Photography DESIgns

Cheryl and Matt Maternity Shoot

2011-07-09T18:31:00.000-07:00

Meet Cheryl and Matt! These two are such fun loving, sweet people, it was an absolute blast taking pictures with them!

And these ones are done by my lovely sister in law! She is awesome!

February 26, 2011

2011-03-17T18:24:00.000-07:00

Cassidy and Drew Maternity Shoot

2011-02-28T20:42:00.000-08:00

This is true love! :)

Peek-a-boo!

Where did mine go?

You show me yours, I'll show you mine! ;)

February 25, 2011

2011-02-25T19:24:00.001-08:00

Huge hail today in Folsom that was more like snow balls than ice! Wow!

February 23, 2011

2011-02-25T19:23:00.000-08:00

Economics...bleh!

February 22, 2011

2011-02-25T19:22:00.001-08:00

My beautiful sister on a beautiful day!

February 22, 2011

2011-02-25T19:20:00.002-08:00

Just out photo walking and this caught my eye

February 21, 2011

2011-02-25T19:20:00.001-08:00

Spot of color

February 20, 2011

2011-02-25T19:15:00.000-08:00

My favorite part about spring! The blossoms!

Flowers from Folsom

2011-02-20T16:32:00.000-08:00

February 19, 2011

2011-02-20T16:29:00.000-08:00

On the way home, I saw another patch of flowers, so I stopped and had to start clicking!

February 18, 2011

2011-02-20T16:27:00.000-08:00

Another DPS challenge. The weather! I decided to take a picture of the raindrops on my windshield. :)

February 17, 2011

2011-02-20T16:25:00.000-08:00

The biggest time and temperature difference I have ever seen in such a short distance.

February 16, 2011

2011-02-16T20:32:00.000-08:00

This is from that gorgeous hill!

February 15, 2011

2011-02-16T20:30:00.000-08:00

I almost made Jr crash the other day when we passed this gorgeous hill full and flowers and I gasped super loud!

February 14, 2011

2011-02-14T22:02:00.001-08:00

Yum, yum, yum!!!!

February 13, 2011

2011-02-14T22:01:00.000-08:00

From Black Angus

February 12, 2011

2011-02-14T21:59:00.000-08:00

My shoe...

February 11, 2011

2011-02-14T21:58:00.000-08:00

Jr's button! Lol...

February 10, 2011

2011-02-14T21:57:00.000-08:00

February 9, 2011

2011-02-14T21:53:00.000-08:00

A belt buckle around a picture at Black Angus. We went to go eat there, and had to wait for 50 minutes so I took pictures of everything around us. Lol

February 8, 2011

2011-02-12T14:13:00.001-08:00

Oscar caught a mouse!

February 7, 2011

2011-02-12T14:12:00.000-08:00

I got your back! ;)

February 6, 2011

2011-02-12T14:10:00.002-08:00

Least favorite chore, besides mopping maybe...

February 5, 2011

2011-02-12T14:10:00.001-08:00

Peace

February 4, 2011

2011-02-12T14:08:00.002-08:00

Where are you headed?

February 3, 2011

2011-02-12T14:08:00.001-08:00

Oh Oscar!

February 2, 2011

2011-02-12T14:00:00.000-08:00

This picture rocks! Lol

February 1, 2011

2011-02-12T13:58:00.000-08:00

Lady bug, lady bug, fly away home. Your house is on fire and your children are alone!

January 31, 2011

2011-01-31T13:49:00.000-08:00

I found another sign! I like finding signs on the road like these. I've never seen this one before though!

January 30, 2011

2011-01-31T13:47:00.000-08:00

Another DPS challenge: windows. As I was thinking about what to take a picture of with windows, our poor cat Oscar solved the problem. Since we just moved, we don't want him to get lost, so he's been inside for the last week. Not only that, but it was rainy. He's starting to get cabin fever!

January 29, 2011

2011-01-31T13:46:00.000-08:00

I went to go make french toast this morning for breakfast and noticed two of the eggs in the carton were cracked. When I went to pull them out I realized they were not only cracked, but frozen! Needless to say, we turned the refrigerator temperature down and I had a lot of fun trying to crack the suckers!

January 28, 2011

2011-01-28T19:51:00.001-08:00

We just moved and our new place has a lemon tree in the backyard! This poor ladybug though probably had the worst day of his life when he encountered me. I kept moving him so I could get a better picture. :)

January 27, 2011

2011-01-28T19:49:00.000-08:00

One of my kids built this at school. I LOVE two year olds because they develop so much in such a short time. I love to watch their block building develop from only building towers to building this: a house! I was so proud!

