I need (okay, REALLY WANT) a telephoto lens!

The first shot is a left-over from the first post, I forgot to add it, but think that it is beautiful of my niece.

We took Eden downtown to the Gateway fountains. If you haven't ever been, it is a great place to shop( not that I shop there....it's pretty pricey) as well as let your kids run around....just make sure you bring a change of clothes or a swimming suit for them. She was a little nervous at first, but once she got used to the idea, she was running all over the place.

The lighting was a little hard for me , and I have decided that I really need to discipline myself to save up for a telephoto lens. I get frustrated sometimes (often) because I want my pictures to look like those that I love on other blogs, but I am at a loss as to how to get them to look that way. I guess it will just come with practice and time. ....hopefully.

Family BBQ

We had a fam BBQ to celebrate the 24th, which is a holiday in Utah. It was stressful for the most part because I was "in charge", but if you know my family at all, there are way too many Chiefs, and not enough Indians if you know what I mean. Despite me being stressed, I had to bust out the camera to practice on my family. We have only girl grandkids in Utah, the boys all live outside of the state, so I haven't had much practice with boys. Girls are hilarious though. Check out my niece in her princess crown and earrings. Her new thing is pretending that she is a bride 24-7.
I attended a class for my Canon SLR and learned some little things that I could change with the settings on my camera and I have loved the difference! Before, I had a hard time with coloring but with a few of the right clicks and wallah...color!


My sister and her girls. They are so cute!
This was my niece copying Eden's funny face:)
I really wish I hadn't cut off her head on this one, but I really liked the effect of focusing on her hand.

Practice makes....???

Well, I went to my photography 202 class and didn't get a lot of things out of it, but a couple of points were new to me. So, I decided to come home and experiment on Eden while she did one of her favorite things: make a mess! Although she is 2 1/2 now, she still insists on using her hands to eat most things. She LOVES eating yogurt and by the end of it, she is basically covered in it. It is pretty funny though. I took a few different shots and have been experimenting a little with the Photo-shop demo.
Check out those eyes! I love them!
I love her tongue in this one.

To top it all off, she insists on coating her hair in yogurt at least a little.

More of Ella!

I had my second session with beautiful Ella and her Mom. She had an amazing blessing dress for her this time. I am still learning about positioning while still trying to look natural and I have yet to get a Photoshop program, so I am working with the generic editing program. I am experimenting with doing things manually on my camera and it is going pretty well. I am looking forward to my classes in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for letting me practice on you , Ella!
Doesn't this first one look like they are in heaven or something?She did not want to grip her Mom's finger, but we finally got a great shot of her cute little ring.
I loved the coloring on this one. It almost looks antique.
She has beautiful, blue eyes. You can see my shadow in the catch lights in her eyes....oops!

These are a couple of others from a few weeks ago. The first is a wild-flower up Little Cottonwood Canyon. The next two are some random shots of my two nieces . I am sure they will get tired of me practicing on them.

here we go....

So, I have finally given in to the idea of creating a blog for myself and to share my photos. I am sure it will be viewed by mostly family and friends, but it will be fun to get feedback as I start this process of becoming a professional photographer...that's right. My goal is to learn all I can and be able to be an on-site photographer some day. Which means that I will be able to set my own schedule and only be as busy as I want to be. Eden is getting tired of me taking her picture anyway, so I have to start branching out.

I had my first "session" with Mike's (my sister's husband) cousin and her new baby girl, Ella. Beautiful! I had forgotten how tiny they are when they are brand new. She was such a trooper.
I am loving my new camera (despite how much I don't know about it). I have so much to learn and am looking forward to my classes coming u p and learning as much as I can. Let me know what you think about these few of my favorites from our session. By the way, the pictures turned out a little dark on the post. I am still not sure of the best way to edit my photos and post them, etc. But I will learn.




S