Multiple answer

I'm super excited. Guess why!

A. My first wedding of the year is in two days

B. I'm planning a new logo and website

C. I got a new camera accessory/lens

D. All of the above

And the winner is....

Are you ready?

You really wanna know?

ALL OF THE ABOVE!

I'm stoked about Amber and Dan's wedding this weekend. But I think I may have mentioned that... oh, a billion times.

A logo and an "official" website have always been a goal. And this year... this year they're going to come true, cyber friends. I have BIG plans. It's fun. And exciting. And scary all mushed up into one big pile of pure craziness.

And I made a fun purchase today. It was almost spur of the moment. I've wanted an extension tube since my friend Barbie let me borrow hers. It was more a of a "want" than a "need". And today it became MINE.

Most people know 'macro' in the photography world means taking pictures of very small things. Very small, like the veins of a leaf. As I rocked my son to sleep I saw macro photos of his eye lashes and fingers. Some lenses can get even closer.

An extension tube essentially turns almost any lens into a macro lens. Pretty cool, eh? And the devil's in the details. My new found ability to shoot super close-ups open up new doors when it comes to shooting the details of a wedding.

Like everything else, it's much easier to see for yourself.

This is as close as my 50mm lens will accurately focus on my wedding ring...

(If you love me, you'll ignore the dust bunnies.)

And THIS is how close I can get with an extension tube and my 50mm lens...

To my wedding ring... and my friends the dust bunnies.

Pretty cool, huh?!

A line says a lot

There are a lot of rules when it comes to photography. One of the most common is the rule of thirds.

When most people take a photo they put the subject smack dab in the center of the photo. But when you look at a picture your eye does not like the center of the image. The rule of thirds helps locate the subject in a place where your eye naturally goes.

To use the rule of thirds, picture a grid system on your photo. Three rows of three across the horizontal length of the photo. Most people will put the subject in the center square. But a more appealing photo puts the subject anywhere BUT there.

That's probably the most well known 'rule'.

I read a lot of photography blogs. It's how I've learned about 40 percent of what I know about photography. (The other 60 percent is constantly taking a LOT of photos!) Awhile back, I read a blog post by Katelyn James about line. I searched her site for hours trying to find it for you. But I couldn't. So I'll paraphrase. She explained how she tries to incorporate line into her images. Line that draw your eye to the subject. And it made sense to me.

As I looked through my images, I noticed the same thing... So it might be easier to show you.

Ariell and Jared's arms draw you in...

as does the train of Allison's dress.

Or the trim on her '57 Chevy get-away car.

Or a deck railing.

This was the only horizontal line example I could find. I think it works better with horizontal or diagonal lines, but this still works.

The edge of the pool provides a great line right to Ariell and Jared.

As does the railroad track...

This one isn't the best example, but the isle between desk rows gives a hint of a line.

The rail of a porch.

Just a little info for those looking to take their photos to the next level.

Fuzziness = Aperture

Probably the most frequently asked question I get is, "how do I get the background of my photos to look fuzzy?" Well, that fuzziness is called bokeh. and it's determined by aperture.

I think I've explained how a camera lens works before - but just to recap, a lens functions like your eye. Your eye lids are the equivalent of shutter speed. In bright sun light you blink a lot. Where was in a poorly lit area you might blink really slowly.

And depending upon the amount of light your pupils either dilate (in low light) or contract (in bright areas). To your camera it's called the aperture. The aperture opening is largest at low numbers (1.2) and lets in as much light as possible in low light situations.

Think about when you get your eyes dilated at the eye doctor's. Your vision is blurry for awhile because your pupils are wide open. And when your camera aperture is wide open at the lowest number, you get a fuzzy background - i.e. bokeh.

The best part is, once you get to know your camera you can control what's in focus and what's fuzzy. Let me show you.

In the first photo below, I focused on Allison's eyes. So anything on the same plane as her eyes are in focus (i.e. her face) but everything in front of (i.e. her hand and ring) or behind (the stone wall) that plane are out of focus.


In this photo, I changed my focal point. I focused on her ring. So her hand is in focus, but everything behind it is fuzzy.

The trick is to choose how your camera focuses - often it's a small square. Hold your shutter release button down half way until the camera focuses. While holding the shutter release down half way, you can re-compose the photo. I focused on Allison's ring in the center of my view finder. While holding the shutter release down, I moved my camera up a little to drop her hand to the bottom of the frame. In an attempt to follow the "rule of thirds".

Hmm... perhaps the rule of thirds will be my next informational post!

Happy bokeh. :-)