January 26, 2011

2011-01-26T20:39:00.000-08:00

This has been our life for the last few days...bleh! Getting coughed on by two year olds all day finally caught up!

January 25, 2011

2011-01-26T20:38:00.001-08:00

I don't know why but this caught my eye!

January 24, 2011

2011-01-26T20:33:00.000-08:00

Folsom

January 23, 2011

2011-01-26T20:32:00.001-08:00

Following the leader, the leader, the leader, we're following the leader where ever he may go!

January 22, 2011

2011-01-26T20:30:00.000-08:00

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles...MY bubbles! Our favorite drink, orange Fanta!

January 21, 2011

2011-01-21T18:56:00.001-08:00

I still love pushing all of the buttons on the lid of soda!

January 20, 2011

2011-01-21T18:55:00.001-08:00

Ain't nothing like lacing up your chucks to get ready for the day!

January 19, 2011

2011-01-19T21:24:00.001-08:00

My mom made us these "guardian angels" for Christmas last year. It hangs in my room and I pass it every morning when I walk out of my room.

January 18, 2011

2011-01-19T21:18:00.001-08:00

First day of school! Oh boy...here goes another semester.

January 17, 2011

2011-01-19T21:16:00.000-08:00

This was left outside of our apartments by the kid next door all in shambles. The life of a child!

January 16, 2011

2011-01-16T18:52:00.001-08:00

This weeks challenge on the Digital Photography Schools website was to take a photo of something "Brand New" for the new year. There were a couple of photos already on the website for the challenge, but I wanted to do something different. So I thought and thought and thought and then I came up with this... a brand new perspective for the brand new year!

January 15, 2011

2011-01-15T22:37:00.000-08:00

I used to hate this game. Tried playing it once and was bored out of my mind (it's one of those financial games my dad likes). I decided to give it another try and I became addicted! Jr and I played about 6 times (and I beat him 5 out of those 6 ;) )

January 14, 2011

2011-01-15T11:27:00.000-08:00

Footprint artwork we did at preschool today. After we were done, I got all sappy and realized how much I love this artwork, because each child that goes through my class leaves little prints in my life. :

January 13, 2011

2011-01-13T18:28:00.000-08:00

One of the two lamps in our front room. It's too bad that there are only lights in the bathroom and kitchens in apartments!

January 12, 2011

2011-01-12T18:16:00.000-08:00

Thought I might mess around with trying to capture a sunset.

January 11, 2011

2011-01-11T21:09:00.000-08:00

This is the image I see while sitting at the table eating. It's always different, but always pretty. I wish I had taken a picture when the tree in front of the house had leaves. They were bright red and gorgeous!

January 10, 2011

2011-01-10T21:40:00.000-08:00

January 9, 2011

2011-01-09T16:16:00.001-08:00

I cheated and did two today because they went so well together! Inanimate faces!

January 8, 2011

2011-01-08T18:50:00.001-08:00

A lot of handicap parking!

January 7, 2011

2011-01-08T18:47:00.000-08:00

I don't know why, but I always love looking at these when I go for walks in Folsom. It's like a treasure hunt finding them!

January 6, 2011

2011-01-06T19:47:00.003-08:00

Wanted to find a picture for today, so I went for a walk during my lunch break and found this on the side of Walgreens.

January 5, 2011

2011-01-06T19:47:00.001-08:00

We made orange chicken from the Panda express bottle. The first time I tried this I didn't know how to make it, so I looked it up on line. I didn't have some of the ingredients, but it turned out good anyways. This time I had the rest of the ingredients and it was actually better without those ingredients.

January 4, 2011

2011-01-04T20:18:00.000-08:00

Part of our lamp...

January 3. 2011

2011-01-04T20:16:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure our cat poses for pictures on a daily basis. The day before he had his paw tucked perfectly under his jaw.

January 2, 2011

2011-01-04T20:12:00.000-08:00

We went to the park today, and he was so intent on the ball that Jr was holding. So precious!

January 1, 2011

2011-01-04T20:08:00.000-08:00

Do you remember back when you could trade in these wrappers and get free candy?

