Christmas Lights 2010

I know I'm way behind on blogging...I'm still blogging about the Christmas lights from a month ago..oh well!  I just love these. :-)

Happy Wednesday!

Thumbs Up Thursday

I know it's Friday now...I meant to do this on Thursday...oh well.  These cookies were sooo yummy, I think they were the best cookies that I've ever made.  The recipe is here. ;-)

Q&A: Shooting Under Bright Sunlight

Okay, I am nervous about doing a Q&A post.  I have to say that I'm not close to a master in photography or anything like that. There is so much to learn in the photography world and I'm still learning, just like everyone else.  But when my friend Jean asked me about shooting under bright sunlight, my thought came to me like, hey, I have been there, I struggled with this before....if sharing my experiences and what I know might help at least one person, why not?  So here we go.

3 tips I often use when I shoot under bright sunlight:  (example photos from Autumn & Travis' wedding and Emily & Max's engagement session)

 

-look for open shades/natural reflector:  a building or a wall can be a great natural reflector.   With open shades there will not be harsh light on your subject's face.  Be aware of the shadows when you use trees as shades.

 

-put the sun behind the subject's back:  knowing the direction of the sunlight is sooo important. It's hard to look at the sun when its so bright and you dont want to hurt your eyes, seriously.  What I do in a situation like this is look for shadows...then I know the direction of the sunlight.  By putting the sun behind the subject's back, we avoid the shadows on subject's face and possibly create nice backlight or sun flare.

 

-use fill flash:  when (under no choices circustence) I have to shoot around noon with no shades and no way to put the sun befind the subject's back, I use fill-flash (ETTL-2 or -3) to lite up the subject's face. 

 

When I shoot, I always try to avoid harsh sunlight by shooting at the right time.  I normally schedule my portrait sessions a couple of hours before sunset.  That gives me nice, soft, warm and creamy light to work with.  I have tried shooting around sunrise and found that the sunrise light is way cooler, not my favorite.   I always suggest/encourage/explain why my client schdule the best time of the day for their shoot and most of time they go for it.  If they don't/can't, I use the 3 tips above and pray. :-)

This was me almost 2 years ago practicing with fill flash and sunlight direction...I was doing this around noon 6 days in a roll...with myself.  Please ignore my big chin and no makeup-ness...I didn't think I'd use/show any of these photos to anyone or on my blog at that time. 

Our Christmas Session - Behind the Scene

Some "behind the scene" from our Christmas session:

not ready yet...

my eyes were closed...

my clothes pin showed up...

my hubby waiting for me to set up the camera...

I was very excited!!!

clothes pin...again.

sometimes we dont know if the remote is working, so we just keep pressing the button...

this image was way off center...much better after cropping.

like i said, we just keep pressing the button...

guess who got the remote when i was setting the camera...

Happy Monday!!!

Our Christmas Session

I decided to blog about our Christmas session for the first post of 2011....here we go. 

So, my husband and I always do our Christmas photos by ourselves.  We've taken photos of ourselves many times and I actually enjoy it and get really excited.  I usually let him choose the theme of the background and I'll decide what we're gonna wear.  This year he told me he wanted natural  theme.  While I was searching for a nice natural them location, Irvine Regional Park came to my mind.  But at the last minute we decided to go to Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley, which is also a very beautiful park.  I'm glad that we got to do our Christmas photos there.

Here are some highlights of the day: