua and little man thought it was pretty neat as well. Even without cars or anything sports related! lol

They decided to wear their shirts and I wanted to take a snapshot to let the party hostess know we were thrilled with the shirts. The boys ended up dancing around and jumping everywhere and having a blast that I got a little carried away on the snapshots.

Enjoy!























After all the jumping and dancing they were pooped and enjoyed some cookies...


"Mfcookies mfrf are mfpf yummmmmmmy..."




xoxo

{Mommy Moments}

There is something special between these two. Rachel looks at Rick with admiration and peace... Peace in knowing she is safe in his arms, secure in his love for her.

And then there is Rick. He can hardly take his eyes off of her. Not only for her stunning beauty that surpasses those around her, but for her beauty within and how she makes him feel complete and whole.

Their love is deep and true. They light up each others' world and their love lights up the world around them.

Rick & Rachel, you two are an amazing couple and I am blessed to capture this magical time in your life! Thank you for sharing your awesomeness with others!

These engagement images were taken in the spring and they were fabulous, my camera loved them! I recently captured their wedding and will soon be posting those images so keep an eye out for some GORGEOUS wedding pics!

We ran all over downtown, a variety of locations! Enjoy!








STUNNING Rachel...

I seriously have the most gorgeous brides.

And the grooms? Hello Handsome...

Its really sad how much I miss my lens when it's away for repair. Since I wasn't sure if it would be back in time for my next wedding I rented one. It arrived today and I'll admit I was a tad giddy to have this replacement! I didn't have much time to play but I thought I'd take a few more images as better examples for the distortion topic last week.

Obviously these are a bit dramatic in their differences but I'm hoping that it further demonstrates what I was trying to explain...

Here is my cute little stinker as he is in real life...

(75mm)

And here is quite distorted at 28mm...


And here is an example of how a shorter focal length distorts the depth of an image...

Look how huge his feet look! That was 28mm again.

Here he is looking a little more proportionate 75mm...


Things that are farther away are much smaller... Can you tell what is behind his head?


A whole TV cabinet! He's obviously not bigger than the TV cabinet. He didn't move position at all, I moved back to use a longer focal length...


He had a lot of fun posing silly for me...




Although I typically avoid shooting portraits wide angle, it is sometimes fun to play around for some different types of shots. It can be very storytelling or photojournalistic...


Have a great weekend!