The Park

2010-12-30T15:45:00.000-08:00

Holiday Treats

2010-12-30T11:49:00.000-08:00

I've been receiving weekly newsletters from a photography website that includes assignments. I decided I would try to put some time into accomplishing these assignments, just for the sake of practice. This weeks assignment was to photograph holiday food. Seeing as the holidays are over, I'm a little late, but we had holiday treats, so I got working!

Tree farms

2010-12-05T20:25:00.000-08:00

I love how the creek becomes a diagonal leading line right to the top.

Placerville Christmas Parade!

2010-12-05T18:25:00.000-08:00

Jr and I met Dustin and Megan on Main Street in Placerville to go Christmas tree hunting. When we came back, there was a parade going on. This blocked off our way to get the car, and no matter how much we tried we couldn't find a back route to get it. So we decided to just enjoy the parade. It was great practice!

Out of all the vehicle pictures that I took, this was my favorite. It stood out, and of course the cool license plate helps!
As much as I can do with my little point and shoot camera, the one thing I still cannot do well is photos with any sudden movement. I have such a slow shutter speed that the pictures always come out with blurred appendages. This one turned out well considering. The one thing I wished was different was the position of the girl. She cuts the picture in half. Great expressions though.
I like how their legs created lines into a v shape leading your eyes upwards. Their arms going up help complete that feeling of moving up.
I held my focus on those girls for a couple of seconds waiting for a good shot. One girl said something to the other, and then SNAP! Got the shot! I loved the colors and the flag just made the picture even better.
This is the epitome of why I need a camera with a faster shutter. This could have been a much better photo with such good action, had my darn shutter gone faster.
Taken right before he charged at me! Ack!
I loved this expression!
Who doesn't enjoy a train ride?
Loved the girls face in this one, but as I looked at it more, I wish I had been more aware of her background. The dog is a little distracting. However, I think with better lenses, I could have prevented that with the focus and zoom.
Such a sweet face! The seeing eye dogs.
This one came out so washed out. I think part of it was the fact that I really had to zoom with that one, and my camera doesn't do so well when zoomed at such a distance.
Not only are the subject fun to look at, but I liked how balanced this picture was.
This was one that had so many good focus points that it was hard to make sure that they were all seen and not lost. The rule of thirds was really helpful for this.
Adorable!
Christmas spirit! As soon as she saw me point the camera she was all smiles and waves!
This was another one where the rule of thirds came in handy. This could have been a very distracting picture, but instead the focus was brought straight to her sweet smile.
Four maids o' miking. :)
This one is probably my favorite of them all. Talk about an eflish expression.
All in all this was such a great experience. I really had a lot of freedom to move around and get different angles and generally just play around. It's always helpful to go through and practice and see what went right, and what could have been done better. I must say, this only deepened my desire to buy a real camera!

Lines

2010-11-28T20:10:00.001-08:00

In order to improve my photography, I've subscribed to the Digital Photography School, which sends me articles every week and challenges. I would highly suggest this website for beginning photographers such as myself, because you can learn a lot of basics and challenge yourself. As I was going through the website I ran across a compilation of articles about composition. This particular article was about lines in photography. It suggested to look through your photography and look for lines that worked and lines that didn't. So I'm going to do just that! :)

I picked this photo as an example of horizontal lines (with a touch of vertical lines). As I looked at it , I liked the fact that the horizontal line gets interrupted but then continues through the fallen tree branch. As for vertical lines, in the original, the tree was right in the middle, but as I cropped it to make it off center it looked even better.
I noticed I don't take very many pictures with horizontal lines. This one has some good vertical lines with the trees, and an interesting diagonal line going through the middle, and one horizontal line in the bottom third. Generally I don't like very many pictures I take like this, but because of the way the lines are, it gives you more to look at. As far as the rest of the picture though, there's a lot more that could have been changed, such as lighting and other things.

I thought this one was a decent example of vertical lines in a photo. One aspect of vertical photos is giving the feel of growth, which I thought fitting because bamboo always seems so tall to me, so shooting this vertically helped convey that. One thought I had about this photo, however is how might this picture have changed is the bamboo was flush with the edge of the photo. Would it enhance the photo, or detract? Another thought I had was how might it look had I shot it horizontally with the vertical lines?
I chose this one as an example of diagonal lines. However, one thing I noticed as I looked at this picture was the way that the lines lead me. I end up looking at the picture and go from the flowers in the bottom left corner, to the stems at the top left. That's not the focus that I was working towards. I wonder how it might look if I mirror image flipped the photo so that the lines lead from the top left and went down to the right. It seems as if with diagonal lines, your eyes go from left to right.
I like this photo because the multiple diagonal lines give the photo a sense of depth and give you that unruly feeling that weeds generally do. I don't know if it's just me, but this a photo that draws me in like a maze might.

