Assignment 3 - Portraits

I'm so behind posting these! Our third assignment was to attempt some portraits, and I focused on my favorite subjects. Again, these are all straight out of the camera. My favorite is the one of Claire running to Robert. I know that technically there are a lot of things that could be better, but I think it is such a great visual of their relationship.

Assignment 2 - Motion

Our second assignment for photography class was to play with the interaction between aperture and shutter speed while trying to maintain proper exposure. Our instructor wanted us to have some shots that captured a sense of motion. I struggled a little with this assignment but came up with a few shots I was happy with.

The first two involve my favorite subject. I liked that there was a little blur as she grabbed the crayon, while the second had her haphazard attempt at putting away the crayons, and they're surrounded by our doodles.

To get more variety, I went to the Japanese Gardens. I really wanted to get a photo of running water with a slow shutter speed and was happy with this one:

Slow motion. :)

Photography Class - First Assignment

When Claire was born, Robert gave me a gift certificate to use for a DSLR, and shortly thereafter I bought a Canon xTi. Automatically I felt like I was getting better pictures, but I knew I was no where close to utilizing the capabilities of the camera. I wanted to learn how to shoot in manual mode and have a better understanding of the technical side of photography, but it's hard to find time as a full-time working mother of a toddler.

I started searching for a good class to take several months ago and finally signed up for a class at the Southwest School of Arts and Craft with one of my friends from Junior League. Our first assignment was to take some abstract photos (lines, textures, design, balance, etc.) while shooting in manual and focusing on the proper white balance. We brought in 4 to 10 photos each for critique, and it was interesting to see everyone's choices. Here are a few of my favorites of the ones I brought in. The first one is the only one I edited (I thought it was more interesting in B&W), while the rest are straight out of the camera.