Snow Day

Snow day in Seattle! I hadn't heard the weather report so I was quite suprised to wake up to snow this morning. The vanpool was cancelled and I'm officially working from home. We decided to take a quick break and take Niall for a walk in the snow. My last snow pictures of Niall were less than great, so I was excited to get another chance.

We had so much fun playing in the snow today, he was not happy to go inside. This last picture will make a great project in Photoshop someday. He's trying to catch snowflakes on his tongue, but since there is no snow in the background and you can't see the snowflakes falling, it doesn't do a great job of telling the story. But somehow changing a photo that much seems a bit dishonest. I'll have to think about that for a while, but right nowI don't have time for that kind of thing anyway.

One tip for shooting in the snow, don't use AV mode! Unless of course you're using spot metering and locking the exposure. The snow is so bright that if you're using evaluative metering everything but the snow will look too dark.

Gerald Pope Photography: Pure Inspiration!

My friends Kelly and Pat are getting married in April, and they recently got photos back from their engagement shoot with Gerald Pope Photography. I've been meaning to post a link because they are just gorgeous! Check out their blog with some photos from the shoot here.

Gerald and Airika's work is totally inspirational to me, and looking at their stuff makes me realize how far I have to go and how much I still have to learn. What strikes me most about their work is the consistently stunning color they achieve. Seriously, it's incredible! Check out their most recent post, an engagement photo shoot they did at the downtown library. I love it!

Niall's New Suit

It's been a super busy week and I haven't taken many pictures, but Grandma Mel sent Niall a new suit so we had to get some pictures of him wearing it. Luckily the light was good this morning, so even though he wasn't in a cooperative mood we made it work. He was so excited when he saw himself in the mirror in his new suit!

I did some experimenting with sharpening on these. The effects seem pretty subtle to me, at least when viewed on the monitor. This technique is from The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby.

Open the .jpg file in Photoshop
On the menu go to Filter, Sharpen, Unsharp Mask
For people, use the following settings:

• Amount: 150%
• Radius: 1
• Threshold: 10

Then to sharpen more on the menu go to Image, Mode, and select Lab Color
Go to the Channels palette and click the Lightness channel
Apply the Unsharp Mask settings again.

Sunny Sunday

What a week! Niall and I are finally recovering from the stomach flu, and the light has been beautiful today. Now that I've taken some photos for Niall's baby book I can get on with my relaxing Sunday. Mountains of laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, cleaning out the garage. You know, typical relaxing Sunday.

Funny Face Time

I think we're all a bit slap-happy from being sick for so long. I can't believe Niall is on his third consecutive virus! But the good news is that he's started to eat again, and there was enough light to get a few shots while the mood was good. I think Niall is trying to master the art of the dirty look. Guess who is almost two!

Jude was all dressed up for his citizenship interview with Homeland Security today, so we needed a shot of that too. This was too good to miss! I bet you want to know where you can find a tie like that! Sorry, I could tell you but. . . well, you know.

Seattle: Darkest Place on Earth?

Ok, I'll apologize for the dramatic title but it is dark here! I have friends that moved here from Alaska, where it technically is much darker than Seattle, and they've complained about how the darkness really bothered them. How could Seattle be darker than Alaska in the winter? Simple, we have no snow to reflect the light so it seems darker.

I've lived in Seattle nearly all my life, and the darkness of our winters has rarely bothered me. I think the problem this year is that I'm trying to take photos using natural light, and there is almost none. How do natural light photographers like Jennifer Loomis work here in Seattle in January? I know she works here in January, because she shot my maternity photos in January two years ago and they were amazing. Jennifer is shooting all film with tons of beautiful grain, so maybe that's how she gets away with it.

Digital is another story. Granted shooting with a full frame camera like the Canon 5D would undoubtedly make a difference. With the 5D you can shoot at 1600 ISO and still get beautiful low light images without much noise. With the Rebel XT that I've got, or even the 40D, I wouldn't dare go above 800 ISO. When is that 5D upgrade coming out?