Sly Park Lake

2010-11-07T10:32:00.000-08:00

A couple of shots from Sly Park Lake. Good news! Hopefully soon I will be able to upgrade to a big girl camera and start going crazy with my photography!

Baby E!

2010-09-19T11:37:00.000-07:00

So after this one, I realized I need a WAY faster camera if I want to keep doing babies. Baby E is so active and so fun, but my camera was too slow to catch all of it. SO, in the meantime, I'm saving up, and hopefully soon I'll get a real camera! Lol.

Baby B!

2010-09-02T20:20:00.001-07:00

One of my amazing friends let me borrow her baby for the day! :) Baby B is a sweet girl with an easy going curious personality. It was SO fun to get to photograph her!

This is probably my favorite of all the ones we took today!

Dustin and Megan

2010-08-30T17:06:00.000-07:00

So, we went to Disneyland this weekend and then to the beach and we did some impromptu pictures.

This one just cracks me up because the water had just come up, and Dustin's face cracks me up!

Edited Pictures

2010-08-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

This is one from the last shoot that I edited :)
This is one that I took of mom a while ago in San Francisco, but I learned how to edit sepia photos with color, and so I decided to have fun with it. This is the result!

First Photo Shoot-Cassidy

2010-08-22T00:28:00.000-07:00

First Photo Shoot- Donna

2010-08-22T00:17:00.001-07:00

First Photo Shoot-Megan

2010-08-21T23:50:00.000-07:00

Foresthill Hike

2010-06-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

Hiking is a passion in my family. This weekend, my husband, brother and sister in law decided to check out local hiking trails. After Googling a little, we found a list of hiking trails in El Dorado County. So we've made it a goal to hike all these trails! So, my next posts will be the result of this goal. Our first stop was The Forest Hill Divide Loop Trail. Here's what we found!

Photo Gallery and New pic!

2010-06-19T10:44:00.000-07:00

Some of my mom's friends got together last Thursday to go to a man's photo gallery, and I was able to go. This man painted his living room black, set up lights all along the ceilings for the photos, and hung his photos on the wall. He talked to us about his goal to go see every national park. His photos were great. I've decided I'd love to make it a goal to visit every national park as well.
As I was looking at his photos, I was reminded of one of the photos I have taken on the way to Utah. I thought it might be a good one to add.

Comments

2010-06-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

I would love to get some feedback about my photos. If there are any in particular that stand out to you, or if there are any that are a little lack luster, let me know. If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment. Thanks!

Tahoe

2010-06-05T01:42:00.001-07:00

On Memorial Day, Jr and I headed up to Tahoe for some hiking and photography. All I can say is that it was well worth it all!

May 2010 People and animals

2010-06-05T00:40:00.001-07:00

More experimentation, this time with people and animals.

Distance Photos

2010-06-05T00:31:00.001-07:00

After a whole year of only doing close ups, I decided it was time to expand my horizons (literally), and take distant shots of nature. Here are some of the photos.

May 2010 Nature

2010-06-05T00:23:00.001-07:00

A group of random close ups taken on a walk one day.

May 2010

2010-06-05T00:11:00.000-07:00

While still sticking with my close up photography, I decided to take a step back from nature, and see what other interesting close ups I could capture. These are the results.

February 2010

2010-06-04T23:50:00.000-07:00

Here are some of my new photos that I've taken. I've been trying new techniques with angles, lighting, etc, and so far I've liked the results more than my photos from last year.

Lotus Park

2009-07-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

Folsom Lake

2009-07-26T12:35:00.000-07:00

One of my all time favorites. I don't know what it is about these weeds, but they make beautiful pictures!

Jr's squirrel. He was feeding it Nerds.

Splash!

There was cotton all along the walkway, and my mom and husband were there in the distance.

Folsom Park

2009-07-26T12:32:00.000-07:00

I was trying to get the picture of the ladybug so I turned the camera around and forgot it would get me in the picture too! :)

Folsom Lake College

2009-07-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

Another bug favorite!

Another favorite. I love nature shots with bugs in them!

More tungsten

Tungsten

One of my favorites